Efficient processing of parent-child relationships in a relational database management system

摘要

A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and data structure for efficiently identifying parent-child relationships of a plurality of members. The parent-child relationships are encoded into a matrix, wherein a particular member is represented by a particular row and a particular column of the matrix. A value at an intersection of a specific one of the rows and a specific one of the columns indicates whether a parent-child relationship exists between the member represented by the row and the member represented by the column. Thereafter, matrix operations may be applied to the matrix.