7.1.12. Conceptual Tables
Management operations apply exclusively to scalar objects. However,
it is sometimes convenient for developers of management applications
to impose an imaginary, tabular structure on an ordered collection of
objects within the MIB. Each such conceptual table contains zero or
more rows, and each row may contain one or more scalar objects,
termed columnar objects. This conceptualization is formalized by
using the OBJECT-TYPE macro to define both an object which
corresponds to a table and an object which corresponds to a row in
that table. A conceptual table has SYNTAX of the form:
SEQUENCE OF <EntryType>
where <EntryType> refers to the SEQUENCE type of its subordinate
conceptual row. A conceptual row has SYNTAX of the form:
<EntryType>
where <EntryType> is a SEQUENCE type defined as follows:
where there is one <type> for each subordinate object, and each
<type> is of the form:
<descriptor> <syntax>
where <descriptor> is the descriptor naming a subordinate object, and
<syntax> has the value of that subordinate object's SYNTAX clause,
normally omitting the sub-typing information. Further, these ASN.1
types are always present (the DEFAULT and OPTIONAL clauses are
disallowed in the SEQUENCE definition). The MAX-ACCESS clause for
conceptual tables and rows is "not-accessible".