The destroy() function

The destroy() function performs any processing necessary before the database server removes a row that contains opaque data. The database server calls the destroy() function just before it removes the internal representation of an opaque type from disk. For example, when a client application issues a DELETE or DROP TABLE statement, the database server calls the destroy() function before it deletes an opaque-type value from a column.

The following figure shows when the database server executes the destroy() function.
Figure 1: Execution of the destroy() support function

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The destroy() function takes as an opaque data type. It does not return a value.