Patent attributes
Embodiments are directed towards managing data storage and queries within a database system using global dictionaries with universal primitives (UNIPs) to represent non-numeric data within a mixed numeric/non-numeric environment. Common data types are managed within a same global dictionary through dictionaries that are globally used within the database system. At least non-numeric data within mixed data fields may be stored using a UNIP to identify the stored non-numeric data. The UNIP may take advantage of the IEEE-754 standard for floating point data representation by setting a first field within the UNIP to 0x7ff (HEX) to indicate that the data is non-numeric (NaN) and using remaining bits to store typed data, such as a date or unique indirect reference (e.g. a sequence number or file offset to larger piece of data). The UNIP may then replace the data within the database and be used during operations performed on the data.
