Method and apparatus for efficient transmission of result set data

• US 7,188,102 B1
• Filed: 09/09/2003
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Gollapudi, Sreenivas, Ku, Chi, Klein, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz; Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Syed; Farhan M.
• Application Number:
  US10/658,724
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/5, 707/103.R
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24561 Intermediate data storage techniques for performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A method and apparatus for efficiently transmitting a result set. A data server receives a data request from a client or another server. The data server determines whether a threshold portion of the contents of each requested row or record is being retrieved (e.g., X% of the number of columns in a table or X% of the total amount of data in a table row). The requested rows are retrieved in the same format in which they are stored (e.g., within a disk block), and streamed to the client, one row at a time. The client is then responsible for disassembling a row into its columns, reordering them if necessary, and performing any necessary post-processing (e.g., datatype conversion, data formatting) before consuming the data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

at a data server, receiving a data request from a requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of a data table;

determining whether the number of columns in said less than all columns is greater than a threshold percentage of all columns in the data table;

informing the requester of the storage format of rows of the data table; and

if the number of columns in said less than all columns is greater than the threshold percentage of all columns, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a level of complexity required to post-process the set of rows; and

if said level of complexity is greater than the requestor is capable of performing, post-processing the set of rows on the data server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the requestor is capable of performing the post-processing, post-processing the set of rows on the requestor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein post-processing the set of rows comprises disassembling, into columns, each row in the set of rows.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said post-processing further comprises:

converting a datatype of a column.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said post-processing further comprises:

retrieving data related to a column.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said post-processing further comprises:

applying a set of processor executable instructions to manipulate a column.

8. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

at a data server, receiving a data request from a requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of a data table;

determining whether the number of columns in said less than all columns is greater than a threshold percentage of all columns in the data table;

informing the requestor of the storage format of rows of the data table; and

if the number of columns in said less than all columns is greater than the threshold percentage of all columns, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a level of complexity required to post-process the set of rows; and

if said level of complexity is greater than the requestor is capable of performing, post-processing the set of rows on the data server.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

post-processing the set of rows on the requestor.

11. A computer-implemented method of transmitting requested data from a data server, the method comprising:

receiving a data request from a requestor, said request targeting a subset of the fields of a set of records in a data table;

informing the requestor of the storage format of a record of the data table;

determining whether the subset of fields comprises a threshold percentage of all fields in the data table;

identifying any post-processing to be performed on the subset of fields;

for each record in the set of records, retrieving the entire record; and

transmitting the set of records to the requester without;

disassembling any record into the fields of the record;

or

performing the identified post-processing.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the post-processing comprises one or more of:

converting a datatype of a column;

retrieving data related to a column, from a source other than the data table;

applying a set of data manipulation instructions to a column; and

formatting a column.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

performing the post-processing on the requestor.

14. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of transmitting requested data from a data server, the method comprising:

receiving a data request from a requestor, said request targeting a subset of the fields of a set of records in a data table;

informing the requestor of the storage format of a record of the data table;

determining whether the subset of fields comprises a threshold percentage of all fields in the data table;

identifying any post-processing to be performed on the subset of fields;

for each record in the set of records, retrieving the entire record; and

transmitting the set of records to the requestor without;

disassembling any record into the fields of the record;

or

performing the identified post-processing.

15. A computer-implemented method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

at a data server, receiving a data request from a requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of a data table;

determining whether the total data size of said less than all columns is greater than a threshold percentage of the total data size of all columns of the data table;

informing the requestor of the storage format of rows of the data table; and

if the total data size of said less than all columns is greater than the threshold percentage of the total data size, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a level of complexity required to post-process the set of rows; and

if said level of complexity is greater than the requestor is capable of performing, post-processing the set of rows on the data server.

17. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

at a data server, receiving a data request from a requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of a data table;

determining whether the total data size of said less than all columns is greater than a threshold percentage of the total data size of all columns of the data table;

informing the requestor of the storage format of rows of the data table; and

if the total data size of said less than all columns is greater than the threshold percentage of the total data size, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor.

18. A computer-implemented method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

informing a data requestor of the storage format of rows of a data table;

at a data server, receiving a data request from the requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of the data table;

determining a level of complexity required to post-process the less than all columns of the set of rows;

if said level of complexity is not greater than the requestor is capable of performing, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor; and

if said level of complexity is greater than the requestor is capable of performing;

retrieving the set of rows;

post-processing the set of rows on the data server; and

transmitting the post-processed set of rows to the requestor.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether the less than all columns comprise a threshold portion of a row of the data table.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said threshold portion comprises a percentage of the total number of columns in the row.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein said threshold portion comprises a percentage of the total amount of data in the row.

22. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of efficiently transmitting a result set in response to a data request, the method comprising:

informing a data requestor of the storage format of rows of a data table;

at a data server, receiving a data request from the requestor, wherein the data request requests less than all columns of a set of rows of the data table;

determining a level of complexity required to post-process the less than all columns of the set of rows;

if said level of complexity is not greater than the requestor is capable of performing, for each row in the set of rows;

retrieving all columns of the row, as stored in the storage format; and

without disassembling the row into columns, transmitting the row to the requestor; and

if said level of complexity is greater than the requestor is capable of performing;

retrieving the set of rows;

post-processing the set of rows on the data server; and

transmitting the post-processed set of rows to the requestor.