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9.2.9. Getting & Setting Member Values of Type Instances (member observers & mutators)

Let T be a user defined type that has a member A of type AT . Let IT be an instance of type T .

Member Observers (Getting Values)

There are two alternative syntaxes (both scalar expressions):

SQL200n :  A(<scalar_exp>)
Virtuoso extension :  <scalar_exp>.A

Both of the above will return a copy of the member's value of the instance in <scalar_exp> when the scalar expression <scalar_exp> has a compile time type of T . If the compile time type is not determined to be a user defined type T the first one will be compiled as a call to the SQL function A and the second will either generate a syntax error or the server will consider it as reference to a scope variable (depending on the type of <scalar_exp>).

These are also scalar expressions and have a compile time type AT .

To specify an explicit type of the scalar expression there is a third syntax:

(<scalar_exp> as T).A

This will force the server to compile a reference to the member A in user defined type T . Whether the <scalar_exp> is indeed of type T will be checked at runtime.

Member Mutators (Setting Values)

There are two alternative syntaxes (both scalar expressions):

SQL200n :  A(<scalar_exp>, <new_value_scalar_exp>)
Virtuoso extension :  <scalar_exp>.A := <new_value_scalar_exp>

Both of the above will set the member's value of the instance in <scalar_exp> to a copy of <new_value_scalar_exp> when the scalar expression <scalar_exp> has a compile time type of T . If the compile time type is not determined to be a user defined type T the first one will be compiled as a call to the SQL function A and the second will either generate a syntax error or the server will consider it as reference to a scope variable (depending on the type of <scalar_exp>).

These are also scalar expressions and have a compile time type T and return a copy of the <scalar_exp>. To specify an explicit type of the scalar exp there is a third syntax:

(<scalar_exp> as T).A := <new_value_scalar_exp>

This will force the server to compile a reference to the member A in user defined type T . Whether the <scalar_exp> is indeed of type T will be checked at runtime.

Example 9.8. Member Construction

This will make a new object of type UDT_FR_BASE by calling it's two int parameters constructor and will return the member B value of the instance stored in member UDT_M of UDT_FR_BASE .

select new UDT_FR_BASE (1, 2).UDT_M.B;