Space-filling curves have been studied as a way to reduce N-dimensional space to 1-D. They are very useful for applications like maximizing sequential access i

Space-filling curves have been studied as a way to reduce N-dimensional space to 1-D. They are very useful for applications like maximizing sequential access in a N-D datastore. A recent SIGMOD paper analyzed space-filling curves impact on data access: http://dl.acm.org/authorize.cfm?key=N37709 http://dl.acm.org/authorize.cfm?key=N37709 QUILTS: Multidimensional Data Partitioning Framework Based on Query-Aware and Skew-Tolerant Space-Filling Curves Shoji Nishimura (NEC Corporation); Haruo Yokota (Tokyo Institute of Technology) It discusses C-Curve, Z-Curve, and Hilbert curves.