Patent ID: 8364714

Claim:
A method for servicing a data query with access path security in a relational database management system (RDBMS), said method comprising: configuring access path security corresponding to a user originating the data query requesting data stored in the RDBMS pursuant to a configuration query associated with the user received from an administrator of the RDBMS, wherein the RDBMS operates in a computer system, the RDBMS comprising a query processing module and a database, said database comprising at least one table, a table of said at least one table comprising at least one record, a record of said at least one record comprising at least one field, a field of said at least one field having a name of the field and a value stored in the field, wherein the table comprises an index field that uniquely identifies each record of the table, wherein the database searches the record faster when using the index field than when a non-index field of the table in searching for the record within the table, wherein the data query requests a value stored in a result field by specifying the result field and a result table of said at least one table, wherein the result field is within a result record of the result table, wherein the configuration query specifies a usable index field associated with the result table enabling the user to access the result table by use of the usable index field, wherein the access path security is selected from a group consisting of access-by- key and access-by-scan, wherein the access-by-key access path security mandates the user to provide a search key in the data query in searching the result table, wherein the search key comprises a name and a value, the name of the search key being identical to the usable index field specified in the configuration query associated with the user such that the access-by-key access path security enables users to search the result table only when the users specify the usable index field in the data query, and wherein the access-by-scan access path security enables the user to scan all fields in any record of the result table pursuant to a search condition of the data query; receiving the data query from the user of the RDBMS; calculating, by a processor of the computer system, an access path for the data query based on search specification of the data query, wherein the search specification is selected from a group consisting of the search key and the search condition; determining that the access path security from said configuring authorizes the user to use the calculated access path for servicing the data query; retrieving the data requested by the data query responsive to searching the database for the value of the result field only via the calculated access path for the data query; and returning the retrieved data from said retrieving to the user.