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

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. The authors describe the design of Polyglot, extensions to the structured query language (SQL) to support the use of Polyglot types and methods, and the implementation of Polyglot in the Starburst relational database system