Many ORMs have capabilities for "implicit joins" with either lazy or eager loading of the foreign rows, for example the latest Entity Framework from Microsoft.
it's a 4GL programming environment that has as one of its main strengths that kind of implicit joins and automatic retrieval of data you mention, as long as you follow the naming conventions.
It's a REALLY fast way to build your standard line-of-business application (and it automatically generates iOS and Android apps too), but it falls apart for any other use, and it's UI is not that flexible usually.
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As andyjpb said, it's encoded in the foreign key.
Many ORMs have capabilities for "implicit joins" with either lazy or eager loading of the foreign rows, for example the latest Entity Framework from Microsoft.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/jj713564.aspx
If you like that kind of "automagic" things, check out Genexus:
http://www.genexus.com/global/home?en
it's a 4GL programming environment that has as one of its main strengths that kind of implicit joins and automatic retrieval of data you mention, as long as you follow the naming conventions.
It's a REALLY fast way to build your standard line-of-business application (and it automatically generates iOS and Android apps too), but it falls apart for any other use, and it's UI is not that flexible usually.