Introduction to Persistent Objects

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Defining and Using Classes

InterSystems: The power behind what matters

This chapter presents the concepts that are useful to understand when working with persistent classes. It discusses the following topics:

Also see the chapters “Working with Persistent Objects,” “Defining Persistent Classes,” and “Other Options for Persistent Classes.”

When viewing this book online, use the preface of this book to quickly find other topics.

Some of the examples shown in this chapter are from the Samples-Data sample (https://github.com/intersystems/Samples-Data). InterSystems recommends that you create a dedicated namespace called SAMPLES (for example) and load samples into that namespace. For the general process, see Downloading Samples for Use with InterSystems IRIS™.

Persistent Classes

A persistent class is any class that inherits from %Persistent. A persistent object is an instance of such a class.

The %Persistent class is a subclass of %RegisteredObject and thus is an object class. In addition to providing the methods described in the previous chapter, the %Persistent class defines the persistence interface, a set of methods. Among other things, these methods enable you to save objects to the database, load objects from the database, delete objects, and test for existence.

Introduction to the Default SQL Projection

For any persistent class, the compiler generates an SQL table definition, so that the stored data can be accessed via SQL in addition to via the object interface described in this book.

The table contains one record for each saved object, and the table can be queried via InterSystems SQL. The following shows the results of a query of the Sample.Person table:

The following table summarizes the default projection:

The Object-SQL Projection

From (Object Concept) ...	To (Relational Concept) ...
Package	Schema
Class	Table
OID	Identity field
Data type property	Field
Reference property	Reference field
Embedded object	Set of fields
List property	List field
Array property	Child table
Stream property	BLOB
Index	Index
Class method	Stored procedure

Later chapters provide more information and describe any changes you can make:

For information on the table name and the name of the schema to which it belongs, see “Defining Persistent Classes”.

That chapter also has information on how you can control the projection of subclasses.
For information on the projection of literal properties, see “Defining and Using Literal Properties.”
For information on the projection of collection properties, see “Working with Collections.”
For information on the projection of stream properties, see “Working with Streams.”
For information on the projection of object-valued properties, see “Defining and Using Object-Valued Properties.”
For information on the projection of relationships, see “Defining and Using Relationships.”

Identifiers for Saved Objects: ID and OID

When you save an object for the first time, the system creates two permanent identifiers for it, either of which you can later use to access or remove the saved objects. The more commonly used identifier is the object ID. An ID is a simple literal value that is unique within the table. By default, the system generates an integer to use as an ID.

An OID is more general: it also includes the class name and is unique in the database. In general practice, an application never needs to use the OID value; the ID value is usually sufficient.

The %Persistent class provides methods that use either the ID or the OID. You specify an ID when you use methods such as %OpenId(), %ExistsId(), and %DeleteId(). You specify the OID as the argument for methods such as %Open(), %Exists(), and %Delete(). That is, the methods that use ID as an argument include Id in their names. The methods that use OID as the argument do not include Id in their names; these methods are used much less often.

When a persistent object is stored in the database, the values of any of its reference attributes (that is, references to other persistent objects) are stored as OID values. For object attributes that do not have OIDs, the literal value of the object is stored along with the rest of the state of the object.

Projection of Object IDs to SQL

The ID of an object is available in the corresponding SQL table. If possible, InterSystems IRIS uses the field name ID. InterSystems IRIS also provides a way to access the ID if you are not sure what field name to use. The system is as follows:

An object ID is not a property of the object and is treated differently from the properties.
If the class does not contain a property named ID (in any case variation), then the table also contains the field ID, and that field contains the object ID. For an example, see the previous section.
If the class contains a property that is projected to SQL with the name ID (in any case variation), then the table also contains the field ID1, and this field holds the value of the object ID.

Similarly, if the class contains properties that are projected as ID and ID1, then the table also contains the field ID2, and this field holds the value of the object ID.
In all cases, the table also provides the pseudo-field %ID, which holds the value of the object ID.

The OID is not available in the SQL table.

Object IDs in SQL

InterSystems IRIS enforces uniqueness for the ID field (whatever its actual name might be). InterSystems IRIS also prevents this field from being changed. This means that you cannot perform SQL UPDATE or INSERT operations on this field. For instance, the following shows the SQL needed to add a new record to a table:

INSERT INTO PERSON (FNAME, LNAME)VALUES (:fname, :lname)

Notice that this SQL does not refer to the ID field. InterSystems IRIS generates a value for the ID field and inserts that when it creates the requested record.

Class Members Specific to Persistent Classes

InterSystems IRIS classes can include several kinds of class members that are meaningful only in persistent classes. These are storage definitions, indices, foreign keys, and triggers.

Storage Definitions

In most cases (as discussed later), each persistent class has a storage definition. The purpose of the storage definition is to describe the global structure that InterSystems IRIS uses when it saves data for the class or reads saved data for the class. Atelier displays the storage definition at the end of the class definition, when you view the class in edit mode. The following shows a partial example:

<Storage name="Default">
<Data name="PersonDefaultData">
<Value name="1">
<Value>%%CLASSNAME</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="2">
<Value>Name</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="3">
<Value>SSN</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="4">
<Value>DOB</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="5">
<Value>Home</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="6">
<Value>Office</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="7">
<Value>Spouse</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="8">
<Value>FavoriteColors</Value>
</Value>
</Data>
<DataLocation>^Sample.PersonD</DataLocation>
<DefaultData>PersonDefaultData</DefaultData>
<ExtentSize>200</ExtentSize>
<IdLocation>^Sample.PersonD</IdLocation>
<IndexLocation>^Sample.PersonI</IndexLocation>
<Property name="%%CLASSNAME">
<Selectivity>50.0000%</Selectivity>
</Property>
...

Also in most cases, the compiler generates and updates the storage definition. For more information on the globals used for persistent classes, see “Globals.”

Indices

As with other SQL tables, an InterSystems SQL table can have indices; to define these, you add index definitions to the corresponding class definition.

An index can add a constraint that ensures uniqueness of a given field or combination of fields. For information on such indices, see the chapter “Defining Persistent Classes.”

Another purpose of an index is to define a specific sorted subset of commonly requested data associated with a class, so that queries can run more quickly. For example, as a general rule, if a query that includes a WHERE clause using a given field, the query runs more rapidly if that field is indexed. In contrast, if there is no index on that field, the engine must perform a full table scan, checking every row to see if it matches the given criteria — an expensive operation if the table is large. See the chapter “Other Options for Persistent Classes.”

Foreign Keys

An InterSystems SQL table can also have foreign keys. To define these, you add foreign key definitions to the corresponding class definition.

Foreign keys establish referential integrity constraints between tables that InterSystems IRIS uses when new data is added or when data is changed. If you use relationships, described later in this book, the system automatically treats these as foreign keys. But you can add foreign keys if you do not want to use relationships or if you have other reasons to add them.

For more information on foreign keys, see the chapter “Other Options for Persistent Classes.”

Triggers

An InterSystems SQL table can also have triggers. To define these, you add trigger definitions to the corresponding class definition.

Triggers define code to be executed automatically when specific events occur, specifically when a record is inserted, modified, or deleted.

For more information on triggers, see the chapter “Other Options for Persistent Classes.”

Other Class Members

A class method or a class query can be defined so that it can be invoked as a stored procedure, which enables you to invoke it from SQL.

For class members not discussed in this chapter, there is no projection to SQL. That is, InterSystems IRIS does not provide a direct way to use them from SQL or to make them usable from SQL.

Extents

The term extent refers to all the records, on disk, for a given persistent class. As shown in the next chapter, the %Persistent class provides several methods that operate on the extent of class.

InterSystems IRIS uses an unconventional and powerful interpretation of the object-table mapping. By default, the extent of a given persistent class includes the extents of any subclasses. Therefore:

If the persistent class Person has the subclass Employee, the Person extent includes all instances of Person and all instances of Employee.
For any given instance of class Employee, that instance is included in the Person extent and in the Employee extent.

Indices automatically span the entire extent of the class in which they are defined. The indices defined in Person contain both Person instances and Employee instances. Indices defined in the Employee extent contain only Employee instances.

The subclass can define additional properties not defined in its superclass. These are available in the extent of the subclass, but not in the extent of the superclass. For example, the Employee extent might include the Department field, which is not included in the Person extent.

The preceding points mean that it is comparatively easy in InterSystems IRIS to write a query that retrieves all records of the same type. For example, if you want to count people of all types, you can run a query against the Person table. If you want to count only employees, run the same query against the Employee table. In contrast, with other object databases, to count people of all types, it would be necessary to write a more complex query that combined the tables, and it would be necessary to update this query whenever another subclass was added.

Similarly, the methods that use the ID all behave polymorphically. That is, they can operate on different types of objects depending on the ID value it is passed.

For example, the extent for Sample.Person objects includes instances of Sample.Person as well as instances of Sample.Employee. When you call %OpenId() for the Sample.Person class, the resulting OREF could be an instance of either Sample.Person or Sample.Employee, depending on what is stored within the database:

 // Open person "10"
 Set obj = ##class(Sample.Person).%OpenId(10)

 Write $ClassName(obj),!    // Sample.Person
 

 // Open person "110"
 Set obj = ##class(Sample.Person).%OpenId(110)

 Write $ClassName(obj),!    // Sample.Employee

Note that the %OpenId() method for the Sample.Employee class will not return an object if we try to open ID 10, because the ID 10 is not the Sample.Employee extent:

 // Open employee "10"
 Set obj = ##class(Sample.Employee).%OpenId(10)

 Write $IsObject(obj),!  // 0

 // Open employee "110"
 Set obj = ##class(Sample.Employee).%OpenId(110)

 Write $IsObject(obj),!  // 1

Extent Management

For classes that use the default storage class (%Storage.Persistent), InterSystems IRIS maintains extent definitions and globals that those extents have registered for use with its Extent Manager. The interface to the Extent Manager is through the %ExtentMgr.Util class. This registration process occurs during class compilation. If there are any errors or name conflicts, these cause the compile to fail. For compilation to succeed, resolve the conflicts; this usually involves either changing the name of the index or adding explicit storage locations for the data.

The MANAGEDEXTENT class parameter has a default value of 1; this value causes global name registration and a conflicting use check. A value of 0 specifies that there is neither registration nor conflict checking.

Note:

If an application has multiple classes intentionally sharing a global reference, specify that MANAGEDEXTENT equals 0 for all the relevant classes, if they use default storage. Otherwise, recompilation will generate the error such as

ERROR #5564: Storage reference: '^This.App.Global used in 'User.ClassA.cls' 
is already registered for use by 'User.ClassB.cls'

To delete extent metadata, there are multiple approaches:

Use the ##class(%ExtentMgr.Util).DeleteExtentDefinition(extent,extenttype) call, where extent is typically the class name and extenttype is the type of extent (for classes, this is cls, which is also the default value for this argument).
Use one of the following calls:
- $SYSTEM.OBJ.Delete(classname,flags) where classname is the class to delete and flags includes e.
- $SYSTEM.OBJ.DeletePackage(packagename,flags) where packagename is the class to delete and flags includes e.
- $SYSTEM.OBJ.DeleteAll(flags) where flags includes e.
These calls are methods of the %SYSTEM.OBJ class.

Extent Queries

Every persistent class automatically includes a class query called "Extent" that provides a set of all the IDs in the extent.

For general information on using class queries, see the chapter “Defining and Using Class Queries.” The following example uses a class query to display all the IDs for the Sample.Person class:

 set query = ##class(%SQL.Statement).%New()
 set status= query.%PrepareClassQuery("Sample.Person","Extent")
 if 'status {
   do $system.OBJ.DisplayError(status)
 }
 set rset=query.%Execute()

 While (rset.%Next()) {
     Write rset.%Get("ID"),!
 }

The Sample.Person extent include all instances of Sample.Person as well as its subclasses. For an explanation of this, see the chapter “Defining Persistent Classes.”

The "Extent" query is equivalent to the following SQL query:

SELECT %ID FROM Sample.Person

Note that you cannot rely on the order in which ID values are returned using either of these methods: InterSystems IRIS may determine that it is more efficient to use an index that is ordered using some other property value to satisfy this request. You can add an ORDER BY %ID clause to the SQL query if you need to.

Globals

Persistent classes allow you to save objects to the database and retrieve them as objects or via SQL. Regardless of how they are accessed, these objects are stored in globals, which can be thought of as persistent multidimensional arrays. For more information on working with globals, see Using Globals.

When you define a class that uses the default storage class (%Storage.Persistent), global names for your class are generated when you compile the class. You can see these names in the storage definition at the bottom of the code in Atelier.

The following subsections describe the default global naming scheme, how to generate short global names for better performance, and how to directly control global names.

Standard Global Names

When you define a class in Atelier, global names for your class are generated based on the class name.

For example, let’s define the following class, GlobalsTest.President:

Class GlobalsTest.President Extends %Persistent
{

/// President's name (last,first)
Property Name As %String(PATTERN="1U.L1"",""1U.L");

/// Year of birth
Property BirthYear As %Integer; 

/// Short biography
Property Bio As %Stream.GlobalCharacter;

/// Index for Name
Index NameIndex On Name;

/// Index for BirthYear
Index DOBIndex On BirthYear;

}

After compiling the class, we can see the following storage definition generated at the bottom of the class:

Storage Default
{
<Data name="PresidentDefaultData">
<Value name="1">
<Value>%%CLASSNAME</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="2">
<Value>Name</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="3">
<Value>BirthYear</Value>
</Value>
<Value name="4">
<Value>Bio</Value>
</Value>
</Data>
<DataLocation>^GlobalsTest.PresidentD</DataLocation>
<DefaultData>PresidentDefaultData</DefaultData>
<IdLocation>^GlobalsTest.PresidentD</IdLocation>
<IndexLocation>^GlobalsTest.PresidentI</IndexLocation>
<StreamLocation>^GlobalsTest.PresidentS</StreamLocation>
<Type>%Storage.Persistent</Type>
}

Notice, in particular, the following elements:

The DataLocation is the global where class data will be stored. The name of the global is the complete class name (including the package name) with a “D” appended to the name, in this case, ^GlobalsTest.PresidentD.
The IdLocation (often the same as the DataLocation) is the global where the ID counter will be stored, at its root.
The IndexLocation is the global where the indices for the class will be stored. The name of the global is the complete class name with an “I” appended to the name, or, ^GlobalsTest.PresidentI.
The StreamLocation is the global where any stream properties will be stored. The name of the global is the complete class name with an “S” appended to the name, or, ^GlobalsTest.PresidentS.

After creating and storing a few objects of our class, we can view the contents of these globals in the Terminal:

USER>zwrite ^GlobalsTest.PresidentD
^GlobalsTest.PresidentD=3
^GlobalsTest.PresidentD(1)=$lb("",1732,"1","Washington,George")
^GlobalsTest.PresidentD(2)=$lb("",1735,"2","Adams,John")
^GlobalsTest.PresidentD(3)=$lb("",1743,"3","Jefferson,Thomas")
 
USER>zwrite ^GlobalsTest.PresidentI
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("DOBIndex",1732,1)=""
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("DOBIndex",1735,2)=""
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("DOBIndex",1743,3)=""
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("NameIndex"," ADAMS,JOHN",2)=""
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("NameIndex"," JEFFERSON,THOMAS",3)=""
^GlobalsTest.PresidentI("NameIndex"," WASHINGTON,GEORGE",1)=""
 
USER>zwrite ^GlobalsTest.PresidentS
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS=3
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(1)=1
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(1,0)=239
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(1,1)="George Washington was born to a moderately prosperous family of planters in colonial Virginia. He was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and was elected the first president of the United States in 1789."
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(2)=1
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(2,0)=195
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(2,1)="John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, and entered Harvard College at age 16. He served as vice president under George Washington for two terms and became the nation's second president."
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(3)=1
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(3,0)=202
^GlobalsTest.PresidentS(3,1)="Thomas Jefferson was born in the colony of Virginia and attended the College of William & Mary. Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and became the third U.S. president."

The subscript of ^GlobalsTest.PresidentD is the IDKey. Since we did not define one of our indices as the IDKey, the ID is used as the IDKey. For more information on IDs, see “Controlling How IDs Are Generated.”

The first subscript of ^GlobalsTest.PresidentI is the name of the index.

The first subscript of ^GlobalsTest.PresidentS is the ID of the bio entry, not the ID of the president.

You can also view these globals in the Management Portal (System Explorer > Globals).

Important:

Only the first 31 characters in a global name are significant, so if a complete class name is very long, you might see global names like ^package1.pC347.VeryLongCla4F4AD. The system generates names such as these to ensure that all of the global names for your class are unique. If you plan to work directly with the globals of a class, make sure to examine the storage definition so that you know the actual name of the global. Alternatively, you can control the global names by using the DEFAULTGLOBAL parameter in your class definition. See “User-Defined Global Names.”

Hashed Global Names

The system will generate shorter global names if you set the USEEXTENTSET parameter to the value 1. (The default value for this parameter is 0, meaning use the standard global names.) These shorter global names are created from a hash of the package name and a hash of the class name, followed by a suffix. While the standard names are more readable, the shorter names can contribute to better performance.

When you set USEEXTENTSET to 1, each index is also assigned to a separate global, instead of using a single index global with different first subscripts. Again, this is done for increased performance.

To use hashed global names for the GlobalsTest.President class we defined earlier, we would add the following to the class definition:

/// Use hashed global names
Parameter USEEXTENTSET = 1;

After deleting the storage definition and recompiling the class, we can see the new storage definition with hashed global names:

Storage Default
{
...
<DataLocation>^Ebnm.EKUy.1</DataLocation>
<DefaultData>PresidentDefaultData</DefaultData>
<ExtentLocation>^Ebnm.EKUy</ExtentLocation>
<IdLocation>^Ebnm.EKUy.1</IdLocation>
<Index name="DOBIndex">
<Location>^Ebnm.EKUy.2</Location>
</Index>
<Index name="IDKEY">
<Location>^Ebnm.EKUy.1</Location>
</Index>
<Index name="NameIndex">
<Location>^Ebnm.EKUy.3</Location>
</Index>
<IndexLocation>^Ebnm.EKUy.I</IndexLocation>
<StreamLocation>^Ebnm.EKUy.S</StreamLocation>
<Type>%Storage.Persistent</Type>
}

Notice, in particular, the following elements:

The DataLocation (equivalent to the IDKEY index), where class data will be stored, is now the hashed value with a “.1” appended to the name, in this case, ^Ebnm.EKUy.1.
Each index now has its own Location and thus its own separate global. The name of the IdKey index global is equivalent to the hashed value with a ”.1” appended to the name, in this example, ^Ebnm.EKUy.1. The globals for the remaining indices have “.2” to “.N” appended to the name. Here, the DOBIndex is stored in global ^Ebnm.EKUy.2 and the NameIndex is stored in ^Ebnm.EKUy.3.
The IndexLocation is the hashed value with “.I” appended to the name, or ^Ebnm.EKUy.I, however, this global is often not used.
The StreamLocation is the hashed value with “.S” appended to the name, or ^Ebnm.EKUy.S.

After creating and storing a few objects, the contents of these globals might look as follows, again using the Terminal:

USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.EKUy.1
^Ebnm.EKUy.1=3
^Ebnm.EKUy.1(1)=$lb("","Washington,George",1732,"1")
^Ebnm.EKUy.1(2)=$lb("","Adams,John",1735,"2")
^Ebnm.EKUy.1(3)=$lb("","Jefferson,Thomas",1743,"3")
 
USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.EKUy.2
^Ebnm.EKUy.2(1732,1)=""
^Ebnm.EKUy.2(1735,2)=""
^Ebnm.EKUy.2(1743,3)=""
 
USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.EKUy.3
^Ebnm.EKUy.3(" ADAMS,JOHN",2)=""
^Ebnm.EKUy.3(" JEFFERSON,THOMAS",3)=""
^Ebnm.EKUy.3(" WASHINGTON,GEORGE",1)="" 

USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.EKUy.S
^Ebnm.EKUy.S=3
^Ebnm.EKUy.S(1)=1
^Ebnm.EKUy.S(1,0)=239
^Ebnm.EKUy.S(1,1)="George Washington was born to a moderately prosperous family of planters in colonial Virginia. He was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and was elected the first president of the United States in 1789."
...

For classes defined using an SQL CREATE TABLE statement, the default for the USEEXTENTSET parameter is 1. For more information on creating tables, see “Defining Tables” in Using InterSystems SQL.

For example, let’s create a table using the Management Portal (System Explorer > SQL > Execute Query):

CREATE TABLE GlobalsTest.State (NAME CHAR (30) NOT NULL, ADMITYEAR INT)

After populating the table with some data, we see the globals ^Ebnm.BndZ.1 and ^Ebnm.BndZ.2 in the Management Portal (System Explorer > Globals). Notice that the package name is still GlobalsTest, so the first segment of the global names for GlobalsTest.State is the same as for GlobalsTest.President.

Using the Terminal, the contents of the globals might look like:

USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.BndZ.1
^Ebnm.BndZ.1=3
^Ebnm.BndZ.1(1)=$lb("Delaware",1787)
^Ebnm.BndZ.1(2)=$lb("Pennsylvania",1787)
^Ebnm.BndZ.1(3)=$lb("New Jersey",1787)
 
USER>zwrite ^Ebnm.BndZ.2
^Ebnm.BndZ.2(1)=$zwc(412,1,0)/*$bit(2..4)*/

The global ^Ebnm.BndZ.1 contains the States data and ^Ebnm.BndZ.2 is a bitmap extent index. See “Bitmap Extent Index” in the InterSystems SQL Reference.

If we wanted to use standard global names with a class created via SQL, we could set the USEEXTENTSET parameter to the value 0:

CREATE TABLE GlobalsTest.State (%CLASSPARAMETER USEEXTENTSET 0, NAME CHAR (30) NOT NULL, ADMITYEAR INT)

This would generate the standard global names ^GlobalsTest.StateD and ^GlobalsTest.StateI.

Note:

You can change the default value used for the USEEXTENTSET parameter for classes created via a CREATE TABLE statement by using the Management Portal (System Administration > Configuration > SQL and Object Settings > General SQL Settings > DDL).

For classes created via XEP, the default for the USEEXTENTSET parameter is 1 and may not be changed. You can read more about XEP in Persisting Java Objects with InterSystems XEP.

User-Defined Global Names

For finer control of the global names for a class, use the DEFAULTGLOBAL parameter. This parameter works in conjunction with the USEEXTENTSET parameter to determine the global naming scheme.

For example, let’s add the DEFAULTGLOBAL parameter to set the root of the global names for the GlobalsTest.President class to ^GT.Pres:

/// Use hashed global names
Parameter USEEXTENTSET = 1;

/// Set the root of the global names
Parameter DEFAULTGLOBAL = "^GT.Pres";

After deleting the storage definition and recompiling the class, we can see the following global names:

Storage Default
{
...
<DataLocation>^GT.Pres.1</DataLocation>
<DefaultData>PresidentDefaultData</DefaultData>
<ExtentLocation>^GT.Pres</ExtentLocation>
<IdLocation>^GT.Pres.1</IdLocation>
<Index name="DOBIndex">
<Location>^GT.Pres.2</Location>
</Index>
<Index name="IDKEY">
<Location>^GT.Pres.1</Location>
</Index>
<Index name="NameIndex">
<Location>^GT.Pres.3</Location>
</Index>
<IndexLocation>^GT.Pres.I</IndexLocation>
<StreamLocation>^GT.Pres.S</StreamLocation>
<Type>%Storage.Persistent</Type>
}

Likewise, we can use the DEFAULTGLOBAL parameter when defining a class using SQL:

CREATE TABLE GlobalsTest.State (%CLASSPARAMETER USEEXTENTSET 0, %CLASSPARAMETER DEFAULTGLOBAL = '^GT.State', NAME CHAR (30) NOT NULL, ADMITYEAR INT)

This would generate the global names ^GT.StateD and ^GT.StateI.

Redefining Global Names

If you edit a class definition in a way that redefines the previously existing global names, for example, by changing the values of the USEEXTENTSET or DEFAULTGLOBAL parameters, you must delete the existing storage definition to allow the compiler to generate a new storage definition. Note that any data in the existing globals is preserved. Any data to be retained must be migrated to the new global structure.

For more information, see “Redefining a Persistent Class That Has Stored Data.”