PL/SQL

Article

29 sections

Contents

PL/SQL program unit
PL/SQL anonymous block
Function
Procedure
Package
Trigger
Purpose of triggers
Data types
Numeric variables
Character variables
Date variables
Exceptions
Datatypes for specific columns
Conditional statements
Array handling
Associative arrays (index-by tables)
Nested tables
Varrays (variable-size arrays)
Cursors
Looping
LOOP statements
FOR loops
Cursor FOR loops
Dynamic SQL
Similar languages
See also
References
Further reading
External links

PL/SQL (Procedural Language for SQL) is Oracle Corporation's procedural extension for SQL and the Oracle relational database. PL/SQL is available in Oracle Database (since version 6 - stored PL/SQL procedures/functions/packages/triggers since version 7), TimesTen in-memory database (since version 11.2.1), and IBM Db2 (since version 9.7). Oracle Corporation usually extends PL/SQL functionality with each successive release of the Oracle Database.

PL/SQL includes procedural language elements such as conditions and loops, and can handle exceptions (run-time errors). It allows the declaration of constants and variables, procedures, functions, packages, types and variables of those types, and triggers. Arrays are supported involving the use of PL/SQL collections. Implementations from version 8 of Oracle Database onwards have included features associated with object-orientation. One can create PL/SQL units such as procedures, functions, packages, types, and triggers, which are stored in the database for reuse by applications that use any of the Oracle Database programmatic interfaces.