Compatibility Rules for Relationships

A relationship is a defined connection between the rows of two tables that is determined by values in selected parent table columns that correspond to values in child table columns. When you define an Optim™ relationship, the corresponding values must be compatible.

Column Type Is Compatible With
Character Column
  • Character Column
  • Numeric Column
  • String Literal
  • Character Expression
Numeric Column
  • Numeric Column
  • Numeric Constant
  • Character Column
Binary Column
  • Binary Column
  • Hexadecimal Literal
  • Binary Expression
Boolean Column
  • Boolean Column
  • Boolean Constant (True or False)
Date Time Column Date Time Column
Date Column Date Column
Time Column Time Column
Interval Column Interval Column
Note:

Data Types

The following classes of data and associated data types are supported. These data classes are important for data compatibility when you use column values in relationships.

Character class
DBMS Data Types
DB2® CHAR, VARCHAR, CLOB
Oracle CHAR, VARCHAR2, LONG, CLOB, NCLOB, NCHAR, NVARCHAR
Sybase ASE CHAR, VARCHAR, TXT
SQL Server CHAR, VARCHAR, TXT
Informix® CHAR, VARCHAR, TXT
Note: Single-byte character columns are not compatible with multi-byte or Unicode character columns.
Numeric class
DBMS Data Types
DB2 INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, DOUBLE
Oracle NUMBER, FLOAT
Sybase ASE TINYINT, INT, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, REAL, MONEY, SMALL MONEY
SQL Server TINYINT, INT, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, REAL, MONEY, SMALL MONEY
Informix INTEGER, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, FLOAT, REAL, DOUBLE PRECISION, SMALLFLOAT, SERIAL, MONEY, NUMERIC
Binary class
DBMS Data Types
DB2 CHAR (for Bit Data), VARCHAR (for Bit Data), BLOB
Oracle RAW, LONG RAW
Sybase ASE BINARY, VARBINARY, IMAGE
SQL Server BINARY, VARBINARY, IMAGE
Informix BYTE
Boolean class
DBMS Data Types
Sybase ASE BOOLEAN (TRUE or FALSE)
Datetime
DBMS Data Types
DB2 TIMESTAMP
Oracle DATE, TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE, TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE
Sybase ASE DATETIME, SMALL DATE TIME
SQL Server DATETIME, SMALL DATE TIME
Informix DATE, DATETIME
Date class
DBMS Data Types
DB2 DATE
Oracle DATE
Informix DATE
Time class
DBMS Data Types
DB2 TIME
Interval class
DBMS Data Types
Oracle YEAR/MONTH INTERVAL,
DAY/SECOND INTERVAL
Informix YEAR/MONTH INTERVAL,
DAY/TIME INTERVAL