Patent ID: 7908299

Claim:
A method for converting a table object from a first partitioning type to a second partitioning type, the method comprising steps of: automatically gathering information comprising a definition of a clustering index of the table object of the first partitioning type and attributes of said table object inherited from its clustering index, wherein said information is automatically gathered from a data store comprising real and virtual object definitions; generating a virtual table object of the second partitioning type by applying the gathered information to a clustering index of the virtual table object, such that the virtual table object represents how the table object will appear with partitioning type conversions applied; wherein the table object is not changed until the conversions are applied; and presenting the virtual table object to a user for viewing and manipulating as the second partitioning type, such that the user is able to toggle between the table object of the first partitioning type and the virtual table object of the second partitioning type before converting the table object to said second partitioning type.