COMPUTER BOOKING SYSTEM

A computer booking system is provided for booking individual ones of a set resources to users of the resources. The resources may be, for example, channels between multiplexes in a telecommunications network. The database creates a pair of data nodes for each booking. Each node has a user field for specifying the user for whom the booking is scheduled, an event field for specifying whether the event associated with the node is the beginning or end of a booking, and a time field for specifying the time at which the event is scheduled to occur. Each node is also located in a single linked list (the time list) of nodes in which the nodes are arranged in order of their event times. Each node is also located in a respective of a set of lists (the value lists). The value lists are arranged in order of rank and each new node is located in the value list of the lowest possible rank. The database also has a time structure which points to the beginning of the time list and a value structure which is divided into a set of elements which are equal in number to the number of resources. Each element of the value structure has a pointer for pointing to the first node of a respective one of the value lists.