External function and method features

External functions and external methods provide support for functions that, for a given set of input data, might be invoked multiple times and produce a set of output values.

To learn more about the features of external functions and methods, see the following topics:

External scalar functions
External scalar function and method processing model
External table functions
External table function processing model
Table function execution model for Java
Scratchpads for external functions and methods
Scratchpads on 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems

These features are unique to external functions and methods and do not apply to SQL functions and SQL methods.