DataWare Housing Glossary of Terms - 'P'

Parallel Data Orgnization	an arrangement of data in which the data is spread over independent storage devices and is managed independently.
Parallel Search Storage	a storage device in which one or more parts of all storage locations are queried simultaneously for a certain condition or under certain parameters.
Parsing	the algorithm that translates syntax into meaningful machine instructions. Parsing determines the meaning of statements issued in the data manipulation language.
Partition	a segmentation technique in which data is divided into physically different units. Partioning can be done at the application or the system level.
Performance	the length of time from the moment a request is issued until the first of the results of the request are received.
Periodic Discrete Data	a measurement or description of data taken at a regular time interval.
Prefix Data	data in a segment or a record used exclusively for system control, usually unavailable to the user.
Primitive Data	data whose existence depends on only a single occurance of a major subject area of the enterprise.
Privilege Descriptor	a persistent object used by a DBMS to enformce constraints on operations.
Projection	an operation that takes one relation as an operand and returns a second relation that consists of only the selected attributes or columns, with duplicate rows eliminated.
Proposition	a statement about entities that asserts or denies that some condition holds for those entities.