1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, the computer-executable instructions cause the computing system to link a child table to a parent table in a database system, by performing at least the following: identifying a semantic expression associated with a row of a parent table, the semantic expression at least: being stored as a first key in the row of the parent table; describing a semantic relationship using association criteria; referencing a second key from the row of the parent table; and receiving as input a foreign key from the child table; for each row of a plurality of rows of a child table, performing the following: evaluating the semantic expression against the foreign key of a child table row for satisfaction of the semantic expression, wherein satisfaction of the semantic expression occurs when the foreign key of the child table satisfies the semantic expression, rather than by direct equality to the semantic expression; and based at least on the foreign key of the row satisfying the semantic expression, creating an association between the foreign key and the row of the parent table.
1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, the computer-executable instructions cause the computing system to link a child table to a parent table in a database system, by performing at least the following: identifying a semantic expression associated with a row of a parent table, the semantic expression at least: being stored as a first key in the row of the parent table; describing a semantic relationship using association criteria; referencing a second key from the row of the parent table; and receiving as input a foreign key from the child table; for each row of a plurality of rows of a child table, performing the following: evaluating the semantic expression against the foreign key of a child table row for satisfaction of the semantic expression, wherein satisfaction of the semantic expression occurs when the foreign key of the child table satisfies the semantic expression, rather than by direct equality to the semantic expression; and based at least on the foreign key of the row satisfying the semantic expression, creating an association between the foreign key and the row of the parent table. 5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1 , the semantic expression using, as an input, a field of the particular row other than the primary key of the particular row.