RELATIONAL DATABASE WITH COMPOUND IDENTIFIER

1 . A relational database system, comprising:

a relational database configured to store and present data in a plurality of tables; and

a database application operatively coupled with the relational database and configured to execute in an intermediate language runtime environment that supports native treatment of user data type definitions, where the database application and the relational database are configured to populate the plurality of tables with records that are each uniquely identified by a key, and where for each of the records, the key is constructed in accordance with a compound user-defined data type, such that the key includes: identification of an originating table for that record, the originating table being one of the plurality of tables; and additional record-identifying information for that record.

2 . The system of claim 1 , where the intermediate language runtime environment is a Common Language Infrastructure implementation.

3 . The system of claim 2 , where the intermediate language runtime environment is NET Common Language Runtime.

4 . The system of claim 1 , where the database application includes an API implementation configured to use the identification of the originating table to query the relational database.

5 . The system of claim 1 , where the compound user-defined data type is defined so that, for each of the records, the identification of the originating table is in a separate predefined section of the key, thereby enabling determination of the identification of the originating table without parsing.

6 . The system of claim 5 , where the compound user-defined data type is defined so that the key for each of the records has a fixed byte length.

7 . The system of claim 1 , where for each of the keys, the additional record-identifying information is an identification of a row within the originating table.

8 . The system of claim 7 , where for each the keys, the identification of the originating table and the identification of the row within the originating table collectively result in unique identification of the record.

9 . A method of creating and handling data in a relational database, comprising:

defining a compound user-defined data type;

establishing a plurality of tables in the relational database for storing and presenting data;

populating the plurality of tables with a plurality of records, where for each of the plurality of records, said populating includes: inserting an additional row into one of the plurality of tables, said additional row containing data pertaining to that record;

using the compound user-defined data type to generate a key which uniquely identifies that record and uniquely identifies the one of the plurality of tables; and

persisting the keys for the plurality of records into a database API that is executable and configured for use within an intermediate language runtime environment that supports native treatment of the compound user-defined data type.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

using the database API to retrieve one of the plurality of records from the relational database.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving one of the keys with the database API, and using the database API to determine a characteristic of the record that is uniquely identified by the key.

12 . The method of claim 11 , where the characteristic is associated with the table that is uniquely identified by the key.

13 . The method of claim 9 , where using the compound user-defined data type to generate the key includes automatically generating a row identifier and automatically generating a table identifier.

14 . The method of claim 13 , where using the compound user-defined data type to generate the key includes locating the table identifier in a separate predefined section of the key, thereby enabling retrieval of the table identifier without parsing of the key.

15 . The method of claim 14 , where the keys have a fixed byte length.

16 . The method of claim 9 , where the intermediate language runtime environment is a Common Language Infrastructure implementation.

17 . A method of creating and handling data in a relational database, comprising:

establishing a plurality of tables in the relational database for storing and presenting data;

adding a record to one of the plurality of tables in the form of an additional row to the table;

generating a table identifier for the table to which the record is added;

generating a row identifier for the additional row corresponding to the record;

using a compound user-defined data type to combine the table identifier and the row identifier into a key which uniquely identifies the record; and

retrieving the record from the table by providing the key to a database API executed and configured for use within an intermediate language runtime environment that supports native treatment of the compound user-defined data type.

18 . The method of claim 17 , where using the compound user-defined data type to combine the table identifier and the row identifier into the key includes locating the table identifier in a separate predefined section of the key, thereby permitting retrieval of the table identifier without parsing of the key.

19 . The method of claim 17 , where the intermediate language runtime environment is a Common Language Infrastructure implementation.

20 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

adding a plurality of additional records to the plurality of tables; and

using, for each of the plurality of additional records, the compound user-defined data type to provide a key which uniquely identifies that additional record, whereby the record and all of the plurality of additional records are uniquely identified by corresponding keys.