Mimer SQL Database Objects
This chapter provides a general introduction to the basic concepts of Mimer SQL databases and Mimer SQL objects.
Mimer SQL is a relational database system. This means that the information in the database is presented to the user in the form of tables. The tables represent a logical description of the contents of the database which is independent of, and insulates the user from, the physical storage format of the data.
The Mimer SQL database includes the data dictionary which is a set of tables describing the organization of the database and is used primarily by the database management system itself.
The database, although located on a single server, may be accessed from many distinct clients, linked over a network.
Commands are available for managing the connections to different databases, so the actual database being accessed may change during the course of an SQL session.
At any one time, however, the database may be regarded as one single organized collection of information.
System and Private Objects
Mimer SQL database objects can be divided into the following groups:
- System Objects
- Private Objects
Private objects belong to a schema. Private object names are local to a schema, so two different schemas may contain an object with the same name. It is also possible to have objects with the same name in a schema, if they are of different types.
The private objects in a Mimer SQL database are collations, domains, functions, indexes, methods, modules, precompiled statements, procedures, sequences, synonyms, tables, triggers, user-defined types, and views.
Private objects are usually fully identified by their qualified name, which is the name of the schema to which they belong and the name of the object in the following form: schema.object, see Qualified Object Names.
Functions, procedures, and methods may exist in multiple versions having the same name. See Mimer SQL Programmer's Manual, Parameter Overloading.
Conflicts arising from the use of the same object name in two different schemas are avoided when the qualified name is used. If a private object name is specified without explicit reference to its schema, it is assumed to belong to a schema with the same name as the current ident.
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