A method, apparatus and article of manufacture, implementing the method, for operating a database management system stores information in at least one entry. Each entry is associated with a row. At least one entry comprises one or more columns. At least one of the columns has a varying length. At least one entry comprises an offset array having one or more offsets associated with the columns having the varying length. In another aspect of the invention, a column extraction table is built and used, with the offset array, to access a specified column of an entry. Alternately, code is generated to access a specified column based on the offset array of an entry. In yet another aspect of the invention, a comparison table is built and used, with the offset array, to compare subsets of the entries.