DYNAMIC ALTERNATE KEYS FOR USE IN FILE SYSTEMS UTILIZING A KEYED INDEX

In one embodiment, a method for providing alternate keys in a keyed index includes creating a first base record in a keyed index of a database, the first base record including a first unique key and a first data record, wherein the first data record includes at least one sub key and at least one first value, each sub key being correlated with a different one of the at least one first value in a sub key/value pair, and creating one or more alternate key records in the database, each of the alternate key records including one of the at least one sub key which is correlated with the first base record and the first unique key of the first base record. The database adheres to virtual storage access method (VSAM) in some approaches. In other approaches, a number of alternate key records created is equal to a number of first sub keys in the first data record.