Overview of ANYDATA type

The ANYDATA type contains an instance of a specified type and a description of the type. ANYDATA is self-descriptive.

Construction methods

There are two methods for constructing ANYDATA:

• Use one CONVERT * call to fully construct ANYDATA.

   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertNumber(num IN NUMBER) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertDate(dat IN DATE) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertChar(c IN CHAR) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertVarchar(c IN VARCHAR) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertVarchar2(c IN VARCHAR2) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertRaw(r IN RAW) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertBlob(b IN BLOB) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertClob(c IN CLOB) return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertObject(obj IN "<ADT_1>") return AnyData,
   STATIC FUNCTION ConvertCollection(col IN "<COLLECTION_1>") return AnyData,
  /* Calls for converting datetime and nchar types */
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertTimestamp(ts IN TIMESTAMP_UNCONSTRAINED) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertTimestampTZ(ts IN TIMESTAMP_TZ_UNCONSTRAINED) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertTimestampLTZ(ts IN TIMESTAMP_LTZ_UNCONSTRAINED) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertIntervalYM(inv IN YMINTERVAL_UNCONSTRAINED) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertIntervalDS(inv IN DSINTERVAL_UNCONSTRAINED) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertNchar(nc IN NCHAR) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertNVarchar2(nc IN NVARCHAR2) return AnyData,
   /* Calls for converting BFloat, BDouble, and URowid types */
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertBFloat(fl IN BINARY_FLOAT) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertBDouble(dbl IN BINARY_DOUBLE) return AnyData,
    STATIC FUNCTION ConvertURowid(rid IN UROWID) return AnyData,
  

• Use the piecewise method to construct ANYDATA.

  The construction process begins with a call to the BEGINCREATE static stored procedure and ends with a call to the ENDCREATE member stored procedure. Between these two calls, you can use SET* calls to set individual attributes of an object type or elements of a collection. To access the elements of a collection in a piecewise manner, you must call the PIECEWISE member stored procedure before any GET* calls.

  Notice

  ANYDATA must be constructed or accessed in sequence, starting with its first attribute (or collection element). The BEGINCREATE call automatically starts the piecewise construction. You do not need to immediately call PIECEWISE after BEGINCREATE. You should call ENDCREATE to complete the construction process (any access calls can be made before this).

Accesses

The functions are available as SQL functions. They do not raise exceptions for type mismatches. Instead, if the type of the ANYDATA value does not match the accessed type, the function returns NULL. If you want to use ANYDATA functions that return values of appropriate types in queries, use the WHERE clause with GETTYPENAME to specify the type you are interested in, such as SYS.NUMBER. Each function returns a value of the specified data type, wrapped in the SYS.ANYDATA type.

  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessNumber(self IN AnyData) return NUMBER DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessDate(self IN AnyData) return DATE DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessChar(self IN AnyData) return CHAR DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessVarchar(self IN AnyData) return VARCHAR DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessVarchar2(self IN AnyData) return VARCHAR2 DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessRaw(self IN AnyData) return RAW DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessBlob(self IN AnyData) return BLOB DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessClob(self IN AnyData) return CLOB DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessTimestamp(self IN AnyData) return TIMESTAMP_UNCONSTRAINED DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessTimestampTZ(self IN AnyData) return TIMESTAMP_TZ_UNCONSTRAINED DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessTimestampLTZ(self IN AnyData) return TIMESTAMP_LTZ_UNCONSTRAINED DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessIntervalYM(self IN AnyData) return YMINTERVAL_UNCONSTRAINED DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessIntervalDS(self IN AnyData) return DSINTERVAL_UNCONSTRAINED DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessNchar(self IN AnyData) return NCHAR DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessNVarchar2(self IN AnyData) return NVARCHAR2 DETERMINISTIC,
  /* Access calls for FLOAT, DOUBLE, and ROWID */
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessBFloat(self IN AnyData) return BINARY_FLOAT DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessBDouble(self IN AnyData) return BINARY_DOUBLE DETERMINISTIC,
  MEMBER FUNCTION AccessURowid(self IN AnyData) return UROWID DETERMINISTIC;

ANYDATA Subprocedures

The following table lists the ANYDATA subprograms available in the current OceanBase Database release and brief descriptions.