Patent ID: 7257587

Claim:
A computer-implemented relational database management system (RDBMS), comprising: an RDBMS table that stores a plurality of records, wherein said table includes an identifier that specifies related ones of said plurality of records as a record set, wherein said identifier is unique to each said record set; and an intra-table record set processor that configures the RDBMS table with the identifier and that publishes an associate records function and a purge associated set function, said associate records function and said purge associated set function comprising RDBMS functions that are each accessible by at multiple front-end systems, said associate records function configured to associate said related ones of said plurality of records with one another as a record set within said table using said identifier, wherein said associate records function further comprising programmatic code for disassociating selected records of said record set responsive to a triggering condition; and said purge associated set function configured to purge selected ones of said record set in said table responsive to a triggering condition, wherein the triggering condition identifies at least one of said related ones of said plurality of records, and wherein the purge associated set function purges non-identified ones of the related records from the RDBMS table using said identifier.