Abstract Data Type Facility (ADF) does all the work that involves data types. It manipulates floating-point numbers, character strings, integers, and all the conversions and comparisons between them. This facility can be executed independently from the server so that other Ingres tools can also use ADF.

This abstract data type facility is also compiled into the Ingres tools such as QBF (Query-By-Forms) and the Terminal Monitor. It is used to manipulate Ingres data types in the front-end process before sending them to the DBMS Server.