diff --git a/hyracks-algebricks/hyracks-algebricks-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/algebricks/core/algebra/runtime/base/AlgebricksPipeline.java b/hyracks-algebricks/hyracks-algebricks-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/algebricks/core/algebra/runtime/base/AlgebricksPipeline.java
index ead6c37..ecd3e96 100644
--- a/hyracks-algebricks/hyracks-algebricks-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/algebricks/core/algebra/runtime/base/AlgebricksPipeline.java
+++ b/hyracks-algebricks/hyracks-algebricks-core/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/algebricks/core/algebra/runtime/base/AlgebricksPipeline.java
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
     }
 
     public int getOutputWidth() {
-        return recordDescriptors[recordDescriptors.length - 1].getFields().length;
+        return recordDescriptors[recordDescriptors.length - 1].getFieldCount();
     }
 
     // public int[] getProjectedColumns() {
diff --git a/hyracks-api/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/api/dataflow/value/RecordDescriptor.java b/hyracks-api/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/api/dataflow/value/RecordDescriptor.java
index 3d03c32..b04fe86 100644
--- a/hyracks-api/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/api/dataflow/value/RecordDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-api/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/api/dataflow/value/RecordDescriptor.java
@@ -22,24 +22,28 @@
 
     private final ISerializerDeserializer[] fields;
     private final ITypeTraits[] typeTraits;
-    
+
     // leaving this constructor for backwards-compatibility
     public RecordDescriptor(ISerializerDeserializer[] fields) {
         this.fields = fields;
         this.typeTraits = null;
     }
-    
+
     // temporarily adding constructor to include type traits
     public RecordDescriptor(ISerializerDeserializer[] fields, ITypeTraits[] typeTraits) {
-    	this.fields = fields;
+        this.fields = fields;
         this.typeTraits = typeTraits;
     }
 
+    public int getFieldCount() {
+        return fields.length;
+    }
+
     public ISerializerDeserializer[] getFields() {
         return fields;
     }
-    
+
     public ITypeTraits[] getTypeTraits() {
-    	return typeTraits;
+        return typeTraits;
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameDeserializer.java b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameDeserializer.java
index 61638d1..beaf862 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameDeserializer.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameDeserializer.java
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
     public Object[] deserializeRecord() throws HyracksDataException {
         int start = frameTupleAccessor.getTupleStartOffset(tIndex) + frameTupleAccessor.getFieldSlotsLength();
         bbis.setByteBuffer(buffer, start);
-        Object[] record = new Object[recordDescriptor.getFields().length];
+        Object[] record = new Object[recordDescriptor.getFieldCount()];
         for (int i = 0; i < record.length; ++i) {
             Object instance = recordDescriptor.getFields()[i].deserialize(di);
             if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.FINEST)) {
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAccessor.java b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAccessor.java
index 8ab5d4f..6c51d14 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAccessor.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAccessor.java
@@ -24,11 +24,12 @@
 import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.dataflow.common.comm.util.ByteBufferInputStream;
 
 /**
- * FrameTupleCursor is used to navigate over tuples in a Frame.
- * A frame is formatted with tuple data concatenated starting at offset 0, one tuple after another.
- * Offset FS - 4 holds an int indicating the number of tuples (N) in the frame. FS - ((i + 1) * 4) for i from
- * 0 to N - 1 holds an int indicating the offset of the (i + 1)^th tuple.
- * Every tuple is organized as a sequence of ints indicating the end of each field in the tuple relative to the end of the
+ * FrameTupleCursor is used to navigate over tuples in a Frame. A frame is
+ * formatted with tuple data concatenated starting at offset 0, one tuple after
+ * another. Offset FS - 4 holds an int indicating the number of tuples (N) in
+ * the frame. FS - ((i + 1) * 4) for i from 0 to N - 1 holds an int indicating
+ * the offset of the (i + 1)^th tuple. Every tuple is organized as a sequence of
+ * ints indicating the end of each field in the tuple relative to the end of the
  * field slots.
  * 
  * @author vinayakb
@@ -86,7 +87,7 @@
 
     @Override
     public int getFieldSlotsLength() {
-        return recordDescriptor.getFields().length * 4;
+        return getFieldCount() * 4;
     }
 
     public void prettyPrint() {
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@
         System.err.println("TC: " + tc);
         for (int i = 0; i < tc; ++i) {
             System.err.print(i + ":(" + getTupleStartOffset(i) + ", " + getTupleEndOffset(i) + ")[");
-            for (int j = 0; j < recordDescriptor.getFields().length; ++j) {
+            for (int j = 0; j < getFieldCount(); ++j) {
                 System.err.print(j + ":(" + getFieldStartOffset(i, j) + ", " + getFieldEndOffset(i, j) + ") ");
                 System.err.print("{");
                 bbis.setByteBuffer(buffer, getTupleStartOffset(i) + getFieldSlotsLength() + getFieldStartOffset(i, j));
@@ -113,6 +114,6 @@
 
     @Override
     public int getFieldCount() {
-        return recordDescriptor.getFields().length;
+        return recordDescriptor.getFieldCount();
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/SerializingDataWriter.java b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/SerializingDataWriter.java
index e8f43cd..cbe2ae6 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/SerializingDataWriter.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/SerializingDataWriter.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 
     public SerializingDataWriter(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, RecordDescriptor recordDescriptor, IFrameWriter frameWriter) {
         buffer = ctx.allocateFrame();
-        tb = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptor.getFields().length);
+        tb = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptor.getFieldCount());
         this.recordDescriptor = recordDescriptor;
         this.frameWriter = frameWriter;
         tupleAppender = new FrameTupleAppender(ctx.getFrameSize());
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-hadoop/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/hadoop/HadoopReadOperatorDescriptor.java b/hyracks-dataflow-hadoop/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/hadoop/HadoopReadOperatorDescriptor.java
index ef2b4cb..2841509 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-hadoop/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/hadoop/HadoopReadOperatorDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-hadoop/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/hadoop/HadoopReadOperatorDescriptor.java
@@ -142,8 +142,8 @@
 
     @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
     @Override
-    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(final IHyracksTaskContext ctx, final IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider,
-            final int partition, int nPartitions)
+    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(final IHyracksTaskContext ctx,
+            final IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider, final int partition, int nPartitions)
             throws HyracksDataException {
         return new AbstractUnaryOutputSourceOperatorNodePushable() {
             @Override
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@
                     RecordDescriptor outputRecordDescriptor = DatatypeHelper.createKeyValueRecordDescriptor(
                             (Class<? extends Writable>) hadoopRecordReader.createKey().getClass(),
                             (Class<? extends Writable>) hadoopRecordReader.createValue().getClass());
-                    int nFields = outputRecordDescriptor.getFields().length;
+                    int nFields = outputRecordDescriptor.getFieldCount();
                     ArrayTupleBuilder tb = new ArrayTupleBuilder(nFields);
                     writer.open();
                     try {
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/aggregators/MultiAggregatorFactory.java b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/aggregators/MultiAggregatorFactory.java
index 8237110..4fec049 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/aggregators/MultiAggregatorFactory.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/aggregators/MultiAggregatorFactory.java
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
         for (int i = 0; i < aFactories.length; ++i) {
             aggregators[i] = aFactories[i].createFieldValueResultingAggregator();
         }
-        final ArrayTupleBuilder tb = new ArrayTupleBuilder(outRecordDescriptor.getFields().length);
+        final ArrayTupleBuilder tb = new ArrayTupleBuilder(outRecordDescriptor.getFieldCount());
         return new IAccumulatingAggregator() {
 
             private boolean pending;
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/AbstractDeserializedFileScanOperatorDescriptor.java b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/AbstractDeserializedFileScanOperatorDescriptor.java
index 5bc6ee5..8544891 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/AbstractDeserializedFileScanOperatorDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/AbstractDeserializedFileScanOperatorDescriptor.java
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@
             writer.open();
             try {
                 while (true) {
-                    Object[] record = new Object[desc.getFields().length];
+                    Object[] record = new Object[desc.getFieldCount()];
                     if (!reader.read(record)) {
                         break;
                     }
@@ -107,8 +107,8 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider,
-            int partition, int nPartitions) {
+    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx,
+            IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider, int partition, int nPartitions) {
         return new DeserializedOperatorNodePushable(ctx, new DeserializedFileScanOperator(partition), null);
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/PlainFileWriterOperatorDescriptor.java b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/PlainFileWriterOperatorDescriptor.java
index e0f5a65..47a3158 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/PlainFileWriterOperatorDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/file/PlainFileWriterOperatorDescriptor.java
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@
      * @see edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.IActivityNode#createPushRuntime(edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.context.IHyracksContext, edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.job.IOperatorEnvironment, edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.IRecordDescriptorProvider, int, int)
      */
     @Override
-    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider,
-            final int partition, int nPartitions)
+    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx,
+            IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider, final int partition, int nPartitions)
             throws HyracksDataException {
         // Output files
         final FileSplit[] splits = fileSplitProvider.getFileSplits();
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@
                         int start = frameTupleAccessor.getTupleStartOffset(tIndex)
                                 + frameTupleAccessor.getFieldSlotsLength();
                         bbis.setByteBuffer(buffer, start);
-                        Object[] record = new Object[recordDescriptor.getFields().length];
+                        Object[] record = new Object[recordDescriptor.getFieldCount()];
                         for (int i = 0; i < record.length; ++i) {
                             Object instance = recordDescriptor.getFields()[i].deserialize(di);
                             if (i == 0) {
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/group/ExternalGroupOperatorDescriptor.java b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/group/ExternalGroupOperatorDescriptor.java
index aa3f892..0680f69 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/group/ExternalGroupOperatorDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-std/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/std/group/ExternalGroupOperatorDescriptor.java
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@
             /**
              * Tuple builder
              */
-            final ArrayTupleBuilder tupleBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptors[0].getFields().length);
+            final ArrayTupleBuilder tupleBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptors[0].getFieldCount());
 
             IOperatorNodePushable op = new AbstractUnaryOutputSourceOperatorNodePushable() {
                 /**
@@ -457,7 +457,7 @@
 
                 private void flushOutFrame(IFrameWriter writer, boolean isFinal) throws HyracksDataException {
                     if (finalTupleBuilder == null) {
-                        finalTupleBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptors[0].getFields().length);
+                        finalTupleBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(recordDescriptors[0].getFieldCount());
                     }
                     if (writerFrame == null) {
                         writerFrame = ctx.allocateFrame();
diff --git a/hyracks-examples/btree-example/btreehelper/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/examples/btree/helper/DataGenOperatorDescriptor.java b/hyracks-examples/btree-example/btreehelper/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/examples/btree/helper/DataGenOperatorDescriptor.java
index 35deb57..36e315d 100644
--- a/hyracks-examples/btree-example/btreehelper/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/examples/btree/helper/DataGenOperatorDescriptor.java
+++ b/hyracks-examples/btree-example/btreehelper/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/examples/btree/helper/DataGenOperatorDescriptor.java
@@ -58,8 +58,8 @@
     }
 
     @Override
-    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx, IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider,
-            int partition, int nPartitions) {
+    public IOperatorNodePushable createPushRuntime(IHyracksTaskContext ctx,
+            IRecordDescriptorProvider recordDescProvider, int partition, int nPartitions) {
 
         final ByteBuffer outputFrame = ctx.allocateFrame();
         final FrameTupleAppender appender = new FrameTupleAppender(ctx.getFrameSize());
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
                     appender.reset(outputFrame, true);
                     for (int i = 0; i < numRecords; i++) {
                         tb.reset();
-                        for (int j = 0; j < recDesc.getFields().length; j++) {
+                        for (int j = 0; j < recDesc.getFieldCount(); j++) {
                             genField(tb, j);
                         }
 
diff --git a/hyracks-examples/hyracks-integration-tests/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/tests/integration/TPCHCustomerOrderHashJoinTest.java b/hyracks-examples/hyracks-integration-tests/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/tests/integration/TPCHCustomerOrderHashJoinTest.java
index 5571a4f..61d4696 100644
--- a/hyracks-examples/hyracks-integration-tests/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/tests/integration/TPCHCustomerOrderHashJoinTest.java
+++ b/hyracks-examples/hyracks-integration-tests/src/test/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/tests/integration/TPCHCustomerOrderHashJoinTest.java
@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@
                         UTF8StringParserFactory.INSTANCE }, '|'), custDesc);
         PartitionConstraintHelper.addAbsoluteLocationConstraint(spec, custScanner, NC1_ID);
 
-        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFields().length];
+        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFieldCount()];
         for (int j = 0; j < nullWriterFactories.length; j++) {
             nullWriterFactories[j] = NoopNullWriterFactory.INSTANCE;
         }
@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@
                         UTF8StringParserFactory.INSTANCE }, '|'), custDesc);
         PartitionConstraintHelper.addAbsoluteLocationConstraint(spec, custScanner, NC1_ID);
 
-        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFields().length];
+        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFieldCount()];
         for (int j = 0; j < nullWriterFactories.length; j++) {
             nullWriterFactories[j] = NoopNullWriterFactory.INSTANCE;
         }
@@ -546,7 +546,7 @@
                         UTF8StringParserFactory.INSTANCE }, '|'), custDesc);
         PartitionConstraintHelper.addAbsoluteLocationConstraint(spec, custScanner, NC1_ID);
 
-        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFields().length];
+        INullWriterFactory[] nullWriterFactories = new INullWriterFactory[ordersDesc.getFieldCount()];
         for (int j = 0; j < nullWriterFactories.length; j++) {
             nullWriterFactories[j] = NoopNullWriterFactory.INSTANCE;
         }
diff --git a/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/dataflow/BinaryTokenizerOperatorNodePushable.java b/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/dataflow/BinaryTokenizerOperatorNodePushable.java
index 0af27d6..d00bea6 100644
--- a/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/dataflow/BinaryTokenizerOperatorNodePushable.java
+++ b/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/dataflow/BinaryTokenizerOperatorNodePushable.java
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
     public void open() throws HyracksDataException {
         accessor = new FrameTupleAccessor(ctx.getFrameSize(), inputRecDesc);
         writeBuffer = ctx.allocateFrame();
-        builder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(outputRecDesc.getFields().length);
+        builder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(outputRecDesc.getFieldCount());
         builderDos = builder.getDataOutput();
         appender = new FrameTupleAppender(ctx.getFrameSize());
         appender.reset(writeBuffer, true);
diff --git a/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/impls/TOccurrenceSearcher.java b/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/impls/TOccurrenceSearcher.java
index 47e3246..b24d416 100644
--- a/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/impls/TOccurrenceSearcher.java
+++ b/hyracks-storage-am-invertedindex/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/storage/am/invertedindex/impls/TOccurrenceSearcher.java
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
 
     protected RecordDescriptor queryTokenRecDesc = new RecordDescriptor(
             new ISerializerDeserializer[] { UTF8StringSerializerDeserializer.INSTANCE });
-    protected ArrayTupleBuilder queryTokenBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(queryTokenRecDesc.getFields().length);
+    protected ArrayTupleBuilder queryTokenBuilder = new ArrayTupleBuilder(queryTokenRecDesc.getFieldCount());
     protected DataOutput queryTokenDos = queryTokenBuilder.getDataOutput();
     protected FrameTupleAppender queryTokenAppender;
     protected ByteBuffer queryTokenFrame;