Pick was a multivalue database and operating system that was built to track helicopter parts for the military. If history went differently we might all be using multivalue instead of sql to store things.

The idea of a multivalue string is similar to comma delimited data but instead of commas, you use special characters called attribute marks, value marks and subvalue marks. You can think of multivalue as a nosql style database. You dump data in whatever form you want into the database and then you can easily query against it.

Some links to read more about what Pick is and the history behind it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system

https://seeinggreen.typepad.com/my_weblog/2020/10/the-poet-t...