Structured type

The SQL:1999 standard introduced a number of object-relational database features into SQL, chiefly among them structured user-defined types, usually called just structured types. These can be defined either in plain SQL with CREATE TYPE but also in Java via SQL/JRT. SQL structured types allow single inheritance.

Structured types are supported to varying degrees in Oracle database, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server, although the latter only allows structured types defined in CLR.

Further reading

• Jim Melton (2003). Advanced SQL: 1999. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-1-55860-677-7.  Chapters 2-4.
• Suzanne W. Dietrich; Susan D. Urban (2011). Fundamentals of Object Databases: Object-Oriented and Object-Relational Design. Morgan & Claypool Publishers. ISBN 978-1-60845-476-1.  Chapter 3.
• Catherine Ricardo (2011). Databases Illuminated (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4496-0600-8.  Chapter 8.