Generating a schema-specific load structure to load data into a relational database based on determining whether the schema-specific load structure already exists

• US 7,490,093 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2003
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Jain, Namit, Murthy, Ravi, Agarwal, Nipun
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Khanh B.
• Application Number:
  US10/718,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20050050074A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,908 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 4, 707/6, 707100-102, 707/103.R, 707/103.Y, 706 45- 50, 709217-220
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24552 Database cache management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Described is a method and system for storing data into a database, where a determination is made if schema metadata that is used to load the data into the database already exists, and where the existing schema metadata is used to load the data into the database if the schema metadata already exists. If the appropriate schema metadata does not exist, then it is generated and cached so that a later load operation for the same schema type will not need to re-generate this information. In this way, the cost to generate the schema metadata is amortized over multiple load operations to load data of the same schema type. The approach is protocol neutral so that multiple different protocol-based loads can operate with the same schema metadata information and load structures.

Claims

1. A method of storing data into a database, comprising:

identifying the data to load into the database, wherein the data is associated with a schema information;

identifying the schema information for the data;

determining whether the schema information and a schema-specific load structure that are used to load the data into the database already exist;

acquiring the schema information from the data based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria is associated with determining whether the schema information already exists;

generating an in memory representation of the schema information to load the data into the database based on the first criteria;

generating the schema-specific load structure to load the data into the database based on a second criteria, wherein the second criteria is associated with determining whether the schema-specific load structure already exists; and

storing the generated schema information and schema-specific load structures for subsequent loads of the data.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the schema-specific load structures comprise at least one of array column, data stream, dispatch table entry or allocated address space in memory.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the schema information comprises at least one of column type, column number or column identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the schema information is protocol neutral.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the schema information can be used by multiple different protocol-based load procedures.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the multiple different protocol-based load procedures load data having different protocols, wherein the protocols comprise the File Transfer Protocol or the Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the schema information is cached in memory.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the data is loaded using multiple streams of load operations.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the multiple streams are loaded in parallel.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the data at a client application; and

storing the data according to a direct path approach.

11. The method of claim 10, the direct path approach further comprising:

creating a data structure; and

generating a data stream based on said data structure.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said data structure is created in memory that is associated with said client application.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the data structure comprises a database table and an array.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the array comprises user visible columns and hidden columns.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the data comprises semistructured data.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the client application specifies actions to be performed when an error occurs.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein data are stored in the database without causing a Structured Query Language (SQL) engine to load the data.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing data into the database using conventional path loading.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

parsing data that comprises one or more instances of a type.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the client application generates Structured Query Language (SQL) commands.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

releasing resources associated with the schema information or load structure based on timed out information.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

releasing resources associated with the schema information or load structure based upon a least recently used (LRU) approach.

23. A system for storing data into a database, comprising:

means for identifying the data to load into the database, wherein the data is associated with a schema information;

means for identifying the schema information for the data;

means for determining whether the schema information and a schema-specific load structure that are used to load the data into the database already exist, wherein the means for determining comprises a processor;

means for acquiring the schema information from the data based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria is associated with the means for determining whether the schema information already exists;

means for generating an in memory representation of the schema information to load the data into the database based on the first criteria;

means for generating the schema-specific load structures to load the data into the database based on a second criteria, wherein the second criteria is associated with the means for determining whether the schema-specific load structure already exists; and

means for storing the generated schema information and schema-specific load structures for subsequent loads of the data.

24. A computer program product comprising a volatile or non-volatile computer storage medium having executable code to execute a process for storing data into a database, the process comprising:

identifying the data to load into the database, wherein the data is associated with a schema information;

identifying the schema information for the data;

determining whether the schema information and a schema-specific load structure that are used to load the data into the database already exist;

acquiring the schema information from the data based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria is associated with determining whether the schema information already exists; and

generating an in memory representation of the schema information to load the data into the database based on the first criteria;

generating the schema-specific load structures to load the data into the database based on a second criteria, wherein the second criteria is associated with determining whether the schema-specific load structure already exits; and

storing the generated schema information and schema-specific load structures for subsequent loads of the data.