Patent ID: 7895150

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: storing a multi-dimensional dataset object to an object store within an enterprise software system, wherein the dataset object stores a plurality of data elements arranged according to a plurality of dimensions, and further wherein the dataset object provides an interface having a first function for instantiating an indexer object for referencing the data elements of the dataset and a second function that receives as input the indexer object and returns a type-specific value of one or more of the data elements based on reference information maintained by the indexer object, wherein at compile time for the dataset object, a compiler has ensured type safety for the dataset object based on the type of the type-specific value, and wherein the indexer object is instantiated as a non-type-specific indexer object capable of referencing data of any type within the dataset object; invoking the first function to instantiate the indexer object within the object store; utilizing the indexer object to reference one of the data elements of the dataset object; and invoking the second function and passing the indexer object as a parameter to the second function to retrieve a type-specific value of the data element referenced by the indexer object.