A system and a method for managing a database. The system includes a database manager for storing and retrieving data records from a database. In one embodiment, the database includes a database data structure that is divided into a plurality of sections. Each of the sections holds is configured to hold zero or more data records. During a store operation of a data record, a key that is associated with the data record is used to identify one of the sections. The system determines whether the identified section has sufficient space to contain the identified data record. If the section has insufficient space, the system deletes data records according to a ranking function. In one embodiment of the invention, the ranking function is a least recently used algorithm. The system of the present invention does not have any inter-dependency between the data records that are stored within the database. Furthermore, in one embodiment of the invention, the system creates the database using sections that are the same size that is used by a caching system to store and retrieve pages from mass storage.