Tables are logical structures maintained by the database manager. Tables are made up of columns and rows. The rows are not necessarily ordered within a table (order is determined by the application program). At the intersection of every column and row is a specific data item called a value.
A column is a set of values of the same data type. A row is a sequence of values such that the nth value is a value of the nth column of the table.
is created with the CREATE TABLE statement and is used to hold persistent user data. A result table is a set of rows that the database manager selects or generates from one or more base tables to satisfy a query.
A summary table is a table that is defined by a query that is also used to determine the data in the table. Summary tables can be used to improve the performance of queries. If the database manager determines that a portion of a query could be resolved using a summary table, the query may be rewritten by the database manager to use the summary table. This decision is based on certain settings such as CURRENT REFRESH AGE and CURRENT QUERY OPTIMIZATION special registers.
A table can have the data type of each column defined separately, or have the types for the columns based on the attributes of a user-defined structured type. This is called a typed table. A user-defined structured type may be part of a type hierarchy. A subtype is said to inherit attributes from its supertype. Similarly, a typed table can be part of a table hierarchy. A subtable is said to inherit columns from its supertable. Note that the term subtype applies to a user-defined structured type and all user-defined structured types that are below it in the type hierarchy. A proper subtype of a structured type T is a structured type below T in the type hierarchy. Similarly the term subtable applies to a typed table and all typed tables that are below it in the table hierarchy. A proper subtable of a table T is a table below T in the table hierarchy.