Is there any way to delete key-value pair where the key start with sub-string1 and ends with sub-string2 in BerkeleyDB without iterating through all the keys in the DB?
For ex:
$sub1 = "B015";
$sub2 = "5646";
I want to delete
$key = "B015HGUJJ75646"
Note: It is guaranteed that there will be only one key for the combination of $sub1 and $sub2.
This can be done by taking an iterator of the DB and checking every key for the condition, but that will be very in-efficient for large DBs. Is there any way to do it without iterating through the complete DB?
If you're using a RECNO database, you're probably out of luck. But, if you can use a BTREE, you have a couple of options.
First, and probably easiest is to iterate over only the portion of the database that makes sense. Assuming you're using the default key comparison function, you can use DB_SET_RANGE to position the starting cursor (iterator) at the start of your partial key string. In your example, this might be "B0150000000000". You then scan forwards with DB_NEXT, looking at each key in turn. When either you find the key you're looking for, or if the key you find doesn't start with "B015", you're done.
Another technique that could be applicable to your situation is to redefine the key comparison function. If, as you state, there is only one combination of $sub1 and $sub2, then perhaps you only need to compare those sections of the keys to guarantee uniqueness? Here's an example of a full string comparison (I'm assuming you're using perl, just from the syntax you supplied above) from https://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/Themen/manuals/perl/DB_File.html :
sub Compare
{
my ($key1, $key2) = @_ ;
"\L$key1" cmp "\L$key2" ;
}
$DB_BTREE->{compare} = 'Compare' ;
So, if you can rig things such that you're only comparing the starting and ending four characters, you should be able to drop the database iterator directly onto the key you're interested in.