ADTs: User-Defined Atomic Types
Built-in SQL types (int, float, text, etc.) limited
- have simple methods as well (math, LIKE, etc.)
ORDBMS: can define new types (& methods)
create type jpeg (internallength = variable,
input = jpeg_in, output = jpeg_out);
Not naturally composed of built-in types
Need input & output methods for types
- convert from text to internal type and back
- we’ll see how to do method definition soon...