Data wrapper

Please excuse me, I am new to ABAP, however I would like to use the OOP capabilities of the language. I would like to create an object (global or local) that simply reads a database and exposes an interface that would allow me to iterate and perform other methods associated with the data collected. I went into the class builder and created objects, however I was unable to implement a "TABLE" anywhere in the class builder interface. I looked at persistent classes, however there may be a time when persistent classes are not appropriate. Can anyone please give me a suggestion with regard to how to develop this data wrapper; also anyone know of a "best practices" sight that I might refer too, with regard to implementing OOP capabilities?