Translating a Query to the Underlying Database

The following provides a summary of the translation of the 5800 system queries to SQL queries that are presented to the underlying database.

The metadata schema specifies the layout of fields into tables and columns. When the schema is committed, a particular set of actual tables and columns is created in the underlying database that matches the format of the table layout in the schema.

When translating a 5800 system query to SQL, each field name in the query is translated into a reference to the particular column and particular table that represents that field. Typed literal values are translated into a form that the extended metadata cache knows how to deal with. Specifically, most literal values are replaced with an equivalent dynamic parameter. Thus, the list of dynamic parameters that the underlying database uses combines both the dynamic parameters and also many of the literal values from the 5800 system query. Finally, an implicit INNER JOIN is introduced between all the tables containing the translated query fields. Everything else (usually database expression syntax) is left unchanged, allowing almost all the database engine's powerful query syntax to be used with 5800 system queries.

The presence of the INNER JOIN has important consequences when queries are evaluated. An object is only returned by a query when all of the fields referenced by the query itself and all of the fields referenced in the select list of the query all have non-null values. Queries with OR clauses, in particular, can produce non-intuitive results. As an extreme example, consider a query: "fieldA is not null OR fieldB is not null." This query will not select an object unless both fieldA and fieldB are non-null, because of this implicit inner join.