generic method

Generic methods are methods, which may apply on any instance or property. Typical generic methods are erase() or eraseCollection(), count() and a number of other functions provided by the OODBMS. Some generic functions are collection methods while other are instance methods (e.g. extractKey() or select()). Third type of generic methods are status methods, which provide metadata about the instance or collection (e.g. typeDefinition()) or information about the current state of the collection (positioned(), readOnly()).