Support routines
You can select from different categories of support routines to support your opaque data type.
These support routines are described in the following sections.
- Basic text input and output
Basic text input and output functions convert between the text representation of the opaque data type and the internal database server format. - Binary send and receive
Binary send and receive functions transfer the binary representation of the opaque data type to and from the client. - Text import and export
Text file import and export functions transfer the text representation of the opaque data type to and from a flat file. - Binary file import and export
Binary file import and export functions transfer the binary representation of the opaque data type to and from a flat file. - Contains large objects (not available for C++)
The LOhandles() function retrieves a list of the pointer structures for the smart large objects embedded in the opaque data type. The database server calls the LOhandles() function to obtain a list of large objects used by an opaque data type. The LOhandles() function takes a pointer to an instance of the data type and returns an array of the large object handles used by the object. - Type insert and delete notification (not available for C++)
The Assign() function and the Destroy() procedure perform tasks before storing or deleting an opaque data type on disk: for example, to ensure proper reference counting on smart large objects. - Type compare support
Type comparison functions Compare(), Equal() (bound to the = operator), and NotEqual() (bound to the <> and != operators) compare two opaque data types: for example, to support an ORDER BY clause in a query. - B-tree indexing support
B-tree strategy and support functions support the use the B-tree secondary access method to create an index on your opaque data type column. - R-tree indexing support
Version 4.0 of BladeSmith does not generate code for R-tree support routines. - Type mathematic operators
Binary arithmetic operators Plus() (bound to the + operator), Minus() (bound to the - operator), Times() (bound to the * operator), and Divide() (bound to the / operator) perform operations on your opaque data type. - More mathematic operators
Unary arithmetic functions Positive() (bound to the + operator) and Negate() (bound to the - operator) perform operations on your opaque data type. - Type concatenation operator
The Concat() function (bound to the || operator) concatenates the values of two opaque data types. - Type hash support
Define a Hash() function for your opaque data type if the database server cannot use the built-in hashing function to cache its return values. - Statistics support (not available for C++ or Java)
Statistics support is available with HCL Informix® Version 9.2 and later.
Parent topic: Opaque data type