Source code cross referencing tool, B-tree and method of maintaining a B-tree

摘要

A method and tool for storing source-code cross referencing information is disclosed. The source-code cross referencing information is stored within a B-tree. Preferably only global cross-reference information is contained within the B-tree. Records within the B-tree contain information about occurrences of variables within the source code. Keyed records of data are preferably stored within leaves of a B-tree having nodes of fixed size, with multiple records of varying size potentially stored within each leaf node. Records within each leaf node are preferably indexed by indexes stored within the node. Such a B-tree may be stored within a file on a computer readable medium such as a disk. Techniques of splitting nodes in the tree are also disclosed. Further, various techniques of extracting information from a formed B-tree are disclosed.