METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STORING SELF-DESCRIPTIVE TABULAR DATA WITH ALPHANUMERIC AND BINARY VALUES

A method and system for storing and retrieving alphanumeric (83) and binary data values (78) includes storing in a tabular data archive (60) an open tabular format XML file (62) containing a plurality of alphanumeric data values (83) and meta-information (84). Meta-information (84 and 80) describes a predetermined set of characteristics of the alphanumeric data values (83) and binary data values (78). The method and system store in the tabular data archive (60) a plurality of individual binary files (64) each comprising exactly one binary data value (163, 164, 165, 166) and further describe the binary files (64) using the predetermined set of characteristics (80). The method further includes storing in the open tabular format XML file (62) a plurality of references (90) to the individual binary files (64). Thereafter, the open tabular format XML file (62) may be parsed for selectably retrieving at least one predetermined subset of the plurality of alphanumeric data values (83) and of the plurality of binary data values stored in individual binary files (64).