Patent ID: 8270612

Claim:
A method for implementation by one or more data processors comprising: receiving, by at least one data processor, a first compound key identifying a data object in a transactional data model, the transactional data model comprising a collection of data objects and characterizing relationships among the data objects; mapping, by at least one data processor, the first compound key to a first surrogate key; mapping, by at least one data processor, the first surrogate key to a second surrogate key; mapping, by at least one data processor, the second surrogate key to a second compound key identifying the data object; and making, by at least one data processor, the second compound key available for data processing activities; wherein each compound key includes an ordered collection of two or more components that together identify a data assembly; wherein mapping the first compound key to the first surrogate key comprises locating less than all of the components of the first compound key; wherein mapping the first compound key to the first surrogate key comprises locating an unspecified key component in an entry in a set of mapping information; wherein a first data processing activity refers to the data object using the first compound key and a second data processing activity refers to the data object using the second compound key; wherein the first compound key is not directly mapped to the second compound key.