Patent ID: 7917482

Claim:
A method of making data available from a database, including: specifying a query function having a query function name, wherein the query function includes a structure and a member; compiling the query function to be available to a user so that it is available by calling the query function name without specifying the structure in the query function; automatically generating and storing an index for the structure on the member when the query function is compiled, wherein queries for the member in the structure can be satisfied by accessing the index generated; automatically updating the index each time a write operation that is performed affects the index; wherein the structure specified in the query function is a virtual structure comprising a plurality of structures, the member specified in the query function is a virtual member comprising a concatenation of a plurality of members from more than one structure; and wherein the index generated comprising objects from more than one structure, and at least one of the objects included in index is based at least in part on a combination of two or more members from two or more structures.