APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PASSING STATEMENTS TO FOREIGN DATABASES BY USING A VIRTUAL PACKAGE

An apparatus and method for accessing foreign processes in a heterogeneous database environment includes a local database server having heterogeneous services to selectively send foreign operations to the appropriate foreign processes in a controllable manner. A client application sending a statement to the local database server is checked by the local server to determine if the statement includes a reference to a foreign database system. The heterogeneous services selectively outputs a the foreign request to an agent process in communication with the foreign database system via an Application Programming Interface (API), where a foreign database driver corresponding to the foreign database maps the request from the API to the format of the foreign database. The local database server selectively allocates memory space for expected results from the foreign database, and completes execution of the statement upon receiving the expected results from the agent process. Hence, the agent process efficiently manages client statements having expressions to be processed by a foreign database system.