Patent ID: 7676797

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for performing operations on fields, comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a request to perform a requested operation on one or more fields, wherein a first operation operating on the computing device performs the requested operation when the one or more fields are in a format that is compatible with the first operation; determining, by the computing device, whether the one or more fields are compatible with the first operation; when the one or more fields are in a format that is compatible with the first operation, performing, by the first operation operating on the computing device, the requested operation on the one or more fields using the first operation to generate results of the requested operation on the one or more fields; and when the one or more fields are in a format that is not compatible with the first operation for at least a reason that at least one of the one or more fields includes a token representing additional information and an expanded size of the at least one of the one or more fields with the additional information would exceed a maximum field size for the first operation: generating one or more instructions that emulate the first operation, wherein the generated one or more instructions are compatible with the requested operation on the one or more fields, generating a request to perform a second operation, the request including the generated one or more instructions, wherein the second operation performs the requested operation by processing the generated one or more instructions including performing the requested operation on the at least one of the one or more fields with the additional information, and receiving results from the second operation.