Patent ID: 7340480

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of using a logical framework to query data, comprising: displaying a logical view of data in a user interface, wherein the logical view includes a plurality of logical fields defined by a first data abstraction model, comprising: a plurality of logical field definitions for each of the plurality of logical fields, wherein at least some of the plurality of logical field definitions include a logical field name and a reference to an access method for retrieving data from at least one physical field of the data, whereby the retrieved data is exposed as a value of the respective logical field name; and iteratively restricting the logical view of the data for each successive abstract query, based on at least one result criterion of an immediately previous abstract query; wherein the at least one result criterion specifies one or more fields for which a query result was returned for the immediately previous abstract query, and wherein the immediately previous abstract query further includes selection criteria specifying one or more conditions to be satisfied by the query result: wherein iteratively restricting the logical view of the data comprises making a portion of the data exposed by the plurality of logical fields unavailable through the logical view by performing at least one of: removing all values of the data corresponding to the result criterion; and preserving only those values of the data corresponding to the result criterion, and removing all other values of the data.