Polyglot: Extensions to relational databases for sharable types and functions in a multi-language environment

Abstract

Polyglot is an extensible relational database type system that supports inheritance, encapsulation, and dynamic method dispatch. It allows use from multiple application languages and permits objects to retain their behavior as they cross the boundary between database and application program. This paper describes the design of Polyglot, extensions to the SQL language to support the use of Polyglot types and methods, and the implementation of Polyglot in the Starburst relational database system.