Opaque data types

An opaque data type is fully encapsulated to client applications; that is, its internal structure is not known to the database server.

Therefore, the database server cannot automatically perform locale-specific tasks such as code-set conversion for opaque types. All GLS processing (code-set conversion, localized collation order, display formats, and so on) must be performed in the opaque-type support functions.

When you create an opaque data type, you can write the support functions as C UDRs that can handle any locale-sensitive data. For more information, see Locale-sensitive data in an opaque data type.