Patent ID: 6857000

Claim:
A data storage and retrieval system comprising: storage means for storing data belonging to a predetermined category and definition data which is made to correspond to the data and describes definition of a data structure and a data presentation form; retrieval means for retrieving the data and the definition data made to correspond to the data from said storage means on the basis of input retrieval data; rewrite means for rewriting, based on another definition data stored in said storage means, the definition data made to correspond to data retrieved by said retrieval means; and presentation means for presenting, based on the definition data rewritten by said rewrite means, the data retrieved by said retrieval means, wherein said storage means comprise: means for registering an object corresponding to data and managing data of each data component obtained by dividing the data into arbitrary storage sections using attributes of the object; an object management section for managing class data containing data of one or a plurality of attributes of the object and instance data belonging to the class; an index management section for managing data of an index describing a path for access to the data component; and a data access section for accessing the data component in the stored data on the basis of data storage position data about the data component; wherein said index management section comprises metaindex management means for holding a correspondence between a metaindex secondarily added to the index and the index as a base of the metaindex, and wherein the data component is accessed on the basis of the given metaindex by using the attribute of the object represented by the correspondence, and wherein said system further comprises an interclass data management section comprising: new class management means for defining and managing new class data; and interclass data translation means for holding an object translation rule describing a relation between a new class and an existing class and generating an instance corresponding to the new class in response to instance generation in the existing class on the basis of the translation rule.