Editing Object–relational database (section)

{{Short description|Database management system}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2008}}
An '''object–relational database''' ('''ORD'''), or '''object–relational database management system''' ('''ORDBMS'''), is a [[database management system]] (DBMS) similar to a [[relational database]], but with an [[Object database|object-oriented database]] model: [[Object (computer science)|objects]], [[Class (computer programming)|classes]] and [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]] are directly supported in [[database schema]]s and in the [[query language]]. Also, as with pure relational systems, it supports extension of the [[data model]] with custom [[data type]]s and [[Method (computer programming)|methods]].
[[File:Object-Oriented Model.svg|thumb|320px|Example of an object-oriented database model<ref name="USDT01">{{Citation |url=http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/FHWA/010394.pdf |title=Data Integration Glossary |place=US |publisher=Department of Transportation |date=August 2001 |access-date=2014-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924180745/http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/FHWA/010394.pdf |archive-date=2016-09-24 |url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

An object–relational database can be said to provide a middle ground between relational databases and [[Object database|object-oriented databases]]. In object–relational databases, the approach is essentially that of relational databases: the data resides in the database and is manipulated collectively with queries in a query language; at the other extreme are OODBMSes in which the database is essentially a persistent object store for software written in an [[object-oriented programming]] language, with an application programming interface [[API]] for storing and retrieving objects, and little or no specific support for querying.