Space-efficient bookkeeping for database applications

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, cause:

• storing, in a database, a bookkeeping table associated with a plurality of messages in a queue;
• wherein:
• the bookkeeping table comprises a plurality of columns in a plurality of rows,
• each column of the plurality of columns in each row of the plurality of rows corresponds to a table cell that stores a respective sequence of bits, and
• each bit in the respective sequence of bits stores a dequeue status of a respective message in the plurality of messages;
• maintaining, in volatile memory, in-memory bookkeeping data corresponding to the bookkeeping table, wherein the in-memory bookkeeping data comprises a plurality of bits indicating dequeue statuses of the plurality of messages;
• dequeuing, from the queue, one or more messages of the plurality of messages in a dequeue session;
• in response to the dequeuing the one or more messages of the plurality of messages in the dequeue session, updating, in the in-memory bookkeeping data, one or more bits that store a dequeue status of each particular message of the one or more messages, wherein the updating locks the one or more bits on a bit-by-bit basis to allow for dequeue statuses of multiple messages being updated at approximately the same time;
• in response to the dequeue session committing the dequeuing the one or more messages of the plurality of messages, synchronizing the bookkeeping table with changes to the in-memory bookkeeping data, wherein each bit stored in the bookkeeping table that corresponds to a message dequeued by the dequeue session is updated to indicate that the messages has been dequeued.