Programming <ph conref="../conrefs.dita#prod/productshortname"></ph>-style table functions lets you create table functions. Table functions are functions which package up external data to look like tables. The external data can be an XML file, a table in a foreign database, a live data feed--in short, any information source that can be presented as a JDBC ResultSet. Functionsprogramming table functions

-style table functions let you efficiently import foreign data into tables. Table functions let you join tables with any of the following data sources:

See "CREATE FUNCTION statement" in the for the complete syntax needed to declare -style table functions. The following topics provide information on how to write Java methods which wrap foreign data sources inside ResultSets.