METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR STORING AND ACCESSING EMBEDDED INFORMATION IN OBJECT-RELATIONAL DATABASES

A system and computer-implemented methods for accessing and storing information embedded in a column of a database row, especially useful for complex data, that is, data which is logically multi-valued or hierarchical. Embedded data is not stored in a separate table but is stored directly in a complex column comprising embedded data a subtables. A row of data is physically stored in a tagged, variable-length object-relational format, which allows the data to be stored as atomic data values or embedded as collections of data values, data structures, or collections of data structures. The structures can have further levels of embedding, i.e. more collections and/or structures. Embedded data may further include typed data embedded in multiple tables and columns. The query language for accessing the data includes a series of extensions that provide additional access paths to the data. Searches can access data within tables and sub-tables, and can access data by user defined type (UDT) in a single table or across multiple tables.