Locale-sensitive data in an opaque data type

An opaque data type is fully encapsulated. Its internal structure is not known to the database server.

The database server cannot automatically perform the locale-specific tasks such as code-set conversion on character data or locale-specific formatting of date, numeric, or monetary data. When you create an opaque data type, you must write the support functions of the opaque type so that they handle any locale-sensitive data.

In particular, consider how to handle any locale-sensitive data when you write the following support functions:

The input( ) and output( ) support functions
The receive( ) and send( ) support functions

The DataBlade® API and HCL® OneDB® GLS provide GLS support for opaque-type support functions written in C. The following sections summarize GLS considerations for these support functions. For general information about the support functions of an opaque data type, see HCL OneDB User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide.