Systems and methods for supporting inheritance for user-defined types

• US 7,539,688 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2004
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2004
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Altudov, Denis Y., Yu, Wei, Sezgin, Beysim, Venkatesh, Ramachandran, Blakeley, Jose A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleurantin; Jean B
• Application Number:
  US10/837,929
• Publication Number:
  US 20050177581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 717/106, 717/108, 717/114, 717/122, 717/140, 717/148, 717/159
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a database with an extensible type system for at least one user-defined type that comprises information for describing its structure as well as information for describing an inheritance relationship between itself and another user-defined type (either a subtype or a supertype/base type). For certain embodiments, the user-defined type is defined in something other than Sequential Query Language (SQL) statement such as, for example, a Common Language Runtime (CLR) statement, a statement in C, C++, and C# (“C-sharp”), and/or a visual basic statement. In any event, several embodiments are further directed to a system wherein the database is aware of the inheritance relationship between two user-defined types by an explicit registration of the user-defined types with said database.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

computing memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the computing memory operable to store and retrieve at least one user-defined type defined by a class created by managed code, the class comprising information for describing a structure of said at least one user-defined type, and information for describing an inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and a second user-defined type, wherein the inheritance relationship of the second user-defined type to the at least one user-defined type is at least one of a subtype or a supertype of said at least one user-defined type;

a database stored in said computing memory with an extensible type system, the class created by the managed code that defines the at least one user-defined type is compiled into an assembly that is explicitly registered with the database such that the user-defined type acts as a scalar type within a structured query language (SQL) language type system, the explicit registration indicating the inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and said second user-defined type.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said second user-defined type is the subtype of said at least one user-defined type.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said second user-defined type is the supertype of said at least one user-defined type.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said at least one user-defined type is defined by a Common Language Runtime (CLR) statement.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said managed code is at least one of, or derived from at least one of, the following group of programming languages:

visual basic, visual C++, C, C++, or C#(“

C-sharp”

).

6. The system of claim 1 comprising:

a subsystem for compiling a type into the assembly;

a subsystem for registering said assembly with said database;

a subsystem for registering said type of said assembly with said database; and

a subsystem for using said type.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one user-defined type is defined in something other than a Sequential Query Language (SQL) statement.

8. A method implemented at least in part by a computing system for providing, in a database stored in memory, an extensible type system for at least one user-defined type, said method comprising:

storing a class created by managed code in memory, said class comprising information-for describing a structure of said at least one user-defined type, wherein the class is compiled into an assembly;

storing information in memory for describing an inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and a second user-defined type in said at least one user-defined type, wherein the inheritance relationship of the second user-defined type to the at least one user-defined type is at least one of a subtype or a supertype of said at least one user-defined type;

performing an explicit registration of the assembly, with said database stored in memory such that the user-defined type acts as a scalar type within a structured qury language (SQL) language type system, said explicit registration making said database aware of said inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and said second user-defined type.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising creating said second user-defined type that is the subtype of said at least one user-defined type.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising creating said at least one user-defined type that is the subtype of said second user-defined type.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising defining said at least one user-defined type using a Common Language Runtime (CLR) statement.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said managed code is at least one of, or derived from at least one of, the following group of programming languages:

visual basic, visual C++, C, C++, or C#(“

C-sharp”

).

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

compiling a type into an assembly;

registering said assembly with said database;

registering said type of said assembly with said database; and

using said type.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising defining said at least one user-defined type using something other than a Sequential Query Language (SQL) statement.

15. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable instructions for a database stored in memory with an extensible type system for at least one user-defined type, said instructions comprising instructions for:

storing a class created by managed code in memory, said class comprising information for describing a structure of said at least one user-defined type, wherein the class is compiled into an assembly;

storing information in memory for describing an inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and a second user-defined type in said at least one user-defined type, wherein the inheritance relationship of the second user-defined type to the at least one user-defined type is at least one of a subtype or a supertype of said at least one user-defined type;

performing an explicit registration of the assembly, with said database stored in memory such that the user-defined type acts as a scalar type within a structured qury language (SQL) language type system, said explicit registration making said database aware of said inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and said second user-defined type.

16. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15 further comprising instructions whereby said second user-defined type is the subtype of said at least one user-defined type.

17. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15 further comprising instructions whereby said second user-defined type is the supertype of said at least one user-defined type.

18. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15 further comprising instructions whereby said at least one user-defined type is defined by a Common Language Runtime (CLR) statement.

19. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15, wherein said managed code is at least one of, or derived from at least one of, the following group of programming languages:

visual basic, visual C++, C, C++, or C#(“

C-sharp”

).

20. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15 further comprising instructions whereby said database is aware of said inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and said second user-defined type.

21. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15 further comprising instructions for:

compiling a type into the assembly;

registering said assembly with said database;

registering said type of said assembly with said database; and

using said type.

22. The computer-readable instructions of claim 15, further comprising instructions whereby said at least one user-defined type is defined in something other than a Sequential Query Language (SQL) statement.

23. A method implemented at least in part by a computing system for providing, in a database stored in memory, a queryable catalog view of metadata for at least one user-defined type, said method comprising:

storing information in memory for describing a structure of said at least one user-defined type-in said at least one-user-defined type;

storing information in memory for describing an inheritance relationship between said at least one user-defined type and a second user-defined type in said at least one user-defined type, wherein the inheritance relationship of the second user-defined type to the at least one user-defined type is at least one of a subtype or a supertype of said at least one user-defined type; and

recording in metadata for the at least one user-defined type the inheritance relationship between the at least one user-defined type and the second user-defined type, wherein the metadata is searchable through queryable catalog views that may be queried; and

storing said metadata in memory.

24. A method implemented at least in part by a computing system for searching, in a database storing metadata in memory, for the extent of substitutability for at least one user-defined type, said method comprising:

querying the metadata for a user-defined type to identify at least one user-defined type with information stored describing an inheritance relationship with a second user-defined type;

identifying the at least one user-defined type, wherein the inheritance relationship described is that the second user-defined type is a subtype of the at least one user-defined type;

identifying a property of a site of the at least one user-defined type, wherein the site has an associated type definition and a property where a value of the subtype type can be substituted for a value of the at least one user-defined type;

substituting a value of the second user-defined type for the value of the at least one user-defined type.

25. A method implemented at least in part by a computing system for providing, in a database stored in memory, a queryable catalog view of metadata for at least one user-defined type, said method comprising:

storing information in memory for describing a structure of said at least one user-defined type-in said at least one-user-defined type wherein an inheritance relationship described is that the at least one user-defined type is a supertype, and a second-user-defined type is a subtype of said supertype;

identifying a runtime type of a value of the supertype, wherein the runtime type of the value may be different from a compile time value of the supertype;

creating indexes over the runtime type of the value;

using the index in predicates based on the runtime type of the value.