Patent ID: 7761455

Claim:
A processor-implemented method for loading data from a vertical database table into a horizontal database table, comprising: determining a number of rows in a vertical database table and a number of columns in a horizontal database table, wherein the vertical table includes at least three columns, with entries in a first column containing object identifiers, entries in a second column containing attribute names corresponding to the object identifiers, and entries in a third column containing attribute values corresponding to the attribute names, and the horizontal table includes a column for the object identifiers and attribute columns for the attributes names; selecting one of a plurality of methods for reading data from the vertical database table and writing data to the horizontal database table based in part on the number of rows in the vertical database table and the number of columns in the horizontal database table; and reading object identifiers and values of attributes from the vertical database table and writing the object identifiers and the values of attributes to the vertical database table using the selected one of the plurality of methods, wherein access to the horizontal database table is provided by a database management system, the method further comprising: in response to selection of a first one of the plurality of methods, for each object identifier in the file, generating a character string array having in character string format, data from the vertical database table including, an object identifier and attribute values for attributes associated with the object identifier; and writing data from the character string array to a flat text file; and loading data from the flat text file into the horizontal database using a utility function of the database management system, wherein the utility function is adapted to read data from a flat text file.