Overview of the ANYDATA type

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

Syntax

You can construct ANYDATA using the following methods:

• Build ANYDATA by calling CONVERT * once.

   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,
  /* Convert the 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,
   /* Conversion of BFloat, BDouble, and URowid call */
    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,
  

• Construct the ANYDATA by using the piecewise method.

  The BEGINCREATE stored procedure is used to initiate the object creation process, while the ENDCREATE stored procedure is used to complete the object creation process. During these two calls, use the SET* stored procedures to set the properties or collection elements of an object type. To access object and element attributes in a segmented manner, call the PIECEWISE stored procedure before using the GET* stored procedures.

  Notice

  ANYDATA must perform an ordered build or access starting with its first attribute (or collection element). A BEGINCREATE call automatically starts a step-by-step build. A call to PIECEWISE is not required immediately after a BEGINCREATE call. A call to ENDCREATE is required to complete the build process (any access call can be made before this call).

Access methods

You can use SQL statements to access data of any type. These functions do not raise exceptions when the types do not match. Instead, if the type of ANYDATA does not match the type of the data to be accessed, the function returns NULL. To use the ANYDATA function that returns data of the appropriate type in a query, you must specify the WHERE clause, which uses GETTYPENAME to select the type of interest, such as SYS.NUMBER. Each function returns a value of the specified data type in the SYS.ANYDATA wrapper.

  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,
  /* Float, Double, and Rowid access calls*/
  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;

Overview of ANYDATA subprograms

The following table describes the ANYDATA subprograms supported in the current version of OceanBase Database.