Inclusion of new types in relational database systems

The collection of built-in data types in a data base system (e.g. integer, floating point number, character string) and built-in operators (e.g. +, -, *, /) were motivated by the needs of business data processing applications. However, in many engineering applications this collection of types is not appropriate. For example, in a geographic application a user typically wants points, lines, line groups and polygons as basic data types and operators which include intersection, distance and containment. In scientific application, one requires complex numbers and time series with appropriate operators. In such applications one is currently required to simulate these data types......