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Using Tuples
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<div>
<h2 class="title"><a id="Tuple"></a>Chapter 5.
Using Tuples
</h2>
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<div class="toc">
<p>
<b>Table of Contents</b>
</p>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="Tuple.html#tupleformat">
Using the Tuple Format
</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="tupleswithkeycreators.html">
Using Tuples with Key Creators
</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="tuplekeybindings.html">
Creating Tuple Key Bindings
</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="tuple-serialentitybindings.html">
Creating Tuple-Serial Entity Bindings
</a>
</span>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="sect1">
<a href="sortedcollections.html">
Using Sorted Collections
</a>
</span>
</dt>
</dl>
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<p>
DB Java Collections API <span class="emphasis"><em>tuples</em></span> are sequences of
primitive Java data types, for example, integers and strings. The
<span class="emphasis"><em>tuple format</em></span> is a binary format for tuples that can be used
to store keys and/or values.
</p>
<p>
Tuples are useful as keys because they have a meaningful sort
order, while serialized objects do not. This is because the binary
data for a tuple is written in such a way that its raw byte
ordering provides a useful sort order. For example, strings in
tuples are written with a null terminator rather than with a
leading length.
</p>
<p>
Tuples are useful as keys <span class="emphasis"><em>or</em></span> values when reducing the
record size to a minimum is important. A tuple is significantly
smaller than an equivalent serialized object. However, unlike
serialized objects, tuples cannot contain complex data types and
are not easily extended except by adding fields at the end of the
tuple.
</p>
<p>
Whenever a tuple format is used, except when the key or value
class is a Java primitive wrapper class, a <span class="emphasis"><em>tuple binding</em></span> class must
be implemented to map between the Java object and the tuple fields.
Because of this extra requirement, and because tuples are not
easily extended, a useful technique shown in this example is to use
tuples for keys and serialized objects for values. This provides
compact ordered keys but still allows arbitrary Java objects as
values, and avoids implementing a tuple binding for each value
class.
</p>
<p>
Compare this example to the prior Entity example and you'll see
that the <code class="classname">Sample</code> class has not changed. When changing a
database format, while new bindings are needed to map key and value
objects to the new format, the application using the objects often
does not need to be modified.
</p>
<p>
The complete source of the final version of the example program
is included in the Berkeley DB distribution.
</p>
<div class="sect1" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="tupleformat"></a>
Using the Tuple Format
</h2>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
Tuples are sequences of primitive Java values that can be
written to, and read from, the raw data bytes of a stored record.
The primitive values are written or read one at a time in sequence,
using the DB Java Collections API
<a class="ulink" href="../../java/com/sleepycat/bind/tuple/TupleInput.html" target="_top">TupleInput</a>
and
<a class="ulink" href="../../java/com/sleepycat/bind/tuple/TupleOutput.html" target="_top">TupleOutput</a>
classes. These classes are very similar to the standard Java
<a class="ulink" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/io/DataInput.html" target="_top">DataInput</a>
and
<a class="ulink" href="http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/io/DataOutput.html" target="_top">DataOutput</a>
interfaces. The primary difference is the binary format of the
data, which is designed for sorting in the case of tuples.
</p>
<p>
For example, to read and write a tuple containing two string
values, the following code snippets could be used.
</p>
<a id="tuple_tuplefragment"></a>
<pre class="programlisting"><strong class="userinput"><code>import com.sleepycat.bind.tuple.TupleInput;
import com.sleepycat.bind.tuple.TupleOutput;
...
TupleInput input;
TupleOutput output;
...
String partNumber = input.readString();
String supplierNumber = input.readString();
...
output.writeString(partNumber);
output.writeString(supplierNumber); </code></strong> </pre>
<p>
Since a tuple is defined as an ordered sequence, reading and
writing order must match. If the wrong data type is read (an
integer instead of string, for example), an exception may be thrown
or at minimum invalid data will be read.
</p>
<p>
When the tuple format is used, bindings and key creators must
read and write tuples using the tuple API as shown above. This will
be illustrated in the next two sections.
</p>
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