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Extending Informix®
Beyond standard relational database objects, HCL Informix® can be extended to handle specialized data types, access methods, routines, and other objects. Informix includes many built-in extensions that are fully integrated in the database server. Informix also provides DataBlade® modules, which are packages of extended database objects for a particular purpose and that are installed separately from the database server. Alternatively, you can create your own user-defined objects for Informix.
Creating extensions
You can create user-defined data types, routines, access methods, and other database objects to suit your needs. You can use application programming interfaces to write user-defined routines and applications that access data in Informix® databases.
DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide
The Informix® DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide describes information about the DataBlade API, the C-language application programming interface (API) provided with HCL Informix.
Data manipulation
Date and time data types
This section describes the date and time data types and the functions that the DataBlade® API supports to process date and time data.
Date data
Date data is a calendar date. The DataBlade® API provides support for date values in both their text and binary representations.

Extending Informix®
Beyond standard relational database objects, HCL Informix® can be extended to handle specialized data types, access methods, routines, and other objects. Informix includes many built-in extensions that are fully integrated in the database server. Informix also provides DataBlade® modules, which are packages of extended database objects for a particular purpose and that are installed separately from the database server. Alternatively, you can create your own user-defined objects for Informix.
- Informix® extensions and DataBlade® modules
  These topics describe how to use built-in database extensions and separately installed DataBlade® modules.
- Creating extensions
  You can create user-defined data types, routines, access methods, and other database objects to suit your needs. You can use application programming interfaces to write user-defined routines and applications that access data in Informix® databases.
  - DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide
    The Informix® DataBlade® API Programmer's Guide describes information about the DataBlade API, the C-language application programming interface (API) provided with HCL Informix.
    - DataBlade® API overview
    - Data manipulation
      - Numeric data types
        This section describes these numeric data types and the functions that the DataBlade® API supports to process numeric data.
      - Date and time data types
        This section describes the date and time data types and the functions that the DataBlade® API supports to process date and time data.
        Date data
        Date data is a calendar date. The DataBlade® API provides support for date values in both their text and binary representations.
        Date text representation
        Date binary representation
        The SQL DATE data type holds the internal (binary) format of a decimal value. This value is an integer value that represents the number of days since December 31, 1899. Dates before December 31, 1899, are negative numbers, while dates after December 31, 1899, are positive numbers.
        Transfers of date data (Server)
        For date data to be portable when transferred across different computer architectures, the DataBlade® API provides functions to handle type alignment and byte order.
        Conversion of date representations
        Both the DataBlade® API library and the Informix® ESQL/C library provide functions that convert from the text (string) representation of a date value to the binary (internal) representation for DATE.
        Operations on date data
        The Informix® ESQL/C library provides functions to perform operations on DATE (mi_date) values.
        Date-time or interval data
        The DataBlade® API provides support for date-time or interval data in both text and binary representations.
      - Complex data types
        This section describes the complex data types and the functions that the DataBlade® API supports to process collection and row-type data.
      - Smart large objects
    - Database access
    - Create user-defined routines
    - Appendix
      This section contains additional reference information.
  - DataBlade® API Function Reference
    The Informix® DataBlade® API Function Reference describes the DataBlade API functions and the subset of Informix ESQL/C functions that the DataBlade API supports.
  - DataBlade® Developers Kit
    The DataBlade® Developers Kit (DBDK) guides contain information about the tools you can use to develop and package DataBlade modules, which extend the functionality of HCL Informix® databases.
  - J/Foundation Developer's Guide
    The J/Foundation Developer's Guide describes how to write user-defined routines (UDRs) in the Java™ programming language for Informix®.
  - R-Tree Index User's Guide
    The Informix® R-Tree Index User's Guide describes the HCL Informix R-tree secondary access method and how to access and use its components.
  - User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide
    The Informix® User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide describes how to define new data types and enable user-defined routines (UDRs) to extend HCL Informix.
  - Virtual-Table Interface Guide
    The Informix® Virtual-Table Interface Programmer's Guide explains how to create a primary access method with the Virtual-Table Interface (VTI) so that users have a single SQL interface to HCL Informix tables and to data that does not conform to the storage scheme of HCL Informix.
  - Virtual-Index Interface Guide
    The Informix® Virtual-Index Interface Programmer's Guide explains how to create a secondary access method with the Virtual-Index Interface (VII) to extend the built-in indexing schemes of HCL Informix typically with a DataBlade® module.

Date data

Date data is a calendar date. The DataBlade® API provides support for date values in both their text and binary representations.