Generating and utilizing composite keys in lieu of compound keys

• US 20070233718A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hays, Christopher, Mineev, Alexandre
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2272 Management thereof

Abstract

Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve the retrieval or interaction with data in databases. A database has one or more tables with compound keys. An entity key that is a single composite key of each of the compound keys is generated via an invertible composition transformation. The composite entity key is a binary serialization of the respective compound keys. The composite entity key is used by separate applications to interact with the database instead of the respective underlying compound keys. The composite entity key is decomposed into the underlying compound keys when a particular database operation needs to be performed. The results are then returned to the separate application with the composite entity key.

Claims

1. A method for generating a composite key from a compound key comprising the steps of:

retrieving a plurality of values of a compound key for a particular set of data in a data store;

generating a composite key by applying an invertible composition transformation to the values of the compound key; and

providing the composite key to a separate application instead of the compound key.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the separate application to access a portion of data in the data store using the composite key; and

generating the compound key from the composite key by applying an inverse of the composition transformation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

using the compound key to access the portion of data; and

returning a set of results to the separate application along with the composite key and not the compound key.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the retrieving, generating, and providing stages for a plurality of compound keys in the data store.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the composite key includes a binary serialization of the compound key.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the composite key includes a set of flags in the first byte of the composite key.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the composite key includes a null value bitmask indicator in a high bit of the first byte.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the composite key has a base-64 encoding.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 1.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising:

store at least a portion of data in a data store, the data store having a plurality of compound keys;

generate a composite key for at least some of the plurality of compound keys by applying an invertible composition transformation to the values of the compound keys;

receive a request from a separate application to perform a database operation on a first set of data using the composite key;

generate a respective compound key from the composite key by applying an inverse of the composition transformation; and

use the respective compound key to perform the database operation on the first set of data.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further operable to perform the step of:

return a result of the database operation to the separate application with composite key.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the composite key is generated in a binary format.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the binary format is base-64 encoded.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the composite key is provided so the separate application does not have to work with any of the plurality of compound keys.

15. A method for using a composite key instead of a compound key comprising the steps of:

generating a binary serialization of a compound key in a data store by applying an invertible composition transformation to a set of values of the compound key;

including the binary serialization of the compound key in a single composite key; and

generating the compound key from the composite key by applying an inverse of the composition transformation when the compound key is needed for a particular operation.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the generating the compound key step is performed after receiving a selection of at least one instance of a particular entity associated with the composite key from a target data source through a query.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the composite key is base-64 encoded.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the composite key is provided so a separate application does not have to work with the compound keys.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

storing the composite key in the data store.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the steps recited in claim 15.