Patent · US Expired

Computer-based information access method and apparatus to permit SQL-based manipulation of programming language-specific data files

US5826076A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
11References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 13, 1994
Grant dateOct 20, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 13, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99934
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus that permits creation, reading and modification of 3GL application programs by SQL requests. A catalog is created by selecting source programs from 3GL application data for which file definitions are to be extracted, identifying specific files within the selected source programs to be processed, extracting appropriate schema from the selected files, and recording the appropriate schema in a catalog. Once the 3GL-specific data schema contained in the application source has been extracted and stored in the catalog, the relational database which is to be based upon the data represented by the 3GL schema is defined and stored in the system catalog so that tables in the relational database may be accessed by a runtime SQL database engine. Further, both 3GL data and relational database data may be modified and maintained with a single tool set. After the catalog is created, the invention uses the catalog to process SQL requests in order to access the relational database representation of the 3GL data by parsing the SQL query request, generating a set of possible execution plans for manipulating the relational form of the data, selecting an optimal plan based upon i…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.