Re: What to name the current heap after pluggable storage / what to rename? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 7:44 PM Arkhena <Arkhena@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm wondering where the choice of the name "heap" originally came from
>> and what it refers to.
>
> It seems to me that "heap" is an Oracle word (as explained here[1]).
>
> > By default, a table is organized as a heap, which means that the database places rows where they fit best rather
thanin a user-specified order.
 

No, it's more widely used than that, and we're using it with the
standard meaning AFAIK:


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/indexes/heaps-tables-without-clustered-indexes?view=sql-server-2017
http://docs.actian.com/ingres/10.2/index.html#page/DatabaseAdmin/Heap_Storage_Structure.htm

It just means tuples stored in no particular order (as opposed to eg
btree tables, in systems that support those).

-- 
Thomas Munro
http://www.enterprisedb.com