Querying Collections of Objects

David Beech

Oracle Corporation

DBEECH@us.oracle.com


ABSTRACT

The SQL SELECT style of query lends itself naturally to being applied to collections of objects, as has been demonstrated by the ODMG-93 query language OQL. However, OQL was not designed to be strictly compatible with SQL-92, and there is now widespread interest in seeing it become compatible and merge with the SQL standard. Indeed, the OMG CORBA Query Service points to both SQL-92 and OQL, while expressing the hope that they will converge in SQL3. This talk will report on the current status of the convergence effort, showing how SELECT can be improved. The handful of technical problems stemming from the design of the original SELECT will be analyzed and overcome.

David Beech has been with Oracle since 1988, working on the introduction of object technology. At HP Laboratories in 1982, he initiated work on what became the Iris system with its object SQL interface. Prior to that, he was manager of the PL/I language for IBM, and a member of the original design team for DB2. He holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University.