access method - The process of operating in a database to store or retrieve data The movement of physical data to and from a computer and its storage devices

Account Support Engineer The DISC representative, also known as an ASE, involved in pre-sales customer support, providing early database consulting services.

active cursor The current internal Omnidex Access work space. See also: CURSOR.

address A numerical identifier for distinguishing one network node from another.

aggregation index Keys to data based on the SQL functions COUNT, SUM, MIN, and MAX. See also: Aggregation/Sorted Key Index.

aggregation table See Summary Table

Aggregation/Sorted Key Index (ASK) A type of Omnidex index that facilitates extremely high speed aggregations used primarily in OLAP and data warehousing applications. Aggregation/Sorted Key Indexes are commonly referred to as ASK Indexes. ASK Indexes generally combine multiple criteria fields along with one or more metric fields into a single composite index. ASK Indexes can also be used to provide sorted and linkage access to data files such as flat files that do not provide native sorted indexes.

aggregations Summarizations of data, e.g., AVG, MIN, MAX, SUM, COUNT The process of summarzation (sum), averaging (AVG), finding the minimum (MIN) or maximum (MAX) values.

AND criteria Multiple criteria values or predicates that rows must match all or will not qualify.

API Application Programming Interface - a collection of callable routines providing specific functions. Omnidex provides two different APIs. SQL Language Interface with Omnidex extensions, which is callable through ODBC, JDBC and OmniAccess applications (via oaexecsql). Omnidex Access API, commonly referred to as the OA API.

ASK Index See Aggregation/Sorted Key Index

asynchronous process A process whose execution proceeds independently of other processes, e.g. as a background process.

atomic data Information at the most simple level of detail, having low granularity. See also: granularity.

AUTOPSEUDOCOLUMNS AUTOPSEUDOCOLUMNS causes Omnidex to automatically construct pseudocolumns from MDK composite keys.

Aggregationa ASK ASK Indexes ASK Order By Optimization