Method of creating a tabular data stream for sending rows of data between client and server

A method and tabular data stream format is provided for the transmission of tabular data between a client process running on a client computer and a server process running on a server computer via a network such as the Internet. The tabular data stream format, called the Advanced Data TableGram (ADTG) format, is ideally suited for marshaling tabular data in both directions between a Web browser and a Web server. A Web browser query is processed by the Web server retrieving tabular data from a database and converting the data into a Rowset. The Rowset, in turn, is formatted into an ADTG message. The ADTG message includes a Header section, a HandlerOptions section, a Row section, and an End section. The Header section includes data representing global parameters for a tabular data stream. The Handler Options section contains data representing parameters for controlling the processing of the tabular data stream by a process receiving the tabular data stream. The Descriptors section includes data representing properties of the tabular data stream. The Row section includes data representing the properties of rows and values of the columns of the tabular data stream. The End section contains data that denotes the end of parts of an ADTG message, called resultsets, or the end of the entire ADTG message.