Object Oriented Databases

OODB

Copyright © 2004 Pearson Education, Inc.

 Introduction

 Traditional Data Models : Hierarchical, Network (since mid-

60’s), Relational (since 1970 and commercially since 1982)
 Object Oriented (OO) Data Models since mid-90’s
 Reasons for creation of Object Oriented Databases
– Need for more complex applications
– Need for additional data modeling features
– Increased use of object-oriented programming languages
 Commercial OO Database products – several in the 1990’s,
but did not make much impact on mainstream data
management

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 History of OO Models and Systems

 Languages: Simula (1960’s), Smalltalk (1970’s), C++

(late 1980’s), Java (1990’s)
 Experimental Systems: Orion at MCC, IRIS at H-P
labs, Open-OODB at T.I., ODE at ATT Bell labs,
Postgres - Montage - Illustra at UC/B,
Encore/Observer at Brown
 Commercial OO Database products: Ontos,
Gemstone, O2 ( -> Ardent), Objectivity, Objectstore (
-> Excelon), Versant, Poet, Jasmine (Fujitsu – GM)

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Overview of Object-Oriented Concepts

 MAIN CLAIM: OO databases try to maintain a

direct correspondence between real-world and
database objects so that objects do not lose their
integrity and identity and can easily be identified
and operated upon
 Object: Two components: state (value) and
behavior (operations). Similar to program variable
in programming language, except that it will
typically have a complex data structure as well as
specific operations defined by the programmer
Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Overview of Object-Oriented Concepts

 In OO databases, objects may have an object

structure of arbitrary complexity in order to contain
all of the necessary information that describes the
object.
 In contrast, in traditional database systems,
information about a complex object is often
scattered over many relations or records, leading to
loss of direct correspondence between a real-world
object and its database representation.

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Object identity: Objects have unique identities that
are independent of their attribute values.
 Type constructors: Complex object structures can
be constructed by recursively applying a set of
basic constructors, such as tuple, set, list, and bag.
 Encapsulation of operations: Both the object
structure and the operations that can be applied to
objects are included in the object class definitions.

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Programming language compatibility: Both
persistent and transient objects are handled
uniformly. Objects are made persistent by
being attached to a persistent collection.
 Type hierarchies and inheritance: Object
types can be specified by using a type
hierarchy, which allows the inheritance of
both attributes and methods of previously
defined types.

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Extents: All persistent objects of a particular type can
be stored in an extent. Extents corresponding to a
type hierarchy have set/subset constraints enforced on
them.
 Support for complex objects: Both structured and
unstructured complex objects can be stored and
manipulated.
 Polymorphism and operator overloading: Operations
and method names can be overloaded to apply to
different object types with different implementations.

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 The Object Model of ODMG

 Provides a standard model for object

databases
 Supports object definition via ODL
 Supports object querying via OQL
 Supports a variety of data types and type
constructors

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 ODMG Objects and Literals
 The basic building blocks of the object model are
– Objects
– Literlas
 An object has four characteristics
1. Identifier: unique system-wide identifier
2. Name: unique within a particular database and/or
program; it is optional
3. Lifetime: persistent vs transient
4. Structure: specifies how object is constructed by the
type constructor and whether it is an atomic object

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 ODMG Literals
 A literal has a current value but not an identifier
 Three types of literals
1. atomic: predefined; basic data type values (e.g.,
short, float, boolean, char)
2. structured: values that are constructed by type
constructors (e.g., date, struct variables)
3. collection: a collection (e.g., array) of values or objects

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Collection Objects

 A collection object inherits the basic

collection interface, for example:
– cardinality()
– is_empty()
– insert_element()
– remove_element()
– contains_element()
– create_iterator()

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-12

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Collection Types
 Collection objects are further specialized into types
like a set, list, bag, array, and dictionary
 Each collection type may provide additional
interfaces, for example, a set provides:
– create_union()
– create_difference()
– is_subst_of(
– is_superset_of()
– is_proper_subset_of()

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-13

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
Object Inheritance Hierarchy

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-14

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Atomic Objects
 Atomic objects are user-defined objects and
are defined via keyword class
 An example:
class Employee (extent all_emplyees key ssn) {
attribute string name;
attribute string ssn;
attribute short age;
relationship Dept works_for;
void reassign(in string new_name);
}

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Class Extents
 An ODMG object can have an extent defined via
a class declaration
 Each extent is given a name and will contain all
persistent objects of that class
 For Employee class, for example, the extent is
called all_employees
 This is similar to creating an object of type
Set<Employee> and making it persistent

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-16

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Class Key
 A class key consists of one or more unique
attributes
 For the Employee class, the key is ssn
Thus each employee is expected to have a
unique ssn
 Keys can be composite, e.g.,
(key dnumber, dname)

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-17

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Object Definition Language

 ODL supports semantics constructs of

ODMG
 ODL is ndependent of any programming
language
 ODL is used to create object specification
(classes and interfaces)
 ODL is not used for database manipulation

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-18

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 ODL Examples (1)
A Very Simple Class
 A very simple, straightforward class
definition
class Degree {
attribute string college;
attribute string degree;
attribute string year;
};

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-19

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 ODL Examples (2)
A Class With Key and Extent
 A class definition with “extent”, “key”, and more
elaborate attributes; still relatively straightforward

class Person (extent persons key ssn) {

attribute struct Pname {string fname …} name;
attribute string ssn;
attribute date birthdate;
…
short age();
}

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-20

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 ODL Examples (3)
A Class With Relationships
 Note extends (inheritance) relationship
 Also note “inverse” relationship

Class Faculty extends Person (extent faculty) {

attribute string rank;
attribute float salary;
attribute string phone;
…
relationship Dept works_in inverse Dept::has_faculty;
relationship set<GradStu> advises inverse GradStu::advisor;
void give_raise (in float raise);
void promote (in string new_rank);
};

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-21

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Object Query Language

 OQL is DMG’s query language

 OQL works closely with programming
languages such as C++
 Embedded OQL statements return objects
that are compatible with the type system of
the host language
 OQL’s syntax is similar to SQL with
additional features for objects
Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-22
Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Simple OQL Queries
 Basic syntax: select…from…where…
SELECT d.name
FROM d in departments
WHERE d.college = ‘Engineering’;
 An entry point to the database is needed for
each query
 An extent name (e.g., departments in the
above example) may serve as an entry point
 Iterator variable d

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-23

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Data Type of Query Results

 The data type of a query result can be any

type defined in the ODMG model
 A query does not have to follow the
select…from…where… format
 A persistent name on its own can serve as a
query whose result is a reference to the
persistent object, e.g., departments; whose
type is set<Departments>

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-24

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Path Expressions

 A path expression is used to specify a path to

attributes and objects in an entry point
 A path expression starts at a persistent object
name (or its iterator variable)
 The name will be followed by zero or more
dot connected relationship or attribute
names, e.g., departments.chair;

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-25

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Views as Named Objects

 The define keyword in OQL is used to

specify an identifier for a named query
 The name should be unique; if not, the
results will replace an existing named query
 Once a query definition is created, it will
persist until deleted or redefined
 A view definition can include parameters

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-26

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 An Example of OQL View
 A view to include students in a department
who have a minor:

define has_minor(dept_name) as
select s
from s in students
where s.minor_in.dname=dept_name
 has_minor can now be used in queries

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-27

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Single Elements from Collections

 An OQL query returns a collection

 OQL’s element operator can be used to
return a single element from a singleton
collection that contains one element:
element (select d from d in departments)
where d.dname = ‘Software Engineering’);

 If d is empty or has more than one elements,

an exception is raised

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-28

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Collection Operators

 OQL supports a number of aggregate

operators that can be applied to query results
 The aggregate operators include min,
max, count, sum, and avg and operate
over a collection
 count returns an integer; others return the
same type as the collection type

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-29

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 An Example of an OQL
Aggregate Operator
 To compute the average GPA of all seniors
majoring in Business:

avg (select s.gpa from s in students

where s.class = ‘senior’ and
s.majors_in.dname =‘Business’);

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-30

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Membership and Quantification

 OQL provides membership and

quantification operators:
– (e in c) is true if e is in the collection c
– (for all e in c: b) is true if all e
elements of collection c satisfy b
– (exists e in c: b) is true if at least one
e in collection c satisfies b

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-31

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 An Example of Membership

 To retrieve the names of all students who

completed CS101:

select s.name.fname s.name.lname

from s in students
where ‘CS101’ in
(select c.name from c in
s.completed_sections.section.of_course);

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-32

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Ordered Collections

 Collections that are lists or arrays allow

retrieving their first, last, and ith
elements
 OQL provides additional operators for
extracting a sub-collection and concatenating
two lists
 OQL also provides operators for ordering the
results

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-33

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 An Example of Ordered Operation

 To retrieve the last name of the faculty

member who earns the highest salary:

first (select struct

(faculty: f.name.lastname,salary f.salary)
from f in faculty
ordered by f.salary desc);

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-34

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe
 Grouping Operator
 OQL also supports a grouping operator
called group by
 To retrieve average GPA of majors in each
department having >100 majors:
select deptname, avg_gpa:
avg (select p.s.gpa from p in partition)
from s in students
group by deptname: s.majors_in.dname
having count (partition) > 100

Elmasri/Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Fourth Edition Chapter 21-35

Copyright © 2004 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant Navathe