The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 02, 2018
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2007
Ravi Murthy, Fremont, CA (US);
Muralidhar Krishnaprasad, Redmond, WA (US);
Sivasankaran Chandrasekar, Fremont, CA (US);
Nipun Agarwal, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Ravi Murthy, Fremont, CA (US);
Muralidhar Krishnaprasad, Redmond, WA (US);
Sivasankaran Chandrasekar, Fremont, CA (US);
Nipun Agarwal, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood Shores, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for managing hierarchical relationships in a relational database system is provided. An 'orderkey' data type, which is native within a relational database system, is disclosed. The orderkey type is designed to contain values that represent the position of an entity relative to the positions of other entities within a hierarchy. Such values represent hierarchical relationships between those entities. Values that are of the orderkey type have properties that allow hierarchy-oriented functions to be performed in an especially efficient manner. Database functions, which operate on and/or produce values that are of the orderkey type, are also disclosed. Such functions can be placed within SQL statements that a database server executes, for example. In response to executing SQL statements that contain such functions, the database server performs hierarchy-oriented operations in a highly efficient manner.