Indexes

B+Tree

InterBase uses a variant of B-tree for index structure. Indices are automatically created for PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY and UNIQUE columns.

Joins

Nested Loop Join Sort-Merge Join

InterBase uses an optimizer to estimate costs of different joining orders and to generate data retrieval plan. Merge-Sort Join and Nested Loop Join are supported. InterBase also allows users to specify customized plan by using PLAN clause.

Stored Procedures

Supported

Data Model

Relational

InterBase is a relational database management system (RDBMS) and it complies with SQL-92 standard.

Query Interface

SQL Stored Procedures

Isolation Levels

Read Committed Snapshot Isolation

Three isolation levels are supported: SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY, READ COMMITTED.

Storage Architecture

Disk-oriented

System Architecture

Shared-Everything Embedded

InterBase can be used as a server which adopts Shared-Everything architecture, or as an embedded library.

Concurrency Control

Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC)

InterBase is the first DBMS that implements Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC). MVCC is referred to as Multi-Generational Architecture in InterBase.

Storage Model

N-ary Storage Model (Row/Record)

Compression

Run-Length Encoding Prefix Compression

The DBMS only supports prefix and suffix compression for index keys.

Views

Virtual Views

InterBase supports virtual views. Views are not materialized. InterBase also supports Change View which enables data change tracking.

Foreign Keys

Supported

InterBase supports foreign keys and creates indices for foreign keys by default. Referential integrity is enforced for foreign keys.