Important ORDBMS Features
User Defined Types (UDTs): UDTs allow developer to define their own data type. UDTs include structure, array, text, multimedia, time-series, etc.
User Defined Functions (UDFs): UDFs allow developer to define their own functions. UDFs can be invoked independently or inside a SQL statement i.e. WHERE clause. UDFs usually operate on complex data.
Extended Search/Index Capabilities: ORDBMS allow for searching complex data type. The new ORDBMS provide to specify the “cost” for searching UDTs & executing UDFs to better optimize queries in complex data.
Predefined Extensions: The ORDBMS vendors offer a number of predefined extensions (called – Data Cartridges by Oracle, Snapins by Sybase, DataBlades by Informix) which handle complex information in particular application domain such text search, images, video, messaging etc.
Extended Support for Programming Languages: In RDBMS functions had to be written in database vendor’s native language i.e. PL/SQL in Oracle, T-SQL in SOL Server, SPL in Informix. ORDBMS are now providing support for C, C++ and Java when writing UDFs in their database.
Example: Most of the ORDBMS features are being included in the new SQL3 standard.