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Oracle® Database Object-Relational Developer's Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2)

Part Number E11822-01
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2 Basic Components of Oracle Objects

This chapter provides basic information about working with Oracle SQL objects. It explains what object types and subprograms are, and describes how to create and work with a hierarchy of object types that are derived from a shared root type and are connected by inheritance.

Note:

Running Examples: In order to run examples in chapter 2, you may need to drop any objects you created for Chapter 1.

This chapter contains these topics:

SQL Object Types and References

This section describes SQL object types and references, including:

You create Oracle SQL object types with the CREATE TYPE statement. A typical example of object type creation is shown in Example 2-1.

See Also:

Null Objects and Attributes

An object whose value is NULL is called atomically null. An atomically null object is different from an object that has null values for all its attributes. In an object with null values, a table column, object attribute, collection, or collection element might be NULL if it has been initialized to NULL or has not been initialized at all. Usually, a NULL value is replaced by an actual value later on. When all the attributes are null, you can still change these attributes and call the object's subprograms or methods. With an atomically null object, you can do neither of these things.

Example 2-1 creates the contacts table and defines the person_typ object type and two instances of this type.

Example 2-1 Inserting NULLs for Objects in a Table

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
  idno           NUMBER,
  name           VARCHAR2(30),
  phone          VARCHAR2(20),
  MAP MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER, 
  MEMBER PROCEDURE display_details ( SELF IN OUT NOCOPY person_typ ) );
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY person_typ AS
  MAP MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER IS
  BEGIN
    RETURN idno;
  END;
  MEMBER PROCEDURE display_details ( SELF IN OUT NOCOPY person_typ ) IS
  BEGIN
    -- use the PUT_LINE procedure of the DBMS_OUTPUT package to display details
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(idno) || ' - '  || name || ' - '  || phone);
  END;
END;
/
CREATE TABLE contacts (
  contact        person_typ,
  contact_date   DATE );

INSERT INTO contacts VALUES (
  person_typ (NULL, NULL, NULL), '24 Jun 2003' );

INSERT INTO contacts VALUES (
  NULL, '24 Jun 2003' );

Two instances of person_typ are inserted into the table and give two different results. In both cases, Oracle Database allocates space in the contacts table for a new row and sets its DATE column to the value given. But in the first case, Oracle Database allocates space for an object in the contact column and sets each of the object's attributes to NULL. In the second case, Oracle Database sets the person_typ field itself to NULL and does not allocate space for an object.

In some cases, you can omit checks for null values. A table row or row object cannot be null. A nested table of objects cannot contain an element whose value is NULL.

A nested table or array can be null, so you do need to handle that condition. A null collection is different from an empty one, one that has no elements.

Character Length Semantics

Lengths for character types CHAR and VARCHAR2 may be specified as a number of characters, instead of bytes, in object attributes and collections even if some of the characters consist of multiple bytes.

To specify character-denominated lengths for CHAR and VARCHAR2 attributes, you add the qualifier char to the length specification.

Like CHAR and VARCHAR2, NCHAR and NVARCHAR2 may also be used as attribute types in objects and collections. NCHAR and NVARCHAR2 are always implicitly measured in terms of characters, so no char qualifier is used.

For example, the following statement creates an object with both a character-length VARCHAR2 attribute and an NCHAR attribute:

Example 2-2 Creating the employee_typ Object Using a char Qualifier

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE employee_typ AS OBJECT ( 
  name        VARCHAR2(30 char), 
  language    NCHAR(10), 
  phone       VARCHAR2(20) );
/

For CHAR and VARCHAR2 attributes whose length is specified without a char qualifier, the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS initialization parameter setting (CHAR or BYTE) indicates the default unit of measure.

See Also:

Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for information on character length semantics

Constraints for Object Tables

You can define constraints on an object table just as you can on other tables. You can define constraints on the leaf-level scalar attributes of a column object, with the exception of REFs that are not scoped.

The following examples illustrate defining constraints.

Example 2-3 places an implicit PRIMARY KEY constraint on the office_id column of the object table office_tab.

Example 2-3 Creating the office_tab Object Table with a Constraint

-- requires Ex. 2-1
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE location_typ AS OBJECT (
  building_no  NUMBER,
  city         VARCHAR2(40) );
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE office_typ AS OBJECT (
  office_id    VARCHAR(10),
  office_loc   location_typ,
  occupant     person_typ );/

CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ (
             office_id      PRIMARY KEY );

The object type location_typ defined in Example 2-3 is the type of the dept_loc column in the department_mgrs table in Example 2-4.

Example 2-4 defines constraints on scalar attributes of the location_typ objects in the table.

Example 2-4 Creating the department_mgrs Table with Multiple Constraints

-- requires Ex. 2-1 and 2-3
CREATE TABLE department_mgrs (
  dept_no     NUMBER PRIMARY KEY, 
  dept_name   CHAR(20),
  dept_mgr    person_typ,
  dept_loc    location_typ,
  CONSTRAINT  dept_loc_cons1
      UNIQUE (dept_loc.building_no, dept_loc.city),
  CONSTRAINT  dept_loc_cons2
       CHECK (dept_loc.city IS NOT NULL) );

INSERT INTO department_mgrs VALUES 
          ( 101, 'Physical Sciences', 
           person_typ(65,'Vrinda Mills', '1-1-650-555-0125'),
           location_typ(300, 'Palo Alto'));

Indexes for Object Tables

You can define indexes on an object table or on the storage table for a nested table column or attribute just as you can on other tables. For an example of an index on a nested table, see Example 5-5.

You can define indexes on leaf-level scalar attributes of column objects, as shown in Example 2-5. You can only define indexes on REF attributes or columns if the REF is scoped. This example indexes city, which is a leaf-level scalar attribute of the column object dept_addr.

Example 2-5 Creating an Index on an Object Type in a Table

-- requires Ex. 2-1, 2-3, 
CREATE TABLE department_loc (
  dept_no     NUMBER PRIMARY KEY, 
  dept_name   CHAR(20),
  dept_addr   location_typ );

CREATE INDEX  i_dept_addr1
          ON  department_loc (dept_addr.city);

INSERT INTO department_loc VALUES
          ( 101, 'Physical Sciences',
           location_typ(300, 'Palo Alto'));
INSERT INTO department_loc VALUES 
          ( 104, 'Life Sciences', 
           location_typ(400, 'Menlo Park'));
INSERT INTO department_loc VALUES 
          ( 103, 'Biological Sciences', 
           location_typ(500, 'Redwood Shores'));

Wherever Oracle Database expects a column name in an index definition, you can also specify a scalar attribute of a column object.

Triggers for Object Tables

You can define triggers on an object table just as you can on other tables. You cannot define a trigger on the storage table for a nested table column or attribute. You cannot modify LOB values in a trigger body. Otherwise, there are no special restrictions on using object types with triggers.

Example 2-6 defines a trigger on the office_tab table defined in "Constraints for Object Tables".

Example 2-6 Creating a Trigger on Objects in a Table

-- requires Ex. 2-1 and 2-3
CREATE TABLE movement (
     idno           NUMBER,
     old_office     location_typ,
     new_office     location_typ );

CREATE TRIGGER trigger1
  BEFORE UPDATE
             OF  office_loc
             ON  office_tab
   FOR EACH ROW
           WHEN  (new.office_loc.city = 'Redwood Shores')
   BEGIN
     IF :new.office_loc.building_no = 600 THEN
      INSERT INTO movement (idno, old_office, new_office)
       VALUES (:old.occupant.idno, :old.office_loc, :new.office_loc);
     END IF;
   END;/
INSERT INTO office_tab VALUES 
    ('BE32', location_typ(300, 'Palo Alto' ),person_typ(280, 'John Chan', 
       '415-555-0101'));
 
UPDATE office_tab set office_loc =location_typ(600, 'Redwood Shores')
  where office_id = 'BE32'; 
 
select * from office_tab;
 
select * from movement;

Rules for REF Columns and Attributes

In Oracle Database, a REF column or attribute can be unconstrained or constrained using a SCOPE clause or a referential constraint clause. When a REF column is unconstrained, it may store object references to row objects contained in any object table of the corresponding object type.

Oracle Database does not ensure that the object references stored in such columns point to valid and existing row objects. Therefore, REF columns may contain object references that do not point to any existing row object. Such REF values are referred to as dangling references.

A SCOPE constraint can be applied to a specific object table. All the REF values stored in a column with a SCOPE constraint point at row objects of the table specified in the SCOPE clause. The REF values may, however, be dangling.

A REF column may be constrained with a REFERENTIAL constraint similar to the specification for foreign keys. The rules for referential constraints apply to such columns. That is, the object reference stored in these columns must point to a valid and existing row object in the specified object table.

PRIMARY KEY constraints cannot be specified for REF columns. However, you can specify NOT NULL constraints for such columns.

Name Resolution

Oracle SQL lets you omit qualifying table names in some relational operations. For example, if dept_addr is a column in the department_loc table and old_office is a column in the movement table, you can use the following:

SELECT * FROM department_loc WHERE EXISTS 
  (SELECT * FROM movement WHERE dept_addr = old_office);

Oracle Database determines which table each column belongs to.

Using dot notation, you can qualify the column names with table names or table aliases to make things more maintainable. For example:

Example 2-7 Using the Dot Notation for Name Resolution

-- requires Ex. 2-1, 2-3, 2-5, and 2-6
SELECT * FROM department_loc WHERE EXISTS 
  (SELECT * FROM movement WHERE department_loc.dept_addr = movement.old_office);

SELECT * FROM department_loc d WHERE EXISTS 
  (SELECT * FROM movement m WHERE d.dept_addr = m.old_office);

In some cases, object-relational features require you to specify the table aliases.

When Table Aliases Are Required

Using unqualified names can lead to problems. For example, if you add an assignment column to depts and forget to change the query, Oracle Database automatically recompiles the query so that the inner SELECT uses the assignment column from the depts table. This situation is called inner capture.

To avoid inner capture and similar problems resolving references, Oracle Database requires you to use a table alias to qualify any dot-notational reference to subprograms or attributes of objects.

Use of a table alias is optional when referencing top-level attributes of an object table directly, without using the dot notation. For example, the following statements define two tables that contain the person_typ object type. person_obj_table is an object table for objects of type person_typ, and contacts is a relational table that contains a column of the object person_typ.

The following queries show some correct and incorrect ways to reference attribute idno:

Note:

These statements are not related to other examples in this chapter.

#1 SELECT idno FROM person_obj_table; --Correct

#2 SELECT contact.idno FROM contacts; --Illegal
#3 SELECT contacts.contact.idno FROM contacts; --Illegal
#4 SELECT p.contact.idno FROM contacts p; --Correct
  • In #1, idno is the name of a column of person_obj_table. It references this top-level attribute directly, without using the dot notation, so no table alias is required.

  • In #2, idno is the name of an attribute of the person_typ object in the column named contact. This reference uses the dot notation and so requires a table alias, as shown in #4.

  • #3 uses the table name itself to qualify the reference. This is incorrect; a table alias is required.

You must qualify a reference to an object attribute or subprogram with a table alias rather than a table name even if the table name is itself qualified by a schema name.

For example, the following expression incorrectly refers to the HR schema, department_loc table, dept_addr column, and city attribute of that column. The expression is incorrect because department_loc is a table name, not an alias.

HR.department_loc.dept_addr.city

The same requirement applies to attribute references that use REFs.

Table aliases should uniquely pick out the same table throughout a query and should not be the same as schema names that could legally appear in the query.

Note:

Oracle recommends that you define table aliases in all UPDATE, DELETE, and SELECT statements and subqueries and use them to qualify column references whether or not the columns contain object types.

Restriction on Using User-Defined Types with a Remote Database

Objects or user-defined types (specifically, types declared with a SQL CREATE TYPE statement, as opposed to types declared within a PL/SQL package) are currently useful only within a single database. Oracle Database restricts use of a database link as follows:

  • You cannot connect to a remote database to select, insert, or update a user-defined type or an object REF on a remote table.

    You can use the CREATE TYPE statement with the optional keyword OID to create a user-specified object identifier (OID) that allows an object type to be used in multiple databases. See the discussion on assigning an OID to an object type in the Oracle Database Data Cartridge Developer's Guide.

  • You cannot use database links within PL/SQL code to declare a local variable of a remote user-defined type.

  • You cannot convey a user-defined type argument or return value in a PL/SQL remote procedure call.

Object Methods

Object methods, also known as subprograms, are functions or procedures that you can declare in an object type definition to implement behavior that you want objects of that type to perform. An application calls the subprograms to invoke the behavior.

Subprograms can be written in PL/SQL or virtually any other programming language. Methods written in PL/SQL or Java are stored in the database. Methods written in other languages, such as C, are stored externally.

Note:

SQL requires parentheses for all subprogram calls, even those that do not have arguments. This is not true for PL/SQL.

This section focuses on declaring methods. See "Calling Object Constructors and Methods" for further discussion of invoking methods in PL/SQL.

This section describes these methods:

Member Methods

Member methods provide an application with access to an object instance's data. You define a member method in the object type for each operation that you want an object of that type to be able to perform. Non-comparison member methods are declared as either MEMBER FUNCTION or MEMBER PROCEDURE. Comparison methods use MAP MEMBER FUNCTION or ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION as described in "Member Methods for Comparing Objects".

As an example of a member method, you might declare a function get_sum() that sums the total cost of a purchase order's line items. The following line of code calls this function for purchase order po and returns the amount into sum_line_items.

sum_line_items:= po.get_sum();

Dot notation specifies the current object and the method it calls. Parentheses are required even if there are no parameters.

This section contains these topics:

SELF Parameters in Member Methods

Member methods have a built-in parameter named SELF that denotes the object instance currently invoking the method.

SELF can be explicitly declared, but that is not necessary. It is simpler to write member methods that reference the attributes and methods of SELF implicitly without the SELF qualifier. In Example 2-8, the code and comments demonstrate method invocations that use an implicit SELF parameter rather than qualify the attributes hgt, len, and wth.

Example 2-8 Creating a Member Method

-- Ex. 2-8 Creating a Member Method
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE solid_typ AS OBJECT (
  len    INTEGER,
  wth    INTEGER,
  hgt    INTEGER,
  MEMBER FUNCTION surface RETURN INTEGER,
  MEMBER FUNCTION volume RETURN INTEGER,
  MEMBER PROCEDURE display (SELF IN OUT NOCOPY solid_typ) );
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY solid_typ AS
  MEMBER FUNCTION volume RETURN INTEGER IS
  BEGIN
    RETURN len * wth * hgt;
 -- RETURN SELF.len * SELF.wth * SELF.hgt; -- equivalent to previous line 
  END;
  MEMBER FUNCTION surface RETURN INTEGER IS
  BEGIN -- not necessary to include SELF in following line
    RETURN 2 * (len * wth + len * hgt + wth * hgt);
  END;
  MEMBER PROCEDURE display (SELF IN OUT NOCOPY solid_typ) IS
  BEGIN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Length: ' || len || ' - '  || 'Width: ' || wth 
                          || ' - '  || 'Height: ' || hgt);
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Volume: ' || volume || ' - ' || 'Surface area: ' 
                          || surface);
  END;
END;
/

CREATE TABLE solids of solid_typ;
INSERT INTO solids VALUES(10, 10, 10);
INSERT INTO solids VALUES(3, 4, 5);
SELECT * FROM solids;
SELECT s.volume(), s.surface() FROM solids s WHERE s.len = 10;
DECLARE
  solid solid_typ;
BEGIN -- PL/SQL block for selecting a solid and displaying details
  SELECT VALUE(s) INTO solid FROM solids s WHERE s.len = 10;
  solid.display();
END;
/

SELF is always the first parameter passed to the method.

  • In member functions, if SELF is not declared, its parameter mode defaults to IN.

  • In member procedures, if SELF is not declared, its parameter mode defaults to IN OUT. The default behavior does not include the NOCOPY compiler hint.

See also "Using SELF IN OUT NOCOPY with Member Procedures".

Member Methods for Comparing Objects

To compare and order variables of an object type, you must specify a basis for comparing them. The values of a scalar data type such as CHAR or REAL have a predefined order, which allows them to be compared. But an object type, such as a person_typ, which can have multiple attributes of various data types, has no predefined axis of comparison. You have the option to define an map method or an order method for comparing objects, but not both.

A map method maps object return values to scalar values and can order multiple values by their position on the scalar axis. An order method directly compares values for two particular objects.

Map Methods

Map methods return values that can be used for comparing and sorting. Return values can be any Oracle built-in data types (except LOBs and BFILEs) and ANSI SQL types such as CHARACTER or REAL. See the specific sections in Oracle Database SQL Quick Reference.

Generally, map methods perform calculations on the attributes of the object to produce the return value.

Map methods are called automatically to evaluate such comparisons as obj_1 > obj_2 and comparisons implied by the DISTINCT, GROUP BY, UNION, and ORDER BY clauses which require sorting by rows.

Where obj_1 and obj_2 are two object variables that can be compared using a map method map(), the comparison:

obj_1 > obj_2

is equivalent to:

obj_1.map() > obj_2.map()

Comparisons are similar for other relational operators.

The following example defines a map method area() that provides a basis for comparing rectangle objects by their area:

Example 2-9 Creating a Map Method

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rectangle_typ AS OBJECT ( 
  len NUMBER,
  wid NUMBER,
  MAP MEMBER FUNCTION area RETURN NUMBER);
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY rectangle_typ AS 
  MAP MEMBER FUNCTION area RETURN NUMBER IS
  BEGIN
     RETURN len * wid;
  END area;
END;
/

Example 2-10 Invoking a Map Method

DECLARE
  po rectangle_typ;
 
BEGIN
  po :=NEW rectangle_typ(10,5);
 
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('AREA:' || po.area()); -- prints AREA:50
  END;
/

A subtype can declare a map method only if its root supertype declares one.

See "Equal and Not Equal Comparisons" for the use of map methods when comparing collections that contain object types.

Order Methods

Order methods make direct one-to-one object comparisons. Unlike map methods, they cannot determine the order of a number of objects. They simply tell you that the current object is less than, equal to, or greater than the object that it is being compared to, based on the criterion used.

An order method is a function for an object (SELF), with one declared parameter that is an object of the same type. The method must return either a negative number, zero, or a positive number. This value signifies that the object (the implicit undeclared SELF parameter) is less than, equal to, or greater than the declared parameter object.

As with map methods, an order method, if one is defined, is called automatically whenever two objects of that type need to be compared.

Order methods are useful where comparison semantics may be too complex to use a map method.

Example 2-11 shows an order method that compares locations by building number:

Example 2-11 Creating and Invoking an Order Method

DROP TYPE location_typ FORCE;
-- above necessary if you have previously created object
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE location_typ AS OBJECT (
  building_no  NUMBER,
  city         VARCHAR2(40),
  ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION match (l location_typ) RETURN INTEGER );/
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY location_typ AS 
  ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION match (l location_typ) RETURN INTEGER IS 
  BEGIN 
    IF building_no < l.building_no THEN
      RETURN -1;               -- any negative number will do
    ELSIF building_no > l.building_no THEN 
      RETURN 1;                -- any positive number will do
    ELSE 
      RETURN 0;
    END IF;
  END;
END;/

-- invoking match method
DECLARE
loc location_typ;
secloc location_typ;
a number;
 
BEGIN
 loc :=NEW location_typ(300, 'San Francisco');
 secloc :=NEW location_typ(200, 'Redwood Shores');
 a := loc.match(secloc);
 
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('order (1 is greater, -1 is lesser):' ||a); -- prints order:1 
 END;
/

Note:

Only a type that is not derived from another type can declare an order method; a subtype cannot define one.
Guidelines for Comparison Methods

You can declare a map method or an order method but not both. For either method type, you can compare objects using SQL statements and PL/SQL procedural statements. However, if you do not declare one of these methods, you can only compare objects in SQL statements, and only for equality or inequality. Two objects of the same type are considered equal only if the values of their corresponding attributes are equal.

When sorting or merging a large number of objects, use a map method, which 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). See "Performance of Object Comparisons".

Comparison Methods in Type Hierarchies

In a type hierarchy, if the root type (supertype) does not specify a map or an order method, neither can the subtypes.

  • Map Method in a Type Hierarchy

    If the root type specifies a map method, any of its subtypes can override it. If the root type does not specify a map method, no subtype can specify one either.

  • Order Method in a Type Hierarchy

    Only the root type can define an order method. If the root type does not define one, its subtypes cannot add one.

Static Methods

Static methods are invoked on the object type, not its instances. You use a static method for operations that are global to the type and do not need to reference the data of a particular object instance. A static method has no SELF parameter.

Static methods are declared using STATIC FUNCTION or STATIC PROCEDURE.

You invoke a static method by using dot notation to qualify the method call with the name of the object type, for example:

type_name.method()

See "Static Methods" for information on design considerations.

Constructor Methods

A constructor method is a function that returns a new instance of the user-defined type and sets up the values of its attributes. Constructor methods are either system-defined or user-defined.

To invoke a constructor, the keyword NEW can be used, but is not required.

System-Defined Constructors

By default, the system implicitly defines a constructor function for all object types that have attributes. This constructor is sometimes known as the attribute value constructor.

For the person_typ object type defined in Example 2-1 the name of the constructor method is the name of the object type, as shown in the following invocation:

person_typ (1, 'John Smith', '1-650-555-0135'),

User-Defined Constructors

You can also define constructor functions of your own to create and initialize user-defined types. The default system-defined constructors (or attribute value constructors) are convenient to use because they already exist, but user-defined constructors have some important advantages with respect to type evolution. See "Advantages of User-Defined Constructors". See "Constructor Methods for Collections" for information on user-defined constructors for collections.

Literal Invocation of a Constructor Method

A literal invocation of a constructor method is a call to the constructor method in which arguments are either literals (as opposed to bind variables), or further literal invocations of constructor methods. For example:

CREATE TABLE people_tab OF person_typ;

INSERT INTO people_tab VALUES (
       person_typ(101, 'John Smith', '1-650-555-0135') );

External Implemented Methods

You can use PL/SQL to invoke external subprograms that have been written in other languages. This provides access to the strengths and capabilities of those languages.

Inheritance in SQL Object Types

SQL object inheritance is based on a family tree of object types that forms a type hierarchy. The type hierarchy consists of a parent object type, called a supertype, and one or more levels of child object types, called subtypes, which are derived from the parent.

Inheritance is the mechanism that connects subtypes in a hierarchy to their supertypes. Subtypes automatically inherit the attributes and methods of their parent type. Also, the inheritance link remains alive. Subtypes automatically acquire any changes made to these attributes or methods in the parent: any attributes or methods updated in a supertype are updated in subtypes as well.

Note:

Oracle only supports single inheritance. Therefore, a subtype can derive directly from only one supertype, not more than one.

With object types in a type hierarchy, you can model an entity such as a customer, and also define different specializingd subtypes of customers under the original type. You can then perform operations on a hierarchy and have each type implement and execute the operation in a special way.

The topics described in this section are:

Supertypes and Subtypes

A subtype can be derived from a supertype either directly or indirectly through intervening levels of other subtypes. A supertype can have multiple sibling subtypes, but a subtype can have at most one direct parent supertype (single inheritance).

Figure 2-1 Supertypes and Subtypes in Type Hierarchy

Description of Figure 2-1 follows
Description of "Figure 2-1 Supertypes and Subtypes in Type Hierarchy"

To derive a subtype from a supertype, define a specialized variant of the supertype that adds new attributes and methods to the set inherited from the parent or redefine (override) the inherited methods. For example, from a person_typ object type you might derive the specialized types student_typ and employee_typ. Each of these subtypes is still a person_typ, but a special kind of person. What distinguishes a subtype from its parent supertype is some change made to the attributes or methods that the subtype received from its parent.

Unless a subtype redefines an inherited method, it always contains the same core set of attributes and methods that are in the parent type, plus any attributes and methods that it adds. If a person_typ object type has the three attributes idno, name, and phone and the method get_idno(), then any object type that is derived from person_typ will have these same three attributes and a method get_idno(). If the definition of person_typ changes, so do the definitions of any subtypes.

Subtypes are created using the keyword UNDER as follows:

CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ

See Also:

Example 2-15 for a complete example

You can specialize the attributes or methods of a subtype in these ways:

  • Add new attributes that its parent supertype does not have.

    For example, you might specialize student_typ as a special kind of person_typ by adding an attribute for major. A subtype cannot drop or change the type of an attribute it inherited from its parent; it can only add new attributes.

  • Add entirely new methods that the parent does not have.

  • Change the implementation of some of the methods that a subtype inherits so that the subtype's version executes different code from the parent's.

    For example, a ellipse object might define a method calculate(). Two subtypes of ellipse_typ, circle_typ and sphere_typ, might each implement this method in a different way.

The inheritance relationship between a supertype and its subtypes is the source of much of the power of objects and much of their complexity. Being able to change a method in a supertype and have the change take effect in all the subtypes downstream just by recompiling is very powerful. But this same capability means that you have to consider whether or not you want to allow a type to be specialized or a method to be redefined. Similarly, for a table or column to be able to contain any type in a hierarchy is also powerful, but you must decide whether or not to allow this in a particular case. Also, you may need to constrain DML statements and queries so that they pick out just the range of types that you want from the type hierarchy.

Defining FINAL and NOT FINAL Types and Methods

For an object type to be inheritable, the object type definition must specify that it is inheritable. Then subtypes can be derived from it. For a method, the definition must indicate whether or not it can be overridden The keywords FINAL or NOT FINAL are used for both types and methods.

In order for an object type to be inheritable, thus allowing subtypes to be derived from it, the object definition must specify this. For a method, the definition must indicate whether or not it can be overridden The keywords FINAL or NOT FINAL are used for both types and methods.

  • For a type FINAL, (default) means that no subtypes can be derived from it. NOT FINAL means subtypes can be derived.

  • For a method, FINAL means that subtypes cannot override it by providing their own implementation. NOT FINAL (default) means that you can override the method of the supertype.

Definitions of object types and method includes the NOT FINAL or FINAL keywords in the type and method declarations, as shown in Example 2-12 and Example 2-13.

Example 2-12 Creating the person_typ Object Type as NOT FINAL

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- above necessary if you have previously created object

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
   idno           NUMBER,
   name           VARCHAR2(30),
   phone          VARCHAR2(20)) 
NOT FINAL;
/

Example 2-12 declares person_typ to be a not final type and therefore subtypes of person_typ can be defined.

Example 2-13 creates a not final object type that contains a final member function.

Example 2-13 Creating an Object Type as NOT FINAL with a FINAL Member Function

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- above necessary if you have previously created object

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
   idno           NUMBER,
   name           VARCHAR2(30),
   phone          VARCHAR2(20),
   FINAL MAP MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER)
NOT FINAL;
/

You can change a final type to a not final type and vice versa with an ALTER TYPE statement. For example, the following statement changes person_typ to a final type:

ALTER TYPE person_typ FINAL;

You can only alter a type from NOT FINAL to FINAL if the target type has no subtypes.

Creating Subtypes

You create a subtype using a CREATE TYPE statement that specifies the immediate parent of the subtype with the UNDER keyword.

Creating a Parent or Supertype Object

Example 2-14 provides a parent or supertype person_typ object to demonstrate subtype definitions in Example 2-15, Example 2-18, and Example 2-19.

Note the show() in Example 2-14. In the subtype examples that follow, the show() function of the parent type is overridden to specifications for each subtype using the OVERRIDING keyword.

Example 2-14 Creating the Parent or Supertype person_typ Object

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- if created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
 idno           NUMBER,
 name           VARCHAR2(30),
 phone          VARCHAR2(20),
 MAP MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER,
 MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2)
 NOT FINAL;
/
 
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY person_typ AS
 MAP MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER IS
 BEGIN
   RETURN idno;
 END;
-- function that can be overriden by subtypes
 MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
 BEGIN
   RETURN 'Id: ' || TO_CHAR(idno) || ', Name: ' || name;
 END;
 
END;
/

Creating a Subtype Object

A subtype inherits the following:

  • All the attributes declared in or inherited by the supertype.

  • Any methods declared in or inherited by supertype.

Example 2-15 defines the student_typ object as a subtype of person_typ, which inherits all the attributes declared in or inherited by person_typ and any methods inherited by or declared in person_typ.

Example 2-15 Creating a student_typ Subtype Using the UNDER Clause

-- requires Ex. 2-14
CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ (
   dept_id NUMBER,
   major VARCHAR2(30),
   OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2)
   NOT FINAL;
/
 
CREATE TYPE BODY student_typ AS
 OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
 BEGIN
    RETURN (self AS person_typ).show || ' -- Major: ' || major ;
 END;
 
END;
/

The statement that defines student_typ specializes person_typ by adding two new attributes, dept_id and major and overrides the show method. New attributes declared in a subtype must have names that are different from the names of any attributes or methods declared in any of its supertypes, higher up in its type hierarchy.

Generalized Invocation

Generalized invocation provides a mechanism to invoke a method of a supertype or a parent type, rather than the specific subtype member method. Example 2-15 demonstrates this using the following syntax:

(SELF AS person_typ).show

The student_typ show method first calls the person_typ show method to do the common actions and then does its own specific action, which is to append '--Major:' to the value returned by the person_typ show method. This way, overriding subtype methods can call corresponding overriding parent type methods to do the common actions before doing their own specific actions.

Methods are invoked just like normal member methods, except that the type name after AS should be the type name of the parent type of the type that the expression evaluates to.

In Example 2-16, there is an implicit SELF argument just like the implicit self argument of a normal member method invocation. In this case, it invokes the person_typ show method rather than the specific student_typ show method.

Example 2-16 Using Generalized Invocation

-- Requires Ex. 2-14 and 2-15
DECLARE
 myvar student_typ := student_typ(100, 'Sam', '6505556666', 100, 'Math');
 name VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
 name := (myvar AS person_typ).show; --Generalized invocation
END;
/ 

Generalized expression, like member method invocation, is also supported when a method is invoked with an explicit self argument.

Example 2-17 Using Generalized Expression

-- Requires Ex. 2-14 and 2-15
DECLARE
 myvar2 student_typ := student_typ(101, 'Sam', '6505556666', 100, 'Math');
 name2 VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
 name2 := person_typ.show((myvar2 AS person_typ)); -- Generalized expression
END;
/ 

Double parentheses are used in this example because ((myvar2 AS person_typ)) is both an expression that must be resolved and the parameter of the show function.

Note:

Constructor methods cannot be invoked using this syntax. Also, the type name that appears after AS in this syntax should be one of the parent types of the type of the expression for which method is being invoked.

This syntax can only be used to invoke corresponding overriding member methods of the parent types.

Multiple Subtypes

A type can have multiple child subtypes, and these subtypes can also have subtypes. Example 2-18 creates another subtype employee_typ under person_typ in addition to the already existing subtype, student_typ, created in Example 2-15.

Example 2-18 Creating an employee_typ Subtype Using the UNDER Clause

-- requires Ex. 2-14

DROP TYPE employee_typ FORCE;
-- if previously created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE employee_typ UNDER person_typ (
    emp_id NUMBER, 
    mgr VARCHAR2(30),
    OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2);
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY employee_typ AS
  OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
  BEGIN
    RETURN (SELF AS person_typ).show|| ' -- Employee Id: ' 
           || TO_CHAR(emp_id) || ', Manager: ' || mgr ;
  END;
  
END;
/

A subtype can be defined under another subtype. Again, the new subtype inherits all the attributes and methods that its parent type has, both declared and inherited. Example 2-19 defines a new subtype part_time_student_typ under student_typ created in Example 2-15. The new subtype inherits all the attributes and methods of student_typ and adds another attribute, number_hours.

Example 2-19 Creating a part_time_student_typ Subtype Using the UNDER Clause

CREATE TYPE part_time_student_typ UNDER student_typ (
  number_hours NUMBER,
  OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2);
/

CREATE TYPE BODY part_time_student_typ AS
  OVERRIDING MEMBER FUNCTION show RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
  BEGIN
    RETURN (SELF AS person_typ).show|| ' -- Major: ' || major ||
           ', Hours: ' || TO_CHAR(number_hours);
  END;
  
END;
/

Creating a Table that Contains Supertype and Subtype Objects

You can create a table that contains supertype and subtype instances and populate the table as shown with the person_obj_table in Example 2-20.

Example 2-20 Inserting Values into Substitutable Rows of an Object Table

CREATE TABLE person_obj_table OF person_typ;

INSERT INTO person_obj_table 
  VALUES (person_typ(12, 'Bob Jones', '650-555-0130'));

INSERT INTO person_obj_table 
  VALUES (student_typ(51, 'Joe Lane', '1-650-555-0140', 12, 'HISTORY'));

INSERT INTO person_obj_table 
  VALUES (employee_typ(55, 'Jane Smith', '1-650-555-0144', 
                       100, 'Jennifer Nelson'));

INSERT INTO person_obj_table  
  VALUES (part_time_student_typ(52, 'Kim Patel', '1-650-555-0135', 14,
         'PHYSICS', 20));

You can call the show() function for the supertype and subtypes in the table with the following:

SELECT p.show() FROM person_obj_table p;

The output is similar to:


Id: 12, Name: Bob Jones
Id: 51, Name: Joe Lane -- Major: HISTORY
Id: 55, Name: Jane Smith -- Employee Id: 100, Manager: Jennifer Nelson
Id: 52, Name: Kim Patel -- Major: PHYSICS, Hours: 20

Note that data that the show() method displays depends on whether the object is a supertype or subtype, and if the show() method of the subtype is overridden. For example, Bob Jones is a person_typ, that is, an supertype. Only his name and Id are displayed. For Joe Lane, a student_typ, his name and Id are provided by the show() function of the supertype, and his major is provided by the overridden show() function of the subtype.

Declaring Types and Methods NOT INSTANTIABLE

Types and methods can be declared NOT INSTANTIABLE when they are created.

  • NOT INSTANTIABLE Types

    If a type is not instantiable, you cannot instantiate instances of that type. There are no constructors (default or user-defined) for it. You might use this with types intended to serve solely as supertypes from which specialized subtypes are instantiated.

  • NOT INSTANTIABLE Methods

    A non-instantiable method serves as a placeholder. It is declared but not implemented in the type. You might define a non-instantiable method when you expect every subtype to override the method in a different way. In this case, there is no point in defining the method in the supertype.

A type that contains a non-instantiable method must itself be declared not instantiable, as shown in Example 2-21.

Example 2-21 Creating an Object Type that is NOT INSTANTIABLE

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- if previously created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
  idno           NUMBER,
  name           VARCHAR2(30),
  phone          VARCHAR2(20),
  NOT INSTANTIABLE MEMBER FUNCTION get_idno RETURN NUMBER)
  NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL;/

If a subtype does not provide an implementation for every inherited non-instantiable method, the subtype itself, like the supertype, must be declared not instantiable. A non-instantiable subtype can be defined under an instantiable supertype.

You can alter an instantiable type to a non-instantiable type and vice versa with an ALTER TYPE statement. In the following example, the ALTER TYPE statement makes person_typ instantiable:

Example 2-22 Altering an Object Type to INSTANTIABLE

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
  idno           NUMBER,
  name           VARCHAR2(30),
  phone          VARCHAR2(20))
  NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL;/
ALTER TYPE person_typ INSTANTIABLE;

You can alter an instantiable type to a non-instantiable type only if the type has no columns, views, tables, or instances that reference that type, either directly, or indirectly through another type or subtype.

You cannot declare a non-instantiable type to be FINAL, which would be pointless anyway.

Overloading and Overriding Methods

A subtype can redefine methods it inherits, and it can also add new methods, including methods with the same name.

See the examples in "Creating Subtypes" and Example 8-10.

Overloading Methods

Adding new methods that have the same names as inherited methods to the subtype is called overloading. When they exist in the same user-defined type, methods that have the same name, but different signatures are called overloads. A method signature consists of the method's name and the number, types, and the order of the method's formal parameters, including the implicit self parameter.

Overloading is useful when you want to provide a variety of ways of doing something. For example, an ellipse object might overload a calculate() method with another calculate() method to enable calculation of a different shape.

The compiler uses the method signatures to determine which method to call when a type has several overloaded methods.

In the following pseudocode, subtype circle_typ creates an overload of calculate():



CREATE TYPE ellipse_typ AS OBJECT (...,
  MEMBER PROCEDURE calculate(x NUMBER, x NUMBER),
) NOT FINAL;

CREATE TYPE circle_typ UNDER ellipse_typ (...,
  MEMBER PROCEDURE calculate(x NUMBER),
...);

The circle_typ contains two versions of calculate(). One is the inherited version with two NUMBER parameters and the other is the newly created method with one NUMBER parameter.

Overriding and Hiding Methods

Redefining an inherited method to customize its behavior in a subtype is called overriding, in the case of member methods, or hiding, in the case of static methods.

Unlike overloading, you do not create a new method, just redefine an existing one, using the keyword OVERRIDING.

Overriding and hiding redefine an inherited method to make it do something different in the subtype. For example, a subtype circle_typ derived from a ellipse_typ supertype might override a member method calculate() to customize it specifically for calculating the area of a circle. For examples of overriding methods, see "Creating Subtypes".

Overriding and hiding are similar in that, in either case, the version of the method redefined in the subtype eclipses the original version of the same name and signature so that the new version is executed rather than the original one whenever a subtype instance invokes the method. If the subtype itself has subtypes, these inherit the redefined method instead of the original version.

With overriding, the system relies on type information contained in the member method's implicit self argument to dynamically choose the correct version of the method to execute. With hiding, the correct version is identified at compile time, and dynamic dispatch is not necessary. See "Dynamic Method Dispatch".

To override or hide a method, you must preserve its signature. Overloads of a method all have the same name, so the compiler uses the signature of the subtype's method to identify the particular version in the supertype that is superseded.

You signal the override with the OVERRIDING keyword in the CREATE TYPE BODY statement. This is not required when a subtype hides a static method.

In the following pseudocode, the subtype signals that it is overriding method calculate():


CREATE TYPE ellipse_typ AS OBJECT (...,
  MEMBER PROCEDURE calculate(),
  FINAL MEMBER FUNCTION function_mytype(x NUMBER)...
) NOT FINAL;

CREATE TYPE circle_typ UNDER ellipse_typ (...,
  OVERRIDING MEMBER PROCEDURE calculate(),
...);

For a diagram of this hierarchy, see Figure 2-2.

Restrictions on Overriding Methods

The following are restrictions on overriding methods:

  • Only methods that are not declared to be final in the supertype can be overridden.

  • Order methods may appear only in the root type of a type hierarchy: they may not be redefined (overridden) in subtypes.

  • A static method in a subtype may not redefine a member method in the supertype.

  • A member method in a subtype may not redefine a static method in the supertype.

  • If a method being overridden provides default values for any parameters, then the overriding method must provide the same default values for the same parameters.

Dynamic Method Dispatch

Dynamic method dispatch refers to the way that method calls are dispatched to the nearest implementation at run time, working up the type hierarchy from the current or specified type. This feature is only available when overriding member methods and does not apply to static methods.

With method overriding, a type hierarchy can define multiple implementations of the same method. In the following hierarchy of types ellipse_typ, circle_typ, and sphere_typ, each type might define a calculate() method differently.

Figure 2-2 Hierarchy of Types

Description of Figure 2-2 follows
Description of "Figure 2-2 Hierarchy of Types"

When one of these methods is invoked, the type of the object instance that invokes it determines which implementation of the method to use. The call is then dispatched to that implementation for execution. This process of selecting a method implementation is called virtual or dynamic method dispatch because it is done at run time, not at compile time.

The method call works up the type hierarchy: never down. If the call invokes a member method of an object instance, the type of that instance is the current type, and the implementation defined or inherited by that type is used. If the call invokes a static method of a type, the implementation defined or inherited by that specified type is used.

See Also:

Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for information on how subprograms calls are resolved

Substituting Types in a Type Hierarchy

When you work with types in a type hierarchy, sometimes you need to work at the most general level, for example, to select or update all persons. But at other times, you need to select or update only a specific subtype such as a student, or only persons who are not students.

The (polymorphic) ability to select all persons and get back not only objects whose declared type is person_typ but also objects whose declared subtype is student_typ or employee_typ is called substitutability. A supertype is substitutable if one of its subtypes can substitute or stand in for it in a variable or column whose declared type is the supertype.

In general, types are substitutable. Object attributes, collection elements and REFs are substitutable. An attribute defined as a REF, type, or collection of type person_typ can hold a REF to an instance of, or instances of an instance of person_typ, or an instance of any subtype of person_typ.

This seems expected, given that a subtype is, after all, just a specialized kind of one of its supertypes. Formally, though, a subtype is a type in its own right: it is not the same type as its supertype. A column that holds all persons, including all persons who are students and all persons who are employees, actually holds data of multiple types.

In principle, object attributes, collection elements and REFs are always substitutable: there is no syntax at the level of the type definition to constrain their substitutability to some subtype. You can, however, turn off or constrain substitutability at the storage level, for specific tables and columns. See "Turning Off Substitutability in a New Table" and "Constraining Substitutability".

Column and Row Substitutability

Object type columns and object-type rows in object tables are substitutable, and so are views: a column or row of a specific type can contain instances of that type and any of its subtypes.

For example, consider the person_typ type hierarchy such as the one introduced in Example 2-14. You can create an object table of person_typ that contains rows of all types. To do this, you insert an instance of a given type into an object table using the constructor for that type in the VALUES clause of the INSERT statement as shown in Example 2-20.

Similarly, Example 2-23 shows that a substitutable column of type person_typ can contain instances of all three types, in a relational table or view. The example recreates person, student, and part-time student objects from that type hierarchy and inserts them into the person_typ column contact.

Example 2-23 Inserting Values into Substitutable Columns of a Table

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- if previously created

DROP TYPE student_typ FORCE; -- if previously created

DROP TYPE part_time_student_typ FORCE; -- if previously created
DROP TABLE contacts; if previously created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
  idno           NUMBER,
  name           VARCHAR2(30),
  phone          VARCHAR2(20))
  NOT FINAL;/
CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ (
    dept_id NUMBER,
    major VARCHAR2(30))
    NOT FINAL;
/
CREATE TYPE part_time_student_typ UNDER student_typ (
  number_hours NUMBER);
/
CREATE TABLE contacts (
  contact         person_typ,
  contact_date    DATE );

INSERT INTO contacts 
  VALUES (person_typ (12, 'Bob Jones', '650-555-0130'), '24 Jun 2003' );

INSERT INTO contacts 
  VALUES (student_typ(51, 'Joe Lane', '1-650-555-0178', 12, 'HISTORY'),
         '24 Jun 2003' );

INSERT INTO contacts 
  VALUES (part_time_student_typ(52, 'Kim Patel', '1-650-555-0190', 14,
          'PHYSICS', 20), '24 Jun 2003' );

A newly created subtype can be stored in any substitutable tables and columns of its supertype, including tables and columns that existed before the subtype was created.

In general, you can access attributes using dot notation. To access attributes of a subtype of a row or column's declared type, you can use the TREAT function. For example:

SELECT TREAT(contact AS student_typ).major FROM contacts;

See "TREAT".

Using OBJECT_VALUE and OBJECT_ID with Substitutable Rows

The OBJECT_VALUE and OBJECT_ID pseudocolumns allow you to access and identify the value and object identifier (OID) of a substitutable row in an object table as shown in Example 2-24.

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for further information on these pseudocolumns

Example 2-24 Using OBJECT_VALUE and OBJECT_ID

DROP TABLE person_obj_table; -- required if previously created
CREATE TABLE person_obj_table OF person_typ;

INSERT INTO person_obj_table
  VALUES (person_typ(20, 'Bob Jones', '650-555-0130'));

SELECT p.object_id, p.object_value FROM person_obj_table p;

Subtypes with Attributes of a Supertype

A subtype can have an attribute whose type is the type of a supertype. For example:

Example 2-25 Creating a Subtype with a Supertype Attribute

-- requires Ex 2-22
CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ (
    dept_id   NUMBER,
    major     VARCHAR2(30),
    advisor   person_typ);
/

However, columns of such types are not substitutable. Similarly, a subtype can have a collection attribute whose element type is one of its supertypes, but, again, columns of such types are not substitutable. For example, if student_typ had a nested table or varray of person_typ, the student_typ column would not be substitutable.

You can, however, define substitutable columns of subtypes that have REF attributes that reference supertypes. For example, the composite_category_typ subtype shown in Example 2-26 contains the subcategory_ref_list nested table. This table contains subcategory_ref_list_typ which are REFs to category_typ. The subtype was created as follows:

Example 2-26 Defining Columns of Subtypes that have REF Attributes

-- not to be executed
CREATE TYPE subcategory_ref_list_typ
  AS TABLE OF REF category_typ; 
/ 

CREATE TYPE composite_category_typ
  UNDER category_typ 
    ( 
      subcategory_ref_list subcategory_ref_list_typ 
...

See "Turning Off Substitutability in a New Table".

Substitution of REF Columns and Attributes

REF columns and attributes are substitutable in both views and tables. For example, in either a view or a table, a column declared to be REF person_typ can hold references to instances of person_typ or any of its subtypes.

Substitution of Collection Elements

Collection elements are substitutable in both views and tables. For example, a nested table of person_typ can contain object instances of person_typ or any of its subtypes.

Storing Newly Created Subtypes in Substitutable Columns

If you create a subtype, any table that already has substitutable columns of the supertype can store the new subtype as well. This means that your options for creating subtypes are affected by the existence of such tables. If such a table exists, you can only create subtypes that are substitutable, that is, subtypes that do not violate table limits or constraints.

The following example creates a person_typ and then shows several attempts to create a subtype student_typ under person_typ.

Example 2-27 Creating a Subtype After Creating Substitutable Columns

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
DROP TABLE person_obj_table;
DROP TYPE student_typ; 
-- perform above drops if objects/tables created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
  idno           NUMBER,
  name           VARCHAR2(30),
  phone          VARCHAR2(20))
  NOT FINAL;/

CREATE TABLE person_obj_table (p person_typ);

The following statement fails because student_typ has a supertype attribute, and table person_obj_table has a substitutable column p of the supertype.

CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ ( -- incorrect CREATE subtype
    advisor person_typ);
/

The next attempt succeeds. This version of the student_typ subtype is substitutable. Oracle Database automatically enables table person_obj_table to store instances of this new type.

CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ (
    dept_id NUMBER,
    major VARCHAR2(30));/
INSERT INTO person_obj_table 
  VALUES (student_typ(51, 'Joe Lane', '1-650-555-0178', 12, 'HISTORY'));

Dropping Subtypes After Creating Substitutable Columns

When you drop a subtype with the VALIDATE option, it checks that no instances of the subtype are stored in any substitutable column of the supertype. If there are no such instances, the DROP operation completes.

The following statement fails because an instance of student_typ is stored in substitutable column p of table person_obj_table:

DROP TYPE student_typ VALIDATE -- incorrect: an instance still exists ; 

To drop the type, first delete any of its instances in substitutable columns of the supertype:

DELETE FROM person_obj_table WHERE p IS OF (student_typ); 

DROP TYPE student_typ VALIDATE;

See Also:

Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for further information on DROP and VALIDATE

Turning Off Substitutability in a New Table

When you create a table, you can turn off all substitutability on a column or attribute, including embedded attributes and collections nested to any level, with the clause NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS.

In the following example, the clause confines the column office of a relational table to storing only office_typ instances and disallows any subtype instances:

Example 2-28 Turning off Substitutability When Creating a Table

DROP TYPE location_typ FORCE; -- required if previously created
DROP TYPE office_typ FORCE; -- required if previously created
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE location_typ AS OBJECT (
  building_no  NUMBER,
  city         VARCHAR2(40) );
/

CREATE TYPE people_typ AS TABLE OF person_typ;
/
CREATE TYPE office_typ AS OBJECT (
  office_id    VARCHAR(10),
  location     location_typ,
  occupant     person_typ )
  NOT FINAL;/

CREATE TABLE dept_office (
  dept_no      NUMBER,
  office       office_typ)
  COLUMN office NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS;

With object tables, the clause can be applied to the table as a whole, such as:

DROP TABLE office_tab; -- if previously created
CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ
  NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS;

The clause can also turn off substitutability in a particular column, that is, for a particular attribute of the object type of the table:

DROP TABLE office_tab; -- if previously created
CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ
  COLUMN occupant NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS;

You can specify that the element type of a collection is not substitutable using syntax such as the following:

DROP TABLE people_tab;
-- required if previously created
CREATE TABLE people_tab (
    people_column people_typ )
    NESTED TABLE people_column 
      NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS STORE AS people_column_nt;

There is no mechanism to turn off substitutability for REF columns.

You can use either NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS or IS OF type to constrain an object column, but you cannot use both.

Constraining Substitutability

You can impose a constraint that limits the range of subtypes permitted in an object column or attribute to a particular subtype in the declared type's hierarchy. You do this using an IS OF type constraint.

The following statement creates a table of office_typ in which occupants are constrained to just those persons who are employees:

Example 2-29 Constraining Substitutability When Creating a Table

DROP TABLE office_tab;
-- if previously created
CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ
  COLUMN occupant IS OF (ONLY employee_typ);

Although the type office_typ allows authors to be of type person_typ, the column declaration imposes a constraint to store only instances of employee_typ.

You can only use the IS OF type operator to constrain row and column objects to a single subtype (not several), and you must use the ONLY keyword, as in the preceding example.

You can use either IS OF type or NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS to constrain an object column, but you cannot use both.

Modifying Substitutability

In an existing table, you can change an object column from SUBSTITUTABLE to NOT SUBSTITUTABLE (or from NOT SUBSTITUTABLE to SUBSTITUTABLE) by using an ALTER TABLE statement. To do so, you specify the clause [NOT] SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS for the particular column.

You can modify substitutability only for a specific column, not for an object table as a whole.

The following statement makes the column office substitutable:

Example 2-30 Modifying Substitutability in a Table

-- Requires Ex. 2-28
ALTER TABLE dept_office
  MODIFY COLUMN office SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS;  

The following statement makes the column not substitutable. Notice that it also uses the FORCE keyword. This keyword causes any hidden columns containing typeid information or data for subtype attributes to be dropped:

ALTER TABLE  dept_office
  MODIFY COLUMN office NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS FORCE;

If you do not use the FORCE keyword to make a column not substitutable, the column and all attributes of the type must be FINAL or the ALTER TABLE statement will fail.

A VARRAY column can be modified from SUBSTITUTABLE to NOT SUBSTITUTABLE only if the element type of the varray is final itself and has no embedded types (in its attributes or in their attributes, and so on) that are not final.

See "Hidden Columns for Substitutable Columns and Object Tables" for more information about hidden columns for typeids and subtype attributes.

Restrictions on Modifying Substitutability

You can change the substitutability of only one column at a time with an ALTER TABLE statement. To change substitutability for multiple columns, you must issue multiple statements.

In an object table, you can only modify substitutability for a column if substitutability was not explicitly set at the table level, when the table was created.

For example, the following attempt to modify substitutability for column address succeeds because substitutability has not been explicitly turned on or off at the table level in the CREATE TABLE statement:

DROP TABLE office_tab;
-- if previously created
CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ;

ALTER TABLE office_tab
  MODIFY COLUMN occupant NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS FORCE;

However, in the following example, substitutability is explicitly set at the table level, so the attempt to modify the setting for column address fails:

DROP TABLE office_tab;
-- if previously created
CREATE TABLE office_tab OF office_typ
  NOT SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS;

/* Following SQL statement generates an error: */
ALTER TABLE office_tab 
  MODIFY COLUMN occupant SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS FORCE  -- incorrect ALTER;

A column whose substitutability is already constrained by an IS OF type operator cannot have its substitutability modified with a [NOT] SUBSTITUTABLE AT ALL LEVELS clause. See "Constraining Substitutability" for information about IS OF type.

Assignments Across Types

The assignment rules described in this section apply to INSERT/UPDATE statements, the RETURNING clause, function parameters, and PL/SQL variables.

Typical Object to Object Assignment

Substitutability is the ability of a subtype to stand in for one of its supertypes. Substitution in the other direction, to substitute a supertype for a subtype, raises an error at compile time.

Assigning a source of type source_typ to a target of type target_typ must be of one of the following two patterns:

  • Case 1: source_typ and target_typ are the same type

  • Case 2: source_typ is a subtype of target_typ (widening)

Case 2 illustrates widening. Widening is an assignment in which the declared type of the source is more specific than the declared type of the target. For example, assigning an employee instance to a variable of person type.

An employee is a more narrowly defined, specialized kind of person, so you can put an employee in a slot meant for a person if you do not mind ignoring whatever extra specialization makes that person an employee. All employees are persons, so a widening assignment always works.

To illustrate widening, suppose that you have the following table:


TABLE T(pers_col person_typ, emp_col employee_typ,
        stu_col student_typ)

The following assignments show widening. The assignments are valid unless perscol has been defined to be not substitutable.

UPDATE T set pers_col = emp_col;

The following is a PL/SQL example, which first requires you to create a person_typ and an employee_typ:

Example 2-31 PL/SQL Assignment

DROP TYPE person_typ FORCE;
-- if previously created
CREATE TYPE person_typ AS OBJECT (
 idno           NUMBER,
 name           VARCHAR2(30),
 phone          VARCHAR2(20))
 NOT FINAL;
/
DROP TYPE employee_typ FORCE; -- if previously created
CREATE TYPE employee_typ UNDER person_typ (
   emp_id NUMBER, 
   mgr VARCHAR2(30));
/
-- PL/SQL assignment example
DECLARE
  var1 person_typ;
  var2 employee_typ;
BEGIN
  var2 := employee_typ(55, 'Jane Smith', '1-650-555-0144', 100, 'Jennifer Nelson');
  var1 := var2;
END;
/

Narrowing Assignment

A narrowing assignment is the reverse of widening. It involves regarding a more general, less specialized type of thing, such as a person, as a more narrowly defined type of thing, such as an employee. Not all persons are employees, so a particular assignment like this works only if the person in question actually happens to be an employee. Thus, in the end, narrowing assignments only work in cases such as Case 1, described in "Typical Object to Object Assignment".

To do a narrowing assignment, you must use the TREAT function to test that the source instance of the more general declared type is in fact an instance of the more specialized target type and can therefore be operated on as such. The TREAT function does a runtime check to confirm this and returns NULL if the source value, the person in question, is not of the target type or one of its subtypes.

For example, the following UPDATE statement sets values of person_typ in column perscol into column empcol of employee_typ. For each value in perscol, the assignment succeeds if that person is also an employee. If the person is not an employee, TREAT returns NULL, and the assignment returns NULL.

UPDATE T set emp_col = TREAT(pers_col AS employee_typ);

The following statement attempts to do a narrowing assignment without explicitly changing the declared type of the source value. The statement will return an error:

UPDATE T set emp_col = pers_col;

See "Using TREAT for Narrowing Assignments".

Collection Assignments

In assignments of expressions of a collection type, the source and target must be of the same declared type. Neither widening nor narrowing is permitted. However, a subtype value can be assigned to a supertype collection. For example, after creating a new student_typ, suppose we have the following collection types:

Example 2-32 Create Collection person_set

-- Requires 2-21
DROP student_typ;
-- if previously created
CREATE TYPE student_typ UNDER person_typ (
    dept_id NUMBER,
    major VARCHAR2(30))
  NOT FINAL;
/
CREATE TYPE person_set AS TABLE OF person_typ;
/

CREATE TYPE student_set AS TABLE OF student_typ;
/

Expressions of these different collection types cannot be assigned to each other, but a collection element of student_typ can be assigned to a collection of person_set type:

DECLARE
  var1 person_set; 
  var2 student_set;
  elem1 person_typ; 
  elem2 student_typ;
BEGIN
--  var1 := var2;   /* ILLEGAL - collections not of same type */
  var1 := person_set (elem1, elem2);   /* LEGAL : Element is of subtype */
END;
/

Functions and Operators Useful with Objects

Several functions and operators are particularly useful for working with objects and references to objects:

Examples are given throughout this book.

In PL/SQL the VALUE, REF and DEREF functions can appear only in a SQL statement. For information about SQL functions, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

CAST

CAST converts one built-in data type or collection-typed value into another built-in data type or collection-typed value. For example:

Example 2-33 Using the CAST Function

CREATE TYPE person_list_typ AS TABLE OF person_typ;/

SELECT CAST(COLLECT(contact) AS person_list_typ) 
  FROM contacts;

For more information about the SQL CAST function, Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

CURSOR

A CURSOR expression returns a nested cursor. This form of expression is equivalent to the PL/SQL REF CURSOR and can be passed as a REF CURSOR argument to a function.

For more information about the SQL CURSOR expression, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

DEREF

The DEREF function in a SQL statement returns the object instance corresponding to a REF. The object instance returned by DEREF may be of the declared type of the REF or any of its subtypes.

For example, the following statement returns person_typ objects from the table contact_ref.

Example 2-34 Using the DEREF Function

SELECT DEREF(c.contact_ref), c.contact_date 
  FROM contacts_ref c;

See "Dereferencing REFs". For more information about the SQL DEREF function, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

IS OF type

The IS OF type predicate tests object instances for the level of specialization of their type.

For example, the following query retrieves all student instances (including any subtypes of students) stored in the person_obj_table table.

Example 2-35 Using the IS OF type Operator to Query Value of a Subtype

SELECT VALUE(p) 
  FROM person_obj_table p
WHERE VALUE(p) IS OF (student_typ);

For any object that is not of a specified subtype, or a subtype of a specified subtype, IS OF returns FALSE. Subtypes of a specified subtype are just more specialized versions of the specified subtype. If you want to exclude such subtypes, you can use the ONLY keyword. This keyword causes IS OF to return FALSE for all types except the specified types.

In the following example, the statement tests objects in object table person_obj_table, which contains persons, employees, and students, and returns REFs just to objects of the two specified person subtypes employee_typ, student_typ, and their subtypes, if any:

SELECT REF(p) 
  FROM person_obj_table p
WHERE VALUE(p) IS OF (employee_typ, student_typ);

Here is a similar example in PL/SQL. The code does something if the person is an employee or student:

DECLARE 
  var person_typ; 
BEGIN 
  var := employee_typ(55, 'Jane Smith', '1-650-555-0144', 100, 'Jennifer Nelson');
  IF var IS OF (employee_typ, student_typ) THEN 
     DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Var is an employee_typ or student_typ object.');
  ELSE
     DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Var is not an employee_typ or student_typ object.');
  END IF;
END;
/

The following statement returns only students whose most specific or specialized type is student_typ. If the table or view contains any objects of a subtype of student_typ, such as part_time_student_typ, these are excluded. The example uses the TREAT function to convert objects that are students to student_typ from the declared type of the view, person_typ:

SELECT TREAT(VALUE(p) AS student_typ)
  FROM person_obj_table p 
WHERE VALUE(p) IS OF(ONLY student_typ);

To test the type of the object that a REF points to, you can use the DEREF function to dereference the REF before testing with the IS OF type predicate.

For example, if contact_ref is declared to be REF person_typ, you can get just the rows for students as follows:

SELECT * 
  FROM contacts_ref
WHERE DEREF(contact_ref) IS OF (student_typ);

For more information about the SQL IS OF type condition, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

REF

The REF function in a SQL statement takes as an argument a correlation name (or table alias) for an object table or view and returns a reference (a REF) to an object instance from that table or view. The REF function may return references to objects of the declared type of the table, view, or any of its subtypes. For example, the following statement returns the references to all persons, including references to students and employees, whose idno attribute is 12:

Example 2-36 Using the REF Function

SELECT REF(p) 
  FROM person_obj_table p
  WHERE p.idno = 12;

For more information about the SQL REF function, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

SYS_TYPEID

The SYS_TYPEID function can be used in a query to return the typeid (a hidden type) of the most specific type of the object instance passed as an argument.

The most specific type of an object instance is the type that the instance belongs to, that is, the farthest removed instance from the root type. For example, if Tim is a part-time student, he is also a student and a person, but his most specific type is part-time student.

The function returns the typeids from the hidden type-discriminant column that is associated with every substitutable column. The function returns a null typeid for a final, root type.

The syntax of the function is:

SYS_TYPEID(object_type_value)

Function SYS_TYPEID may be used only with arguments of an object type. Its primary purpose is to make it possible to build an index on a hidden type-discriminant column.

All types that belong to a type hierarchy are assigned a non-null typeid that is unique within the type hierarchy. Types that do not belong to a type hierarchy have a null typeid.

Every type except a final root type belongs to a type hierarchy. A final root type has no types related to it by inheritance:

  • It cannot have subtypes derived from it because it is final.

  • It is not itself derived from some other type because it is a root type, so it does not have any supertypes.

For an example of SYS_TYPEID, consider the substitutable object table person_obj_table, of person_typ. person_typ is the root type of a hierarchy that has student_typ as a subtype and part_time_student_typ as a subtype of student_typ. See Example 2-20.

The following query uses SYS_TYPEID. It gets the name attribute and typeid of the object instances in the person_obj_table table. Each of the instances is of a different type:

Example 2-37 Using the SYS_TYPEID Function

SELECT name, SYS_TYPEID(VALUE(p)) typeid FROM person_obj_table p;

See "Hidden Columns for Substitutable Columns and Object Tables" for information about the type-discriminant and other hidden columns. For more information about the SQL SYS TYPEID function, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

TABLE()

Table functions are functions that produce a collection of rows, a nested table or a varray, that can be queried like a physical database table or assigned to a PL/SQL collection variable. You can use a table function like the name of a database table, in the FROM clause of a query, or like a column name in the SELECT list of a query.

A table function can take a collection of rows as input. An input collection parameter can be either a collection type, such as a VARRAY or a PL/SQL table, or a REF CURSOR.

Use PIPELINED to instruct Oracle Database to return the results of a table function iteratively. A table function returns a nested table or varray type. You query table functions by using the TABLE keyword before the function name in the FROM clause of the query.

For information on TABLE() functions, see Oracle Database Data Cartridge Developer's Guide and Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

TREAT

The TREAT function does a runtime check to confirm that an expression can be operated on as if it were of a different specified type in the hierarchy, normally a subtype of the declared type of the expression. In other words, the function attempts to treat a supertype instance as a subtype instance, for example, to treat a person as a student. If the person is a student, then the person is returned as a student, with the additional attributes and methods that a student may have. If the person is not a student, TREAT returns NULL in SQL.

The two main uses of TREAT are:

  • In narrowing assignments, to modify the type of an expression so that the expression can be assigned to a variable of a more specialized type in the hierarchy: that is, to set a supertype value into a subtype.

  • To access attributes or methods of a subtype of the declared type of a row or column.

    A substitutable object table or column of type T has a hidden column for every attribute of every subtype of T. These hidden columns contain subtype attribute data, but you cannot list them with a DESCRIBE statement. TREAT enables you to access these columns.

Using TREAT for Narrowing Assignments

The TREAT function is used for narrowing assignments, that is, assignments that set a supertype value into a subtype. For a comparison to widening assignments, see "Assignments Across Types".

In Example 2-38, TREAT returns all (and only) student_typ instances from person_obj_table of type person_typ, a supertype of student_typ. The statement uses TREAT to modify the type of p from person_typ to student_typ.

Example 2-38 Using the TREAT Function to Return a Specific Subtype in a Query

SELECT TREAT(VALUE(p) AS student_typ)
  FROM person_obj_table p;

For each p, the TREAT modification succeeds only if the most specific or specialized type of the value of p is student_typ or one of its subtypes. If p is a person who is not a student, or if p is NULL, TREAT returns NULL in SQL or, in PL/SQL, raises an exception.

You can also use TREAT to modify the declared type of a REF expression. For example:

SELECT TREAT(REF(p) AS REF student_typ)
  FROM person_obj_table p;

The previous example returns REFs to all student_typ instances. In SQL it returns NULL REFs for all person instances that are not students, and in PL/SQL it raises an exception.

Using the TREAT Function to Access Subtype Attributes or Methods

Perhaps the most important use of TREAT is to access attributes or methods of a subtype of a row or column's declared type. The following query retrieves the major attribute of all persons, students and part-time students, who have this attribute. NULL is returned for persons who are not students:

Example 2-39 Using the TREAT Function to Access Attributes of a Specific Subtype

SELECT name, TREAT(VALUE(p) AS student_typ).major major 
  FROM person_obj_table p;

The following query will not work because major is an attribute of student_typ but not of person_typ, the declared type of table persons:

SELECT name, VALUE(p).major major FROM person_obj_table p -- incorrect;

The following is a PL/SQL example:

DECLARE 
  var person_typ; 
BEGIN 
  var := employee_typ(55, 'Jane Smith', '1-650-555-0144', 100, 'Jennifer Nelson');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TREAT(var AS employee_typ).mgr);
END;
/

For more information about the SQL TREAT function, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

VALUE

In a SQL statement, the VALUE function takes as its argument a correlation variable (table alias) for an object table or object view and returns object instances corresponding to rows of the table or view. The VALUE function may return instances of the declared type of the row or any of its subtypes.

Example 2-40 first create a part_time_student_typ, and then shows a SELECT query returning all persons, including students and employees, from table person_obj_table of person_typ.

Example 2-40 Using the VALUE Function

-- Requires Ex. 2-31 and 2-32
CREATE TYPE part_time_student_typ UNDER student_typ (
  number_hours NUMBER);
/
SELECT VALUE(p) FROM person_obj_table p;

To retrieve only part time students, that is, instances whose most specific type is part_time_student_typ, use the ONLY keyword to confine the selection:

SELECT VALUE(p) FROM person_obj_table p 
  WHERE VALUE(p) IS OF (ONLY part_time_student_typ);

In the following example, VALUE is used to update a object instance in an object table:

UPDATE person_obj_table p
   SET VALUE(p) = person_typ(12, 'Bob Jones', '1-650-555-0130')
   WHERE p.idno = 12;

See also Example 5-22, "Using VALUE to Update a Nested Table". For more information about the SQL VALUE function, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.