A method and apparatus for carrying out a database select, or query, on a data storage device, upon data stored on that device. Data is received from a host and compressed on the data storage device using a compression code developed on the data storage device for the data. When the host issues a database select request on the compressed data, the compression code is distributed to processing cores of the data storage device and compiled, including the select request, into machine code. The machine code is used to decompress the compressed data while filtering the data with the select request. The filtering result is returned to the host.