Chapter 11

Object and
Object-
Relational
Databases

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

 Chapter 11 Outline
 Overview of Object Database Concepts
 Object-Relational Features:
Object Database Extensions to SQL
 The ODMG Object Model and the Object
Definition Language ODL
 Object Database Conceptual Design
 The Object Query Language OQL
 Overview of the C++ Language Binding in the
ODMG Standard

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Object and Object-Relational
Databases
 Object databases (ODB)
 Object data management systems (ODMS)
 Meet some of the needs of more complex
applications
 Specify:
• Structure of complex objects
• Operations that can be applied to these objects

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Overview of Object Database
Concepts
 Introduction to object-oriented concepts
and features
 Origins in OO programming languages
 Object has two components:
• State (value) and behavior (operations)
 Instance variables
• Hold values that define internal state of object
 Operation is defined in two parts:
• Signature or interface and implementation

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Overview of Object Database
Concepts (cont’d.)
 Inheritance
• Permits specification of new types or classes that
inherit much of their structure and/or operations
from previously defined types or classes
 Operator overloading
• Operation’s ability to be applied to different types of
objects
• Operation name may refer to several distinct
implementations

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Object Identity, and Objects
versus Literals
 Unique identity
 Implemented via a unique, system-generated
object identifier (OID)
 Immutable
 Most OO database systems allow for the
representation of both objects and literals
(or values)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Complex Type Structures for
Objects and Literals
 Structure of arbitrary complexity
 Contain all necessary information that describes
object or literal
 Nesting type constructors
 Construct complex type from other types
 Most basic constructors:
 Atom
 Struct (or tuple)
 Collection

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Complex Type Structures for
Objects and Literals (cont’d.)
 Collection types:
 Set
 Bag
 List
 Array
 Dictionary
 Object definition language (ODL)
 Used to define object types for a particular
database application

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
Encapsulation of Operations and
Persistence of Objects
 Encapsulation
 Related to abstract data types and information
hiding in programming languages
 Define behavior of a type of object based on
operations that can be externally applied
 External users only aware of interface of the
operations
 Divide structure of object into visible and
hidden attributes

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Object Behavior/Operations
 See figure 11.2

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Encapsulation of Operations
 Object constructor
 Used to create a new object
 Destructor operation
 Used to destroy (delete) an object
 Modifier operations
 Modify the states (values) of various attributes of an
object
 Retrieve information about the object
 Dot notation used to apply operations to object

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Persistence of Objects
 Transient objects
 Exist in executing program
 Disappear once program terminates
 Persistent objects
 Stored in database and persist after program
termination
 Naming mechanism
 Reachability

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Type Hierarchies and Inheritance
 Inheritance
 Definition of new types based on other
predefined types
 Leads to type (or class) hierarchy
 Type: type name and list of visible (public)
functions
 Format:
• TYPE_NAME: function, function, ...,
function

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Type Hierarchies and Inheritance
(cont’d.)
 Subtype
 Useful when creating a new type that is similar
but not identical to an already defined type
 Example:
• EMPLOYEE subtype-of PERSON: Salary,
Hire_date, Seniority
• STUDENT subtype-of PERSON: Major, Gpa

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Type Hierarchies and Inheritance
(cont’d.)
 Extent
 Store collection of persistent objects for each type
or subtype
 Extents are subsets of the extent of class OBJECT
 Persistent collection
 Stored permanently in the database
 Transient collection
 Exists temporarily during the execution of a program

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Other Object-Oriented Concepts
 Polymorphism of operations
 Also known as operator overloading
 Allows same operator name or symbol to be
bound to two or more different implementations
 Depending on type of objects to which operator
is applied
 Multiple inheritance
 Subtype inherits functions (attributes and
methods) of more than one supertype

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Other Object-Oriented Concepts
(cont’d.)
 Selective inheritance
 Subtype inherits only some of the functions of
a supertype

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Summary of Object Database
Concepts
 Object identity
 Type constructor
 Encapsulation of operations
 Programming language compatibility
 Type hierarchies and inheritance
 Extents
 Polymorphism and operator overloading

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Object-Relational Features:
Object Database Extensions to
SQL
 Type constructors
 Specify complex objects
 Mechanism for specifying object identity
 Encapsulation of operations
 Provided through user-defined types (UDTs)
 Inheritance mechanisms
 Provided using keyword UNDER

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 User-Defined Types and
Complex Structures for Objects
 UDT syntax:
 CREATE TYPE TYPE_NAME AS (<component
declarations>);
 ROW TYPE
 Directly create a structured attribute using the
keyword ROW
phone_no ROW (
area_code char (3),
prefix_no char (3),
number char (4),
),

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 User-Defined Types and
Complex Structures for Objects
(cont’d.)
 Array type
 Reference elements using [ ]
 CARDINALITY function
 Return the current number of elements in an
array

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Object Identifiers Using
Reference Types
 Reference type
 Create unique system-generated object
identifiers
 Examples:
• REF IS SYSTEM GENERATED
• REF IS <OID_ATTRIBUTE>
<VALUE_GENERATION_METHOD> ;
• Generation methods: SYSTEM GENERATED or
DERIVED

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Creating Tables Based on the
UDTs
 INSTANTIABLE
 Specify that UDT is instantiable
 Causes one or more tables to be created

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Encapsulation of Operations
 User-defined type
 Specify methods (or operations) in addition to
the attributes
 Format:
CREATE TYPE <TYPE-NAME> (
<LIST OF COMPONENT ATTRIBUTES AND THEIR TYPES>
<DECLARATION OF FUNCTIONS (METHODS)>
);

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Encapsulation of Operations
(cont’d.)
 Constructor function TYPE_T( )
 Returns a new object of that type
 Observer function A implicitly created for
each attribute A
 A(X) or X.A return the of attribute A
 User defined functions can internal (SQL)
or external
 External functions written in a host language

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Specifying Inheritance and
Overloading of Functions
 Inheritance rules:
 All attributes inherited
 Order of supertypes in UNDER clause
determines inheritance hierarchy
 Instance of a subtype can be used in every
context in which a supertype instance used
 Subtype can redefine any function defined in
supertype
 NOT FINAL: subtypes are allowed to be defined

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Specifying Inheritance and
Overloading of Functions
(cont’d.)
 When a function is called, best match selected
based on types of all arguments
 For dynamic linking, runtime types of
parameters is considered

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Specifying Relationships via
Reference
 Component attribute of one tuple may be a
reference to a tuple of another table
 Specified using keyword REF
 Keyword SCOPE: Specify name of table whose
tuples referenced (e.g, FK)
 Dot notation: Build path expressions
 –> Used for dereferencing
SELECT E.Employee -> Name
FROM EMPLOYMENT AS E
WHERE E.Company -> Name = ‘Microsoft’;

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

The ODMG Object Model and the
Object Definition Language ODL
 ODMG object model
 Data model for object definition language (ODL)
and object query language (OQL)
 Objects and Literals
 Basic building blocks of the object model
 Object has five aspects:
 Identifier, name, lifetime, structure, and creation
 Literal
 Value that does not have an object identifier

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 The ODMG Object Model and
the ODL (cont’d.)
 Behavior refers to operations
 State refers to properties
 Interface
 Specifies only behavior of an object type
 Typically noninstantiable

 Class
 Specifies both state (attributes) and behavior
(operations) of an object type
 Instantiable

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Inheritance in the Object Model
of ODMG
 Behavior inheritance
 Also known as IS-A or interface inheritance
 Specified by the colon (:) notation
 EXTENDS inheritance
 Specified by keyword extends
 Inherit both state and behavior strictly among
classes
 Multiple inheritance via extends not permitted

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Built-in Interfaces and Classes in
the Object Model
 Collection objects
 Inherit the basic Collection interface
 I = O.create_iterator()
 Creates an iterator object for the collection
 Collection objects further specialized into:
 set, list, bag, array, and dictionary

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Built-in Interfaces and Classes in
the Object Model (cont’d.)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Atomic (User-Defined) Objects
 Specified using keyword class in ODL
 Attribute
 Property; describes some aspect of an object
 Relationship
 Two objects in the database are related
 Keyword inverse
• Single conceptual relationship in inverse directions
 Operation signature:
 Operation name, argument types, return value

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Extents, Keys, and Factory
Objects
 Extent
 Contains all persistent objects of class
 Key
 One or more properties whose values are
unique for each object in extent
 Factory object
 Used to generate or create individual objects
via its operations

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

The Object Definition Language
ODL
 Support semantic constructs of ODMG
object model
 Independent of any particular programming
language

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Object Database Conceptual
Design
 Differences between conceptual design of
ODB and RDB, handling of:
 Relationships
 Inheritance
 Philosophical difference between relational
model and object model of data
 In terms of behavioral specification

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Mapping an EER Schema to an
ODB Schema
 Create ODL class for each EER entity type
 Add relationship properties for each binary
relationship
 Include appropriate operations for each class
 ODL class that corresponds to a subclass in
the EER schema
 Inherits type and methods of its superclass in
ODL schema

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Mapping an EER Schema to an
ODB Schema (cont’d.)
 Weak entity types
 Mapped same as regular entity types
 Categories (union types)
 Difficult to map to ODL
 An n-ary relationship with degree n > 2
 Map into a separate class, with appropriate
references to each participating class

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 The Object Query Language
OQL
 Query language proposed for ODMG object
model
 Simple OQL queries, database entry points,
and iterator variables
 Syntax: select ... from ... where ... structure
 Entry point: named persistent object
 Iterator variable: define whenever a collection
is referenced in an OQL query

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Query Results and Path
Expressions
 Result of a query
 Any type that can be expressed in ODMG
object model
 OQL orthogonal with respect to specifying
path expressions
 Attributes, relationships, and operation names
(methods) can be used interchangeably within
the path expressions

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Other Features of OQL
 Named query
 Specify identifier of named query
 OQL query will return collection as its result
 If user requires that a query only return a single
element use element operator
 Aggregate operators
 Membership and quantification over a
collection

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Other Features of OQL (cont’d.)
 Special operations for ordered collections
 Group by clause in OQL
 Similar to the corresponding clause in SQL
 Provides explicit reference to the collection of
objects within each group or partition
 Having clause
 Used to filter partitioned sets

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Overview of the C++ Language
Binding in the ODMG Standard
 Specifies how ODL constructs are mapped
to C++ constructs
 Uses prefix d_ for class declarations that
deal with database concepts
 Template classes
 Specified in library binding
 Overloads operation new so that it can be used
to create either persistent or transient objects

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe

 Summary
 Overview of concepts utilized in object
databases
 Object identity and identifiers; encapsulation of
operations; inheritance; complex structure of
objects through nesting of type constructors;
and how objects are made persistent
 Description of the ODMG object model and
object query language (OQL)
 Overview of the C++ language binding

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe