Virtual arrays in an array-based language

A computer-executable method of providing an application program interface (API) for accessing data on secondary storage, the secondary storage being connected to a primary storage and a processor, said method comprising:

• providing a user interface on a computing device for receiving user input in an array-based language, the user interface for indicating a first file and a second file stored on the secondary storage of the computing device;
• accessing the first file stored on the secondary storage of the computing device, the first file associated with a first file type and holding content data;
• accessing the second file stored on the secondary storage of the computing device, the second file associated with a second file type and holding content data;
• storing, in the primary storage of the computing device, in response to the user input, a data structure representing at least a subset of the first file and the second file stored on the secondary storage, the data structure storing non-sequential content data of the first file and the second file;
• creating, in the primary storage of the computing device, a formatter object based on the first file type and the second file type, the formatter object accessing the file content data stored in the secondary storage based on the first file type and the second file type and facilitating file content data transfer between the first file, the second file, and the data structure;
• receiving, through the user interface on the computing device, one or more first commands of a first application programming interface (API) for accessing the first file and the second file, the one or more first commands comprising one or more indexes into the first file or the second file, the first API being an array-based language;
• executing, in response to receiving the one or more first commands comprising the one or more indexes into the first file or the second file, one or more second commands of a second application programming interface (API) to perform file I/O on the first file or the second file stored on the secondary storage, including file content data being dynamically retrievable on an as needed basis;
• and
• storing the results of executing the second command to perform file I/O on the first file or the second file stored on the secondary storage.

A device for accessing one or more files on a computer-readable medium, the device comprising:

• a memory containing a data structure corresponding to one or more non-sequential segments of data elements from a first file and a second file stored on the computer-readable medium, the one or more non-sequential segments including file content data, the data structure providing sequential access to the plurality of non-sequential segments of the data from the first file and second file;
• and
• a processor for:
• receiving a first file identifier for the first file and a second file identifier for the second file stored on the computer-readable medium, the first file having a first file type and the second file having a second file type;
• accessing the first file and the second file stored on the computer-readable medium;
• creating the data structure;
• creating a formatter object based on the first file type and the second file type, the formatter object accessing the file content data stored in the secondary storage based on the first file type and the second file type and facilitating file content data transfer between the first file, the second file, and the file structure;
• receiving a modification instruction requesting modification of one or more data elements in the first file or the second file, including a first command of a first application programming interface (API), the first command accessing the one or more first data elements of the first file and the one or more second data elements of the second file by indexing into the data structure, the first API being an array-based programming language;
• transforming the instruction into a second command of a second application programming interface (API), the second command of the second API being directed at the computer-readable medium;
• and
• accessing the one or more first data elements of the first file and the one or more second data elements of the second file stored in the computer-readable medium using the second command of the second API, the one or more accessed first data elements and the one or more accessed second data elements including file content being dynamically retrievable on an as needed basis.

A computer-implemented system for accessing a dataset stored on hard disk, said system comprising:

• a processor to:
• interact with a memory, and
• interact with the hard disk;
• a dataset stored on the hard disk, the dataset represented as a first file with a first file type and a second file with a second file type, wherein the processor receives one or more identifiers for the dataset stored on the hard disk;
• a data structure in the memory corresponding to one or more non-sequential segments of the data from the dataset stored on the hard disk, the contents of the data structure being different form the entirety of the dataset contents, the one or more non-sequential segments include file content data, the data structure providing sequential access to the plurality of non-sequential segments of the data from the dataset stored on the hard disk;
• a formatter object in the memory corresponding to the first file type and the second file type, the formatter object accessing the file content data stored in the secondary storage based on the first file type and the second file type and facilitating file content data transfer between the dataset and the data structure;
• and
• one or more application program interfaces (APIs) to:
• modify one or more elements in the dataset based on an indexing instruction into the data structure in memory;
• and
• instructions stored in the memory and executed by the processor to:
• receive a first file identifier for the first file stored in the hard disk, the first file holding data in one or more first data elements;
• receive a second file identifier for the second file stored in the hard disk, the second file holding the data in one or more second data elements;
• access the first file and the second file stored on the hard disk;
• create the data structure in the memory;
• create the formatter object;
• receive user input, the user input representative of a user action and including a first command of a first application programming interface (API), the first command accessing the one or more first data elements of the first file and the one or more second data elements of the second file by indexing into the data structure, the first API being an array-based programming language;
• transform the user input into a second command of a second application programming interface (API), the second command of the second API being directed at the hard disk;
• and
• access the one or more first data elements of the first file and the one or more second data elements of the second file stored in the hard disk using the second command of the second API, the one or more accessed first data elements and the one or more accessed second data elements including file content data being dynamically retrievable on an as needed basis.