Datalists

A datalist is a memory-resident data structure populated with a set of name records drawn from an external source, such as a flat file. After a datalist is created and populated with names it is available for use in subsequent search requests. Each datalist used within a search system must be uniquely named and the data is expected to be provided in a specific format. Datalists can contain from one to hundreds of millions of name records.

A datalist can be a dynamic data structure, so IBM® NameWorks supports modification of an active datalist. Adding new name records and deleting existing name records may be done at any time. Searching may be performed even while additions and deletions are active, although searching is paused while the actual additions or deletions are being processed. Typically searching is paused for only a fraction of a second. Modifications made to datalists are not preserved outside of the current session, so client applications must preserved changes if this is required.

Datalists are used by Global Name Management product search engines, where search requests are performed against one or more datalists. Each search request must indicate the names of the datalists to search.

Datalists are usually managed by a system administrator and can be located on one or more servers, depending on the needs of a search application.