Patent ID: 7752213

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium containing program instructions executable on a processing system for processing requests to access a database, wherein the processing system performs the following functions comprising: receiving a request to access the database; processing the request to register a function by determining whether the request is valid or not valid, the request identifying the function, if the request is valid, the function is saved for lookup, specifying at least one data item in the database to be processed by the function, the function having no prior knowledge of a data type of the at least one data item, a name of the at least one data item, and a value of the at least one data item; wherein the function is independent of the at least one data item, defining a first instance of a defined data structure for the at least one data item, the first instance of the defined data structure comprising: a pointer to the data type of the at least one data item, a pointer to the name of the at least one data item, and a pointer to the value of the at least one data item; passing details of the first instance of the defined data structure to the function in a manner that requires no prior knowledge of data type to provide the function details of the data type of the at least one data item, the name of the at least one data item, and the value of the at least one data item; wherein the request to access the database further specifies a variable to be processed by the function, the function having no prior knowledge of a name of the variable, a value of the variable, and a data type of the variable, defining a second instance of the defined data structure for the variable, the second instance of the defined data structure comprising a pointer to the name of the variable, a pointer to the value of the variable, and a pointer to the data type of the variable; and passing details of the second instance of the defined data structure to the function in a manner that requires no prior knowledge of data type to provide the function details of the name of the variable, the value of the variable, and the data type of the variable; and processing the variable using the function; and outputting a result from processing of the variable; retrieving the at least one data item in the database using the function, the first instant of the data structure and the outputted result from the processing of the variable; and outputting a result from said retrieving the at least one data item in the database.