I came across this cool piece of text on a patents website. "The computer-readable medium of claim 23 wherein said workspace is used by a database system to create a plurality of run files, each of which contains a plurality of variable length records from said set of variable length records, as sorted by said database system using said workspace, said step of selectively removing comprises writing a next of the plurality of variable length records that are stored in said workspace out to a run file in a predetermined order, said method further having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising: determining that said set of variable length records is greater in size than said predetermined fixed extent of said workspace; creating one or more run files on a data storage medium; and writing out to said run file only those variable length record selected by said step of selectively removing subsequent to determining that said set of variable length...