A 'Database' Subsystem for BCPL

This paper describes a system of functions and routines for use with BCPL (or similar language) for organizing a 'database'. More precisely they enable the user to define a framework of tables, records, lists and functions within which to store, retrieve and manipulate certain primitive types of data. The system is oriented to 'structural' rather than tabular (relational) models of data. The paper is mainly concerned with the properties of the data structures, and their elementary constituents, and with illustrations of their use. This paper describes a system of functions and routines for use with BCPL 1 (or similar language) for organizing a 'database'. More precisely they enable the user to define a framework of tables, records, lists and functions within which to store, retrieve and manipulate certain primitive types of data. The data structures can be used to represent entities and (1-many) relationships, but are oriented to overtly 'structural' rather than 'relational' models of data: the connection with the latter is briefly discussed in Section 9. This paper is purely concerned with the properties of the chosen data structures, their functional specification, and with illustrations of their use. The special features of the system are as follows.