Data Transformation Engine Type Designer Reference Guide

Chapter 10 - Type Inheritance Inheritance of Category Properties and Components
Organizing Types Under a Category
If you have two tables defined in one type tree, you might divide the types of the
two tables into different categories. Under one category would be the types of one
table and under another category, would be the types of the other table.
A benefit when you use a category is that you can have any class of subtype:
other categories, groups, and items. For example, in the Categories type tree,
notice how ClassInfo and LabInfo contain items and groups.
Using Categories for Inheritance
The properties of a category include group and item properties. Assign properties
to a category that you want types beneath the category to inherit.
Any group created under a category inherits the property of the category. Any
item created under a category inherits the category’s item properties. A category
created under a category inherits both the group and item properties. Each type
created under a category inherits the other properties of the category, such as
initiator and terminator.
If most groups in your LabInfo data are infix delimited with
~ and most items in
your LabInfo data are unsigned integers, you would have defined these as the
properties of the category LabInfo. When you created the types under LabInfo,
the properties would be inherited.
You can change the properties of the root type which is a category. Categories can
have components, so you can also use them for inheriting components.
Categories can be used to
organize types.
Categories can be used to
organize types.