Sloupc

Sloupc is a term used in data storage and analytics to denote a columnar data container optimized for analytical workloads. The concept emphasizes storing data by column rather than by row, with values of the same type stored contiguously in memory to improve cache locality and enable vectorized processing.

A Sloupc instance typically represents a single column of a table, holding a sequence of values of a given data type. A complete table is formed by combining multiple Sloupc instances, one per column. Sloupc implementations often employ compression schemes such as dictionary encoding, run-length encoding, and bit-packing to reduce memory usage and I/O requirements.

Computation on Sloupc structures is designed to be vectorized. Operations such as filtering, projection, joining, and aggregation are performed column-by-column, often in a single pass to minimize data movement. This approach supports high throughput for analytical queries and can leverage modern CPU features for parallel execution.

In practice, Sloupc is associated with columnar databases and data-processing frameworks that prioritize read efficiency and CPU-friendly workloads. It contrasts with row-oriented layouts, which store full records contiguously and can be slower for wide-scan analytics and large-scale aggregations.

See also: columnar database, vectorization, compression, run-length encoding, dictionary encoding.