fieldsor

Fieldsor is a term in data management used to describe a field-oriented approach to storing and querying data. In this model, access and retrieval are driven by individual attributes or fields rather than by whole records, facilitating multi-field queries and flexible schema evolution.

The name fieldsor blends 'field' with a suffix implying organization or orientation; its exact origin is informal and appears in academic discussions and technical forums exploring alternative data architectures.

Technical overview: A fieldsor system typically includes a field catalog that enumerates all defined fields, a field-oriented index (FOI) to speed lookups by field, and a query planner that can combine results from multiple field indexes. It often supports dynamic schemas, partial field matching, and multi-valued fields, enabling integration of heterogeneous datasets without forcing a rigid, single-record schema.

Applications: Concepts aligned with fieldsor appear in analytics platforms, customer data platforms, and data integration tools where searches span numerous attributes and datasets with varying schemas are common.

Relation to other models: Fieldsor contrasts with row-oriented relational databases by prioritizing field-level access; with document stores by maintaining explicit field-level schemas; and with columnar stores by focusing on retrieval patterns and field-centric indexing rather than columnar compression.

Limitations and outlook: The approach can incur higher indexing and maintenance costs, and performance is highly workload-dependent. As a proposed model, fieldsor remains exploratory and is not yet standardized or widely adopted.

See also: database indexing, schema-on-read, relational databases, document stores.