1. A method comprising: maintaining, within volatile memory, a plurality of column vectors for a relational table of a relational database; wherein each column vector, of the plurality of column vectors, corresponds to a distinct column of the relational table; wherein each column vector, of the plurality of column vectors, is a contiguous array of values; wherein the plurality of column vectors includes a particular column vector that has uncompressed variable-length values of a particular column of the relational table; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.