USAGE Privilege

You own any user-defined data type (UDT) that you create. As owner, you automatically receive the Usage privilege on that data type and can grant the Usage privilege to others so that they can reference the type name or data of that type in SQL statements. DBAs can also grant the Usage privilege for UDTs.

If you grant Usage privilege to a user (or to a role) that has Alter privileges, that grantee can add a column to a table that contains values of your UDT.

Without privileges from the GRANT statement, any user can issue SQL statements that reference built-in data types. In contrast, a user must receive an explicit Usage privilege from a GRANT statement to use a distinct data type, even if the distinct type is based on a built-in type.

For more information about user-defined types, see CREATE OPAQUE TYPE, CREATE DISTINCT TYPE, the discussion of data types in the IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Reference and the IBM Informix Database Design and Implementation Guide.