A system for querying a database. Query strings comprising queries from
application program are loaded from a text file into a query lookups
table. The application then utilizes a database interface query function
to access the queries in the lookups table. The query function uses the
query name provided by the application to locate the corresponding query
string in the lookups table. The query function then performs parameter
substitution on the query string and sends the query to the database. The
query results are then retrieved, formatted, and sent to the querying
application. The present invention allows an application program to access
data stored on databases organized by various database management systems
which employ different query formats. Although the databases organize the
data differently, the same content may be extracted by the present system.
Changes to the database queries take place outside the application code in
a simple text file that is loaded by the querying application.
