Patent ID: 7333994

Claim:
A database system, comprising: an interface to a query engine; a database layer; and a relational node structure, communicating with the interface to the query engine and the database layer, the relational node structure comprising a set of nodes configured to store data from the database layer and encoding a set of pointers that provide direct relational linkages between child nodes in the set of nodes, wherein the set of pointers provides a map of an interrelational structure of the child nodes thereby enabling search logic to bypass branches of the relational node structure when searching therein, wherein the set of pointers encoded in the set of nodes extends at least in three dimensions including a child-to-parent node dimension, a next like peer node dimension, and a left-to-right peer node dimension, and data from the database layer is populated into at least one node within the set of nodes in response to processing a query from the query engine, wherein the next like peer node dimension is a type of pointer of the set of pointers that provides a direct relational linkage between the child nodes residing at a similar level of the relational node structure having similar attributes therein, wherein the left-to-right peer node dimension is a type of pointer of the set of pointers that provides a direct relational linkage between the child nodes organized in an adjacent lateral structure, wherein the next like peer node dimension and the left-to-right peer node dimension facilitate laterally searching across child nodes and directly retrieving data therefrom without further parsing the relational node structure, and wherein the set of nodes within the relational node structure is configured to store extensible markup language (XML)-based information such that the query engine generates XML data therefrom.