The assign() function contains special processing
to perform before an opaque data type is inserted into a table. The
database server calls the assign() function just
before it stores the internal representation of an opaque type on
disk. For example, when a client application issues an INSERT, UPDATE,
or LOAD statement, the database server calls the assign() function
before it saves the internal representation of an opaque type in a
column.
The following figure shows when the database server executes the assign() function. Figure 1: Execution of the assign() support
function
When you INSERT a value of an opaque data type, the assign() function
takes the opaque data type as an argument, performs whatever additional
processing might be required, and returns the final opaque type value
for the database server to store in the table.
