Chapter 12 Review Question 5

5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of indexed (B+tree) storage?

The main strength of the B+-tree is that it provides a guaranteed level of performance for access to the data. Every element can be found in the same number of searches - which is determined by the depth of the tree. It provides the best overall performance for typical data. This includes sequential retrieval, random lookup, and changing the data. One weakness is that adding a new item to the tree is a little more complicated than a linked list. Another is that the tree must be periodically recreated.