Class Naming Conventions

Each class of the Oracle Objects for OLE C++ Class Library is described separately, along with its methods and defines, in this Help file. Please note the following important conventions:

· Class names all begin with the letter "O". For classes that are handles, the implementation object (that is, the underlying object that the class object refers to) is referred to in this documentation by the same name without the "O". For example, the ODatabase instance refers to an underlying database instance.

· The class library contains ODatabase objects (handles), which refer to underlying database objects (implementation objects). In addition, there is the actual Oracle database, typically a program that is running on a server computer that you connect to by way of some network. In this document the database program is referred to as the "Oracle database" to distinguish it from the database objects.

· You open a handle to attach it to its reference. When you close the handle, it is no longer associated with that reference.

· Methods whose name is Open will create an underlying implementation object. For instance, Opening a database will actually create a connection to a database. Methods whose name begins with Get will return a handle object but will not be creating any new underlying implementations. For instance the method ODynaset::GetDatabase will return an ODatabase object. That object will be a handle on an already existing database object.

See Objects as Handles for more information on handles and underlying implementation objects.