Patent ID: 7769789

Claim:
A method for a database server to provide a data layer comprising software, said data layer not only being invocable by a SQL layer to perform DML operations but also invocable by another component of said database server to perform DML operations, comprising: in response to receiving a DML statement, the SQL Layer of said database server invoking a Data Layer of the database server to perform a first DML operation to a table; wherein the DML operation is required to compute said DML statement; another component of said database server invoking said Data Layer via an API to perform a second DML operation to said table; wherein said Data Layer API provides functions that may be invoked without the need of passing in a DML statement to the function; wherein the functions provided by said Data Layer API are invoked for at least one of: a) to return a row that has a particular row-id; b) to return a row that has a particular value in a particular column; or c) to return row-ids of rows that have a particular key value in a key column of an index; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.