An apparatus and computer program product determine a target data type in an environment having a plurality of levels. The plurality of levels comprise a source level, zero or more intermediate levels, and a target level. The zero or more intermediate levels are between the source level and the target level. A target data type representing a transformation of a data type of an associated datum as the datum passes from the source level through the zero or more intermediate levels to the target level is generated. The target data type comprises a sequence of nested transformation functions having an innermost transformation function and an outermost transformation function.