Mimer SQL Database Objects

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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, see Mimer SQL User's Manual, Managing Database Connections, 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

  System objects are global to the database. System object names must be unique for each object type since they are global and therefore common to all users.

  The system objects in a Mimer SQL database are: databanks, idents, schemas and shadows. A system object is owned by the ident that created it and only the creator of the object can drop it.

• 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.

  The private objects in a Mimer SQL database are: collations, domains, functions, indexes, modules, procedures, executable statements, sequences, synonyms, tables, triggers, and views.

  Private objects are 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.

  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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