Properties of row data types

Named and Unnamed Row data types

You can create a named or an unnamed row data type.

A named row data type has these general characteristics:
  • Its name is unique.
  • It supports inheritance from a parent row data type or to a child row data type.
  • It can be used as the basis of a typed table.
An unnamed row type has these general characteristics:
  • It is equivalent to any other unnamed row type with the same structure. The structure is defined by the number of fields, the data types of the fields, and the order of the fields.
  • It does not support inheritance.
  • It cannot be used as the basis of a typed table.

See the Informix® Guide to SQL: Tutorial for more information about named and unnamed row data types.

Row data type inheritance

Named row data types can inherit from other named row data types. A child row data type inherits the fields of its parent and can be passed to all routines defined for the parent data type.

You can add additional fields and routines that are only valid for the child data type.

See the Informix Guide to SQL: Tutorial for more information about inheritance.

Row data type fields

Fields in row data types can be any existing data type except SERIAL, SERIAL8, and BIGSERIAL.

Tip: If you create a row data type with a field of type BLOB or CLOB, you can test for the existence of a particular sbspace when your DataBlade® module is being registered in a database by using BladeManager.