Oracle9i JDBC Developer's Guide and Reference Release 1 (9.0.1) Part Number A90211-01 |
|
This chapter describes JDBC support for user-defined object types. It discusses functionality of the generic, weakly typed oracle.sql.STRUCT
class, as well as how to map to custom Java classes that implement either the JDBC standard SQLData
interface or the Oracle ORAData
interface. This chapter also describes how JDBC drivers access SQLJ object types in SQL representation.
The following topics are covered:
Oracle object types provide support for composite data structures in the database. For example, you can define a type Person
that has attributes such as name (type CHAR
), phone number (type CHAR
), and employee number (type NUMBER
).
Oracle provides tight integration between its Oracle object features and its JDBC functionality. You can use a standard, generic JDBC type to map to Oracle objects, or you can customize the mapping by creating custom Java type definition classes. In this book, Java classes that you create to map to Oracle objects will be referred to as custom Java classes or, more specifically, custom object classes. This is as opposed to custom references classes to map to object references, and custom collection classes to map to Oracle collections. Custom object classes can implement either a standard JDBC interface or an Oracle extension interface to read and write data.
JDBC materializes Oracle objects as instances of particular Java classes. Two main steps in using JDBC to access Oracle objects are: 1) creating the Java classes for the Oracle objects, and 2) populating these classes. You have two options:
STRUCT
. This is described in "Using the Default STRUCT Class for Oracle Objects".
or:
java.sql.SQLData
interface or the Oracle extension oracle.sql.ORAData
interface. This is described in "Creating and Using Custom Object Classes for Oracle Objects".
You can use the Oracle JPublisher utility to generate custom Java classes.
Note:
When you use the |
If you choose not to supply a custom Java class for your SQL-Java mapping for an Oracle object, then Oracle JDBC will materialize the object as an instance of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class.
You would typically want to use STRUCT
objects, instead of custom Java objects, in situations where you are manipulating SQL data. For example, your Java application might be a tool to manipulate arbitrary object data within the database, as opposed to being an end-user application. You can select data from the database into STRUCT
objects and create STRUCT
objects for inserting data into the database. STRUCT
objects completely preserve data, because they maintain the data in SQL format. Using STRUCT
objects is more efficient and more precise in these situations where you don't need the information in a convenient form.
For a complete sample application using the STRUCT
class to access and manipulate SQL object data, see "Weakly Typed Objects--PersonObject.java".
This section discusses standard versus Oracle-specific features of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class, introduces STRUCT
descriptors, and lists methods of the STRUCT
class to give an overview of its functionality.
If your code must comply with standard JDBC 2.0, then use a java.sql.Struct
instance (oracle.jdbc2.Struct
under JDK 1.1.x), and use the following standard methods:
getAttributes(map)
: Retrieves the values of the attributes, using entries in the specified type map to determine the Java classes to use in materializing any attribute that is a structured object type. The Java types for other attribute values would be the same as for a getObject()
call on data of the underlying SQL type (the default JDBC types).
getAttributes()
: This is the same as the preceding getAttributes(map)
method, except it uses the default type map for the connection.
getSQLTypeName()
: Returns a Java String
that represents the fully qualified name (schema.sql_type_name
) of the Oracle object type that this Struct
represents (such as SCOTT.EMPLOYEE
).
If you want to take advantage of the extended functionality offered by Oracle-defined methods, then use an oracle.sql.STRUCT
instance.
The oracle.sql.STRUCT
class implements the java.sql.Struct
interface (oracle.jdbc2.Struct
interface under JDK 1.1.x) and provides extended functionality beyond the JDBC 2.0 standard.
The STRUCT
class includes the following methods in addition to standard Struct
functionality:
getOracleAttributes()
: Retrieves the values of the values array as oracle.sql.*
objects.
getDescriptor()
: Returns the StructDescriptor
object for the SQL type that corresponds to this STRUCT
object.
getJavaSQLConnection()
: Returns the current connection instance (java.sql.Connection
).
toJdbc()
: Consults the default type map of the connection, to determine what class to map to, and then uses toClass()
.
toJdbc(map)
: Consults the specified type map to determine what class to map to, and then uses toClass()
.
Creating and using a STRUCT
object requires a descriptor--an instance of the oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class--to exist for the SQL type (such as EMPLOYEE
) that will correspond to the STRUCT
object. You need only one StructDescriptor
object for any number of STRUCT
objects that correspond to the same SQL type.
STRUCT
descriptors are further discussed in "Creating STRUCT Objects and Descriptors".
This section describes how to create STRUCT
objects and descriptors and lists useful methods of the StructDescriptor
class.
This section describes how to construct an oracle.sql.STRUCT
object for a given Oracle object type. To create a STRUCT
object, you must:
StructDescriptor
object (if one does not already exist) for the given Oracle object type.
StructDescriptor
to construct the STRUCT
object.
A StructDescriptor
is an instance of the oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class and describes a type of Oracle object (SQL structured object). Only one StructDescriptor
is necessary for each Oracle object type. The driver caches StructDescriptor
objects to avoid recreating them if the type has already been encountered.
Before you can construct a STRUCT
object, a StructDescriptor
must first exist for the given Oracle object type. If a StructDescriptor
object does not exist, you can create one by calling the static StructDescriptor.createDescriptor()
method. This method requires you to pass in the SQL type name of the Oracle object type and a connection object:
StructDescriptor structdesc = StructDescriptor.createDescriptor (sql_type_name
,connection
);
Where sql_type_name
is a Java string containing the name of the Oracle object type (such as EMPLOYEE
) and connection
is your connection object.
Once you have your StructDescriptor
object for the Oracle object type, you can construct the STRUCT
object. To do this, pass in the StructDescriptor
, your connection object, and an array of Java objects containing the attributes you want the STRUCT
to contain.
STRUCT struct = new STRUCT(structdesc,connection
,attributes
);
Where structdesc
is the StructDescriptor
created previously, connection
is your connection object, and attributes
is an array of type java.lang.Object[]
.
A StructDescriptor
can be thought of as a "type object". This means that it contains information about the object type, including the typecode, the type name, and how to convert to and from the given type. Remember, there should be only one StructDescriptor
object for any one Oracle object type. You can then use that descriptor to create as many STRUCT
objects as you need for that type.
The StructDescriptor
class includes the following methods:
getName()
: Returns the fully qualified SQL type name of the Oracle object (that is, in schema.sql_type_name
format, such as CORPORATE.EMPLOYEE
).
getLength()
: Returns the number of fields in the object type.
getMetaData()
: Returns the meta data regarding this type (like the getMetaData()
method of a result set object). The returned ResultSetMetaData
object contains the attribute name, attribute typecode, and attribute type precision information. The "column" index in the ResultSetMetaData
object maps to the position of the attribute in the STRUCT
, with the first attribute being at index 1.
The getMetaData()
method is further discussed in "Functionality for Getting Object Meta Data".
As "Steps in Creating StructDescriptor and STRUCT Objects" explains, when you create a STRUCT
object, you first must create a StructDescriptor
object. Do this by calling the StructDescriptor.createDescriptor()
method. The oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class is serializable, meaning that you can write the complete state of a StructDescriptor
object to an output stream for later use. Recreate the StructDescriptor
object by reading its serialized state from an input stream. This is referred to as deserializing. With the StructDescriptor
object serialized, you do not need to call the StructDescriptor.createDescriptor()
method--you simply deserialize the StructDescriptor
object.
It is advisable to serialize a StructDescriptor
object when the object type is complex but not changed often.
If you create a StructDescriptor
object through deserialization, you must supply the appropriate database connection instance for the StructDescriptor
object, using the setConnection()
method.
The following code provides the connection instance for a StructDescriptor
object:
public void setConnection (Connection conn) throws SQLException
This section discusses how to retrieve and manipulate Oracle objects and their attributes, using either Oracle-specific features or JDBC 2.0 standard features.
You can retrieve an Oracle object directly into an oracle.sql.STRUCT
instance. In the following example, getObject()
is used to get a NUMBER
object from column 1 (col1
) of the table struct_table
. Because getObject()
returns an Object
type, the return is cast to an oracle.sql.STRUCT
. This example assumes that the Statement
object stmt
has already been created.
String cmd; cmd = "CREATE TYPE type_struct
AS object (field1 NUMBER,field2 DATE)"; stmt.execute(cmd); cmd = "CREATE TABLEstruct_table
(col1 type_struct)"; stmt.execute(cmd); cmd = "INSERT INTOstruct_table
VALUES (type_struct(10,'01-apr-01'))"; stmt.execute(cmd); cmd = "INSERT INTOstruct_table
VALUES (type_struct(20,'02-may-02'))"; stmt.execute(cmd); ResultSet rs= stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM struct_table"); oracle.sql.STRUCT oracleSTRUCT=(oracle.sql.STRUCT)rs.getObject(1);
Another way to return the object as a STRUCT
object is to cast the result set to an OracleResultSet
object and use the Oracle extension getSTRUCT()
method:
oracle.sql.STRUCT oracleSTRUCT=((OracleResultSet)rs).getSTRUCT(1);
Alternatively, referring back to the previous example, you can use standard JDBC functionality such as getObject()
to retrieve an Oracle object from the database as an instance of java.sql.Struct
(oracle.jdbc2.Struct
under JDK 1.1.x). Because getObject()
returns a java.lang.Object
, you must cast the output of the method to a Struct
. For example:
ResultSet rs= stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM struct_table"); java.sql.Struct jdbcStruct = (java.sql.Struct)rs.getObject(1);
If you want to retrieve Oracle object attributes from a STRUCT
or Struct
instance as oracle.sql
types, use the getOracleAttributes()
method of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class (for a Struct
instance, you will have to cast to a STRUCT
instance):
Referring back to the previous examples:
oracle.sql.Datum[] attrs = oracleSTRUCT.getOracleAttributes();
or:
oracle.sql.Datum[] attrs = ((oracle.sql.STRUCT)jdbcStruct).getOracleAttributes();
If you want to retrieve Oracle object attributes as standard Java types from a STRUCT
or Struct
instance, use the standard getAttributes()
method:
Object[] attrs = jdbcStruct.getAttributes();
To bind an oracle.sql.STRUCT
object to a prepared statement or callable statement, you can either use the standard setObject()
method (specifying the typecode), or cast the statement object to an Oracle statement object and use the Oracle extension setOracleObject()
method. For example:
PreparedStatement ps= conn.prepareStatement("text_of_prepared_statement
");
STRUCT mySTRUCT = new STRUCT (...);
ps.setObject(1, mySTRUCT, Types.STRUCT); //OracleTypes.STRUCT under JDK 1.1.x
or:
PreparedStatement ps= conn.prepareStatement("text_of_prepared_statement
");
STRUCT mySTRUCT = new STRUCT (...);
((OraclePreparedStatement)ps).setOracleObject(1, mySTRUCT);
The Oracle JDBC driver furnishes public methods to enable and disable buffering of STRUCT
attributes. (See "ARRAY Automatic Element Buffering" for a discussion of how to buffer ARRAY
elements.)
The following methods are included with the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class:
The setAutoBuffering(boolean)
method enables or disables auto-buffering. The getAutoBuffering()
method returns the current auto-buffering mode. By default, auto-buffering is disabled.
It is advisable to enable auto-buffering in a JDBC application when the STRUCT
attributes will be accessed more than once by the getAttributes()
and getArray()
methods (presuming the ARRAY
data is able to fit into the JVM memory without overflow).
When you enable auto-buffering, the oracle.sql.STRUCT
object keeps a local copy of all the converted attributes. This data is retained so that a second access of this information does not require going through the data format conversion process.
If you want to create custom object classes for your Oracle objects, then you must define entries in the type map that specify the custom object classes that the drivers will instantiate for the corresponding Oracle objects.
You must also provide a way to create and populate instances of the custom object class from the Oracle object and its attribute data. The driver must be able to read from a custom object class and write to it. In addition, the custom object class can provide getXXX()
and setXXX()
methods corresponding to the Oracle object's attributes, although this is not necessary. To create and populate the custom classes and provide these read/write capabilities, you can choose between these two interfaces:
The custom object class you create must implement one of these interfaces. The ORAData
interface can also be used to implement the custom reference class corresponding to the custom object class. If you are using the SQLData
interface, however, you can only use weak reference types in Java (java.sql.Ref
or oracle.sql.REF
). The SQLData
interface is for mapping SQL objects only.
As an example, assume you have an Oracle object type, EMPLOYEE
, in the database that consists of two attributes: Name
(which is type CHAR
) and EmpNum
(employee number, which is type NUMBER
). You use the type map to specify that the EMPLOYEE
object should map to a custom object class that you call JEmployee
. You can implement either the SQLData
or ORAData
interface in the JEmployee
class.
You can create custom object classes yourself, but the most convenient way to create them is to employ the Oracle JPublisher utility to create them for you. JPublisher supports the standard SQLData
interface as well as the Oracle-specific ORAData
interface, and is able to generate classes that implement either one. See "Using JPublisher to Create Custom Object Classes" for more information.
Note: If you need to create a custom object class in order to have object-type inheritance, then see "Object-Type Inheritance". |
The following section compares ORAData
and SQLData
functionality.
In deciding which of these two interface implementations to use, consider the following:
Advantages of ORAData
:
ORAData
from an oracle.sql.STRUCT
. This is more efficient because it avoids unnecessary conversions to native Java types.
Datum
object (which is in oracle.sql
format) from the ORAData
object, using the toDatum()
method.
ORAData
works directly with Datum
types, which is the internal format used by the driver to hold Oracle objects.
Advantages of SQLData
:
The SQLData
interface is for mapping SQL objects only. The ORAData
interface is more flexible, enabling you to map SQL objects as well as any other SQL type for which you want to customize processing. You can create a ORAData
object from any datatype found in an Oracle database. This could be useful, for example, for serializing RAW
data in Java.
If you use the SQLData
interface in a custom object class, then you must create type map entries that specify the custom object class to use in mapping the Oracle object type (SQL object type) to Java. You can either use the default type map of the connection object, or a type map that you specify when you retrieve the data from the result set. The ResultSet
interface getObject()
method has a signature that lets you specify a type map:
rs.getObject(int columnIndex);
or:
rs.getObject(int columnIndex, Map map);
For a description of how to create these custom object classes with SQLData
, see "Creating and Using Custom Object Classes for Oracle Objects".
When using a SQLData implementation, if you do not include a type map entry, then the object will map to the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class by default. (ORAData
implementations, by contrast, have their own mapping functionality so that a type map entry is not required. When using a ORAData
implementation, use the Oracle getORAData()
method instead of the standard getObject()
method.)
The type map relates a Java class to the SQL type name of an Oracle object. This one-to-one mapping is stored in a hash table as a keyword-value pair. When you read data from an Oracle object, the JDBC driver considers the type map to determine which Java class to use to materialize the data from the Oracle object type (SQL object type). When you write data to an Oracle object, the JDBC driver gets the SQL type name from the Java class by calling the getSQLTypeName()
method of the SQLData
interface. The actual conversion between SQL and Java is performed by the driver.
The attributes of the Java class that corresponds to an Oracle object can use either Java native types or Oracle native types (instances of the oracle.sql.*
classes) to store attributes.
When using a SQLData
implementation, the JDBC applications programmer is responsible for providing a type map, which must be an instance of a class as follows:
or:
java.util.Dictionary
class (or an instance of the Dictionary
class itself)
You have the option of creating your own class to accomplish this, but under either JDK 1.2.x or JDK 1.1.x, the standard class java.util.Hashtable
meets the requirement.
Hashtable
and other classes used for type maps implement a put()
method that takes keyword-value pairs as input, where each key is a fully qualified SQL type name and the corresponding value is an instance of a specified Java class.
A type map is associated with a connection instance. The standard java.sql.Connection
interface and the Oracle-specific oracle.jdbc.OracleConnection
interface include a getTypeMap()
method. Under JDK 1.2.x, both return a Map
object; under JDK 1.1.x, both return a Dictionary
object.
The remainder of this section covers the following topics:
When a connection instance is first established, the default type map is empty. You must populate it to use any SQL-Java mapping functionality.
Follow these general steps to add entries to an existing type map.
getTypeMap()
method of your OracleConnection
object to return the connection's type map object. The getTypeMap()
method returns a java.util.Map
object (or java.util.Dictionary
under JDK 1.1.x). For example, presuming an OracleConnection
instance oraconn
:
java.util.Map myMap = oraconn.getTypeMap();
put()
method to add map entries. The put()
method takes two arguments: a SQL type name string and an instance of a specified Java class that you want to map to.
myMap.put(sqlTypeName
,classObject
);
The sqlTypeName
is a string that represents the fully qualified name of the SQL type in the database. The classObject
is the Java class object to which you want to map the SQL type. Get the class object with the Class.forName()
method, as follows:
myMap.put(sqlTypeName
, Class.forName(className
));
For example, if you have a PERSON
SQL datatype defined in the CORPORATE
database schema, then map it to a Person
Java class defined as Person
with this statement:
myMap.put("CORPORATE.PERSON", Class.forName("Person"));
The map has an entry that maps the PERSON
SQL datatype in the CORPORATE
database to the Person
Java class.
Follow these general steps to create a new type map. This example uses an instance of java.util.Hashtable
, which extends java.util.Dictionary
and, under JDK 1.2.x, also implements java.util.Map
.
Hashtable newMap = new Hashtable();
put()
method of the type map object to add entries to the map. For more information on the put()
method, see Step 2 under "Adding Entries to an Existing Type Map". For example, if you have an EMPLOYEE
SQL type defined in the CORPORATE
database, then you can map it to an Employee
class object defined by Employee.java
, with this statement:
newMap.put("CORPORATE.EMPLOYEE", class.forName("Employee"));
OracleConnection
object's setTypeMap()
method to overwrite the connection's existing type map. For example:
oraconn.setTypeMap(newMap);
In this example, setTypeMap()
overwrites the oraconn
connection's original map with newMap
.
If you do not provide a type map with an appropriate entry when using a getObject()
call, then the JDBC driver will materialize an Oracle object as an instance of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class. If the Oracle object type contains embedded objects, and they are not present in the type map, the driver will materialize the embedded objects as instances of oracle.sql.STRUCT
as well. If the embedded objects are present in the type map, a call to the getAttributes()
method will return embedded objects as instances of the specified Java classes from the type map.
One of the choices in making an Oracle object and its attribute data available to Java applications is to create a custom object class that implements the SQLData
interface. Note that if you use this interface, you must supply a type map that specifies the Oracle object types in the database and the names of the corresponding custom object classes that you will create for them.
The SQLData
interface defines methods that translate between SQL and Java for Oracle database objects. Standard JDBC provides a SQLData
interface and companion SQLInput
and SQLOutput
interfaces in the java.sql
package (oracle.jdbc2
package under JDK 1.1.x).
If you create a custom object class that implements SQLData
, then you must provide a readSQL()
method and a writeSQL()
method, as specified by the SQLData
interface.
The JDBC driver calls your readSQL()
method to read a stream of data values from the database and populate an instance of your custom object class. Typically, the driver would use this method as part of an OracleResultSet
object getObject()
call.
Similarly, the JDBC driver calls your writeSQL()
method to write a sequence of data values from an instance of your custom object class to a stream that can be written to the database. Typically, the driver would use this method as part of an OraclePreparedStatement
object setObject()
call.
The JDBC driver includes classes that implement the SQLInput
and SQLOutput
interfaces. It is not necessary to implement the SQLOutput
or SQLInput
objects--the JDBC drivers will do this for you.
The SQLInput
implementation is an input stream class, an instance of which must be passed in to the readSQL()
method. SQLInput
includes a readXXX()
method for every possible Java type that attributes of an Oracle object might be converted to, such as readObject()
, readInt()
, readLong()
, readFloat()
, readBlob()
, and so on. Each readXXX()
method converts SQL data to Java data and returns it into an output parameter of the corresponding Java type. For example, readInt()
returns an integer.
The SQLOutput
implementation is an output stream class, an instance of which must be passed in to the writeSQL()
method. SQLOutput
includes a writeXXX()
method for each of these Java types. Each writeXXX()
method converts Java data to SQL data, taking as input a parameter of the relevant Java type. For example, writeString()
would take as input a string attribute from your Java class.
When you create a custom object class that implements SQLData
, you must implement the readSQL()
and writeSQL()
methods, as described here.
You must implement readSQL()
as follows:
public void readSQL(SQLInputstream
, Stringsql_type_name
) throws SQLException
readSQL()
method takes as input a SQLInput
stream and a string that indicates the SQL type name of the data (in other words, the name of the Oracle object type, such as EMPLOYEE
).
When your Java application calls getObject()
, the JDBC driver creates a SQLInput
stream object and populates it with data from the database. The driver can also determine the SQL type name of the data when it reads it from the database. When the driver calls readSQL()
, it passes in these parameters.
readSQL()
must call the appropriate readXXX()
method of the SQLInput
stream that is passed in.
For example, if you are reading EMPLOYEE
objects that have an employee name as a CHAR
variable and an employee number as a NUMBER
variable, you must have a readString()
call and a readInt()
call in your readSQL()
method. JDBC calls these methods according to the order in which the attributes appear in the SQL definition of the Oracle object type.
readSQL()
method takes the data that the readXXX()
methods read and convert, and assigns them to the appropriate fields or elements of a custom object class instance.
You must implement writeSQL()
as follows:
public void writeSQL(SQLOutput stream
) throws SQLException
writeSQL()
method takes as input a SQLOutput
stream.
When your Java application calls setObject()
, the JDBC driver creates a SQLOutput
stream object and populates it with data from a custom object class instance. When the driver calls writeSQL()
, it passes in this stream parameter.
writeSQL()
must call the appropriate writeXXX()
method of the SQLOutput
stream that is passed in.
For example, if you are writing to EMPLOYEE
objects that have an employee name as a CHAR
variable and an employee number as a NUMBER
variable, then you must have a writeString()
call and a writeInt()
call in your writeSQL()
method. These methods must be called according to the order in which attributes appear in the SQL definition of the Oracle object type.
writeSQL()
method then writes the data converted by the writeXXX()
methods to the SQLOutput
stream so that it can be written to the database once you execute the prepared statement.
"SQLData Implementation--SQLDataExample.java" contains a sample implementation of the SQLData
interface for a given SQL object definition.
This section describes how to read data from an Oracle object or write data to an Oracle object if your corresponding Java class implements SQLData
.
This section summarizes the steps to read data from an Oracle object into your Java application when you choose the SQLData
implementation for your custom object class.
These steps assume you have already defined the Oracle object type, created the corresponding custom object class, updated the type map to define the mapping between the Oracle object and the Java class, and defined a statement object stmt
.
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT emp_col FROM personnel");
The PERSONNEL
table contains one column, EMP_COL
, of SQL type EMP_OBJECT
. This SQL type is defined in the type map to map to the Java class Employee
.
getObject()
method of your result set to populate an instance of your custom object class with data from one row of the result set. The getObject()
method returns the user-defined SQLData
object because the type map contains an entry for Employee
.
if (rs.next()) Employee emp = (Employee)rs.getObject(1);
Note that if the type map did not have an entry for the object, then getObject()
would return an oracle.sql.STRUCT
object. Cast the output to type STRUCT
, because the getObject()
method signature returns the generic java.lang.Object
type.
if (rs.next()) STRUCT empstruct = (STRUCT)rs.getObject(1);
The getObject()
call triggers readSQL()
and readXXX()
calls from the SQLData
interface, as described above.
get
methods in your custom object class, then use them to read data from your object attributes. For example, if EMPLOYEE
has an EmpName
(employee name) of type CHAR
, and an EmpNum
(employee number) of type NUMBER
, then provide a getEmpName()
method that returns a Java String
and a getEmpNum()
method that returns an integer (int
). Then invoke them in your Java application, as follows:
String empname = emp.getEmpName(); int empnumber = emp.getEmpNum();
Suppose you have an OracleCallableStatement
ocs
that calls a PL/SQL function GETEMPLOYEE()
. The program passes an employee number (empnumber
) to the function; the function returns the corresponding Employee
object.
OracleCallableStatement
to call the GETEMPLOYEE()
function.
OracleCallableStatement ocs = (OracleCallableStatement)conn.prepareCall("{ ? = call GETEMPLOYEE(?) }");
empnumber
as the input parameter to GETEMPLOYEE()
. Register the SQLData
object as the OUT
parameter, with typecode OracleTypes.STRUCT
. Then, execute the statement.
ocs.setInt(2, empnumber); ocs.registerOutParameter(1, OracleTypes.STRUCT, "EMP_OBJECT"); ocs.execute();
getObject()
method to retrieve the employee object. The following code assumes that there is a type map entry to map the Oracle object to Java type Employee
:
Employee emp = (Employee)ocs.getObject(1);
If there is no type map entry, then getObject()
would return an oracle.sql.STRUCT
object. Cast the output to type STRUCT
, because the getObject()
method signature returns the generic java.lang.Object
type:
STRUCT emp = (STRUCT)ocs.getObject(1);
Suppose you have a PL/SQL function addEmployee(?)
that takes an Employee
object as an IN
parameter and adds it to the PERSONNEL
table. In this example, emp
is a valid Employee
object.
OracleCallableStatement
to call the addEmployee(?)
function.
OracleCallableStatement ocs = (OracleCallableStatement) conn.prepareCall("{ call addEmployee(?) }");
setObject()
to pass the emp
object as an IN
parameter to the callable statement. Then, execute the statement.
ocs.setObject(1, emp); ocs.execute();
This section describes the steps in writing data to an Oracle object from your Java application when you choose the SQLData
implementation for your custom object class.
This description assumes you have already defined the Oracle object type, created the corresponding Java class, and updated the type map to define the mapping between the Oracle object and the Java class.
set
methods in your custom object class, then use them to write data from Java variables in your application to attributes of your Java datatype object.
emp.setEmpName(empname); emp.setEmpNum(empnumber);
This statement uses the emp
object and the empname
and empnumber
variables assigned in "Reading SQLData Objects from a Result Set".
PreparedStatement pstmt = conn.prepareStatement ("INSERT INTO PERSONNEL VALUES (?)");
This assumes conn
is your connection object.
setObject()
method of the prepared statement to bind your Java datatype object to the prepared statement.
pstmt.setObject(1, emp);
pstmt.executeUpdate();
One of the choices in making an Oracle object and its attribute data available to Java applications is to create a custom object class that implements the oracle.sql.ORAData
and oracle.sql.ORADataFactory
interfaces (or you can implement ORADataFactory
in a separate class). The ORAData
and ORADataFactory
interfaces are supplied by Oracle and are not a part of the JDBC standard.
Note:
The JPublisher utility supports the generation of classes that implement the |
The ORAData
interface has these advantages:
ORAData
uses oracle.sql.Datum
types directly.
ORAData
works directly with Datum
types, the internal format the driver uses to hold Oracle objects.
The ORAData
and ORADataFactory
interfaces do the following:
toDatum()
method of the ORAData
class transforms the data into an oracle.sql.*
representation.
ORADataFactory
specifies a create()
method equivalent to a constructor for your custom object class. It creates and returns a ORAData
instance. The JDBC driver uses the create()
method to return an instance of the custom object class to your Java application or applet. It takes as input an oracle.sql.Datum
object and an integer indicating the corresponding SQL typecode as specified in the OracleTypes
class.
ORAData
and ORADataFactory
have the following definitions:
public interface ORAData { Datum toDatum (java.sql.Connectionconn
) throws SQLException; } public interface ORADataFactory { ORAData create (Datumd
, intsql_Type_Code
) throws SQLException; }
Where conn
represents the Connection object, d
represents an object of type oracle.sql.Datum
, and sql_Type_Code
represents the SQL typecode (from the standard Types
or OracleTypes
class) of the Datum
object.
The JDBC drivers provide the following methods to retrieve and insert object data as instances of ORAData
.
To retrieve object data:
OracleResultSet
class getORAData()
method (assume an OracleResultSet
object ors
):
ors.getORAData (intcol_index
, ORADataFactoryfactory
);
This method takes as input the column index of the data in your result set, and a ORADataFactory
instance. For example, you can implement a getORAFactory()
method in your custom object class to produce the ORADataFactory
instance to input to getORAData()
. The type map is not required when using Java classes that implement ORAData
.
or:
getObject(
index
,
map
)
method specified by the ResultSet
interface to retrieve data as instances of ORAData
. In this case, you must have an entry in the type map that identifies the factory class to be used for the given object type, and its corresponding SQL type name.
To insert object data:
OraclePreparedStatement
class setORAData()
method (assume an OraclePreparedStatement
object ops
):
ops.setORAData (intbind_index
, ORADatacustom_obj
);
This method takes as input the parameter index of the bind variable and the name of the object containing the variable.
or:
setObject()
method specified by the PreparedStatement
interface. You can also use this method, in its different forms, to insert ORAData
instances without requiring a type map.
The following sections describe the getORAData()
and setORAData()
methods.
To continue the example of an Oracle object EMPLOYEE
, you might have something like the following in your Java application:
ORAData datum = ors.getORAData(1, Employee.getORAFactory());
In this example, ors
is an Oracle result set, getORAData()
is a method in the OracleResultSet
class used to retrieve a ORAData
object, and the EMPLOYEE
is in column 1 of the result set. The static Employee.getORAFactory()
method will return a ORADataFactory
to the JDBC driver. The JDBC driver will call create(
) from this object, returning to your Java application an instance of the Employee
class populated with data from the result set.
"ORAData Implementation--ORADataExample.java" contains an example implementation of the ORAData
interface for a given SQL object definition.
This section describes how to read data from an Oracle object or write data to an Oracle object if your corresponding Java class implements ORAData
.
This section summarizes the steps in reading data from an Oracle object into your Java application. These steps apply whether you implement ORAData
manually or use JPublisher to produce your custom object classes.
These steps assume you have already defined the Oracle object type, created the corresponding custom object class or had JPublisher create it for you, and defined a statement object stmt
.
OracleResultSet ors = (OracleResultSet)stmt.executeQuery ("SELECT Emp_col FROM PERSONNEL");
Where PERSONNEL
is a one-column table. The column name is Emp_col
of type Employee_object
.
getORAData()
method of your Oracle result set to populate an instance of your custom object class with data from one row of the result set. The getORAData()
method returns an oracle.sql.ORAData
object, which you can cast to your specific custom object class.
if (ors.next()) Employee emp = (Employee)ors.getORAData(1, Employee.getORAFactory());
or:
if (ors.next()) ORAData datum = ors.getORAData(1, Employee.getORAFactory());
This example assumes that Employee
is the name of your custom object class and ors
is the name of your OracleResultSet
object.
In case you do not want to use getORAData()
, the JDBC drivers let you use the getObject()
method of a standard JDBC ResultSet
to retrieve ORAData
data. However, you must have an entry in the type map that identifies the factory class to be used for the given object type, and its corresponding SQL type name.
For example, if the SQL type name for your object is EMPLOYEE
, then the corresponding Java class is Employee
, which will implement ORAData
. The corresponding Factory class is EmployeeFactory
, which will implement ORADataFactory
.
Use this statement to declare the EmployeeFactory
entry for your type map:
map.put ("EMPLOYEE", Class.forName ("EmployeeFactory"));
Then use the form of getObject()
where you specify the map object:
Employee emp = (Employee) rs.getObject (1, map);
If the connection's default type map already has an entry that identifies the factory class to be used for the given object type, and its corresponding SQL type name, then you can use this form of getObject()
:
Employee emp = (Employee) rs.getObject (1);
get
methods in your custom object class, use them to read data from your object attributes into Java variables in your application. For example, if EMPLOYEE
has EmpName
of type CHAR
and EmpNum
(employee number) of type NUMBER
, provide a getEmpName()
method that returns a Java string and a getEmpNum()
method that returns an integer. Then invoke them in your Java application as follows:
String empname = emp.getEmpName(); int empnumber = emp.getEmpNum();
This section summarizes the steps in writing data to an Oracle object from your Java application. These steps apply whether you implement ORAData
manually or use JPublisher to produce your custom object classes.
These steps assume you have already defined the Oracle object type and created the corresponding custom object class (or had JPublisher create it for you).
set
methods in your custom object class, then use them to write data from Java variables in your application to attributes of your Java datatype object.
emp.setEmpName(empname); emp.setEmpNum(empnumber);
This statement uses the emp
object and the empname
and empnumber
variables defined in "Reading Data from an Oracle Object Using a ORAData Implementation".
OraclePreparedStatement opstmt = conn.prepareStatement ("UPDATE PERSONNEL SET Employee = ? WHERE Employee.EmpNum = 28959);
This assumes conn
is your Connection
object.
setORAData()
method of the Oracle prepared statement to bind your Java datatype object to the prepared statement.
opstmt.setORAData(1, emp);
The setORAData()
method calls the toDatum()
method of the custom object class instance to retrieve an oracle.sql.STRUCT
object that can be written to the database.
In this step you could also use the setObject()
method to bind the Java datatype. For example:
opstmt.setObject(1,emp);
The ORAData
interface offers far more flexibility than the SQLData
interface. The SQLData
interface is designed to let you customize the mapping of only Oracle object types (SQL object types) to Java types of your choice. Implementing the SQLData
interface lets the JDBC driver populate fields of a custom Java class instance from the original SQL object data, and the reverse, after performing the appropriate conversions between Java and SQL types.
The ORAData
interface goes beyond supporting the customization of Oracle object types to Java types. It lets you provide a mapping between Java object types and any SQL type supported by the oracle.sql
package.
It might be useful to provide custom Java classes to wrap oracle.sql.*
types and perhaps implement customized conversions or functionality as well. The following are some possible scenarios:
DATE
field to java.util.Date
format)
RAW
fields, for example
For example, use ORAData
to store instances of Java objects that do not correspond to a particular SQL Oracle object type in the database in columns of SQL type RAW
. The create()
method in ORADataFactory
would have to implement a conversion from an object of type oracle.sql.RAW
to the desired Java object. The toDatum()
method in ORAData
would have to implement a conversion from the Java object to an oracle.sql.RAW
object. This can be done, for example, by using Java serialization.
Upon retrieval, the JDBC driver transparently retrieves the raw bytes of data in the form of an oracle.sql.RAW
and calls the ORADataFactory
's create()
method to convert the oracle.sql.RAW
object to the desired Java class.
When you insert the Java object into the database, you can simply bind it to a column of type RAW
to store it. The driver transparently calls the ORAData
.toDatum()
method to convert the Java object to an oracle.sql.RAW
object. This object is then stored in a column of type RAW
in the database.
Support for the ORAData
interfaces is also highly efficient because the conversions are designed to work using oracle.sql.*
formats, which happen to be the internal formats used by the JDBC drivers. Moreover, the type map, which is necessary for the SQLData
interface, is not required when using Java classes that implement ORAData
. For more information on why classes that implement ORAData
do not need a type map, see "Understanding the ORAData Interface".
As a result of the oracle.jdbc
interfaces being introduced in Oracle9i as an alternative to the oracle.jdbc.driver
classes, the oracle.sql.CustomDatum
and oracle.sql.CustomDatumFactory
interfaces, formerly used to access customized objects, have been deprecated by the new interfaces--oracle.sql.ORAData
and oracle.sql.ORADataFactory
.
The following are the specifications for the CustomDatum
and CustomDatumFactory
interfaces:
public interface CustomDatum { oracle.sql.Datum toDatum( oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleConnection c ) throws SQLException ; // The following is expected to be present in an // implementation: // // - Definition of public static fields for // _SQL_TYPECODE, _SQL_NAME and _SQL_BASETYPE. // (See Oracle Jdbc documentation for details.) // // - Definition of // public static CustomDatumFactory // getFactory(); // } public interface CustomDatumFactory { oracle.sql.CustomDatum create( oracle.sql.Datum d, int sqlType ) throws SQLException; }
Object-type inheritance is an Oracle9i feature which allows a new object type to be created by extending another object type. (While Oracle9i does not yet support JDBC 3.0, object-type inheritance is supported and documented.) The new object type is then a subtype of the object type from which it extends. The subtype automatically inherits all the attributes and methods defined in the supertype. The subtype can add attributes and methods, and overload or override methods inherited from the supertype.
Object-type inheritance introduces substitutability. Substitutability is the ability of a slot declared to hold a value of type T
to do so in addition to any subtype of type T
. Oracle9i JDBC drivers handle substitutability transparently.
A database object is returned with its most specific type without losing information. For example, if the STUDENT_T
object is stored in a PERSON_T
slot, the Oracle JDBC driver returns a Java object that represents the STUDENT_T
object.
Create custom object classes if you want to have Java classes that explicitly correspond to the Oracle object types. (See "Creating and Using Custom Object Classes for Oracle Objects".) If you have a hierarchy of object types, you may want a corresponding hierarchy of Java classes.
The most common way to create a database subtype in JDBC is to pass the extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command to the execute()
method of the java.sql.Statement
interface. For example, to create a type inheritance hierarchy for:
PERSON_T | STUDENT_T | PARTTIMESTUDENT_T
the JDBC code can be:
statement s = conn.createStatement(); s.execute ("CREATE TYPE Person_T (SSN NUMBER, name VARCHAR2(30), address VARCHAR2(255))"); s.execute ("CREATE TYPE Student_T UNDER Person_t (deptid NUMBER, major VARCHAR2(100))"); s.execute ("CREATE TYPE PartTimeStudent_t UNDER Student_t (numHours NUMBER)");
In the following code, the "foo"
member procedure in type ST
is overloaded and the member procedure "print"
overwrites the copy it inherits from type T
.
CREATE TYPE T AS OBJECT (..., MEMBER PROCEDURE foo(x NUMBER), MEMBER PROCEDURE Print(), ... NOT FINAL; CREATE TYPE ST UNDER T (..., MEMBER PROCEDURE foo(x DATE), <-- overload "foo" OVERRIDING MEMBER PROCEDURE Print(), <-- override "print" STATIC FUNCTION bar(...) ... ... );
Once the subtypes have been created, they can be used as both columns of a base table as well as attributes of a object type. For complete details on the syntax to create subtypes, see the Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - Object-Relational Features for details.
In most cases, a customized Java class represents a database object type. When you create a customized Java class for a subtype, the Java class can either mirror the database object type hierarchy or not.
You can use either the ORAData
or SQLData
solution in creating classes to map to the hierarchy of object types.
Customized mapping where Java classes implement the oracle.sql.ORAData
interface is the recommended mapping. (See "Relative Advantages of ORAData versus SQLData".) ORAData
mapping requires the JDBC application to implement the ORAData
and ORADataFactory
interfaces. The class implementing the ORADataFactory
interface contains a factory method that produces objects. Each object represents a database object.
The hierarchy of the class implementing the ORAData
interface can mirror the database object type hierarchy. For example, the Java classes mapping to PERSON_T
and STUDENT_T
are as follows:
Code for the Person.java
class which implements the ORAData
and ORADataFactory
interfaces:
class Person implements ORAData, ORADataFactory
{
static final Person _personFactory = new Person();
public NUMBER ssn;
public CHAR name;
public CHAR address;
public static ORADataFactory getORADataFactory()
{
return _personFactory;
}
public Person () {}
public Person(NUMBER ssn, CHAR name, CHAR address)
{
this.ssn = ssn;
this.name = name;
this.address = address;
}
public Datum toDatum(OracleConnection c) throws SQLException
{
StructDescriptor sd =
StructDescriptor.createDescriptor("SCOTT.PERSON_T", c);
Object [] attributes = { ssn, name, address };
return new STRUCT(sd, c, attributes);
}
public ORAData create(Datum d, int sqlType) throws SQLException
{
if (d == null) return null;
Object [] attributes = ((STRUCT) d).getOracleAttributes();
return new Person((NUMBER) attributes[0],
(CHAR) attributes[1],
(CHAR) attributes[2]);
}
}
Code for the Student.java
class which extends the Person.java
class:
class Student extends Person { static final Student _studentFactory = new Student (); public NUMBER deptid; public CHAR major; public static ORADataFactory getORADataFactory() { return _studentFactory; } public Student () {} public Student (NUMBER ssn, CHAR name, CHAR address, NUMBER deptid, CHAR major) { super (ssn, name, address); this.deptid = deptid; this.major = major; } public Datum toDatum(OracleConnection c) throws SQLException { StructDescriptor sd = StructDescriptor.createDescriptor("SCOTT.STUDENT_T", c); Object [] attributes = { ssn, name, address, deptid, major }; return new STRUCT(sd, c, attributes); } public CustomDatum create(Datum d, int sqlType) throws SQLException { if (d == null) return null; Object [] attributes = ((STRUCT) d).getOracleAttributes(); return new Student((NUMBER) attributes[0], (CHAR) attributes[1], (CHAR) attributes[2], (NUMBER) attributes[3], (CHAR) attributes[4]); } }
Customized classes that implement the ORAData
interface do not have to mirror the database object type hierarchy. For example, you could have declared the above class, Student
, without a superclass. In this case, Student
would contain fields to hold the inherited attributes from PERSON_T
as well as the attributes declared by STUDENT_T
.
The JDBC application uses the factory class in querying the database to return instances of Person
or its subclasses, as in the following example:
ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select person from tab1"); while (rset.next()) { Object s = rset.getORAData (1, PersonFactory.getORADataFactory()); ... }
A class implementing the ORADataFactory
interface should be able to produce instances of the associated custom object type, as well as instances of any subtype, or at least all the types you expect to support.
In the following example, the PersonFactory.getORADataFactory()
method returns a factory that can handle PERSON_T
, STUDENT_T
, and PARTTIMESTUDENT_T
objects (by returning person
, student
, or parttimestudent
Java instances).
class PersonFactory implements ORADataFactory
{
static final PersonFactory _factory = new PersonFactory ();
public static ORADataFactory getORADataFactory()
{
return _factory;
}
public ORAData create(Datum d, int sqlType) throws SQLException
{
STRUCT s = (STRUCT) d;
if (s.getSQLTypeName ().equals ("SCOTT.PERSON_T"))
return Person.getORADataFactory ().create (d, sqlType);
else if (s.getSQLTypeName ().equals ("SCOTT.STUDENT_T"))
return Student.getORADataFactory ().create(d, sqlType);
else if (s.getSQLTypeName ().equals ("SCOTT.PARTTIMESTUDENT_T"))
return ParttimeStudent.getORADataFactory ().create(d, sqlType);
else
return null;
}
}
The following example assumes a table tab1
, such as the following:
CREATE TABLE tab1 (idx NUMBER, person PERSON_T); INSERT INTO tabl1 VALUES (1, PERSON_T (1000, 'Scott', '100 Oracle Parkway')); INSERT INTO tabl1 VALUES (2, STUDENT_T (1001, 'Peter', '200 Oracle Parkway', 101, 'CS')); INSERT INTO tabl1 VALUES (3, PARTTIMESTUDENT_T (1002, 'David', '300 Oracle Parkway', 102, 'EE'));
The customized classes that implement the java.sql.SQLData
interface can mirror the database object type hierarchy. The readSQL()
and writeSQL()
methods of a subclass cascade each call to the corresponding methods in the superclass in order to read or write the superclass attributes before reading or writing the subclass attributes. For example, the Java classes mapping to PERSON_T
and STUDENT_T
are as follows:
Code for the Person.java
class which implements the SQLData
interface:
import java.sql.*;
public class Person implements SQLData
{
private String sql_type;
public int ssn;
public String name;
public String address;
public Person () {}
public String getSQLTypeName() throws SQLException { return sql_type; }
public void readSQL(SQLInput stream, String typeName) throws SQLException
{
sql_type = typeName;
ssn = stream.readInt();
name = stream.readString();
address = stream.readString();
}
public void writeSQL(SQLOutput stream) throws SQLException
{
stream.writeInt (ssn);
stream.writeString (name);
stream.writeString (address);
}
}
Code for the Student.java
class which extends the Person.java
class:
import java.sql.*; public class Studentextends Person
{ private String sql_type; public int deptid; public String major; public Student () { super(); } public String getSQLTypeName() throws SQLException { return sql_type; } public void readSQL(SQLInput stream, String typeName) throws SQLException {super.readSQL (stream, typeName); // read supertype attributes
sql_type = typeName; deptid = stream.readInt(); major = stream.readString(); } public void writeSQL(SQLOutput stream) throws SQLException {super.writeSQL (stream); // write supertype
// attributes
stream.writeInt (deptid); stream.writeString (major); } }
Customized classes that implement the SQLData
interface do not have to mirror the database object type hierarchy. For example, you could have declared the above class, Student
, without a superclass. In this case, Student
would contain fields to hold the inherited attributes from PERSON_T
as well as the attributes declared by STUDENT_T
.
Code for the Student.java
class which does not extend the Person.java
class, but implements the SQLData interface directly:
import java.sql.*;
public class Student implements SQLData
{
private String sql_type;
public int ssn;
public String name;
public String address;
public int deptid;
public String major;
public Student () {}
public String getSQLTypeName() throws SQLException { return sql_type; }
public void readSQL(SQLInput stream, String typeName) throws SQLException
{
sql_type = typeName;
ssn = stream.readInt();
name = stream.readString();
address = stream.readString();
deptid = stream.readInt();
major = stream.readString();
}
public void writeSQL(SQLOutput stream) throws SQLException
{
stream.writeInt (ssn);
stream.writeString (name);
stream.writeString (address);
stream.writeInt (deptid);
stream.writeString (major);
}
}
Even though you can manually create customized classes that implement the SQLData
, ORAData
, and ORADataFactory
interfaces, it is recommended that you use Oracle9i JPublisher to automatically generate these classes. The customized classes generated by JPublisher that implement the SQLData
, ORAData
, and ORADataFactory
interfaces, can mirror the inheritance hierarchy.
To learn more about JPublisher, see "Using JPublisher to Create Custom Object Classes" and the Oracle9i JPublisher User's Guide.
In a typical JDBC application, a subtype object is returned as one of the following:
You can use either the default (oracle.sql.STRUCT
), ORAData,
or SQLData
mapping to retrieve a subtype.
By default, a database object is returned as an instance of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class. This instance may represent an object of either the declared type or subtype of the declared type. If the STRUCT
class represents a subtype object in the database, then it contains the attributes of its supertype as well as those defined in the subtype.
The Oracle JDBC driver returns database objects in their most specific type. The JDBC application can use the getSQLTypeName()
method of the STRUCT
class to determine the SQL type of the STRUCT
object. The following code shows this:
// tab1.person column can store PERSON_T, STUDENT_T and PARTIMESTUDENT_T objects ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select person from tab1"); while (rset.next()) { oracle.sql.STRUCT s = (oracle.sql.STRUCT) rset.getObject(1); if (s != null) System.out.println (s.getSQLTypeName()); // print out the type name which // may be SCOTT.PERSON_T, // SCOTT.STUDENT_T or // SCOTT.PARTTIMESTUDENT_T }
With SQLData
mapping, the JDBC driver returns the database object as an instance of the class implementing the SQLData
interface.
To use SQLData
mapping in retrieving database objects, do the following:
SQLData
interface for the desired object types.
getObject()
method to access the SQL object values.
The JDBC driver checks the type map for a entry match. If one exists, the driver returns the database object as an instance of the class implementing the SQLData
interface.
The following code shows the whole SQLData
customized mapping process:
// The JDBC application developer implements Person.java for PERSON_T, // Student.java for STUDENT_T // and ParttimeStudent.java for PARTTIMESTUDEN_T. Connection conn = ...; // make a JDBC connection // obtains the connection typemap java.util.Map map = conn.getTypeMap (); // populate the type map map.put ("SCOTT.PERSON_T", Class.forName ("Person")); map.put ("SCOTT.STUDENT_T", Class.forName ("Student")); map.put ("SCOTT.PARTTIMESTUDENT_T", Class.forName ("ParttimeStudent")); // tab1.person column can store PERSON_T, STUDENT_T and PARTTIMESTUDENT_T objects ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select person from tab1"); while (rset.next()) { // "s" is instance of Person, Student or ParttimeStudent Object s = rset.getObject(1); if (s != null) { if (s instanceof Person) System.out.println ("This is a Person"); else if (s instanceof Student) System.out.println ("This is a Student"); else if (s instanceof ParttimeStudent) System.out.pritnln ("This is a PartimeStudent"); else System.out.println ("Unknown type"); } }
The JDBC drivers check the connection type map for each call to the following:
getObject()
method of the java.sql.ResultSet
and java.sql.CallableStatement
interfaces
getAttribute()
method of the java.sql.Struct
interface
getArray()
method of the java.sql.Array
interface
getValue()
method of the oracle.sql.REF
interface
With ORAData
mapping, the JDBC driver returns the database object as an instance of the class implementing the ORAData
interface.
The Oracle JDBC driver needs to be informed of what Java class is mapped to the Oracle object type. The following are the two ways to inform the Oracle JDBC drivers:
getORAData(int idx, ORADataFactory f)
method to access database objects. The second parameter of the getORAData()
method specifies an instance of the factory class that produces the customized class. The getORAData()
method is available in the OracleResultSet
and OracleCallableStatement
classes.
getObject()
method is used to access the Oracle object values.
The first approach avoids the type-map lookup and is therefore more efficient. However, the second approach involves the use of the standard getObject()
method. The following code example demonstrates the first approach:
// tab1.person column can store both PERSON_T and STUDENT_T objects
ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select person from tab1");
while (rset.next())
{
Object s = rset.getORAData (1, PersonFactory.getORADataFactory());
if (s != null)
{
if (s instanceof Person)
System.out.println ("This is a Person");
else if (s instanceof Student)
System.out.println ("This is a Student");
else if (s instanceof ParttimeStudent)
System.out.pritnln ("This is a PartimeStudent");
else
System.out.println ("Unknown type");
}
}
There are cases where JDBC applications create database subtype objects with JDBC drivers. These objects are sent either to the database as bind variables or are used to exchange information within the JDBC application.
With customized mapping, the JDBC application creates either SQLData
- or ORAData
-based objects (depending on which approach you choose) to represent database subtype objects. With default mapping, the JDBC application creates STRUCT
objects to represent database subtype objects. All the data fields inherited from the supertype as well as all the fields defined in the subtype must have values. The following code demonstrates this:
Connection conn = ... // make a JDBC connection StructDescriptor desc = StructDescriptor.createDescriptor ("SCOTT.PARTTIMESTUDENT", conn); Object[] attrs = { new Integer(1234), "Scott", "500 Oracle Parkway", // data fields defined in // PERSON_T new Integer(102), "CS", // data fields defined in // STUDENT_T new Integer(4) // data fields defined in // PARTTIMESTUDENT_T }; STRUCT s = new STRUCT (desc, conn, attrs);
s
is initialized with data fields inherited from PERSON_T
and STUDENT_T
, and data fields defined in PARTTIMESTUDENT_T
.
In a typical JDBC application, a Java object that represents a database object is sent to the databases as one of the following:
IN
parameter
The Java object can be an instance of the STRUCT
class or an instance of the class implementing either the SQLData
or ORAData
interface. The Oracle JDBC driver will convert the Java object into the linearized format acceptable to the database SQL engine. Binding a subtype object is the same as binding a normal object.
While the logic to access subtype data fields is part of the customized class, this logic for default mapping is defined in the JDBC application itself. The database objects are returned as instances of the oracle.sql.STRUCT
class. The JDBC application needs to call one of the following access methods in the STRUCT
class to access the data fields:
The getAttribute()
method of the java.sql.Struct
interface is used in JDBC 2.0 to access object data fields. This method returns a java.lang.Object
array, where each array element represents an object attribute. You can determine the individual element type by referencing the corresponding attribute type in the JDBC conversion matrix, as listed in Table 5-1, "Oracle Datatype Classes". For example, a SQL NUMBER
attribute is converted to a java.math.BigDecimal
object. The getAttribute()
method returns all the data fields defined in the supertype of the object type as well as data fields defined in the subtype. The supertype data fields are listed first followed by the subtype data fields.
The getOracleAttribute()
method is an Oracle extension method and is more efficient than the getAttribute()
method. The getOracleAttribute()
method returns an oracle.sql.Datum
array to hold the data fields. Each element in the oracle.sql.Datum
array represents an attribute. You can determine the individual element type by referencing the corresponding attribute type in the Oracle conversion matrix, as listed in Table 5-1, "Oracle Datatype Classes". For example, a SQL NUMBER
attribute is converted to an oracle.sql.NUMBER
object. The getOracleAttribute()
method returns all the attributes defined in the supertype of the object type, as well as attributes defined in the subtype. The supertype data fields are listed first followed by the subtype data fields.
The following code shows the use of the getAttribute()
method:
// tab1.person column can store PERSON_T, STUDENT_T and PARTIMESTUDENT_T objects
ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select person from tab1");
while (rset.next())
{
oracle.sql.STRUCT s = (oracle.sql.STRUCT) rset.getObject(1);
if (s != null)
{
String sqlname = s.getSQLTypeName();
Object[] attrs = s.getAttribute();
if (sqlname.equals ("SCOTT.PERSON")
{
System.out.println ("ssn="+((BigDecimal)attrs[0]).intValue());
System.out.println ("name="+((String)attrs[1]));
System.out.println ("address="+((String)attrs[2]));
}
else if (sqlname.equals ("SCOTT.STUDENT"))
{
System.out.println ("ssn="+((BigDecimal)attrs[0]).intValue());
System.out.println ("name="+((String)attrs[1]));
System.out.println ("address="+((String)attrs[2]));
System.out.println ("deptid="+((BigDecimal)attrs[3]).intValue());
System.out.println ("major="+((String)attrs[4]));
}
else if (sqlname.equals ("SCOTT.PARTTIMESTUDENT"))
{
System.out.println ("ssn="+((BigDecimal)attrs[0]).intValue());
System.out.println ("name="+((String)attrs[1]));
System.out.println ("address="+((String)attrs[2]));
System.out.println ("deptid="+((BigDecimal)attrs[3]).intValue());
System.out.println ("major="+((String)attrs[4]));
System.out.println ("numHours="+((BigDecimal)attrs[5]).intValue());
}
else
throw new Exception ("Invalid type name: "+sqlname);
}
}
rset.close ();
stmt.close ();
conn.close ();
Oracle9i JDBC drivers provide a set of meta data methods to access inheritance properties. The inheritance meta data methods are defined in the oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
and oracle.jdbc.StructMetaData
classes.
The oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class provides the following inheritance meta data methods:
String[] getSubtypeNames()
: returns the SQL type names of the direct subtypes
boolean isFinalType()
: indicates whether the object type is a final type. An object type is FINAL
if no subtypes can be created for this type; the default is FINAL
, and a type declaration must have the NOT FINAL
keyword to be "subtypable"
boolean isSubTyp()
: indicates whether the object type is a subtype.
boolean isInstantiable()
: indicates whether the object type is instantiable; an object type is NOT INSTANTIABLE
if it is not possible to construct instances of this type
String getSupertypeName()
: returns the SQL type names of the direct supertype
int getLocalAttributeCount()
: returns the number of attributes defined in the subtype
The StructMetaData
class provides inheritance meta data methods for subtype attributes; the getMetaData()
method of the StructDescriptor
class returns an instance of StructMetaData
of the type. The StructMetaData
class contains the following inheritance meta data methods:
int getLocalColumnCount()
: returns the number of attributes defined in the subtype, which is similar to the getLocalAttributeCount()
method of the StructDescriptor
class
boolean isInherited(int column)
: indicates whether the attribute is inherited; the column begins with 1
A convenient way to create custom object classes, as well as other kinds of custom Java classes, is to use the Oracle JPublisher utility. It generates a full definition for a custom Java class, which you can instantiate to hold the data from an Oracle object. JPublisher-generated classes include methods to convert data from SQL to Java and from Java to SQL, as well as getter and setter methods for the object attributes.
This section offers a brief overview. For more information, see the Oracle9i JPublisher User's Guide.
You can direct JPublisher to create custom object classes that implement either the SQLData
interface or the ORAData
interface, according to how you set the JPublisher type mappings.
If you use the ORAData
interface, JPublisher will also create a custom reference class to map to object references for the Oracle object type. If you use the SQLData
interface, JPublisher will not produce a custom reference class; you would use standard java.sql.Ref
instances instead.
If you want additional functionality, you can subclass the custom object class and add features as desired. When you run JPublisher, there is a command-line option for specifying both a generated class name and the name of the subclass you will implement. For the SQL-Java mapping to work properly, JPublisher must know the subclass name, which is incorporated into some of the functionality of the generated class.
JPublisher offers various choices for how to map user-defined types and their attribute types between SQL and Java. The rest of this section lists categories of SQL types and the mapping options available for each category.
For general information about SQL-Java type mappings, see "Datatype Mappings".
For more information about JPublisher features or options, see the Oracle9i JPublisher User's Guide.
JPublisher categorizes SQL types into the following groups, with corresponding JPublisher options as noted:
Use the JPublisher -usertypes
option to specify the type-mapping implementation for UDTs--either a standard SQLData
implementation or an Oracle-specific ORAData
implementation.
NUMBER
Use the JPublisher -numbertypes
option to specify type-mapping for numeric types.
BLOB
and CLOB
Use the JPublisher -lobtypes
option to specify type-mapping for LOB types.
CHAR
, VARCHAR2
, LONG
, and RAW
Use the JPublisher -builtintypes
option to specify type-mapping for built-in types.
JPublisher defines the following type-mapping modes, two of which apply to numeric types only:
jdbc
)--Uses standard default mappings between SQL types and Java native types. For a custom object class, uses a SQLData
implementation.
oracle
)--Uses corresponding oracle.sql
types to map to SQL types. For a custom object, reference, or collection class, uses a ORAData
implementation.
objectjdbc
)--This is an extension of JDBC mapping. Where relevant, object-JDBC mapping uses numeric object types from the standard java.lang
package (such as java.lang.Integer
, Float
, and Double
), instead of primitive Java types (such as int
, float
, and double
). The java.lang
types are nullable, while the primitive types are not.
BigDecimal
mapping (for numeric types only) (setting bigdecimal
)--Uses java.math.BigDecimal
to map to all numeric attributes; appropriate if you are dealing with large numbers but do not want to map to the oracle.sql.NUMBER
class.
Use the JPublisher -usertypes
option to determine how JPublisher will implement the custom Java class that corresponds to a Oracle object type:
-usertypes=oracle
(the default setting) instructs JPublisher to create a ORAData
implementation for the custom object class.
This will also result in JPublisher producing a ORAData
implementation for the corresponding custom reference class.
-usertypes=jdbc
instructs JPublisher to create a SQLData
implementation for the custom object class. No custom reference class can be created--you must use java.sql.Ref
or oracle.sql.REF
for the reference type.
The next section discusses type mapping options that you can use for object attributes.
If you do not specify mappings for the attribute types of the Oracle object type, JPublisher uses the following defaults:
If you want alternate mappings, use the -numbertypes
, -lobtypes
, and -builtintypes
options as necessary, depending on the attribute types you have and the mappings you desire.
If an attribute type is itself an Oracle object type, it will be mapped according to the -usertypes
setting.
Table 8-1 summarizes JPublisher categories for SQL types, the mapping settings relevant for each category, and the default settings.
Note:
The JPublisher |
Oracle JDBC includes functionality to retrieve information about a structured object type regarding its attribute names and types. This is similar conceptually to retrieving information from a result set about its column names and types, and in fact uses an almost identical method.
The oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class, discussed earlier in "STRUCT Descriptors" and "Steps in Creating StructDescriptor and STRUCT Objects", includes functionality to retrieve meta data about a structured object type.
The StructDescriptor
class has a getMetaData()
method with the same functionality as the standard getMetaData()
method available in result set objects. It returns a set of attribute information such as attribute names and types. Call this method on a StructDescriptor
object to get meta data about the Oracle object type that the StructDescriptor
object describes. (Remember that each structured object type must have an associated StructDescriptor
object.)
The signature of the StructDescriptor
class getMetaData()
method is the same as the signature specified for getMetaData()
in the standard ResultSet
interface:
However, this method actually returns an instance of oracle.jdbc.StructMetaData
, a class that supports structured object meta data in the same way that the standard java.sql.ResultSetMetaData
interface specifies support for result set meta data.
The StructMetaData
class includes the following standard methods that are also specified by ResultSetMetaData
:
String getColumnName(int column) throws SQLException
This returns a String
that specifies the name of the specified attribute, such as "salary".
int getColumnType(int column) throws SQLException
This returns an int
that specifies the typecode of the specified attribute, according to the java.sql.Types
and oracle.jdbc.OracleTypes
classes.
String getColumnTypeName(int column) throws SQLException
This returns a string that specifies the type of the specified attribute, such as "BigDecimal".
int getColumnCount() throws SQLException
This returns the number of attributes in the object type.
As well as the following method, supported only by StructMetaData
:
String getOracleColumnClassName(int column)
throws SQLException
This returns the fully-qualified name of the oracle.sql.Datum
subclass whose instances are manufactured if the OracleResultSet
class getOracleObject()
method is called to retrieve the value of the specified attribute. For example, "oracle.sql.NUMBER
".
To use the getOracleColumnClassName()
method, you must cast the ResultSetMetaData
object (that was returned by the getMetaData()
method) to a StructMetaData
object.
Use the following steps to obtain meta data about a structured object type:
StructDescriptor
instance that describes the relevant structured object type.
getMetaData()
method on the StructDescriptor
instance.
getColumnName()
, getColumnType()
, and getColumnTypeName()
.
The following method shows how to retrieve information about the attributes of a structured object type. This includes the initial step of creating a StructDescriptor
instance.
// // Print out the ADT's attribute names and types // void getAttributeInfo (Connection conn, String type_name) throws SQLException { // get the type descriptor StructDescriptor desc = StructDescriptor.createDescriptor (type_name, conn); // get type meta data ResultSetMetaData md = desc.getMetaData (); // get # of attrs of this type int numAttrs = desc.length (); // temporary buffers String attr_name; int attr_type; String attr_typeName; System.out.println ("Attributes of "+type_name+" :"); for (int i=0; i<numAttrs; i++) { attr_name = md.getColumnName (i+1); attr_type = md.getColumnType (i+1); System.out.println (" index"+(i+1)+" name="+attr_name+" type="+attr_type); // drill down nested object if (attrType == OracleTypes.STRUCT) { attr_typeName = md.getColumnTypeName (i+1); // recursive calls to print out nested object meta data getAttributeInfo (conn, attr_typeName); } } }
This section describes how to use Oracle9i JDBC drivers to access SQLJ object types, SQL types for user-defined object types according to the Information Technology - SQLJ - Part 2: SQL Types using the JavaTM Programming Language document (ANSI NCITS 331.2-2000).
According to the Information Technology - SQLJ - Part 2 document, a SQLJ object type is a database object type designed for Java. A SQLJ object type maps to a Java class. Once the mapping is "registered" through the extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command (a DDL statement), the Java application can insert or select the Java objects directly into or from the database through an Oracle9i JDBC driver. The database SQL engine can access the data fields of these Java objects, stored as SQL attributes in the database, as well as invoke the methods defined in these Java objects.
The extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command is further discussed in "Creating a Java Class Definition for a SQLJ Object Type".
SQLJ object type functionality has the following features:
CREATE TYPE
command, creating a mapping between the SQL type and the Java type; no type map is necessary
UPDATE
statements
SQLJ object type functionality is similar to the use of custom Java classes to map to Oracle object types (SQL object types). The difference between SQLJ object type functionality and custom Java class functionality is that with SQLJ object types, you start with a Java class and then create a corresponding SQL type, instead of the other way around. See "Creating and Using Custom Object Classes for Oracle Objects" and "SQLJ Object Types and Custom Object Types Compared".
Note:
You can obtain additional information on SQLJ object types at the ANSI Web site:
http://www.ansi.org/
There are three general steps involved in creating a SQLJ object type in a database:
See "Creating a Java Class Definition for a SQLJ Object Type" below.
CREATE TYPE
command in Oracle9i to create a SQLJ object type that represents the Java type.
To use SQLJ object type functionality, the Java class must implement one of the following Java interfaces:
java.sql.SQLData
oracle.sql.ORAData
(and oracle.sql.ORADataFactory)
The
Note:
ORAData
interface has replaced the CustomDatum
interface. While the latter interface is deprecated for Oracle9i, it is still supported for backward compatibility. See "The Deprecated CustomDatum Interface" for complete details.
The Java class corresponding to a SQLJ object type implements the SQLData
interface or the ORAData
and ORADataFactory
interfaces, as is the case for custom Java classes that correspond to user-defined Oracle object types in previous Oracle JDBC implementations. The Java class provides methods for moving data between SQL and Java--either using the readSQL()
and writeSQL()
methods for classes implementing the SQLData
interface, or the toDatum()
method for classes implementing the ORAData
interface.
The following code shows how the Person
class for the SQLJ object type, PERSON_T
, implements the SQLData
interface:
import java.sql.*; import java.io.*; public class Person implements SQLData { private String sql_type = "SCOTT.PERSON_T"; private int ssn; private String name; private Address address; public String getName() {return name;} public void setName(String nam) {name = nam;}; public Address getAddress() {return address;} public void setAddress(Address addr) {address = addr;} public Person () {} public String getSQLTypeName() throws SQLException { return sql_type; } public void readSQL(SQLInput stream, String typeName) throws SQLException { sql_type = typeName; ssn = stream.readInt(); name = stream.readString(); address = stream.readObject(); } public void writeSQL(SQLOutput stream) throws SQLException { stream.writeInt (ssn); stream.writeString (name); stream.writeObject (address); } // other methods public int length () { ... } }
Once you create the Java class, the next step is to make it available to the database. To do this, use the Oracle loadjava
tool to load the Java class into the database. See the Oracle9i Java Tools Reference for a complete description of the loadjava
tool.
The following command shows the loadjava
tool loading the Person
class into the database:
% loadjava -u SCOTT/TIGER -r -f -v Person.class
The final step in creating a SQLJ object type is to use the extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command to create the type, specifying the corresponding Java class in the EXTERNAL NAME
clause.
The follow code shows that PERSON_T
is the SQLJ object type and Person
is the corresponding Java class:
CREATE TYPE person_t AS OBJECT EXTERNAL NAME 'Person' LANGUAGE JAVA USING SQLData (ss_no number (9) external name 'ssn', name VARCHAR2(200) external name 'name', address Address_t external name 'address', member function length return number external name 'length () return int'); /
The extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command performs the following functions:
USING
clause (see the catalog book Magdi told you about).
CREATE TYPE
command checks for the existence of the Java fields (as specified in the EXTERNAL NAME
clause) and whether these fields are compatible with corresponding SQL attributes.
CREATE TYPE
command validates the SQL external function against the Java class methods.
self
as a result. The classes are stored in the same schema as the SQLJ object type.
See the Oracle9i SQL Reference for a complete description of the extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command.
Once a SQLJ object type is created, it can be used for the column type of a database table as well as for attributes of other object types. The database SQL engine can access the attributes of the SQLJ object type as well as invoke methods. For example, in SQL*Plus you can do the following:
SQL> select col2.ss_no from tab2; ... SQL> select col2.length() from tab2; ...
The extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command validates the compatibility between SQLJ object type attributes and corresponding Java fields by comparing the external attribute names (external name
variables) to the corresponding Java fields. An external attribute name specifies a field in the Java class. For example, in the following code, the ssn
external name specifies the ss_no
field in the Person
Java class:
CREATE TYPE person_t AS OBJECT EXTERNAL NAME 'Person' LANGUAGE JAVA USING SQLData (ss_no number (9) external name 'ssn', name VARCHAR2(200) external name 'name', address Address_t external name 'address', member function length return number external name 'length () return int'); /
Though optional, external attribute names are good to use when one-to-one correspondences exists between the attributes of a SQLJ object type and the fields of a corresponding Java class. If you choose to use this feature and a declared external attribute name does not exist in the Java class or the SQL attribute is not compatible with the external attribute type, then a SQL error occurs upon executing the extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command. Or if the provided SQLData
or ORAData
interface implementation does not support compatible mapping between a SQL attribute and its corresponding Java field, then an exception may occur.
The extended SQL CREATE TYPE
command validates the compatibility between SQLJ object type functions and corresponding Java methods by comparing the external SQL function (MEMBER FUNCTION
or STATIC FUNCTION
) to the corresponding Java method. An external SQL function specifies a method in the Java class.
When creating a SQLJ object type in the database, you can declare one or more external SQL functions along with the attributes. Table 8-2 describes the possible kinds of functions that you can use in the creation of a SQLJ object type:
The following code shows some typical external SQL functions being declared for a SQLJ object type:
CREATE TYPE person_t AS OBJECT EXTERNAL NAME 'Person' LANGUAGE JAVA USING SQLData ( num number external name 'foo', STATIC function construct (num number) return person_t external name 'Person.Person (int) return Person', STATIC function maxvalue return number external variable name 'max_length', MEMBER function selfish (num number) return self as result external name 'Person.dump (java.lang.Integer) return Person' )
The following code shows how to create the SQLJ object type PERSON_T
to represent the Java class Person
:
CREATE TYPE person_t AS OBJECT EXTERNAL NAME 'Person' LANGUAGE JAVA USING SQLData ( ss_no NUMBER(9) EXTERNAL NAME 'ssn', name VARCHAR2(100) EXTERNAL NAME 'name', address address_t EXTERNAL NAME 'address', MEMBER FUNCTION length RETURN integer EXTERNAL NAME 'length() return int' );
As an alternative to creating a SQLJ object type directly in SQL, using a tool such as SQL*Plus, you can create a SQLJ object type using JDBC code. The following code shows this:
Connection conn = .... Statement stmt = conn.createStatement(); String sql = "CREATE TYPE person_t as object external name 'Person' language java " using SQLData "+ "( "+ " ss_no number(9), "+ " name varchar2(100), "+ " address address_t "+ ")"; stmt.execute(sql); stmt.close(); // release the resource conn.close(); // close the database connection
To create a SQLJ object type instance, the JDBC application creates a corresponding Java instance and then inserts it into the database using the INSERT
statement. The Java instance can be inserted in one of the following ways:
Before sending the Java object to the database, the Oracle JDBC driver converts it into a format acceptable to the database SQL engine.
To create a SQLJ object type of person_t
, as described in previous sections, the JDBC application creates a Person
object and then inserts it into the database. The following code binds the person_t
SQLJ object type instance in a SQL insert statement:
Person person = new Person(); person.ssn = 1000; person.name = "SCOTT"; person.address = new Address ("some street", "some city", "CA", 12345); // insert a SQLJ Object "person_t" PreparedStatement pstmt = conn.prepareStatement ("insert into tab1 (1, ?)"); pstmt.setObject (1, person); pstmt.execute ();
Binding a Java instance of a SQLJ object type is equivalent to binding a Java instance of a regular Oracle object type.
In a typical JDBC application, Java instances of a SQLJ object type are returned from one of the following:
In each case, the Oracle JDBC driver materialize the database SQLJ object type instances as instances of the corresponding Java class.
See "Code Examples", to learn how the SQLJ object type person_t
and a database table are created.
When a JDBC application queries a column of SQLJ object types in a table, the column values are returned as instances of the Java class that corresponds to the SQLJ object type.
Assume that you have table tab1
containing column col1
of SQLJ object type PERSON_T
. If PERSON_T
was created to map to the Java class Person
, then querying col1
through the Oracle JDBC driver will return the data as instances of the Person
class. The following code shows this:
ResultSet rset = stmt.executeQuery ("select col1 from tab1"); while (rset.next()) Person value = (Person) rset.getObject(1);
Use the OracleTypes.JAVA_STRUCT
typecode as input to the registerOutParameter()
method to register a SQLJ object type as a PL/SQL OUT
parameter. The following code shows this:
CallableStatement cstmt = conn.prepareCall (...); cstmt.registerOutParameter (1, OracleTypes.JAVA_STRUCT, "SCOTT.PERSON_T"); ... cstmt.execute(); Person value = (Person) cstmt.getObject (1);
Meta data methods are used to query the properties of a datatype. The meta data methods for SQLJ object types are defined in the oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class and the oracle.jdbc.StructMetaData
interface.
To obtain the type descriptor, use the static createDescriptor()
factory method of the oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class as follows:
public static StructDescriptor createDescriptor(String name, Connection conn) throws SQLException
Where name
is the SQLJ object type and conn
is the connection to the database.
The oracle.sql.StructDescriptor
class defines the following meta data (instance) methods:
boolean isJavaObject()
: indicates whether the type descriptor points to a SQLJ object type
String getJavaClassName()
: returns the name of the Java class corresponding to the SQLJ object type
String getLanguage()
: returns the string JAVA
for a SQLJ object type and returns null
for an Oracle object type (SQL object type)
ResultSetMetaData getMetaData()
: returns the meta data of the SQLJ object type as a result set meta data type (see "Functionality for Getting Object Meta Data")
getLocalAttributeCount()
: returns the number of local attributes being used, which does not include those used through inheritance
The oracle.jdbc.StructMetaData
interface provides the following method:
String getAttributeJavaName(int idx)
: returns the field name given the relative position of the SQL attribute; the relative position starts at zero and inherited attributes are included
This section describes the differences between SQLJ object types and Oracle object types (custom object types).
Feature | SQLJ Object Type Behavior | Custom Object Type Behavior |
---|---|---|
Typecodes |
Use the |
Use the |
Creation |
Create a Java class implementing the |
Issue the extended SQL |
Method Support |
Supports external names, constructor calls, and calls for member functions with side effects. See Table 8-2, "Kinds of External SQL Functions for a SQLJ Object Type" for a complete description. |
There is no default class for implementing type methods as Java methods. Some methods may also be implemented in SQL. |
Type Mapping |
Type mapping is automatically done by the extended SQL |
Register the correspondence between SQL and Java in a type map. Otherwise, the type is materialized as |
Corresponding Java Class is Missing |
If the corresponding Java class is missing when a SQLJ object type is returned to the client, you will receive an exception. |
If the corresponding Java class is missing when a custom object type is returned to the client, then |
Inheritance |
There are rules for mapping SQL hierarchy to a Java class hierarchy. See the Oracle9i SQL Reference for a complete description of these rules. |
There are no mapping rules. |
|
Copyright © 1996-2001, Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
|