The Clash of the (database) Cultures Object- oriented Relational

Two strategies in order to combine the „cultures“: (1)Relational – object-oriented Example: Fastobjects‘ ODBC interface (2)Object – relational Example: SQL 3 or SQL:2003

Object-relational databases based on SQL-3 are partwise according to the Manifesto : Complex objects  Objekt identity  EncapsulationNo Types (and Classes)  Class or Type Hierarchies  Overriding, overloading and late bindingNo Computational completeness  Extensibility  Persistence  Secondary storage management  Concurrency  Recovery  Ad Hoc Query Facility 

CREATE TYPE PersonType AS (Name VARCHAR (30), Address VARCHAR (50)) NOT FINAL; Structures table type Inherited type CREATE TYPE StaffMemberType UNDER PersonType AS (Salary DECIMAL (6)) NOT FINAL; Table definition based on a type; insertion of an OID CREATE TABLE StaffMember OF StaffMemberType (REF IS oid SYSTEM GENERATED); For more details see: Examples

(2) Object-oriented database systems offer relational interfaces Example: Fastobjects‘ ODBC interface

Architecture of FastObjects ODBC FastObjects database FastObjects Engine C++ Application (native API) Object-oriented Access database Access Engine Access ODBC driver C++ Application (ODBC API) Relational FastObjects ODBC driver Access Client Access database