1. A method, comprising: receiving, at a translation module executing at a server computer, a request from an application to execute a query against a database, wherein the request identifies a first data element of a first data format; automatically translating, by the translation module, the first data element from the first data format into a second data element of a second data format, wherein the first data element and the second data element comprise different representations of a same value; generating, by the translation module, the query using the second data element; and sending, by the translation module, the query to a database server to be executed.