System and apparatus for storage retrieval and analysis of relational and non-relational data

• US 5,819,251 A
• Filed: 02/06/1996
• Issued: 10/06/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle Corporation
• Inventors: Mukhopadhyay, Santanu, Keese, William M., Arbab-Dehkordi, Behrouz, Kremer, Mark, Tran, Quoc Tai, Depledge, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CORRIELUS, JEAN M
• Application Number:
  US08/595,905
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 395/611, 707/100, 707/1, 707/103, 707/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and apparatus is disclosed which stores, retrieves and analyzes relational and non-relational data. An application program provides a data query statement containing both relational and non-relational portions to a relational server. In an embodiment, the query statement is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") CONTAINS stored procedure or CONTAINS function statement. The relational data server then provides the non-relational query to either a text queue or database management language ("DML") queue. A non-relational data server then accesses either the text queue or the DML queue. The non-relational data server obtains pointers to the non-relational data and stores them in a temporary table. The pointers and relational data portion are processed by the relational server to obtain the relational and non-relational data. In an embodiment, the non-relational data server is a text server including an engine, filter, lexer, data storage and word list.

Claims

1. A database management system, having an input device receiving a database query and an output device providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data; and

(b) a processing system, coupled to the memory, including

(i) a relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting relational data; and

,

(ii) a non-relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting non-relational data, wherein the database query is an SQL CONTAINS procedure statement.

2. A database management system, having an input device receiving a database query and an output device providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data; and

(b) a processing system, coupled to the memory, including

(i) a relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting relational data;

(ii) a non-relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting non-relational data; and

,

(iii) means for parsing the database query into a relational database query and a non-relational database query, wherein the means for parsing is responsive to an SQL CONTAINS function statement.

3. A database management system, having an input device receiving a database query and an output device providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data; and

(b) a processing system, coupled to the memory, including

(i) a relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting relational data;

(ii) a non-relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting non-relational data;

(iii) means for parsing the database query into a relational database query and a non-relational database query;

(iv) a first queue, coupled to the non-relational server, for storing the non-relational database query;

(v) a second queue, coupled to the non-relational database server, for storing a non-relational database modification request; and

(vi) a table, coupled to the non-relational server and the relational server, for storing a relational data pointer provided by the non-relational server.

4. A database management system, having an input device receiving a database query and an output device providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data; and

(b) a processing system, coupled to the memory, including

(i) a relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting relational data;

(ii) a non-relational server, responsive to the database query, outputting non-relational data;

(iii) means for parsing the database query into a non-relational database query and a non-relational database modification request;

(iv) a first text queue, coupled to the non-relational server, for storing the non-relational database query, wherein the first text queue is an Oracle 7 Server Pipe;

(v) a second queue, coupled to the non-relational database server, for storing a non-relational database modification request; and

,

(vi) a table, coupled to the non-relational server and the relational server, for storing a relational data pointer provided by the non-relational server.

5. An apparatus for providing data, comprising;

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data;

(b) means for receiving a query, wherein the query is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") 92 statement;

(c) means, coupled to the means for receiving, for parsing the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(d) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing relational data from the memory responsive to the query relational portion; and

,

(e) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing non-relational data from the memory responsive to the query non-relational portion.

6. An apparatus for providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data;

(b) means for receiving a query, wherein the query is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") CONTAIN function statement;

(c) means, coupled to the means for receiving, for parsing the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(d) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing relational data from the memory responsive to the query relational portion; and

,

(e) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing non-relational data from the memory responsive to the query non-relational portion.

7. An apparatus for providing data, comprising:

(a) a memory containing relational data and non-relational data;

(b) means for receiving a query, wherein the query is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") CONTAIN procedure statement;

(c) means, coupled to the means for receiving, for parsing the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(d) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing relational data from the memory responsive to the query relational portion; and

,

(e) means, coupled to the parsing means and memory, for providing non-relational data from the memory responsive to the query non-relational portion.

8. A method for providing data from a database containing relational data and non-relational data, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a Structured Query Language ("SQL") statement, wherein the SQL statement is an SQL 92 statement;

(b) parsing the SQL statement into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(c) processing the non-relational portion to obtain pointers to the non-relational data in the database;

(d) storing the non-relational pointers; and

,

(e) processing the relational portion and pointers to the non-relational data to obtain the data.

9. A method for providing data from a database containing relational data and non-relational data, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing Structured Query Language ("SQL") statement, wherein the SQL statement is a CONTAIN function;

(b) parsing the SQL statement into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(c) processing the non-relational portion to obtain pointers to the non-relational data in the database;

(d) storing the non-relational pointers; and

,

(e) processing the relational portion and pointers to the non-relational data to obtain the data.

10. A method for providing data from a database containing relational data and non-relational data, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing Structured Query Language ("SQL") statement, wherein the SQL statement is a CONTAIN procedure;

(b) parsing the SQL statement into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(c) processing the non-relational portion to obtain pointers to the non-relational data in the database;

(d) storing the non-relational pointers; and

,

(e) processing the relational portion and pointers to the non-relational data to obtain the data.

11. A method for providing data from a database containing relational data and non-relational data, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a Structured Query Language ("SQL") statement;

(b) parsing the SQL statement into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

(c) processing the non-relational portion to obtain pointers to the non-relational data in the database, comprising the steps of;

(i) queuing the non-relational portion on a queue;

(ii) popping the non-relational portion from the queue; and

,

(iii) processing the non-relational portion by a non-relational server;

(d) storing the non-relational pointers; and

(e) processing the relational portion and pointers to the non-relational data to obtain the data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the non-relational server comprises a text server including a text engine, a filter and a lexer.

13. An article of manufacture, including a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for obtaining data in a database containing relational and non-relational data, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising:

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to read a query statement;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to parse the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain relational data from the database responsive to the relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain a pointer to the non-relational data in the database responsive to the non-relational portion; and

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to display the relational data and non-relational data.

14. An article of manufacture, including a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for obtaining data in a database containing relational and non-relational data, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising:

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to read a query statement having a relational portion and a non-relational portion, wherein the query statement is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") 92 statement;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to parse the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain relational data from the database responsive to the relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain a pointer to the non-relational data in the database responsive to the non-relational portion; and

,

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to display the relational data and non-relational data.

15. An article of manufacture, including a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for obtaining data in a database containing relational and non-relational data, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising:

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to read a query statement having a relational portion and a non-relational portion, wherein the query statement is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") CONTAIN function statement;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to parse the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain relational data from the database responsive to the relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain a pointer to the non-relational data in the database responsive to the non-relational portion; and

,

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to display the relational data and non-relational data.

16. An article of manufacture, including a computer readable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for obtaining data in a database containing relational and non-relational data, the computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprising:

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to read a query statement having a relational portion and a non-relational portion, wherein the query statement is a Structured Query Language ("SQL") CONTAIN procedure statement;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to parse the query into a relational portion and a non-relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain relational data from the database responsive to the relational portion;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain a pointer to the non-relational data in the database responsive to the non-relational portion; and

,

computer readable program code means for causing a computer to display the relational data and non-relational data.