Patent ID: 7809741

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generating a composite key for interacting with a data store, the method comprising the steps of: storing data for an entity having a plurality of attributes with a compound key, wherein values of the plurality of attributes of the entity are stored in a data store with each value of each attribute of the entity stored in a separate column of the data store, and the compound key is associated with a plurality of key columns of the data store to which the entity is bound that contain compound key values of the entity corresponding to a set of attributes identified by the compound key; retrieving a plurality of compound key values of the entity at a database application on a computing device, the plurality of compound key values of the entity retrieved from the plurality of key columns of the data store to which the entity is bound that correspond to the set of attributes identified by the compound key; generating a single composite key for the entity based on component parts of the compound key by applying an invertible composition transformation to the plurality of compound key values of the entity retrieved from the plurality of key columns of the data store to which the entity is bound, the single composite key for the entity including a single encoded value that is generated from binary serialization of the plurality of key columns of the data store to which the entity is bound and that is converted back into the plurality of compound key values of the entity when an inverse of the invertible composition transformation that was used to generate the single composite key for the entity is applied to decode the single encoded value; and providing the single composite key for the entity to a separate application for requesting access to the data for the entity stored in the data store using the single composite key of for the entity.