Object Types

Object types in Oracle are the equivalent of classes in Java. Like Java classes, they have attributes and methods. An object type can be used as the datatype in a table column; as an attribute in another object; and as an argument, variable, or return value for a method.

In Oracle, attributes correspond to the columns in a table. In the same way that attributes in Java can be of either primitive types, such as int and float, or other classes, such as String and FileWriter, attributes in Oracle can be either standard SQL datatypes, such as NUMBER and VARCHAR2, or other object types, including nested tables and arrays.

In Oracle, methods are functions or procedures written in PL/SQL, Java, or C/C++. We'll take a look at methods later; ...

Get Java™ Oracle® Database Development now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.