[kurosknight]

They are useful for categorical variables. For example, is a record in the "Likes motorcycles" category? They are fast because (well, one reason) bitwise logical operations are very fast for CPUs to do.

Adtech is an example of a sector that benefits from this...they slice and dice datasets a lot to target ad campaigns and such. Being able to do that quickly is useful.

[JAA1337]

So are you saying that the data is stored in categories which allows for those types of lookups to run faster? Do you have specifics on how the design of a bitmap based database achieves this? How does it maintain these relationships? Just through 0 and 1's?

I guess it's easy for me to visualize both row and column based. Im struggling with the bitmaps concept.

[kordlessagain]

Here's a good write up on some of what you are asking in their blog: https://www.featurebase.com/blog/bitmaps-making-real-time-an...

[witchbane]

So is the thinking you run them alongside a traditional RDBMS as sort of a cache or view optimized for bitwise operations?