Patent ID: 6850951

Claim:
A method of creating a relational data structure for storage in a computer readable medium, and retrieval of data having multiple simultaneous hierarchical database relationships without needing dedicated database relationships between objects in the multiple simultaneous hierarchies, the method comprising: forming a table of members referenced in the multiple simultaneous hierarchical database relationships and data to be accessed wherein the data is associated with each member; forming a table of reporting relationships among the members referenced in the multiple simultaneous hierarchical database relationships, wherein each one of said reporting relationships is associated with a hierarchy identifier; and forming a table of summary description of each one of the multiple simultaneous hierarchies existing in the table of reporting relationships, the table of summary description having a first record representing a first one of the multiple simultaneous hierarchical database relationships and a second record representing a second one of the multiple simultaneous hierarchical database relationships; in the table of reporting relationships, designating a first relationship between a first member and a second member associated with the first one of the multiple simultaneous hierarchies; in the table of reporting relationships, designating a second relationship between the first member and the second member associated with the second one of the multiple simultaneous hierarchies; and in the table of reporting relationships, designating a reversible parent□child relationship between pairs of the members, wherein a first member is denoted as a parent to a second member, and the second member is denoted as a parent to the first member.