Self-organizing search lists using probabilistic back-pointers

A class of algorithms is presented for maintaining self-organizing sequential search lists, where the only permutation applied is to move the accessed record of each search some distance towards the front of the list. During searches, these algorithms retain a back-pointer to a previous probed record in order to determine the destination of the accessed record's eventual move. The back-pointer does not traverse the list, but rather it is advanced occasionally to point to the record just probed by the search algorithm. This avoids the cost of a second traversal through a significant portion of the list, which may be a significant savings when each record access may require a new page to be brought into primary memory. Probabilistic functions for deciding when to advance the pointer are presented and analyzed. These functions demonstrate average case complexities of measures such as asymptotic cost and convergence, similar to some of the more common list update algorithms in the literature. In cases where the accessed record is moved forward a distance proportional to the distance to the front of the list, the use of these functions may save up to 50 percent of the time required for permuting the list.