Database Systems

ORDB: Methods and Inheritance

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Last Week
 Nested Collections
 VARRAYs and Nested tables
 Storing
 Querying
 Manipulating

 Any questions?

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Encapsulation and UDTs:
Methods
 Functions or procedures declared in an object type
definition to implement behaviour of objects.
 Declared in a CREATE TYPE statement and Defined in a
CREATE TYPE BODY statement.
 Methods written in PL/SQL or Java are stored in the
database.
 preferable for data-intensive procedures and short
procedures that are called frequently.
 Procedures in other languages, such as C, are
stored externally.
 preferable for computationally intensive procedures that
are called less frequently.

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Member Method

 Define a member method in the object type for

each operation an object of that type should
perform.
 Example: Add a method priceInYen to MenuType.
 CREATE TYPE MenuType AS OBJECT (
bar REF BarType,
beer REF BeerType,
price FLOAT,
MEMBER FUNCTION priceInYen(rate IN FLOAT)
RETURN FLOAT
)
/
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Example: Type Body
CREATE TYPE BODY MenuType AS
MEMBER FUNCTION
priceInYen(rate FLOAT)
RETURN FLOAT IS
BEGIN
RETURN rate * SELF.price;
END;
END;
/
CREATE TABLE Sells OF MenuType;

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Some Points to Remember

 SELF is a built-in parameter that denotes the object

instance on which the method is currently being
invoked.
 Member methods can reference the attributes and
methods of SELF without using a qualifier.
 The SELF bit in SELF.price is optional.
 Many methods will take no arguments.
 In that case, do not use parentheses after the function
name.
 The body can have any number of function
definitions, separated by semicolons.
 The body must include all the functions;

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Adding a new method
 Use ALTER TYPE to add a CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY
MenuType AS
method: MEMBER FUNCTION
ALTER TYPE MenuType priceInYen(rate FLOAT)
RETURN FLOAT IS
ADD MEMBER
BEGIN
FUNCTION RETURN rate * SELF.price;
priceInUSD(rate FLOAT) END priceInYen;
RETURN FLOAT MEMBER FUNCTION
priceInUSD(rate FLOAT)
CASCADE;
RETURN FLOAT IS
BEGIN
RETURN rate * SELF.price;
END priceInUSD;
END;
/

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Example of Method Use

 Use an alias for the object followed by a dot, the

name of the method, and argument(s) if any.
 EXAMPLE:
SELECT s.beer.name, s.priceInYen(106.0)
FROM Sells s
WHERE s.bar.name = 'Joe''s Bar';
 Use parentheses, even if a method has no
arguments.
 E.g., select e.ename, e.age()
from oremp e;
 Assume age() is computed from attribute birthdate of the
object type.

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Object Comparison

 The values of scalar data types such as

CHAR or REAL have a predefined order.
 But, instances of an object type have no
predefined order.
 To compare two items of a user-defined type,
define an order relationship using a map or
an order method.
 At most one map method (or one order method)
for an object type.
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Map Methods

 Compare objects by mapping object

instances to a scalar type.
 DATE, NUMBER, VARCHAR, etc.
 Example: For an object type called
RECTANGLE, the map method AREA can
return its (HEIGHT * WIDTH) .
 Then two rectangles can be compared by their
areas.

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Map Method

 A parameter-less member function that

uses the MAP keyword.
 If an object type defines one, the method
is called automatically to evaluate
 comparisons such as obj_1 > obj_2 and
 comparisons implied by the DISTINCT,
GROUP BY, and ORDER BY clauses.

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Example
CREATE TYPE Rectangle_type AS OBJECT
( length NUMBER,
width NUMBER,
MAP MEMBER FUNCTION area RETURN NUMBER
);
CREATE TYPE BODY Rectangle_type AS MAP MEMBER
FUNCTION area RETURN NUMBER IS
BEGIN
RETURN length * width;
END area;
END;

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Example

CREATE TABLE rectangles OF Rectangle_type;

INSERT INTO rectangles VALUES (1,2);
INSERT INTO rectangles VALUES (2,1);
INSERT INTO rectangles VALUES (2,2);
SELECT DISTINCT VALUE(r) FROM rectangles r;
VALUE(R)(LEN, WID)
--------------------
RECTANGLE_TYP(1, 2)
RECTANGLE_TYP(2, 2)
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Order Methods
 Order methods make direct object-to-object
comparisons.
 A function with one declared parameter for
another object of the same type.
 Definition of this method must return
 < 0 if ''self '' is less than the argument object.
 0 if ''self '' is equal to the argument object.
 > 0 if ''self '' is greater than the argument object.

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Order Methods
 Called automatically whenever two objects
need to be compared.

 Useful where comparison semantics may be

too complex to use a map method.
 E.g., to compare images, create an order method
to compare by their brightness or number of
pixels.

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Example
 An order method that compares customers by customer
ID:

 CREATE TYPE Customer_typ AS OBJECT

( id NUMBER,
name VARCHAR2(20),
addr VARCHAR2(30),
ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION match (c
Customer_typ) RETURN INTEGER );
/
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Example
 CREATE TYPE BODY Customer_typ AS
ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION match (c Customer_typ) RETURN
INTEGER IS
BEGIN
IF id < c.id THEN RETURN -1; -- any num <0
ELSIF id > c.id THEN RETURN 1; -- any num >0
ELSE RETURN 0;
END IF;
END;
END;
/

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On Comparison Methods
 In defining an object type, you can specify either a
map method or an order method for it, but not both.

 If an object type has no comparison method, Oracle

can compare two objects of that type only for
equality or inequality.
 Two objects of the same type count as equal only if the
values of their corresponding attributes are equal.

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On Comparison Methods
 When sorting or merging a large number of
objects, use a map method.
 One call maps all the objects into scalars, then
sorts the scalars.
 An order method is less efficient because it must
be called repeatedly (it can compare only two
objects at a time).

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Methods on Nested Tables

CREATE TYPE proj_t AS OBJECT (projno number,

Projname varchar(15));
CREATE TYPE proj_list AS TABLE OF proj_t;
CREATE TYPE emp_t AS OBJECT
( eno number,
projects proj_list,
MEMBER FUNCTION projcnt RETURN INTEGER
);

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Methods on Nested Tables

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY emp_t AS MEMBER

FUNCTION projcnt RETURN INTEGER IS
pcount INTEGER;
BEGIN
SELECT count(p.projno) INTO pcount
FROM TABLE(self.projects) p;
RETURN pcount;
END;
END;
/

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Methods on Nested Tables

CREATE TABLE emptab OF emp_t

(Eno PRIMARY KEY)
NESTED TABLE projects STORE AS emp_proj_tab;

SELECT e.eno, e.projcnt() projcount

FROM emptab e;

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Inheritance

 A natural model for organising information.

 e.g. captures the fact that sales managers are also
salespeople.
 Methods and representation can be shared.
 Reduces redundancy.
 New types and objects can be defined in existing
hierarchies rather than from scratch.
 Increases flexibility and extensibility.

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Example: Person hierarchy

Person

Office worker Student

Sales Person Secretar Graduate UnderGrad

y
Engineer
Sales Manager
Project Mgr

District Manager
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Inheritance in Oracle

 It consists of a parent base type, or supertype,

and one or more levels of child object types, or
subtypes.
 Subtypes in a hierarchy are connected to their
supertypes by inheritance.
 subtypes automatically acquire the attributes and
methods of their parent type.
 any attribute or method updated in a supertype is
automatically updated in subtypes also.

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Specializing Subtypes

 Add new attributes the supertype does not

have.
 A subtype cannot drop or change the type of
an attribute it inherits from its parent.
 Add new methods that the parent does not
have.
 Override the implementation of a parent
method.

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Specializing Subtypes

 Change the implementation of some methods

a subtype inherits.
 E.g., a shape object type might define a method
calculate_area().
 Two subtypes, rectangular and circular, might
implement this method in a different way.

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FINAL and NOT FINAL Types
 To permit subtypes, the object type must be
defined as not final.
 By including the keyword NOT FINAL in the type
declaration.
 By default, an object type is final.

 Example
 CREATE TYPE Person_type AS OBJECT
( pid NUMBER,
name VARCHAR2(30),
address VARCHAR2(100) ) NOT FINAL;
 Subtypes of Person_type can be defined.

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Altering object type

 You can change a final type to a not final type

and vice versa with an ALTER TYPE
statement.
 If a NOT FINAL type has no current subtypes.

 For example,
 ALTER TYPE Person_type FINAL;

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Creating Subtypes

 Use a CREATE TYPE statement with an UNDER

parameter to specify the parent type:
CREATE TYPE Student_type UNDER Person_type
( deptid NUMBER,
major VARCHAR2(30)) NOT FINAL;
/
 Student_type inherits all the attributes and methods
declared in or inherited by Person_type.
 New attributes in a subtype must have different
names from the attributes or methods in all its
supertypes in the type hierarchy.
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Multiple child types

 A type can have multiple child subtypes, and these

can also have subtypes.
 Example:
CREATE TYPE Employee_type UNDER Person_type
( empid NUMBER,
mgr VARCHAR2(30)
);
/
 In addition to student_typ under person_type given earlier

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Subtype under another
subtype

 The new subtype inherits all the attributes

and methods of its parent type, both
declared and inherited.
 Example:
CREATE TYPE PartTimeStudent_type UNDER
Student_type
(numhours NUMBER);

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Table of supertype
 Creating a supertype table
Create table person_tab of person_type
(pid primary key);

 Inserting a subtype object/row

Insert into person_tab values
( student_type(4, 'Edward Learn',
'65 Marina Blvd, Ocean Surf, WA, 6725',
40, 'CS')
);
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Selecting all instances
 Using VALUE() function to select all instances of a super type:
 Select all persons such as employees, students, etc. in the table:
 SELECT VALUE(p) FROM person_tab p;
VALUE(P)(PID, NAME, ADDRESS)
-----------------------------------------------
Person_type(21937, ‘Fred’, ‘4 Ambrose Street’)
Student_type(27362, `Peter’, … , 21, ‘Oragami’)
PartTimeStudent_type(2134, ‘Jack’,…, 13, ‘Physics’,
5)
Person_type(21362, ‘Mary’, …)
Student_type(18437, `Susan’, … , 13, ‘Maths’)
PartTimeStudent_type(4318, ‘Jill’,…, 21, ‘Pottery’,
2)
Person_type(39374, ‘George’, …)

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Selecting instances
 From student type and its subtypes
SELECT VALUE(s)
FROM person_tab s
WHERE VALUE(s) IS OF (Student_type);

VALUE(P)(PID, NAME, ADDRESS)

-----------------------------------------------
Student_typ(27362, `Peter’, … , 21, ‘Oragami’)
PartTimeStudent_type(2134,’Jack’,…,13,‘Physics’,
5)
Student_typ(18437, `Susan’, … , 13, ‘Maths’)
PartTimeStudent_type(4318,’Jill’,…,21,‘Pottery’,
2)

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Selecting instances
 From student type but not from subtypes
SELECT VALUE(s)
FROM person_tab s
WHERE VALUE(s) IS OF (ONLY student_type);

VALUE(P)(PID, NAME, ADDRESS)

-----------------------------------------------
Student_typ(27362, `Peter’, … , 21, ‘Oragami’)
Student_typ(18437, `Susan’, … , 13, ‘Maths’)

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Selecting a Subtype Attribute

 TREAT() function to make the system treat each person

as a part-time student to access the subtype attribute
numhours:
SELECT Name, TREAT(VALUE(p) AS
PartTimeStudent_type).numhours hours
FROM person_tab p
WHERE VALUE(p) IS OF (ONLY PartTimeStudent_type);
NAME hours
-----------------------------------------------
Jack 5
Jill 2

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NOT INSTANTIABLE Types
 Use this option with types intended solely as
supertypes of specialized subtypes.
 CREATE TYPE Address_typ AS OBJECT(...)
NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL;*
 CREATE TYPE AusAddress_typ UNDER
Address_typ(...);
 CREATE TYPE IntlAddress_typ UNDER
Address_typ(...);

* You cannot create instances of the Address_typ

only (similar to “abstract classes” in OO)
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NOT INSTANTIABLE Methods
 Use this option to declare a method in a type without
implementing it there.
 A type that contains a non-instantiable method must itself
be declared not instantiable.
 CREATE TYPE T AS OBJECT (
x NUMBER,
NOT INSTANTIABLE MEMBER FUNCTION func1()*
RETURN NUMBER ) NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL;

* The type body for T does not contain a definition for func1

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NOT INSTANTIABLE Methods
 Define a method as non-instantiable if every
subtype is to override the method in a different way.

 If a subtype does not implement every inherited

non-instantiable method, the subtype must be
declared not instantiable.
 A non-instantiable subtype can be defined under an
instantiable supertype.

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FINAL and NOT FINAL
Methods
 If a method is declared to be final, subtypes
cannot override it by providing their own
implementation.
 Unlike types, methods are not final by default.
 They must be explicitly declared to be final.
 An overriding method is specified in a
CREATE TYPE BODY statement.

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Example
CREATE TYPE MyType AS OBJECT
( ...,
MEMBER PROCEDURE Print,
FINAL MEMBER FUNCTION foo(x NUMBER) …, ...
) NOT FINAL;
/
CREATE TYPE MySubType UNDER MyType
( ...,
OVERRIDING MEMBER PROCEDURE Print,
...);
/

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Overloading Methods

 A subtype can add new methods that have the

same names as methods it inherits.
 Methods that have the same name but different
signatures in a type are called overloads.
 The compiler uses the methods' signatures to tell them
apart.

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Example: Overloading Methods

CREATE TYPE MyType AS OBJECT

( ...,
MEMBER FUNCTION fun(x NUMBER)…,
...) NOT FINAL;
/
CREATE TYPE MySubType UNDER MyType
( ...,
MEMBER FUNCTION fun(x DATE) …,
...);
/
 Same function name, different signature

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Summary
 Nested Collections
 Varrays and nested tables
 Storing
 Querying
 Manipulating

 Inheritance in Oracle
 FINAL/NOT FINAL
 Subtypes (UNDER)
 Getting at particular subtypes
 INSTANTIABLE/NOT INSTANTIABLE (Types and
methods)
 Overriding & Overloading
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