Chapter Six

Object Oriented Database

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 Introduction to Object-Oriented Concepts
• Today OO concepts are applied in the areas of
databases, software engineering, knowledge bases,
artificial intelligence, and computer systems in general.
• An object typically has two components: state (value)
and behavior (operations).
• It can have a complex data structure as well as specific
operations defined by the programmer

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 Cont’d
• Objects in an OOPL exist only during program
execution are called transient objects.
• An OO database can extend the existence of objects so
that they are stored permanently in a database, and
• Hence the objects become persistent objects that exist
beyond program termination and can be retrieved later
and shared by other programs.

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 Cont’d
• OO databases store persistent objects permanently in secondary storage and

allow the sharing of these objects among multiple programs and

applications.

• An OO database system will typically interface with one or more OO

programming languages to provide persistent and shared object

capabilities.

• An object in OOPLs includes the specification of instance variables,

which hold the values that define the internal state of the object.

• An instance variable is similar to the concept of an attribute in the

relational model,
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 Cont’d
• What is Object Oriented Database (OODB)?
• A database system that incorporates all the important
object-oriented concepts
• Object oriented database enable to represent data in the
form of object
• Database systems that were based on the object data
model were known originally as object-oriented
databases (OODBs)

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6
 Object Identity
• One goal of an ODB is to maintain a direct correspondence between
real-world and database objects

• a unique identity is assigned to each independent object stored in the

database.

• This unique identity is typically implemented via a unique, system-

generated object identifier (OID).

• The main property required of an OID is that it be immutable; that

is, the OID value of a particular object should not change

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 Cont’d
• The main property required of an OID is that it be
immutable; that is, the OID value of a particular object
should not change.
• This preserves the identity of the real-world object
being represented.
• Hence, an ODMS must have some mechanism for
generating OIDs and preserving the immutability
property
 Object oriented Feature

 User defined Type and complex data type

 Encapsulation

 Inheritance

 Polymorphism

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 User-Defined Types and Complex t data ype
• To allow the creation of complex-structured objects and to
separate the declaration of a class/type from the creation of a
table

• The user will create the UDTs for a particular application as part
of the database schema.

• A UDT may be specified in its simplest form using the following

syntax:

CREATE TYPE TYPE_NAME AS (<component declarations>);

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 Cont’d
CREATE TYPE STREET_ADDR_TYPE AS (
NUMBER VARCHAR (5),
STREET NAME VARCHAR (25),
);
CREATE TYPE USA_ADDR_TYPE AS (
STREET_ADDR STREET_ADDR_TYPE,
CITY VARCHAR (25),
ZIP VARCHAR (10)
);
CREATE TYPE USA_PHONE_TYPE AS (
PHONE_TYPE VARCHAR (5),
AREA_CODE CHAR (3),
PHONE_NUM CHAR (7)
);

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 Cont’d
CREATE TYPE PERSON_TYPE AS (
NAME VARCHAR (35),
SEX CHAR,
BIRTH_DATE DATE,
PHONES USA_PHONE_TYPE ARRAY [4],
ADDR USA_ADDR_TYPE
INSTANTIABLE
NOT FINAL
REF IS SYSTEM GENERATED
INSTANCE METHOD AGE() RETURNS;
CREATE INSTANCE METHOD AGE() RETURNS INTEGER
FOR PERSON_TYPE
BEGIN
RETURN /* CODE TO CALCULATE A PERSON’S AGE FROM
TODAY’S DATE AND SELF.BIRTH_DATE */
END;
);

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 Cont’d
Object Identifiers Using Reference Types
• Unique system-generated object identifiers can be
created via the reference type using the keyword REF.
REF IS SYSTEM GENERATED
• Indicates that whenever a new PERSON_TYPE object
is created, the system will assign it a unique system-
generated identifier

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 Cont’d
• In general, the user can specify that system-generated object
identifiers for the individual rows in a table should be created.
• By using the syntax:
REF IS <OID_ATTRIBUTE>
<VALUE_GENERATION_METHOD> ;
• the user declares that the attribute named <OID_ATTRIBUTE> will
be used to identify individual tuples in the table.
• The options for <VALUE_GENERATION_METHOD> are
SYSTEM GENERATED or DERIVED.

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Cont’d
Creating Tables Based on the UDTs

• For each UDT that is specified to be instantiable via the

phrase INSTANTIABLE, one or more tables may be created.

• where we create a table PERSON based on the

PERSON_TYPE UDT

CREATE TABLE PERSON OF PERSON_TYPE

REF IS PERSON_ID SYSTEM GENERATED;

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Inheritance
• Inheritance allows the definition of new types based on
other predefined types, leading to a type (or class)
hierarchy.
• A type is defined by assigning it a type name and then
defining a number of attributes (instance variables) and
operations (methods) for the type.
– A subclass inherits the attributes, operations, and association
of its superclasses
Cont’d
• Sharing of data within hierarchy scope, supports code
reusability
• Student class inherits attributes and operations of Person

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 Structured Types and Inheritance in SQL
• Structured types (a.k.a. user-defined types) can be declared and used in SQL

create type Name as

(firstname varchar(20),
lastname varchar(20))
final

create type Address as

(street varchar(20),
city varchar(20),
zipcode varchar(20))

not final

– Note: final and not final indicate whether subtypes can be created
 Cont’d
• Structured types can be used to create tables with composite attributes

create table person (

name Name,

address Address,

dateOfBirth date)

• Dot notation used to reference components: name.firstname

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 Type Inheritance
• Suppose that we have the following type definition for person:
create type Person
(name varchar(20),
address varchar(20))
 Using inheritance to define the student and teacher types
create type Student
under Person
(degree varchar(20),
department varchar(20))
create type Teacher
under Person
(salary integer,
department varchar(20))
 Subtypes can redefine methods by using overriding method in place of
method in the method declaration
 Encapsulation of Operations
• The concept of encapsulation is one of the main characteristics
of OO languages and systems.

• It is also related to the concepts of abstract data types and

information hiding in programming languages.

• In traditional database models and systems this concept was not

applied, since it is customar to make the structure of database
objects visible to users and external programs.
 Cont’d

• In object oriented database model, the implementation

of operations and object structure is hidden
• The external users of the object are only made aware of
the interface of the operations, which defines the
name and arguments (parameters) of each operation.
• The implementation is hidden from the external users;
• It includes the definition of any hidden internal data
structures of the object and the implementation of the
operations that access these structures.

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Polymorphism
• Another characteristic of OO systems in general is that they
provide for polymorphism of operations, which is also
known as operator overloading.
• This concept allows the same operator name or symbol to be
bound to two or more different implementations of the
operator,
• Overloading
– The name of a method to be reused within a class definition or
across class definitions
• Overriding
– The name of property to be redefined in a subclass
Relational model vs Object –oriented model

Relational model
• Clean and simple.
• Great for administrative and transactional data.
• Not as good for other kinds of complex data (e.g., multimedia,
networks, CAD).
Object-Oriented models
• Complicated, but some influential ideas from Object Oriented
• Complex data types.
• Idea: Build DBMS based on OO model.

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 Advantages of OODBS
• Designer can specify the structure of objects and their
behavior (methods)

• Better interaction with object-oriented languages such as

Java and C++

• Definition of complex and user-defined types

• Encapsulation of operations and user-defined methods

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 Object-Oriented DBMS(OODBMS
• Object-Oriented DBMS(OODBMS) are DBMS
based on an Object Oriented Data Model inspired
by OO programming languages
• OODBMS Advantages
 Can handle large collections of complex types.
Thus support for aggregation, composition,
 Expressive data relationships
 Version control for evolving classes and
 Efficiently handles many-to-many relationships

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