Method for minimizing locking and reading in a segmented storage space

A page-accessing method in a segmented tablespace 10 is disclosed which eliminates unnecessary reading and locking. The tablespace comprises data pages 18 grouped into identically-sized segments 16, each segment storing data for a single table. A status indicator 26 for each data page of a segment is kept in a separate segment control block 20 stored on a space map page 14. Five data page status indicator values are maintained: (1) FULL (26a) - entirely full of current data; (2) PARTIALLY FULL (26b) - partially full of current data; (3) UNFORMATTED (26c) - empty; contains no data; (4) MASS DELETE (26d) - contains only obsolete data because of an unqualified deletion (mass delete) of data; or (5) QUALIFIED DELETE (26e) - contains only obsolete data because of a qualified deletion of data. When scanning over the data in a segment, UNFORMATTED and MASS DELETE pages are skipped. QUALIFIED DELETE pages are locked, and then skipped if they still contain only obsolete data when the lock is obtained. When inserting data into pages, preliminary reads of UNFORMATTED and MASS DELETE pages are avoided. Data integrity is ensured by placing integrity checking bits at the beginning and end of each page. If the bits contain the same value, the page's data integrity is intact. If the bits are different, the page's previous consistent contents are recovered from the log records.