Transforming query results into hierarchical information

A computerized system comprising:

• a database server operable for receiving a structured query language (SQL) query, the query including mode information designating a mode from multiple modes including a mode that specifies one or more table names, a mode that specifies an ordered list of one or more tables and a mode that explicitly defines a nesting of requested data and a naming of requested columns in a hierarchical data stream, where the mode information specifies, within the query itself, a hierarchical data stream organization, and generating a rowset in response to the query;
• and
• a rowset processor, operable for receiving and processing the mode information of the query and the rowset, to generate a data stream organized according to the hierarchical data stream organization specified by the mode information.

A computerized system comprising:

• a database server operable for receiving a query, the query including mode information designating a mode from multiple modes including a mode that specifies one or more table names, a mode that specifies an ordered list of one or more tables and a mode that explicitly defines a nesting of requested data and a naming of requested columns in a hierarchical data stream, where the mode information specifies, within the query itself, an extensible Markup Language (XML) data stream-organization, and generating a rowset in response to the query;
• and
• a rowset processor, operable for receiving and processing the mode information of the query and the rowset, to generate a data stream organized according to the XML data stream organization specified by the mode information.

A computerized system for generating an XML data stream from a nested query, the computerized system comprising:

• a database server operable for receiving the nested query including information defining the XML data stream, the nested query specifying a mode from a plurality of modes for organizing information, including a mode specifying an XML data stream organization with primary-foreign key information included in the nested query and a mode defining the XML data stream organization with the ordering of a number of tables included in the nested query, and generating a rowset in response to the query;
• and
• a rowset processor operable for receiving and processing the nested query and the rowset to generate the XML data stream organized according to the specified mode.

A computerized system comprising:

• a parser operable for receiving a query for data to a database and parsing the query, the query including mode information designating a mode from a plurality of modes that specifies, within the query itself, a hierarchical data stream organization for an output of the query, wherein the parser extracts the mode information from the query during parsing, and wherein the mode information includes at least one table name, an ordered list of at least one table or an explicit definition of a nesting of requested data and a naming of requested columns in a hierarchical data stream;
• a query processor for processing the query to generate at least one rowset based on the query without reference to the mode information extracted during parsing;
• a rowset to hierarchical representation processor that processes the mode information extracted from the query to set the mode for rowset processing, and the at least one rowset, to generate a data stream organized according to the hierarchical data stream organization specified by the mode information.