B+ tree vs write-ahead log: the eternal debate over databases' most important structure

mgill25 · x · 2026-09-05

Sharing Benj Dicken's post calling the Write-Ahead Log "the most important data structure for databases", the author counters that it's actually the B+ tree — "if you know, you know". A classic database-community in-joke: WAL underpins crash recovery and write ordering, while the B+ tree is the backbone of indexing and queries, and which one is more "fundamental" is endlessly debated.

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