When users insert data into a data-only-locked heap table, Adaptive Server tracks page numbers where the inserts have recently occurred, and keeps the page number as a hint for future tasks that need space. Subsequent inserts to the table are directed to one of these pages. If the page is full, Adaptive Server allocates a new page and replaces the old hint with the new page number.
Blocking while many users are simultaneously inserting data is much less likely to occur during inserts to data-only-locked heap tables. When blocking occurs, Adaptive Server allocates a small number of empty pages and directs new inserts to those pages using these newly allocated pages as hints.
For datarows-locked tables, blocking occurs only while the actual changes to the data page are being written; although row locks are held for the duration of the transaction, other rows can be inserted on the page. The row-level locks allow multiple transaction to hold locks on the page.
There may be slight blocking on data-only-locked tables, because Adaptive Server allows a small amount of blocking after many pages have just been allocated, so that the newly allocated pages are filled before additional pages are allocated.
