The IliTable abstract class defines an object that resembles a table. See Tables.

A table is a data structure that is defined by an ordered collection of columns. Each column has a name, a data type, and other properties that define the way values in the column should be handled in Data Access. The ordered collection of columns of a table is known as the table schema.

Once the schema of a table is defined, the table can manage a set of rows, each row being an ordered collection of values. The values in a row conform to the data types of the corresponding columns in the schema.

The IliTable is abstract in the sense that although it provides the interface needed to manipulate the rows in a table, it does not, itself, provide any useful implementation for this interface.

Instead, more specialized subclasses of IliTable provide implementations that are specific to different types of data stores. For instance, the IliSQLTable class manages rows that are located in a remote relational database server. See SQL Tables. The IliMemoryTable class manages rows that are located in the process memory space.

The Data Access API also enables you to define new types of table objects that can deal with other types of data stores or data feeds.

The IliSQLTable class (and its instances) should not be confused with the tables that are located in a remote database server. These two entities are referred to as table objects and database tables, respectively. The IliSQLTable class represents Data Access objects that are located in the process address space and that serve as a bridge to tables (or SQL queries) that are located (and executed) remotely in a database system.