PL/SQL Tutorial

PL/SQL - Home

PL/SQL - Overview

PL/SQL - Environment

PL/SQL - Basic Syntax

PL/SQL - Data Types

PL/SQL - Variables

PL/SQL - Constants

PL/SQL - Operators

PL/SQL - Conditions

PL/SQL - Loops

PL/SQL - Strings

PL/SQL - Arrays

PL/SQL - Procedures

PL/SQL - Functions

PL/SQL - Cursors

PL/SQL - Records

PL/SQL - Exceptions

PL/SQL - Triggers

PL/SQL - Packages

PL/SQL - Collections

PL/SQL - Transactions

PL/SQL - Date & Time

PL/SQL - DBMS Output

PL/SQL - Object Oriented

PL/SQL Tutorial
PL/SQL is a combination of SQL along with the procedural features of programming languages.
It was developed by Oracle Corporation in the early 90's to enhance the capabilities of SQL.
PL/SQL is one of three key programming languages embedded in the Oracle Database, along
with SQL itself and Java.
This tutorial will give you great understanding on PL/SQL to proceed with Oracle database and
other advanced RDBMS concepts.

Audience
This tutorial is designed for Software Professionals, who are willing to learn PL/SQL
Programming Language in simple and easy steps. This tutorial will give you great understanding
on PL/SQL Programming concepts, and after completing this tutorial, you will be at intermediate
level of expertise from where you can take yourself to higher level of expertise.

Prerequisites
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of software basic
concepts like what is database, source code, text editor and execution of programs, etc. If you
already have understanding on SQL and other computer programming language then it will be an
added advantage to proceed.
The PL/SQL programming language was developed by Oracle Corporation in the late 1980s as
procedural extension language for SQL and the Oracle relational database. Following are notable
facts about PL/SQL:

PL/SQL is a completely portable, high-performance transaction-processing language.

PL/SQL provides a built-in interpreted and OS independent programming environment.

PL/SQL can also directly be called from the command-line SQL*Plus interface.

Direct call can also be made from external programming language calls to database.

PL/SQL's general syntax is based on that of ADA and Pascal programming language.

Apart from Oracle, PL/SQL is available in TimesTen in-memory database and IBM DB2.

Features of PL/SQL
PL/SQL has the following features:

PL/SQL is tightly integrated with SQL.

It offers extensive error checking.

It offers numerous data types.

It offers a variety of programming structures.

It supports structured programming through functions and procedures.

It supports object-oriented programming.

It supports developing web applications and server pages.

Advantages of PL/SQL
PL/SQL has the following advantages:

SQL is the standard database language and PL/SQL is strongly integrated with SQL.
PL/SQL supports both static and dynamic SQL. Static SQL supports DML operations and
transaction control from PL/SQL block. Dynamic SQL is SQL allows embedding DDL
statements in PL/SQL blocks.

PL/SQL allows sending an entire block of statements to the database at one time. This
reduces network traffic and provides high performance for the applications.

PL/SQL gives high productivity to programmers as it can query, transform, and update
data in a database.

PL/SQL saves time on design and debugging by strong features, such as exception
handling, encapsulation, data hiding, and object-oriented data types.

Applications written in PL/SQL are fully portable.

PL/SQL provides high security level.

PL/SQL provides access to predefined SQL packages.

PL/SQL provides support for Object-Oriented Programming.

PL/SQL provides support for Developing Web Applications and Server Pages.

PL/SQL is not a stand-alone programming language; it is a tool within the Oracle programming
environment. SQL* Plus is an interactive tool that allows you to type SQL and PL/SQL
statements at the command prompt. These commands are then sent to the database for
processing. Once the statements are processed, the results are sent back and displayed on screen.
To run PL/SQL programs, you should have Oracle RBDMS Server installed in your machine
which will take care of executing SQL commands. Most recent version of Oracle RDBMS is
11g. You can download a trial version of Oracle 11g from the following link:

Download Oracle 11g Express Edition

You will have to download either 32bit or 64 bit version of the installation as per your operating
system. Usually there are two files, as I have downloaded for 64 bit Windows7. You will also use
similar steps on your operating system, does not matter if it is Linux or Solaris.

win64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip

win64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip

After downloading above two files, you will need to unzip them in a single directory database
and under that you will find following sub-directories:

Step 1
Now, let's launch Oracle Database Installer using setup file. Following is the first screen. You can
provide your email ID and uncheck, check box and click Next button:

Step 2
You will have the following screen, just uncheck the check box and click continue button to
proceed.

Step 3
Just select first option Create and Configure Database using radio button and click Next button
to proceed:

Step 4
I assume you are installing Oracle just for learning purpose and you will install it on your PC or
Laptop. So select Desktop Class option and click Next button to proceed:

Step 5
Provide a location, where you will install Oracle Server. Just modify Oracle Base and rest of the
locations will set automatically. Second, you will have to provide a password, which will be used
by system DBA. Once you provide required information, click Next button to proceed:

Step 6
Just click Next button to proceed:

Step 7
Now, click Finish button to proceed, this will start actual server installation.

Step 8
Just wait, until Oracle starts doing required configuration.

Step 9
Here, Oracle installation will copy required configuration files, so kindly just wait and watch:

Step 10
Once everything is done, you will have the following dialogue box. Just click OK button and
come out.

Step 11
Once your installation is done, you will have the following final window.

Final Step
If everything has been done successfully, then it's time to verify your installation. At your
command prompt, use the following command if you are using Windows:
sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

If everything is fine, you should have SQL prompt where you will write your PL/SQL commands
and scripts:

Text Editor
Running large programs from command prompt may land you in inadvertently losing some of
the work. So a better option is to use command files. To use the command files:

Type your code in a text editor, like Notepad, Notepad+, or EditPlus, etc.

Save the file with the .sql extension in the home directory.

Launch SQL*Plus command prompt from the directory where you created your PL/SQL
file.

Type @file_name at the SQL*Plus command prompt to execute your program.

If you are not using a file to execute PL/SQL scripts, then simply copy your PL/SQL code and
then right click on the black window having SQL prompt and use paste option to paste complete
code at the command prompt. Finally, just press enter to execute the code, if it is not already
executed.
PL/SQL is a block-structured language, meaning that PL/SQL programs are divided and written
in logical blocks of code. Each block consists of three sub-parts:
S.N
.

Sections & Description

Declarations
This section starts with the keyword DECLARE. It is an optional section and
defines all variables, cursors, subprograms, and other elements to be used in
the program.

Executable Commands
This section is enclosed between the keywords BEGIN and END and it is a
mandatory section. It consists of the executable PL/SQL statements of the
program. It should have at least one executable line of code, which may be just
a NULL command to indicate that nothing should be executed.

Exception Handling
This section starts with the keyword EXCEPTION. This section is again optional
and contains exception(s) that handle errors in the program.

Every PL/SQL statement ends with a semicolon (;). PL/SQL blocks can be nested within other
PL/SQL blocks using BEGIN and END. Here is the basic structure of a PL/SQL block:
DECLARE
<declarations section>
BEGIN
<executable command(s)>
EXCEPTION
<exception handling>
END;

The 'Hello World' Example:

DECLARE
message varchar2(20):= 'Hello, World!';
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line(message);
END;
/

The end; line signals the end of the PL/SQL block. To run the code from SQL command line,
you may need to type / at the beginning of the first blank line after the last line of the code. When
the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Hello World
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The PL/SQL Identifiers

PL/SQL identifiers are constants, variables, exceptions, procedures, cursors, and reserved words.
The identifiers consist of a letter optionally followed by more letters, numerals, dollar signs,
underscores, and number signs and should not exceed 30 characters.
By default, identifiers are not case-sensitive. So you can use integer or INTEGER to represent
a numeric value. You cannot use a reserved keyword as an identifier.

The PL/SQL Delimiters

A delimiter is a symbol with a special meaning. Following is the list of delimiters in PL/SQL:
Delimiter

Description

+, -, *, /

Addition, subtraction/negation, multiplication, division

Attribute indicator

'

Character string delimiter

Component selector

(,)

Expression or list delimiter

Host variable indicator

Item separator

"

Quoted identifier delimiter

Relational operator

Remote access indicator

Statement terminator

:=

Assignment operator

=>

Association operator

||

Concatenation operator

**

Exponentiation operator

<<, >>

Label delimiter (begin and end)

/*, */

Multi-line comment delimiter (begin and end)

--

Single-line comment indicator

..

Range operator

<, >, <=, >=

Relational operators

<>, '=, ~=, ^=

Different versions of NOT EQUAL

The PL/SQL Comments

Program comments are explanatory statements that you can include in the PL/SQL code that you
write and helps anyone reading its source code. All programming languages allow for some form
of comments.
The PL/SQL supports single-line and multi-line comments. All characters available inside any
comment are ignored by PL/SQL compiler. The PL/SQL single-line comments start with the
delimiter -- (double hyphen) and multi-line comments are enclosed by /* and */.
DECLARE
-- variable declaration
message varchar2(20):= 'Hello, World!';
BEGIN
/*
* PL/SQL executable statement(s)
*/
dbms_output.put_line(message);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Hello World
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL Program Units

A PL/SQL unit is any one of the following:

PL/SQL block

Function

Package

Package body

Procedure

Trigger

Type

Type body

Each of these units will be discussed in the forthcoming chapters.

PL/SQL variables, constants and parameters must have a valid data type, which specifies a
storage format, constraints, and valid range of values. This tutorial will take you through
SCALAR and LOB data types available in PL/SQL and other two data types will be covered in
other chapters.
Category

Description

Scalar

Single values with no internal components, such as a

NUMBER, DATE, or BOOLEAN.

Large Object (LOB)

Pointers to large objects that are stored separately from other

data items, such as text, graphic images, video clips, and
sound waveforms.

Composite

Data items that have internal components that can be

accessed individually. For example, collections and records.

Reference

Pointers to other data items.

PL/SQL Scalar Data Types and Subtypes

PL/SQL Scalar Data Types and Subtypes come under the following categories:
Date Type

Description

Numeric

Numeric values on which arithmetic operations are performed.

Character

Alphanumeric values that represent single characters or

strings of characters.

Boolean

Logical values on which logical operations are performed.

Datetime

Dates and times.

PL/SQL provides subtypes of data types. For example, the data type NUMBER has a subtype
called INTEGER. You can use subtypes in your PL/SQL program to make the data types
compatible with data types in other programs while embedding PL/SQL code in another
program, such as a Java program.

PL/SQL Numeric Data Types and Subtypes

Following is the detail of PL/SQL pre-defined numeric data types and their sub-types:
Data Type

Description

PLS_INTEGER

Signed integer in range -2,147,483,648 through

2,147,483,647, represented in 32 bits

BINARY_INTEGER

Signed integer in range -2,147,483,648 through

2,147,483,647, represented in 32 bits

BINARY_FLOAT

Single-precision IEEE 754-format floating-point number

BINARY_DOUBLE

Double-precision IEEE 754-format floating-point number

Fixed-point or floating-point number with absolute value in

NUMBER(prec, scale) range 1E-130 to (but not including) 1.0E126. A NUMBER
variable can also represent 0.
DEC(prec, scale)

ANSI specific fixed-point type with maximum precision of 38

decimal digits.

DECIMAL(prec,
scale)

IBM specific fixed-point type with maximum precision of 38

decimal digits.

NUMERIC(pre,
secale)

Floating type with maximum precision of 38 decimal digits.

DOUBLE PRECISION

ANSI specific floating-point type with maximum precision of

126 binary digits (approximately 38 decimal digits)

FLOAT

ANSI and IBM specific floating-point type with maximum

precision of 126 binary digits (approximately 38 decimal
digits)

INT

ANSI specific integer type with maximum precision of 38

decimal digits

INTEGER

ANSI and IBM specific integer type with maximum precision of

38 decimal digits

SMALLINT

ANSI and IBM specific integer type with maximum precision of

38 decimal digits

REAL

Floating-point type with maximum precision of 63 binary digits

(approximately 18 decimal digits)

Following is a valid declaration:

DECLARE
num1 INTEGER;
num2 REAL;
num3 DOUBLE PRECISION;
BEGIN
null;
END;
/

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

PL/SQL Character Data Types and Subtypes

Following is the detail of PL/SQL pre-defined character data types and their sub-types:
Data Type

Description

CHAR

Fixed-length character string with maximum size of 32,767

bytes

VARCHAR2

Variable-length character string with maximum size of 32,767

bytes

RAW

Variable-length binary or byte string with maximum size of

32,767 bytes, not interpreted by PL/SQL

NCHAR

Fixed-length national character string with maximum size of

32,767 bytes

NVARCHAR2

Variable-length national character string with maximum size of

32,767 bytes

LONG

Variable-length character string with maximum size of 32,760

bytes

LONG RAW

Variable-length binary or byte string with maximum size of

32,760 bytes, not interpreted by PL/SQL

ROWID

Physical row identifier, the address of a row in an ordinary

table

UROWID

Universal row identifier (physical, logical, or foreign row

identifier)

PL/SQL Boolean Data Types

The BOOLEAN data type stores logical values that are used in logical operations. The logical
values are the Boolean values TRUE and FALSE and the value NULL.
However, SQL has no data type equivalent to BOOLEAN. Therefore, Boolean values cannot be
used in:

SQL statements

Built-in SQL functions (such as TO_CHAR)

PL/SQL functions invoked from SQL statements

PL/SQL Datetime and Interval Types

The DATE datatype to store fixed-length datetimes, which include the time of day in seconds
since midnight. Valid dates range from January 1, 4712 BC to December 31, 9999 AD.

The default date format is set by the Oracle initialization parameter NLS_DATE_FORMAT. For
example, the default might be 'DD-MON-YY', which includes a two-digit number for the day of
the month, an abbreviation of the month name, and the last two digits of the year, for example,
01-OCT-12.
Each DATE includes the century, year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. The following
table shows the valid values for each field:
Field Name

Valid Datetime Values

Valid Interval Values

YEAR

-4712 to 9999 (excluding year 0)

Any nonzero integer

MONTH

01 to 12

0 to 11

DAY

01 to 31 (limited by the values of MONTH

and YEAR, according to the rules of the
Any nonzero integer
calendar for the locale)

HOUR

00 to 23

0 to 23

MINUTE

00 to 59

0 to 59

SECOND

0 to 59.9(n), where 9(n)

00 to 59.9(n), where 9(n) is the precision is the precision of
of time fractional seconds
interval fractional
seconds

TIMEZONE_HOU -12 to 14 (range accommodates daylight

Not applicable
R
savings time changes)
TIMEZONE_MINU
00 to 59
TE

Not applicable

TIMEZONE_REGI Found in the dynamic performance view

Not applicable
ON
V$TIMEZONE_NAMES
TIMEZONE_ABB Found in the dynamic performance view
Not applicable
R
V$TIMEZONE_NAMES

PL/SQL Large Object (LOB) Data Types

Large object (LOB) data types refer large to data items such as text, graphic images, video clips,
and sound waveforms. LOB data types allow efficient, random, piecewise access to this data.
Following are the predefined PL/SQL LOB data types:
Data Type

Description

Size

BFILE

Used to store large binary objects in

operating system files outside the
database.

System-dependent.
Cannot exceed 4
gigabytes (GB).

BLOB

Used to store large binary objects in the

8 to 128 terabytes (TB)

database.
CLOB

Used to store large blocks of character

data in the database.

NCLOB

Used to store large blocks of NCHAR data

8 to 128 TB
in the database.

8 to 128 TB

PL/SQL User-Defined Subtypes

A subtype is a subset of another data type, which is called its base type. A subtype has the same
valid operations as its base type, but only a subset of its valid values.
PL/SQL predefines several subtypes in package STANDARD. For example, PL/SQL predefines
the subtypes CHARACTER and INTEGER as follows:
SUBTYPE CHARACTER IS CHAR;
SUBTYPE INTEGER IS NUMBER(38,0);

You can define and use your own subtypes. The following program illustrates defining and using
a user-defined subtype:
DECLARE
SUBTYPE name IS char(20);
SUBTYPE message IS varchar2(100);
salutation name;
greetings message;
BEGIN
salutation := 'Reader ';
greetings := 'Welcome to the World of PL/SQL';
dbms_output.put_line('Hello ' || salutation || greetings);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Hello Reader Welcome to the World of PL/SQL
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

NULLs in PL/SQL
PL/SQL NULL values represent missing or unknown data and they are not an integer, a
character, or any other specific data type. Note that NULL is not the same as an empty data string
or the null character value '\0'. A null can be assigned but it cannot be equated with anything,
including itself.
A variable is nothing but a name given to a storage area that our programs can manipulate. Each
variable in PL/SQL has a specific data type, which determines the size and layout of the
variable's memory; the range of values that can be stored within that memory and the set of
operations that can be applied to the variable.
The name of a PL/SQL variable consists of a letter optionally followed by more letters,
numerals, dollar signs, underscores, and number signs and should not exceed 30 characters. By

default, variable names are not case-sensitive. You cannot use a reserved PL/SQL keyword as a
variable name.
PL/SQL programming language allows to define various types of variables, which we will cover
in subsequent chapters like date time data types, records, collections, etc. For this chapter, let us
study only basic variable types.

Variable Declaration in PL/SQL

PL/SQL variables must be declared in the declaration section or in a package as a global
variable. When you declare a variable, PL/SQL allocates memory for the variable's value and the
storage location is identified by the variable name.
The syntax for declaring a variable is:
variable_name [CONSTANT] datatype [NOT NULL] [:= | DEFAULT initial_value]

Where, variable_name is a valid identifier in PL/SQL, datatype must be a valid PL/SQL data
type or any user defined data type which we already have discussed in last chapter. Some valid
variable declarations along with their definition are shown below:
sales number(10, 2);
pi CONSTANT double precision := 3.1415;
name varchar2(25);
address varchar2(100);

When you provide a size, scale or precision limit with the data type, it is called a constrained
declaration. Constrained declarations require less memory than unconstrained declarations. For
example:
sales number(10, 2);
name varchar2(25);
address varchar2(100);

Initializing Variables in PL/SQL

Whenever you declare a variable, PL/SQL assigns it a default value of NULL. If you want to
initialize a variable with a value other than the NULL value, you can do so during the
declaration, using either of the following:

The DEFAULT keyword

The assignment operator

For example:
counter binary_integer := 0;
greetings varchar2(20) DEFAULT 'Have a Good Day';

You can also specify that a variable should not have a NULL value using the NOT NULL
constraint. If you use the NOT NULL constraint, you must explicitly assign an initial value for
that variable.

It is a good programming practice to initialize variables properly otherwise, sometimes program

would produce unexpected result. Try the following example which makes use of various types
of variables:
DECLARE
a integer := 10;
b integer := 20;
c integer;
f real;
BEGIN
c := a + b;
dbms_output.put_line('Value of c: ' || c);
f := 70.0/3.0;
dbms_output.put_line('Value of f: ' || f);
END;
/

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result:

Value of c: 30
Value of f: 23.333333333333333333
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Variable Scope in PL/SQL

PL/SQL allows the nesting of Blocks, i.e., each program block may contain another inner block.
If a variable is declared within an inner block, it is not accessible to the outer block. However, if
a variable is declared and accessible to an outer Block, it is also accessible to all nested inner
Blocks. There are two types of variable scope:

Local variables - variables declared in an inner block and not accessible to outer blocks.

Global variables - variables declared in the outermost block or a package.

Following example shows the usage of Local and Global variables in its simple form:
DECLARE
-- Global variables
num1 number := 95;
num2 number := 85;
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Outer Variable num1: ' ||
dbms_output.put_line('Outer Variable num2: ' ||
DECLARE
-- Local variables
num1 number := 195;
num2 number := 185;
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Inner Variable num1: '
dbms_output.put_line('Inner Variable num2: '
END;
END;
/

num1);
num2);

|| num1);
|| num2);

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result:

Outer Variable num1: 95
Outer Variable num2: 85

Inner Variable num1: 195

Inner Variable num2: 185
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Assigning SQL Query Results to PL/SQL Variables

You can use the SELECT INTO statement of SQL to assign values to PL/SQL variables. For
each item in the SELECT list, there must be a corresponding, type-compatible variable in the
INTO list. The following example illustrates the concept: Let us create a table named
CUSTOMERS:
(For SQL statements please look at the SQL tutorial)
CREATE TABLE CUSTOMERS(
ID
INT NOT NULL,
NAME VARCHAR (20) NOT NULL,
AGE INT NOT NULL,
ADDRESS CHAR (25),
SALARY
DECIMAL (18, 2),
PRIMARY KEY (ID)
);
Table Created

Next, let us insert some values in the table:

INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (1, 'Ramesh', 32, 'Ahmedabad', 2000.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (2, 'Khilan', 25, 'Delhi', 1500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (3, 'kaushik', 23, 'Kota', 2000.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (4, 'Chaitali', 25, 'Mumbai', 6500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (5, 'Hardik', 27, 'Bhopal', 8500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (6, 'Komal', 22, 'MP', 4500.00 );

The following program assigns values from the above table to PL/SQL variables using the
SELECT INTO clause of SQL:
DECLARE
c_id customers.id%type := 1;
c_name customers.name%type;
c_addr customers.address%type;
c_sal customers.salary%type;
BEGIN
SELECT name, address, salary INTO c_name, c_addr, c_sal
FROM customers
WHERE id = c_id;
dbms_output.put_line
('Customer ' ||c_name || ' from ' || c_addr || ' earns ' || c_sal);
END;

When the above code is executed, it produces the following result:

Customer Ramesh from Ahmedabad earns 2000
PL/SQL procedure completed successfully

A constant holds a value that once declared, does not change in the program. A constant
declaration specifies its name, data type, and value, and allocates storage for it. The declaration
can also impose the NOT NULL constraint.

Declaring a Constant
A constant is declared using the CONSTANT keyword. It requires an initial value and does not
allow that value to be changed. For example:
PI CONSTANT NUMBER := 3.141592654;
DECLARE
-- constant declaration
pi constant number := 3.141592654;
-- other declarations
radius number(5,2);
dia number(5,2);
circumference number(7, 2);
area number (10, 2);
BEGIN
-- processing
radius := 9.5;
dia := radius * 2;
circumference := 2.0 * pi * radius;
area := pi * radius * radius;
-- output
dbms_output.put_line('Radius: ' || radius);
dbms_output.put_line('Diameter: ' || dia);
dbms_output.put_line('Circumference: ' || circumference);
dbms_output.put_line('Area: ' || area);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Radius: 9.5
Diameter: 19
Circumference: 59.69
Area: 283.53
Pl/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The PL/SQL Literals

A literal is an explicit numeric, character, string, or Boolean value not represented by an
identifier. For example, TRUE, 786, NULL, 'tutorialspoint' are all literals of type Boolean,
number, or string. PL/SQL, literals are case-sensitive. PL/SQL supports the following kinds of
literals:

Numeric Literals

Character Literals

String Literals

BOOLEAN Literals

Date and Time Literals

The following table provides examples from all these categories of literal values.
Literal Type

Example:

Numeric Literals

050 78 -14 0 +32767

6.6667 0.0 -12.0 3.14159 +7800.00
6E5 1.0E-8 3.14159e0 -1E38 -9.5e-3

Character Literals

'A' '%' '9' ' ' 'z' '('

String Literals

'Hello, world!'
'Tutorials Point'
'19-NOV-12'

BOOLEAN Literals

TRUE, FALSE, and NULL.

Date and Time

Literals

DATE '1978-12-25';
TIMESTAMP '2012-10-29 12:01:01';

To embed single quotes within a string literal, place two single quotes next to each other as
shown below:
DECLARE
message varchar2(30):= ''That''s tutorialspoint.com!'';
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line(message);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
That's tutorialspoint.com!
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical
manipulation. PL/SQL language is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of
operators:

Arithmetic operators

Relational operators

Comparison operators

Logical operators

String operators

This tutorial will explain the arithmetic, relational, comparison and logical operators one by one.
The String operators will be discussed under the chapter: PL/SQL - Strings.

Arithmetic Operators
Following table shows all the arithmetic operators supported by PL/SQL. Assume variable A
holds 10 and variable B holds 5 then:
Show Examples
Operat
or

Description

Example

Adds two operands

A + B will give 15

Subtracts second operand from the first

A - B will give 5

Multiplies both operands

A * B will give 50

Divides numerator by de-numerator

A / B will give 2

**

Exponentiation operator, raises one operand

A ** B will give 100000
to the power of other

Relational Operators
Relational operators compare two expressions or values and return a Boolean result. Following
table shows all the relational operators supported by PL/SQL. Assume variable A holds 10 and
variable B holds 20, then:
Show Examples
Operat
or

Description

Example

Checks if the values of two operands are

equal or not, if yes then condition becomes
true.

(A = B) is not true.

!=
<>
~=

Checks if the values of two operands are

equal or not, if values are not equal then
condition becomes true.

(A != B) is true.

>

Checks if the value of left operand is greater

than the value of right operand, if yes then
(A > B) is not true.
condition becomes true.

<

Checks if the value of left operand is less

(A < B) is true.

than the value of right operand, if yes then

condition becomes true.
>=

Checks if the value of left operand is greater

than or equal to the value of right operand, if (A >= B) is not true.
yes then condition becomes true.

<=

Checks if the value of left operand is less

than or equal to the value of right operand, if (A <= B) is true.
yes then condition becomes true.

Comparison Operators
Comparison operators are used for comparing one expression to another. The result is always
either TRUE, FALSE OR NULL.
Show Examples
Operat
or

LIKE

Description
The LIKE operator compares a character,
string, or CLOB value to a pattern and returns
TRUE if the value matches the pattern and
FALSE if it does not.

Example
If 'Zara Ali' like 'Z% A_i'
returns a Boolean true,
whereas, 'Nuha Ali' like 'Z%
A_i' returns a Boolean false.

If x = 10 then, x between 5
The BETWEEN operator tests whether a value and 20 returns true, x
BETWEE
lies in a specified range. x BETWEEN a AND b between 5 and 10 returns
N
means that x >= a and x <= b.
true, but x between 11 and
20 returns false.

IN

If x = 'm' then, x in ('a', 'b',

The IN operator tests set membership. x IN
'c') returns boolean false but
(set) means that x is equal to any member of
x in ('m', 'n', 'o') returns
set.
Boolean true.

The IS NULL operator returns the BOOLEAN

value TRUE if its operand is NULL or FALSE if If x = 'm', then 'x is null'
IS NULL
it is not NULL. Comparisons involving NULL
returns Boolean false.
values always yield NULL.

Logical Operators
Following table shows the Logical operators supported by PL/SQL. All these operators work on
Boolean operands and produces Boolean results. Assume variable A holds true and variable B
holds false, then:
Show Examples
Operat

Description

Example

or
and

Called logical AND operator. If both the

operands are true then condition becomes
true.

(A and B) is false.

or

Called logical OR Operator. If any of the two

operands is true then condition becomes
true.

(A or B) is true.

not

Called logical NOT Operator. Used to reverse

the logical state of its operand. If a condition
not (A and B) is true.
is true then Logical NOT operator will make it
false.

PL/SQL Operator Precedence

Operator precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression. This affects how an
expression is evaluated. Certain operators have higher precedence than others; for example, the
multiplication operator has higher precedence than the addition operator:
For example x = 7 + 3 * 2; here, x is assigned 13, not 20 because operator * has higher
precedence than +, so it first gets multiplied with 3*2 and then adds into 7.
Here, operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table, those with the lowest
appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher precedence operators will be evaluated first.
Show Examples
Operator

Operation

**

exponentiation

+, -

identity, negation

*, /

multiplication, division

+, -, ||

addition, subtraction, concatenation

=, <, >, <=, >=, <>, !=, ~=,

^=,
comparison
IS NULL, LIKE, BETWEEN, IN
NOT

logical negation

AND

conjunction

OR

inclusion

Decision-making structures require that the programmer specify one or more conditions to be
evaluated or tested by the program, along with a statement or statements to be executed if the

condition is determined to be true, and optionally, other statements to be executed if the

condition is determined to be false.
Following is the general from of a typical conditional (i.e., decision making) structure found in
most of the programming languages:

PL/SQL programming language provides following types of decision-making statements. Click

the following links to check their detail.
Statement
IF - THEN statement

IF-THEN-ELSE statement

IF-THEN-ELSIF statement

Case statement

Searched CASE statement

nested IF-THEN-ELSE

Description
The IF statement associates a condition with a sequence of
statements enclosed by the keywords THEN and END IF. If
the condition is true, the statements get executed and if the
condition is false or NULL then the IF statement does nothing.
IF statement adds the keyword ELSE followed by an
alternative sequence of statement. If the condition is false or
NULL , then only the alternative sequence of statements get
executed. It ensures that either of the sequence of statements is
executed.
It allows you to choose between several alternatives.
Like the IF statement, the CASE statement selects one
sequence of statements to execute. However, to select the
sequence, the CASE statement uses a selector rather than
multiple Boolean expressions. A selector is an expression
whose value is used to select one of several alternatives.
The searched CASE statement has no selector, and it's WHEN
clauses contain search conditions that yield Boolean values.
You can use one IF-THEN or IF-THEN-ELSIF statement
inside another IF-THEN or IF-THEN-ELSIF statement(s).

There may be a situation when you need to execute a block of code several number of times. In
general, statements are executed sequentially: The first statement in a function is executed first,
followed by the second, and so on.
Programming languages provide various control structures that allow for more complicated
execution paths.
A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements multiple times and
following is the general form of a loop statement in most of the programming languages:

PL/SQL provides the following types of loop to handle the looping requirements. Click the
following links to check their detail.
Loop Type

Description

PL/SQL Basic LOOP

In this loop structure, sequence of statements is enclosed

between the LOOP and END LOOP statements. At each
iteration, the sequence of statements is executed and
then control resumes at the top of the loop.

PL/SQL WHILE LOOP

Repeats a statement or group of statements while a given

condition is true. It tests the condition before executing
the loop body.

PL/SQL FOR LOOP

Execute a sequence of statements multiple times and

abbreviates the code that manages the loop variable.

Nested loops in PL/SQL

You can use one or more loop inside any another basic
loop, while or for loop.

Labeling a PL/SQL Loop

PL/SQL loops can be labeled. The label should be enclosed by double angle brackets (<< and
>>) and appear at the beginning of the LOOP statement. The label name can also appear at the
end of the LOOP statement. You may use the label in the EXIT statement to exit from the loop.
The following program illustrates the concept:
DECLARE
i number(1);
j number(1);
BEGIN
<< outer_loop >>
FOR i IN 1..3 LOOP
<< inner_loop >>
FOR j IN 1..3 LOOP
dbms_output.put_line('i is: '|| i || ' and j is: ' || j);
END loop inner_loop;
END loop outer_loop;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i

is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:

1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3

and
and
and
and
and
and
and
and
and

j
j
j
j
j
j
j
j
j

is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:
is:

1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The Loop Control Statements

Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence. When execution leaves a
scope, all automatic objects that were created in that scope are destroyed.
PL/SQL supports the following control statements. Labeling loops also helps in taking the
control outside a loop. Click the following links to check their details.
Control Statement

Description

EXIT statement

The Exit statement completes the loop and control passes

to the statement immediately after END LOOP

CONTINUE statement

Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and

immediately retest its condition prior to reiterating.

GOTO statement

Transfers control to the labeled statement. Though it is not

advised to use GOTO statement in your program.

The string in PL/SQL is actually a sequence of characters with an optional size specification. The
characters could be numeric, letters, blank, special characters or a combination of all. PL/SQL
offers three kinds of strings:

Fixed-length strings: In such strings, programmers specify the length while declaring the
string. The string is right-padded with spaces to the length so specified.

Variable-length strings: In such strings, a maximum length up to 32,767, for the string is
specified and no padding takes place.

Character large objects (CLOBs): These are variable-length strings that can be up to
128 terabytes.

PL/SQL strings could be either variables or literals. A string literal is enclosed within quotation
marks. For example,
'This is a string literal.' Or 'hello world'

To include a single quote inside a string literal, you need to type two single quotes next to one
another, like:
'this isn''t what it looks like'

Declaring String Variables

Oracle database provides numerous string datatypes , like, CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2,
NVARCHAR2, CLOB, and NCLOB. The datatypes prefixed with an 'N' are 'national character
set' datatypes, that store Unicode character data.
If you need to declare a variable-length string, you must provide the maximum length of that
string. For example, the VARCHAR2 data type. The following example illustrates declaring and
using some string variables:
DECLARE
name varchar2(20);
company varchar2(30);
introduction clob;
choice char(1);
BEGIN
name := 'John Smith';
company := 'Infotech';
introduction := ' Hello! I''m John Smith from Infotech.';
choice := 'y';
IF choice = 'y' THEN
dbms_output.put_line(name);
dbms_output.put_line(company);
dbms_output.put_line(introduction);
END IF;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
John Smith
Infotech Corporation
Hello! I'm John Smith from Infotech.
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

To declare a fixed-length string, use the CHAR datatype. Here you do not have to specify a
maximum length for a fixed-length variable. If you leave off the length constraint, Oracle

Database automatically uses a maximum length required. So following two declarations below
are identical:
red_flag CHAR(1) := 'Y';
red_flag CHAR
:= 'Y';

PL/SQL String Functions and Operators

PL/SQL offers the concatenation operator (||) for joining two strings. The following table
provides the string functions provided by PL/SQL:
S.N
.

Function & Purpose

ASCII(x);
Returns the ASCII value of the character x.

CHR(x);
Returns the character with the ASCII value of x.

CONCAT(x, y);
Concatenates the strings x and y and return the appended string.

INITCAP(x);
Converts the initial letter of each word in x to uppercase and returns that
string.

INSTR(x, find_string [, start] [, occurrence]);

Searches for find_string in x and returns the position at which it occurs.

INSTRB(x);
Returns the location of a string within another string, but returns the value in
bytes.

LENGTH(x);
Returns the number of characters in x.

LENGTHB(x);
Returns the length of a character string in bytes for single byte character set.

LOWER(x);
Converts the letters in x to lowercase and returns that string.

10

LPAD(x, width [, pad_string]) ;

Pads x with spaces to left, to bring the total length of the string up to width
characters.

11

LTRIM(x [, trim_string]);
Trims characters from the left of x.

12

NANVL(x, value);
Returns value if x matches the NaN special value (not a number), otherwise x is
returned.

13

NLS_INITCAP(x);
Same as the INITCAP function except that it can use a different sort method as
specified by NLSSORT.

14

NLS_LOWER(x) ;
Same as the LOWER function except that it can use a different sort method as
specified by NLSSORT.

15

NLS_UPPER(x);
Same as the UPPER function except that it can use a different sort method as
specified by NLSSORT.

16

NLSSORT(x);
Changes the method of sorting the characters. Must be specified before any
NLS function; otherwise, the default sort will be used.

17

NVL(x, value);
Returns value if x is null; otherwise, x is returned.

18

NVL2(x, value1, value2);

Returns value1 if x is not null; if x is null, value2 is returned.

19

REPLACE(x, search_string, replace_string);

Searches x for search_string and replaces it with replace_string.

20

RPAD(x, width [, pad_string]);

Pads x to the right.

21

RTRIM(x [, trim_string]);
Trims x from the right.

22

SOUNDEX(x) ;
Returns a string containing the phonetic representation of x.

23

SUBSTR(x, start [, length]);

Returns a substring of x that begins at the position specified by start. An
optional length for the substring may be supplied.

24

SUBSTRB(x);
Same as SUBSTR except the parameters are expressed in bytes instead of
characters for the single-byte character systems.

25

TRIM([trim_char FROM) x);

Trims characters from the left and right of x.

26

UPPER(x);
Converts the letters in x to uppercase and returns that string.

The following examples illustrate some of the above-mentioned functions and their use:

Example 1
DECLARE
greetings varchar2(11) := 'hello world';

BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line(UPPER(greetings));
dbms_output.put_line(LOWER(greetings));
dbms_output.put_line(INITCAP(greetings));
/* retrieve the first character in the string */
dbms_output.put_line ( SUBSTR (greetings, 1, 1));
/* retrieve the last character in the string */
dbms_output.put_line ( SUBSTR (greetings, -1, 1));
/* retrieve five characters,
starting from the seventh position. */
dbms_output.put_line ( SUBSTR (greetings, 7, 5));
/* retrieve the remainder of the string,
starting from the second position. */
dbms_output.put_line ( SUBSTR (greetings, 2));
/* find the location of the first "e" */
dbms_output.put_line ( INSTR (greetings, 'e'));
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
HELLO WORLD
hello world
Hello World
h
d
World
ello World
2
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example 2
DECLARE
greetings varchar2(30) := '......Hello World.....';
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line(RTRIM(greetings,'.'));
dbms_output.put_line(LTRIM(greetings, '.'));
dbms_output.put_line(TRIM( '.' from greetings));
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
......Hello World
Hello World.....
Hello World
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL programming language provides a data structure called the VARRAY, which can store a
fixed-size sequential collection of elements of the same type. A varray is used to store an ordered
collection of data, but it is often more useful to think of an array as a collection of variables of
the same type.

All varrays consist of contiguous memory locations. The lowest address corresponds to the first
element and the highest address to the last element.

An array is a part of collection type data and it stands for variable-size arrays. We will study
other collection types in a later chapter 'PL/SQL Collections'.
Each element in a varray has an index associated with it. It also has a maximum size that can be
changed dynamically.

Creating a Varray Type

A varray type is created with the CREATE TYPE statement. You must specify the maximum size
and the type of elements stored in the varray.
The basic syntax for creating a VRRAY type at the schema level is:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE varray_type_name IS VARRAY(n) of <element_type>

Where,

varray_type_name is a valid attribute name,

n is the number of elements (maximum) in the varray,

element_type is the data type of the elements of the array.

Maximum size of a varray can be changed using the ALTER TYPE statement.
For example,
CREATE Or REPLACE TYPE namearray AS VARRAY(3) OF VARCHAR2(10);
/
Type created.

The basic syntax for creating a VRRAY type within a PL/SQL block is:
TYPE varray_type_name IS VARRAY(n) of <element_type>

For example:
TYPE namearray IS VARRAY(5) OF VARCHAR2(10);
Type grades IS VARRAY(5) OF INTEGER;

Example 1
The following program illustrates using varrays:
DECLARE

type namesarray IS VARRAY(5) OF VARCHAR2(10);

type grades IS VARRAY(5) OF INTEGER;
names namesarray;
marks grades;
total integer;
BEGIN
names := namesarray('Kavita', 'Pritam', 'Ayan', 'Rishav', 'Aziz');
marks:= grades(98, 97, 78, 87, 92);
total := names.count;
dbms_output.put_line('Total '|| total || ' Students');
FOR i in 1 .. total LOOP
dbms_output.put_line('Student: ' || names(i) || '
Marks: ' || marks(i));
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Student:
Student:
Student:
Student:
Student:

Kavita Marks: 98
Pritam Marks: 97
Ayan Marks: 78
Rishav Marks: 87
Aziz Marks: 92

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Please note:

In oracle environment, the starting index for varrays is always 1.

You can initialize the varray elements using the constructor method of the varray type,
which has the same name as the varray.

Varrays are one-dimensional arrays.

A varray is automatically NULL when it is declared and must be initialized before its
elements can be referenced.

Example 2
Elements of a varray could also be a %ROWTYPE of any database table or %TYPE of any
database table field. The following example illustrates the concept:
We will use the CUSTOMERS table stored in our database as:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

Following example makes use of cursor, which you will study in detail in a separate chapter.

DECLARE
CURSOR c_customers is
SELECT name FROM customers;
type c_list is varray (6) of customers.name%type;
name_list c_list := c_list();
counter integer :=0;
BEGIN
FOR n IN c_customers LOOP
counter := counter + 1;
name_list.extend;
name_list(counter) := n.name;
dbms_output.put_line('Customer('||counter ||'):'||name_list(counter));
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Customer(1):
Customer(2):
Customer(3):
Customer(4):
Customer(5):
Customer(6):

Ramesh
Khilan
kaushik
Chaitali
Hardik
Komal

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

A subprogram is a program unit/module that performs a particular task. These subprograms are
combined to form larger programs. This is basically called the 'Modular design'. A subprogram
can be invoked by another subprogram or program which is called the calling program.
A subprogram can be created:

At schema level

Inside a package

Inside a PL/SQL block

A schema level subprogram is a standalone subprogram. It is created with the CREATE

PROCEDURE or CREATE FUNCTION statement. It is stored in the database and can be
deleted with the DROP PROCEDURE or DROP FUNCTION statement.
A subprogram created inside a package is a packaged subprogram. It is stored in the database
and can be deleted only when the package is deleted with the DROP PACKAGE statement. We
will discuss packages in the chapter 'PL/SQL - Packages'.
PL/SQL subprograms are named PL/SQL blocks that can be invoked with a set of parameters.
PL/SQL provides two kinds of subprograms:

Functions: these subprograms return a single value, mainly used to compute and return a
value.

Procedures: these subprograms do not return a value directly, mainly used to perform an
action.

This chapter is going to cover important aspects of a PL/SQL procedure and we will cover
PL/SQL function in next chapter.

Parts of a PL/SQL Subprogram

Each PL/SQL subprogram has a name, and may have a parameter list. Like anonymous PL/SQL
blocks and, the named blocks a subprograms will also have following three parts:
S.N
.

Parts & Description

Declarative Part
It is an optional part. However, the declarative part for a subprogram does not
start with the DECLARE keyword. It contains declarations of types, cursors,
constants, variables, exceptions, and nested subprograms. These items are
local to the subprogram and cease to exist when the subprogram completes
execution.

Executable Part
This is a mandatory part and contains statements that perform the designated
action.

Exception-handling
This is again an optional part. It contains the code that handles run-time errors.

Creating a Procedure
A procedure is created with the CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE statement. The
simplified syntax for the CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE statement is as follows:
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE procedure_name
[(parameter_name [IN | OUT | IN OUT] type [, ...])]
{IS | AS}
BEGIN
< procedure_body >
END procedure_name;

Where,

procedure-name specifies the name of the procedure.

[OR REPLACE] option allows modifying an existing procedure.

The optional parameter list contains name, mode and types of the parameters. IN
represents that value will be passed from outside and OUT represents that this parameter
will be used to return a value outside of the procedure.

procedure-body contains the executable part.

The AS keyword is used instead of the IS keyword for creating a standalone procedure.

Example:
The following example creates a simple procedure that displays the string 'Hello World!' on the
screen when executed.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE greetings
AS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Hello World!');
END;
/

When above code is executed using SQL prompt, it will produce the following result:
Procedure created.

Executing a Standalone Procedure

A standalone procedure can be called in two ways:

Using the EXECUTE keyword

Calling the name of the procedure from a PL/SQL block

The above procedure named 'greetings' can be called with the EXECUTE keyword as:
EXECUTE greetings;

The above call would display:

Hello World
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The procedure can also be called from another PL/SQL block:

BEGIN
greetings;
END;
/

The above call would display:

Hello World
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Deleting a Standalone Procedure

A standalone procedure is deleted with the DROP PROCEDURE statement. Syntax for deleting
a procedure is:
DROP PROCEDURE procedure-name;

So you can drop greetings procedure by using the following statement:

BEGIN
DROP PROCEDURE greetings;
END;

Parameter Modes in PL/SQL Subprograms

S.N
.

Parameter Mode & Description

IN
An IN parameter lets you pass a value to the subprogram. It is a read-only
parameter. Inside the subprogram, an IN parameter acts like a constant. It
cannot be assigned a value. You can pass a constant, literal, initialized variable,
or expression as an IN parameter. You can also initialize it to a default value;
however, in that case, it is omitted from the subprogram call. It is the default
mode of parameter passing. Parameters are passed by reference.

OUT
An OUT parameter returns a value to the calling program. Inside the
subprogram, an OUT parameter acts like a variable. You can change its value
and reference the value after assigning it. The actual parameter must be
variable and it is passed by value.

IN OUT
An IN OUT parameter passes an initial value to a subprogram and returns an
updated value to the caller. It can be assigned a value and its value can be
read.
The actual parameter corresponding to an IN OUT formal parameter must be a
variable, not a constant or an expression. Formal parameter must be assigned
a value. Actual parameter is passed by value.

IN & OUT Mode Example 1

This program finds the minimum of two values, here procedure takes two numbers using IN
mode and returns their minimum using OUT parameters.
DECLARE
a number;
b number;
c number;
PROCEDURE findMin(x IN number, y IN number, z OUT number) IS
BEGIN
IF x < y THEN
z:= x;
ELSE
z:= y;
END IF;
END;
BEGIN
a:= 23;
b:= 45;
findMin(a, b, c);
dbms_output.put_line(' Minimum of (23, 45) : ' || c);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:

Minimum of (23, 45) : 23

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

IN & OUT Mode Example 2

This procedure computes the square of value of a passed value. This example shows how we can
use same parameter to accept a value and then return another result.
DECLARE
a number;
PROCEDURE squareNum(x IN OUT number) IS
BEGIN
x := x * x;
END;
BEGIN
a:= 23;
squareNum(a);
dbms_output.put_line(' Square of (23): ' || a);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Square of (23): 529
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Methods for Passing Parameters

Actual parameters could be passed in three ways:

Positional notation

Named notation

Mixed notation

POSITIONAL NOTATION

In positional notation, you can call the procedure as:

findMin(a, b, c, d);

In positional notation, the first actual parameter is substituted for the first formal parameter; the
second actual parameter is substituted for the second formal parameter, and so on. So, a is
substituted for x, b is substituted for y, c is substituted for z and d is substituted for m.
NAMED NOTATION

In named notation, the actual parameter is associated with the formal parameter using the arrow
symbol ( => ). So the procedure call would look like:
findMin(x=>a, y=>b, z=>c, m=>d);

MIXED NOTATION

In mixed notation, you can mix both notations in procedure call; however, the positional notation
should precede the named notation.

The following call is legal:

findMin(a, b, c, m=>d);

But this is not legal:

findMin(x=>a, b, c, d);

A PL/SQL function is same as a procedure except that it returns a value. Therefore, all the
discussions of the previous chapter are true for functions too.

Creating a Function
A standalone function is created using the CREATE FUNCTION statement. The simplified
syntax for the CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE statement is as follows:
CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION function_name
[(parameter_name [IN | OUT | IN OUT] type [, ...])]
RETURN return_datatype
{IS | AS}
BEGIN
< function_body >
END [function_name];

Where,

function-name specifies the name of the function.

[OR REPLACE] option allows modifying an existing function.

The optional parameter list contains name, mode and types of the parameters. IN
represents that value will be passed from outside and OUT represents that this parameter
will be used to return a value outside of the procedure.

The function must contain a return statement.

RETURN clause specifies that data type you are going to return from the function.

function-body contains the executable part.

The AS keyword is used instead of the IS keyword for creating a standalone function.

Example:
The following example illustrates creating and calling a standalone function. This function
returns the total number of CUSTOMERS in the customers table. We will use the CUSTOMERS
table, which we had created in PL/SQL Variables chapter:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |

| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION totalCustomers
RETURN number IS
total number(2) := 0;
BEGIN
SELECT count(*) into total
FROM customers;
RETURN total;
END;
/

When above code is executed using SQL prompt, it will produce the following result:
Function created.

Calling a Function
While creating a function, you give a definition of what the function has to do. To use a function,
you will have to call that function to perform the defined task. When a program calls a function,
program control is transferred to the called function.
A called function performs defined task and when its return statement is executed or when it last
end statement is reached, it returns program control back to the main program.
To call a function you simply need to pass the required parameters along with function name and
if function returns a value then you can store returned value. Following program calls the
function totalCustomers from an anonymous block:
DECLARE
c number(2);
BEGIN
c := totalCustomers();
dbms_output.put_line('Total no. of Customers: ' || c);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Total no. of Customers: 6
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example:
The following is one more example which demonstrates Declaring, Defining, and Invoking a
Simple PL/SQL Function that computes and returns the maximum of two values.
DECLARE
a number;
b number;
c number;
FUNCTION findMax(x IN number, y IN number)
RETURN number
IS

z number;
BEGIN
IF x > y THEN
z:= x;
ELSE
Z:= y;
END IF;
RETURN z;
END;
BEGIN
a:= 23;
b:= 45;
c := findMax(a, b);
dbms_output.put_line(' Maximum of (23,45): ' || c);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Maximum of (23,45): 45
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL Recursive Functions

We have seen that a program or subprogram may call another subprogram. When a subprogram
calls itself, it is referred to as a recursive call and the process is known as recursion.
To illustrate the concept, let us calculate the factorial of a number. Factorial of a number n is
defined as:
n! = n*(n-1)!
= n*(n-1)*(n-2)!
...
= n*(n-1)*(n-2)*(n-3)... 1

The following program calculates the factorial of a given number by calling itself recursively:
DECLARE
num number;
factorial number;
FUNCTION fact(x number)
RETURN number
IS
f number;
BEGIN
IF x=0 THEN
f := 1;
ELSE
f := x * fact(x-1);
END IF;
RETURN f;
END;
BEGIN
num:= 6;
factorial := fact(num);
dbms_output.put_line(' Factorial '|| num || ' is ' || factorial);
END;

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Factorial 6 is 720
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Oracle creates a memory area, known as context area, for processing an SQL statement, which
contains all information needed for processing the statement, for example, number of rows
processed, etc.
A cursor is a pointer to this context area. PL/SQL controls the context area through a cursor. A
cursor holds the rows (one or more) returned by a SQL statement. The set of rows the cursor
holds is referred to as the active set.
You can name a cursor so that it could be referred to in a program to fetch and process the rows
returned by the SQL statement, one at a time. There are two types of cursors:

Implicit cursors

Explicit cursors

Implicit Cursors
Implicit cursors are automatically created by Oracle whenever an SQL statement is executed,
when there is no explicit cursor for the statement. Programmers cannot control the implicit
cursors and the information in it.
Whenever a DML statement (INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE) is issued, an implicit cursor is
associated with this statement. For INSERT operations, the cursor holds the data that needs to be
inserted. For UPDATE and DELETE operations, the cursor identifies the rows that would be
affected.
In PL/SQL, you can refer to the most recent implicit cursor as the SQL cursor, which always
has the attributes like %FOUND, %ISOPEN, %NOTFOUND, and %ROWCOUNT. The SQL
cursor has additional attributes, %BULK_ROWCOUNT and %BULK_EXCEPTIONS, designed
for use with the FORALL statement. The following table provides the description of the most
used attributes:
Attribute

Description

%FOUND

Returns TRUE if an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement

affected one or more rows or a SELECT INTO statement
returned one or more rows. Otherwise, it returns FALSE.

%NOTFOUND

The logical opposite of %FOUND. It returns TRUE if an INSERT,

UPDATE, or DELETE statement affected no rows, or a SELECT
INTO statement returned no rows. Otherwise, it returns FALSE.

%ISOPEN

Always returns FALSE for implicit cursors, because Oracle

closes the SQL cursor automatically after executing its
associated SQL statement.

%ROWCOUNT

Returns the number of rows affected by an INSERT, UPDATE, or

DELETE statement, or returned by a SELECT INTO statement.

Any SQL cursor attribute will be accessed as sql%attribute_name as shown below in the
example.

Example:
We will be using the CUSTOMERS table we had created and used in the previous chapters.
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

The following program would update the table and increase salary of each customer by 500 and
use the SQL%ROWCOUNT attribute to determine the number of rows affected:
DECLARE
total_rows number(2);
BEGIN
UPDATE customers
SET salary = salary + 500;
IF sql%notfound THEN
dbms_output.put_line('no customers selected');
ELSIF sql%found THEN
total_rows := sql%rowcount;
dbms_output.put_line( total_rows || ' customers selected ');
END IF;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
6 customers selected
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

If you check the records in customers table, you will find that the rows have been updated:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2500.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 2000.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2500.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 7000.00 |

| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 9000.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 5000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

Explicit Cursors
Explicit cursors are programmer defined cursors for gaining more control over the context area.
An explicit cursor should be defined in the declaration section of the PL/SQL Block. It is created
on a SELECT Statement which returns more than one row.
The syntax for creating an explicit cursor is :
CURSOR cursor_name IS select_statement;

Working with an explicit cursor involves four steps:

Declaring the cursor for initializing in the memory

Opening the cursor for allocating memory

Fetching the cursor for retrieving data

Closing the cursor to release allocated memory

Declaring the Cursor

Declaring the cursor defines the cursor with a name and the associated SELECT statement. For
example:
CURSOR c_customers IS
SELECT id, name, address FROM customers;

Opening the Cursor

Opening the cursor allocates memory for the cursor and makes it ready for fetching the rows
returned by the SQL statement into it. For example, we will open above-defined cursor as
follows:
OPEN c_customers;

Fetching the Cursor

Fetching the cursor involves accessing one row at a time. For example we will fetch rows from
the above-opened cursor as follows:
FETCH c_customers INTO c_id, c_name, c_addr;

Closing the Cursor

Closing the cursor means releasing the allocated memory. For example, we will close aboveopened cursor as follows:
CLOSE c_customers;

Example:
Following is a complete example to illustrate the concepts of explicit cursors:

DECLARE
c_id customers.id%type;
c_name customers.name%type;
c_addr customers.address%type;
CURSOR c_customers is
SELECT id, name, address FROM customers;
BEGIN
OPEN c_customers;
LOOP
FETCH c_customers into c_id, c_name, c_addr;
EXIT WHEN c_customers%notfound;
dbms_output.put_line(c_id || ' ' || c_name || ' ' || c_addr);
END LOOP;
CLOSE c_customers;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
1
2
3
4
5
6

Ramesh Ahmedabad
Khilan Delhi
kaushik Kota
Chaitali Mumbai
Hardik Bhopal
Komal MP

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

A PL/SQL record is a data structure that can hold data items of different kinds. Records consist
of different fields, similar to a row of a database table.
For example, you want to keep track of your books in a library. You might want to track the
following attributes about each book like, Title, Author, Subject, Book ID. A record containing a
field for each of these items allows treating a BOOK as a logical unit and allows you to organize
and represent its information in a better way.
PL/SQL can handle the following types of records:

Table-based

Cursor-based records

User-defined records

Table-Based Records
The %ROWTYPE attribute enables a programmer to create table-based and cursor-based
records.
The following example would illustrate the concept of table-based records. We will be using the
CUSTOMERS table we had created and used in the previous chapters:
DECLARE
customer_rec customers%rowtype;
BEGIN

SELECT * into customer_rec

FROM customers
WHERE id = 5;
dbms_output.put_line('Customer
dbms_output.put_line('Customer
dbms_output.put_line('Customer
dbms_output.put_line('Customer
END;
/

ID: ' || customer_rec.id);

Name: ' || customer_rec.name);
Address: ' || customer_rec.address);
Salary: ' || customer_rec.salary);

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Customer
Customer
Customer
Customer

ID: 5
Name: Hardik
Address: Bhopal
Salary: 9000

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Cursor-Based Records
The following example would illustrate the concept of cursor-based records. We will be using
the CUSTOMERS table we had created and used in the previous chapters:
DECLARE
CURSOR customer_cur is
SELECT id, name, address
FROM customers;
customer_rec customer_cur%rowtype;
BEGIN
OPEN customer_cur;
LOOP
FETCH customer_cur into customer_rec;
EXIT WHEN customer_cur%notfound;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(customer_rec.id || ' ' || customer_rec.name);
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
1
2
3
4
5
6

Ramesh
Khilan
kaushik
Chaitali
Hardik
Komal

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

User-Defined Records
PL/SQL provides a user-defined record type that allows you to define different record structures.
Records consist of different fields. Suppose you want to keep track of your books in a library.
You might want to track the following attributes about each book:

Title

Author

Subject

Book ID

Defining a Record
The record type is defined as:
TYPE
type_name IS RECORD
( field_name1 datatype1 [NOT NULL] [:= DEFAULT EXPRESSION],
field_name2
datatype2
[NOT NULL] [:= DEFAULT EXPRESSION],
...
field_nameN datatypeN [NOT NULL] [:= DEFAULT EXPRESSION);
record-name type_name;

Here is the way you would declare the Book record:

DECLARE
TYPE books IS RECORD
(title varchar(50),
author varchar(50),
subject varchar(100),
book_id
number);
book1 books;
book2 books;

Accessing Fields
To access any field of a record, we use the dot (.) operator. The member access operator is coded
as a period between the record variable name and the field that we wish to access. Following is
the example to explain usage of record:
DECLARE
type books is record
(title varchar(50),
author varchar(50),
subject varchar(100),
book_id number);
book1 books;
book2 books;
BEGIN
-- Book 1 specification
book1.title := 'C Programming';
book1.author := 'Nuha Ali ';
book1.subject := 'C Programming Tutorial';
book1.book_id := 6495407;
-- Book 2 specification
book2.title := 'Telecom Billing';
book2.author := 'Zara Ali';
book2.subject := 'Telecom Billing Tutorial';
book2.book_id := 6495700;
-- Print book 1 record
dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
-- Print book 2 record

1
1
1
1

title : '|| book1.title);

author : '|| book1.author);
subject : '|| book1.subject);
book_id : ' || book1.book_id);

dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
dbms_output.put_line('Book
END;
/

2
2
2
2

title : '|| book2.title);

author : '|| book2.author);
subject : '|| book2.subject);
book_id : '|| book2.book_id);

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book

1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2

title : C Programming
author : Nuha Ali
subject : C Programming Tutorial
book_id : 6495407
title : Telecom Billing
author : Zara Ali
subject : Telecom Billing Tutorial
book_id : 6495700

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Records as Subprogram Parameters

You can pass a record as a subprogram parameter in very similar way as you pass any other
variable. You would access the record fields in the similar way as you have accessed in the above
example:
DECLARE
type books is record
(title varchar(50),
author varchar(50),
subject varchar(100),
book_id
number);
book1 books;
book2 books;
PROCEDURE printbook (book books) IS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line ('Book title : ' || book.title);
dbms_output.put_line('Book author : ' || book.author);
dbms_output.put_line( 'Book subject : ' || book.subject);
dbms_output.put_line( 'Book book_id : ' || book.book_id);
END;
BEGIN
-- Book 1 specification
book1.title := 'C Programming';
book1.author := 'Nuha Ali ';
book1.subject := 'C Programming Tutorial';
book1.book_id := 6495407;
-- Book 2 specification
book2.title := 'Telecom Billing';
book2.author := 'Zara Ali';
book2.subject := 'Telecom Billing Tutorial';
book2.book_id := 6495700;
-- Use procedure to print book info
printbook(book1);
printbook(book2);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:

Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book
Book

title : C Programming
author : Nuha Ali
subject : C Programming Tutorial
book_id : 6495407
title : Telecom Billing
author : Zara Ali
subject : Telecom Billing Tutorial
book_id : 6495700

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

An error condition during a program execution is called an exception in PL/SQL. PL/SQL

supports programmers to catch such conditions using EXCEPTION block in the program and an
appropriate action is taken against the error condition. There are two types of exceptions:

System-defined exceptions

User-defined exceptions

Syntax for Exception Handling

The General Syntax for exception handling is as follows. Here you can list down as many as
exceptions you want to handle. The default exception will be handled using WHEN others
THEN:
DECLARE
<declarations section>
BEGIN
<executable command(s)>
EXCEPTION
<exception handling goes here >
WHEN exception1 THEN
exception1-handling-statements
WHEN exception2 THEN
exception2-handling-statements
WHEN exception3 THEN
exception3-handling-statements
........
WHEN others THEN
exception3-handling-statements
END;

Example
Let us write some simple code to illustrate the concept. We will be using the CUSTOMERS table
we had created and used in the previous chapters:
DECLARE
c_id customers.id%type := 8;
c_name customers.name%type;
c_addr customers.address%type;
BEGIN
SELECT name, address INTO c_name, c_addr
FROM customers
WHERE id = c_id;

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Name: '|| c_name);

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Address: ' || c_addr);
EXCEPTION
WHEN no_data_found THEN
dbms_output.put_line('No such customer!');
WHEN others THEN
dbms_output.put_line('Error!');
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
No such customer!
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The above program displays the name and address of a customer whose ID is given. Since there
is no customer with ID value 8 in our database, the program raises the run-time exception
NO_DATA_FOUND, which is captured in EXCEPTION block.

Raising Exceptions
Exceptions are raised by the database server automatically whenever there is any internal
database error, but exceptions can be raised explicitly by the programmer by using the command
RAISE. Following is the simple syntax of raising an exception:
DECLARE
exception_name EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
IF condition THEN
RAISE exception_name;
END IF;
EXCEPTION
WHEN exception_name THEN
statement;
END;

You can use above syntax in raising Oracle standard exception or any user-defined exception.
Next section will give you an example on raising user-defined exception, similar way you can
raise Oracle standard exceptions as well.

User-defined Exceptions
PL/SQL allows you to define your own exceptions according to the need of your program. A
user-defined exception must be declared and then raised explicitly, using either a RAISE
statement or the procedure DBMS_STANDARD.RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR.
The syntax for declaring an exception is:
DECLARE
my-exception EXCEPTION;

Example:
The following example illustrates the concept. This program asks for a customer ID, when the
user enters an invalid ID, the exception invalid_id is raised.
DECLARE

c_id customers.id%type := &cc_id;

c_name customers.name%type;
c_addr customers.address%type;
-- user defined exception
ex_invalid_id EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
IF c_id <= 0 THEN
RAISE ex_invalid_id;
ELSE
SELECT name, address INTO
FROM customers
WHERE id = c_id;

c_name, c_addr

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Name: '|| c_name);

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Address: ' || c_addr);
END IF;
EXCEPTION
WHEN ex_invalid_id THEN
dbms_output.put_line('ID must be greater than zero!');
WHEN no_data_found THEN
dbms_output.put_line('No such customer!');
WHEN others THEN
dbms_output.put_line('Error!');
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Enter value for cc_id: -6 (let's enter a value -6)
old 2: c_id customers.id%type := &cc_id;
new 2: c_id customers.id%type := -6;
ID must be greater than zero!
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Pre-defined Exceptions
PL/SQL provides many pre-defined exceptions, which are executed when any database rule is
violated by a program. For example, the predefined exception NO_DATA_FOUND is raised
when a SELECT INTO statement returns no rows. The following table lists few of the important
pre-defined exceptions:
Exception

Oracle SQLCO
Error
DE

Description

ACCESS_INTO_NULL 06530

-6530

It is raised when a null object is automatically

assigned a value.

CASE_NOT_FOUND

06592

-6592

It is raised when none of the choices in the

WHEN clauses of a CASE statement is
selected, and there is no ELSE clause.

COLLECTION_IS_NUL 06531
L

-6531

It is raised when a program attempts to apply

collection methods other than EXISTS to an
uninitialized nested table or varray, or the
program attempts to assign values to the
elements of an uninitialized nested table or

varray.
DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX 00001

-1

It is raised when duplicate values are

attempted to be stored in a column with
unique index.

INVALID_CURSOR

01001

-1001

It is raised when attempts are made to make

a cursor operation that is not allowed, such as
closing an unopened cursor.

INVALID_NUMBER

01722

-1722

It is raised when the conversion of a character

string into a number fails because the string
does not represent a valid number.

LOGIN_DENIED

01017

-1017

It is raised when s program attempts to log on

to the database with an invalid username or
password.

NO_DATA_FOUND

01403

+100

It is raised when a SELECT INTO statement

returns no rows.

NOT_LOGGED_ON

01012

-1012

It is raised when a database call is issued

without being connected to the database.

PROGRAM_ERROR

06501

-6501

It is raised when PL/SQL has an internal

problem.

ROWTYPE_MISMATC
06504
H

-6504

It is raised when a cursor fetches value in a

variable having incompatible data type.

SELF_IS_NULL

30625

It is raised when a member method is

-30625 invoked, but the instance of the object type
was not initialized.

STORAGE_ERROR

06500

-6500

It is raised when PL/SQL ran out of memory or

memory was corrupted.

TOO_MANY_ROWS

01422

-1422

It is raised when s SELECT INTO statement

returns more than one row.

VALUE_ERROR

06502

-6502

It is raised when an arithmetic, conversion,

truncation, or size-constraint error occurs.

ZERO_DIVIDE

01476

1476

It is raised when an attempt is made to divide

a number by zero.

Triggers are stored programs, which are automatically executed or fired when some events occur.
Triggers are, in fact, written to be executed in response to any of the following events:

A database manipulation (DML) statement (DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE).

A database definition (DDL) statement (CREATE, ALTER, or DROP).

A database operation (SERVERERROR, LOGON, LOGOFF, STARTUP, or

SHUTDOWN).

Triggers could be defined on the table, view, schema, or database with which the event is
associated.

Benefits of Triggers
Triggers can be written for the following purposes:

Generating some derived column values automatically

Enforcing referential integrity

Event logging and storing information on table access

Auditing

Synchronous replication of tables

Imposing security authorizations

Preventing invalid transactions

Creating Triggers
The syntax for creating a trigger is:
CREATE [OR REPLACE ] TRIGGER trigger_name
{BEFORE | AFTER | INSTEAD OF }
{INSERT [OR] | UPDATE [OR] | DELETE}
[OF col_name]
ON table_name
[REFERENCING OLD AS o NEW AS n]
[FOR EACH ROW]
WHEN (condition)
DECLARE
Declaration-statements
BEGIN
Executable-statements
EXCEPTION
Exception-handling-statements
END;

Where,

CREATE [OR REPLACE] TRIGGER trigger_name: Creates or replaces an existing

trigger with the trigger_name.

{BEFORE | AFTER | INSTEAD OF} : This specifies when the trigger would be
executed. The INSTEAD OF clause is used for creating trigger on a view.

{INSERT [OR] | UPDATE [OR] | DELETE}: This specifies the DML operation.

[OF col_name]: This specifies the column name that would be updated.

[ON table_name]: This specifies the name of the table associated with the trigger.

[REFERENCING OLD AS o NEW AS n]: This allows you to refer new and old values
for various DML statements, like INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.

[FOR EACH ROW]: This specifies a row level trigger, i.e., the trigger would be executed
for each row being affected. Otherwise the trigger will execute just once when the SQL
statement is executed, which is called a table level trigger.

WHEN (condition): This provides a condition for rows for which the trigger would fire.
This clause is valid only for row level triggers.

Example:
To start with, we will be using the CUSTOMERS table we had created and used in the previous
chapters:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

The following program creates a row level trigger for the customers table that would fire for
INSERT or UPDATE or DELETE operations performed on the CUSTOMERS table. This trigger
will display the salary difference between the old values and new values:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER display_salary_changes
BEFORE DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE ON customers
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (NEW.ID > 0)
DECLARE
sal_diff number;
BEGIN
sal_diff := :NEW.salary - :OLD.salary;
dbms_output.put_line('Old salary: ' || :OLD.salary);
dbms_output.put_line('New salary: ' || :NEW.salary);
dbms_output.put_line('Salary difference: ' || sal_diff);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Trigger created.

Here following two points are important and should be noted carefully:

OLD and NEW references are not available for table level triggers, rather you can use
them for record level triggers.

If you want to query the table in the same trigger, then you should use the AFTER
keyword, because triggers can query the table or change it again only after the initial
changes are applied and the table is back in a consistent state.

Above trigger has been written in such a way that it will fire before any DELETE or
INSERT or UPDATE operation on the table, but you can write your trigger on a single or
multiple operations, for example BEFORE DELETE, which will fire whenever a record
will be deleted using DELETE operation on the table.

Triggering a Trigger
Let us perform some DML operations on the CUSTOMERS table. Here is one INSERT
statement, which will create a new record in the table:
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (7, 'Kriti', 22, 'HP', 7500.00 );

When a record is created in CUSTOMERS table, above create trigger display_salary_changes

will be fired and it will display the following result:
Old salary:
New salary: 7500
Salary difference:

Because this is a new record so old salary is not available and above result is coming as null.
Now, let us perform one more DML operation on the CUSTOMERS table. Here is one UPDATE
statement, which will update an existing record in the table:
UPDATE customers
SET salary = salary + 500
WHERE id = 2;

When a record is updated in CUSTOMERS table, above create trigger display_salary_changes

will be fired and it will display the following result:
Old salary: 1500
New salary: 2000
Salary difference: 500

PL/SQL packages are schema objects that groups logically related PL/SQL types, variables and
subprograms.
A package will have two mandatory parts:

Package specification

Package body or definition

Package Specification
The specification is the interface to the package. It just DECLARES the types, variables,
constants, exceptions, cursors, and subprograms that can be referenced from outside the package.
In other words, it contains all information about the content of the package, but excludes the
code for the subprograms.
All objects placed in the specification are called public objects. Any subprogram not in the
package specification but coded in the package body is called a private object.
The following code snippet shows a package specification having a single procedure. You can
have many global variables defined and multiple procedures or functions inside a package.
CREATE PACKAGE cust_sal AS
PROCEDURE find_sal(c_id customers.id%type);
END cust_sal;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Package created.

Package Body
The package body has the codes for various methods declared in the package specification and
other private declarations, which are hidden from code outside the package.
The CREATE PACKAGE BODY Statement is used for creating the package body. The following
code snippet shows the package body declaration for the cust_sal package created above. I
assumed that we already have CUSTOMERS table created in our database as mentioned in
PL/SQL - Variables chapter.
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY cust_sal AS
PROCEDURE find_sal(c_id customers.id%TYPE) IS
c_sal customers.salary%TYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT salary INTO c_sal
FROM customers
WHERE id = c_id;
dbms_output.put_line('Salary: '|| c_sal);
END find_sal;
END cust_sal;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Package body created.

Using the Package Elements

The package elements (variables, procedures or functions) are accessed with the following
syntax:
package_name.element_name;

Consider, we already have created above package in our database schema, the following program
uses the find_sal method of the cust_sal package:

DECLARE
code customers.id%type := &cc_id;
BEGIN
cust_sal.find_sal(code);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it prompt to enter customer ID and when you
enter an ID, it displays corresponding salary as follows:
Enter value for cc_id: 1
Salary: 3000
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example:
The following program provides a more complete package. We will use the CUSTOMERS table
stored in our database with the following records:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 3000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 3000.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 3000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 7500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 9500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 5500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

THE PACKAGE SPECIFICATION:

CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE c_package AS
-- Adds a customer
PROCEDURE addCustomer(c_id
customers.id%type,
c_name customers.name%type,
c_age customers.age%type,
c_addr customers.address%type,
c_sal customers.salary%type);
-- Removes a customer
PROCEDURE delCustomer(c_id
--Lists all customers
PROCEDURE listCustomer;

customers.id%TYPE);

END c_package;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it creates the above package and displays the
following result:
Package created.

CREATING THE PACKAGE BODY:

CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY c_package AS
PROCEDURE addCustomer(c_id customers.id%type,
c_name customers.name%type,
c_age customers.age%type,
c_addr customers.address%type,
c_sal
customers.salary%type)

IS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO customers (id,name,age,address,salary)
VALUES(c_id, c_name, c_age, c_addr, c_sal);
END addCustomer;
PROCEDURE delCustomer(c_id
BEGIN
DELETE FROM customers
WHERE id = c_id;
END delCustomer;

customers.id%type) IS

PROCEDURE listCustomer IS
CURSOR c_customers is
SELECT name FROM customers;
TYPE c_list is TABLE OF customers.name%type;
name_list c_list := c_list();
counter integer :=0;
BEGIN
FOR n IN c_customers LOOP
counter := counter +1;
name_list.extend;
name_list(counter) := n.name;
dbms_output.put_line('Customer(' ||counter|| ')'||name_list(counter));
END LOOP;
END listCustomer;
END c_package;
/

Above example makes use of nested table which we will discuss in the next chapter. When the
above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Package body created.

USING THE PACKAGE:

The following program uses the methods declared and defined in the package c_package.
DECLARE
code customers.id%type:= 8;
BEGIN
c_package.addcustomer(7, 'Rajnish', 25, 'Chennai', 3500);
c_package.addcustomer(8, 'Subham', 32, 'Delhi', 7500);
c_package.listcustomer;
c_package.delcustomer(code);
c_package.listcustomer;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Customer(1):
Customer(2):
Customer(3):
Customer(4):
Customer(5):
Customer(6):
Customer(7):
Customer(8):
Customer(1):
Customer(2):
Customer(3):
Customer(4):

Ramesh
Khilan
kaushik
Chaitali
Hardik
Komal
Rajnish
Subham
Ramesh
Khilan
kaushik
Chaitali

Customer(5): Hardik
Customer(6): Komal
Customer(7): Rajnish
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

A collection is an ordered group of elements having the same data type. Each element is
identified by a unique subscript that represents its position in the collection.
PL/SQL provides three collection types:

Index-by tables or Associative array

Nested table

Variable-size array or Varray

Oracle documentation provides the following characteristics for each type of collections:
Collection
Type

Number of Subscrip
Elements t Type

Dense or
Sparse

Associative
String or
array (or index- Unbounded
Either
integer
by table)
Nested table

Variable-size
array (Varray)

Where
Created

Can Be
Object Type
Attribute

Only in PL/SQL
No
block

Unbounded Integer

Starts dense, Either in PL/SQL

can become block or at
Yes
sparse
schema level

Bounded

Either in PL/SQL
Always dense block or at
Yes
schema level

Integer

We have already discussed varray in the chapter 'PL/SQL arrays'. In this chapter, we will discuss
PL/SQL tables.
Both types of PL/SQL tables, i.e., index-by tables and nested tables have the same structure and
their rows are accessed using the subscript notation. However, these two types of tables differ in
one aspect; the nested tables can be stored in a database column and the index-by tables cannot.

Index-By Table
An index-by table (also called an associative array) is a set of key-value pairs. Each key is
unique and is used to locate the corresponding value. The key can be either an integer or a string.

An index-by table is created using the following syntax. Here, we are creating an index-by table
named table_name whose keys will be of subscript_type and associated values will be of
element_type
TYPE type_name IS TABLE OF element_type [NOT NULL] INDEX BY subscript_type;
table_name type_name;

Example:
Following example shows how to create a table to store integer values along with names and
later it prints the same list of names.
DECLARE
TYPE salary IS TABLE OF NUMBER INDEX BY VARCHAR2(20);
salary_list salary;
name
VARCHAR2(20);
BEGIN
-- adding elements to the table
salary_list('Rajnish') := 62000;
salary_list('Minakshi') := 75000;
salary_list('Martin') := 100000;
salary_list('James') := 78000;
-- printing the table
name := salary_list.FIRST;
WHILE name IS NOT null LOOP
dbms_output.put_line
('Salary of ' || name || ' is ' || TO_CHAR(salary_list(name)));
name := salary_list.NEXT(name);
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Salary
Salary
Salary
Salary

of
of
of
of

Rajnish is 62000
Minakshi is 75000
Martin is 100000
James is 78000

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example:
Elements of an index-by table could also be a %ROWTYPE of any database table or %TYPE of
any database table field. The following example illustrates the concept. We will use the
CUSTOMERS table stored in our database as:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

DECLARE
CURSOR c_customers is
select name from customers;
TYPE c_list IS TABLE of customers.name%type INDEX BY binary_integer;
name_list c_list;
counter integer :=0;
BEGIN
FOR n IN c_customers LOOP
counter := counter +1;
name_list(counter) := n.name;
dbms_output.put_line('Customer('||counter|| '):'||name_list(counter));
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Customer(1):
Customer(2):
Customer(3):
Customer(4):
Customer(5):
Customer(6):

Ramesh
Khilan
kaushik
Chaitali
Hardik
Komal

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

Nested Tables
A nested table is like a one-dimensional array with an arbitrary number of elements. However, a
nested table differs from an array in the following aspects:

An array has a declared number of elements, but a nested table does not. The size of a
nested table can increase dynamically.

An array is always dense, i.e., it always has consecutive subscripts. A nested array is
dense initially, but it can become sparse when elements are deleted from it.

A nested table is created using the following syntax:

TYPE type_name IS TABLE OF element_type [NOT NULL];
table_name type_name;

This declaration is similar to declaration of an index-by table, but there is no INDEX BY clause.
A nested table can be stored in a database column and so it could be used for simplifying SQL
operations where you join a single-column table with a larger table. An associative array cannot
be stored in the database.

Example:
The following examples illustrate the use of nested table:
DECLARE
TYPE names_table IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(10);
TYPE grades IS TABLE OF INTEGER;
names names_table;

marks grades;
total integer;
BEGIN
names := names_table('Kavita', 'Pritam', 'Ayan', 'Rishav', 'Aziz');
marks:= grades(98, 97, 78, 87, 92);
total := names.count;
dbms_output.put_line('Total '|| total || ' Students');
FOR i IN 1 .. total LOOP
dbms_output.put_line('Student:'||names(i)||', Marks:' || marks(i));
end loop;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Total 5 Students
Student:Kavita, Marks:98
Student:Pritam, Marks:97
Student:Ayan, Marks:78
Student:Rishav, Marks:87
Student:Aziz, Marks:92
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Example:
Elements of a nested table could also be a %ROWTYPE of any database table or %TYPE of
any database table field. The following example illustrates the concept. We will use the
CUSTOMERS table stored in our database as:
Select * from customers;
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS
| SALARY
|
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan
| 25 | Delhi
| 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik
| 27 | Bhopal
| 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal
| 22 | MP
| 4500.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
DECLARE
CURSOR c_customers is
SELECT name FROM customers;
TYPE c_list IS TABLE of customers.name%type;
name_list c_list := c_list();
counter integer :=0;
BEGIN
FOR n IN c_customers LOOP
counter := counter +1;
name_list.extend;
name_list(counter) := n.name;
dbms_output.put_line('Customer('||counter||'):'||name_list(counter));
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Customer(1): Ramesh
Customer(2): Khilan

Customer(3):
Customer(4):
Customer(5):
Customer(6):

kaushik
Chaitali
Hardik
Komal

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Collection Methods
PL/SQL provides the built-in collection methods that make collections easier to use. The
following table lists the methods and their purpose:
S.N
.

Method Name & Purpose

EXISTS(n)
Returns TRUE if the nth element in a collection exists; otherwise returns FALSE.

COUNT
Returns the number of elements that a collection currently contains.

LIMIT
Checks the Maximum Size of a Collection.

FIRST
Returns the first (smallest) index numbers in a collection that uses integer
subscripts.

LAST
Returns the last (largest) index numbers in a collection that uses integer
subscripts.

PRIOR(n)
Returns the index number that precedes index n in a collection.

NEXT(n)
Returns the index number that succeeds index n.

EXTEND
Appends one null element to a collection.

EXTEND(n)
Appends n null elements to a collection.

10

EXTEND(n,i)
Appends n copies of the ith element to a collection.

11

TRIM
Removes one element from the end of a collection.

12

TRIM(n)
Removes n elements from the end of a collection.

13

DELETE
Removes all elements from a collection, setting COUNT to 0.

14

DELETE(n)
Removes the nth element from an associative array with a numeric key or a
nested table. If the associative array has a string key, the element
corresponding to the key value is deleted. If n is null, DELETE(n) does nothing.

15

DELETE(m,n)
Removes all elements in the range m..n from an associative array or nested
table. If m is larger than n or if m or n is null, DELETE(m,n) does nothing.

Collection Exceptions
The following table provides the collection exceptions and when they are raised:
Collection Exception

Raised in Situations

COLLECTION_IS_NULL

You try to operate on an atomically null collection.

NO_DATA_FOUND

A subscript designates an element that was deleted, or a

nonexistent element of an associative array.

SUBSCRIPT_BEYOND_C
A subscript exceeds the number of elements in a collection.
OUNT
SUBSCRIPT_OUTSIDE_LI
A subscript is outside the allowed range.
MIT
VALUE_ERROR

A subscript is null or not convertible to the key type. This

exception might occur if the key is defined as a
PLS_INTEGER range, and the subscript is outside this range.

A database transaction is an atomic unit of work that may consist of one or more related SQL
statements. It is called atomic because the database modifications brought about by the SQL
statements that constitute a transaction can collectively be either committed, i.e., made
permanent to the database or rolled back (undone) from the database.
A successfully executed SQL statement and a committed transaction are not same. Even if an
SQL statement is executed successfully, unless the transaction containing the statement is
committed, it can be rolled back and all changes made by the statement(s) can be undone.

Starting an Ending a Transaction

A transaction has a beginning and an end. A transaction starts when one of the following events
take place:

The first SQL statement is performed after connecting to the database.

At each new SQL statement issued after a transaction is completed.

A transaction ends when one of the following events take place:

A COMMIT or a ROLLBACK statement is issued.

A DDL statement, like CREATE TABLE statement, is issued; because in that case a
COMMIT is automatically performed.

A DCL statement, such as a GRANT statement, is issued; because in that case a

COMMIT is automatically performed.

User disconnects from the database.

User exits from SQL*PLUS by issuing the EXIT command, a COMMIT is automatically
performed.

SQL*Plus terminates abnormally, a ROLLBACK is automatically performed.

A DML statement fails; in that case a ROLLBACK is automatically performed for

undoing that DML statement.

Committing a Transaction
A transaction is made permanent by issuing the SQL command COMMIT. The general syntax for
the COMMIT command is:
COMMIT;

For example,
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (1, 'Ramesh', 32, 'Ahmedabad', 2000.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (2, 'Khilan', 25, 'Delhi', 1500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (3, 'kaushik', 23, 'Kota', 2000.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (4, 'Chaitali', 25, 'Mumbai', 6500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (5, 'Hardik', 27, 'Bhopal', 8500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (6, 'Komal', 22, 'MP', 4500.00 );
COMMIT;

Rolling Back Transactions

Changes made to the database without COMMIT could be undone using the ROLLBACK
command.
The general syntax for the ROLLBACK command is:
ROLLBACK [TO SAVEPOINT < savepoint_name>];

When a transaction is aborted due to some unprecedented situation, like system failure, the entire
transaction since a commit is automatically rolled back. If you are not using savepoint, then
simply use the following statement to rollback all the changes:
ROLLBACK;

Savepoints
Savepoints are sort of markers that help in splitting a long transaction into smaller units by
setting some checkpoints. By setting savepoints within a long transaction, you can roll back to a
checkpoint if required. This is done by issuing the SAVEPOINT command.
The general syntax for the SAVEPOINT command is:
SAVEPOINT < savepoint_name >;

For example:
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (7, 'Rajnish', 27, 'HP', 9500.00 );
INSERT INTO CUSTOMERS (ID,NAME,AGE,ADDRESS,SALARY)
VALUES (8, 'Riddhi', 21, 'WB', 4500.00 );
SAVEPOINT sav1;
UPDATE CUSTOMERS
SET SALARY = SALARY + 1000;
ROLLBACK TO sav1;
UPDATE CUSTOMERS
SET SALARY = SALARY + 1000
WHERE ID = 7;
UPDATE CUSTOMERS
SET SALARY = SALARY + 1000
WHERE ID = 8;
COMMIT;

Here,ROLLBACK TO sav1; statement rolls back the changes up to the point, where you had
marked savepoint sav1 and after that new changes will start.

Automatic Transaction Control

To execute a COMMIT automatically whenever an INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE command is
executed, you can set the AUTOCOMMIT environment variable as:
SET AUTOCOMMIT ON;

You can turn-off auto commit mode using the following command:
SET AUTOCOMMIT OFF;

PL/SQL provides two classes of date and time related data types:

Datetime data types

Interval data types

The Datetime data types are:

DATE

TIMESTAMP

TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE

TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE

The Interval data types are:

INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH

INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND

Field Values for Datetime and Interval Data Types

Both datetime and interval data types consist of fields. The values of these fields determine the
value of the datatype. The following table lists the fields and their possible values for datetimes
and intervals.
Field Name

Valid Datetime Values

Valid Interval Values

YEAR

-4712 to 9999 (excluding year 0)

Any nonzero integer

MONTH

01 to 12

0 to 11

DAY

01 to 31 (limited by the values of MONTH

and YEAR, according to the rules of the
Any nonzero integer
calendar for the locale)

HOUR

00 to 23

0 to 23

MINUTE

00 to 59

0 to 59

SECOND

00 to 59.9(n), where 9(n) is the precision

of time fractional seconds
The 9(n) portion is not applicable for
DATE.

0 to 59.9(n), where 9(n)

is the precision of
interval fractional
seconds

-12 to 14 (range accommodates daylight

TIMEZONE_HOU
savings time changes)
Not applicable
R
Not applicable for DATE or TIMESTAMP.
TIMEZONE_MINU 00 to 59
TE
Not applicable for DATE or TIMESTAMP.

Not applicable

TIMEZONE_REGI
Not applicable for DATE or TIMESTAMP.
ON

Not applicable

TIMEZONE_ABB
Not applicable for DATE or TIMESTAMP.
R

Not applicable

The Datetime Data Types and Functions

Following are the Datetime data types:

DATE - it stores date and time information in both character and number datatypes. It is
made of information on century, year, month, date, hour, minute, and second. It is
specified as:

TIMESTAMP - it is an extension of the DATE datatype. It stores the year, month, and
day of the DATE datatype, along with hour, minute, and second values. It is useful for
storing precise time values.

TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE - it is a variant of TIMESTAMP that includes a

time zone region name or a time zone offset in its value. The time zone offset is the
difference (in hours and minutes) between local time and UTC. This datatype is useful for
collecting and evaluating date information across geographic regions.

TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE - it is another variant of TIMESTAMP

that includes a time zone offset in its value.

Following table provides the Datetime functions (where, x has datetime value):
S.N

Function Name & Description

ADD_MONTHS(x, y);
Adds y months to x.

LAST_DAY(x);
Returns the last day of the month.

MONTHS_BETWEEN(x, y);
Returns the number of months between x and y.

NEXT_DAY(x, day);
Returns the datetime of the next day after x.

NEW_TIME;
Returns the time/day value from a time zone specified by the user.

ROUND(x [, unit]);
Rounds x;

SYSDATE();
Returns the current datetime.

TRUNC(x [, unit]);
Truncates x.

Timestamp functions (where, x has a timestamp value):

S.N
1

Function Name & Description

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP();
Returns a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE containing the current session time

along with the session time zone.

EXTRACT({ YEAR | MONTH | DAY | HOUR | MINUTE | SECOND } |

{ TIMEZONE_HOUR | TIMEZONE_MINUTE } | { TIMEZONE_REGION | }
TIMEZONE_ABBR ) FROM x)
Extracts and returns a year, month, day, hour, minute, second, or time zone
from x;

FROM_TZ(x, time_zone);
Converts the TIMESTAMP x and time zone specified by time_zone to a
TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE.

LOCALTIMESTAMP();
Returns a TIMESTAMP containing the local time in the session time zone.

SYSTIMESTAMP();
Returns a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE containing the current database time
along with the database time zone.

SYS_EXTRACT_UTC(x);
Converts the TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE x to a TIMESTAMP containing the
date and time in UTC.

TO_TIMESTAMP(x, [format]);
Converts the string x to a TIMESTAMP.

TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ(x, [format]);
Converts the string x to a TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE.

Examples:
The following code snippets illustrate the use of the above functions:
SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL;

Output:
08/31/2012 5:25:34 PM
SELECT TO_CHAR(CURRENT_DATE, 'DD-MM-YYYY HH:MI:SS') FROM DUAL;

Output:
31-08-2012 05:26:14
SELECT ADD_MONTHS(SYSDATE, 5) FROM DUAL;

Output:
01/31/2013 5:26:31 PM
SELECT LOCALTIMESTAMP FROM DUAL;

Output:
8/31/2012 5:26:55.347000 PM

The Interval Data Types and Functions

Following are the Interval data types:

INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH - it stores a period of time using the YEAR and
MONTH datetime fields.

INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND - it stores a period of time in terms of days, hours,

minutes, and seconds.

Interval functions:
S.
N

Function Name & Description

NUMTODSINTERVAL(x, interval_unit);
Converts the number x to an INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND.

NUMTOYMINTERVAL(x, interval_unit);
Converts the number x to an INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH.

TO_DSINTERVAL(x);
Converts the string x to an INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND.

TO_YMINTERVAL(x);
Converts the string x to an INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH.

The DBMS_OUTPUT is a built-in package that enables you to display output, display
debugging information, and send messages from PL/SQL blocks, subprograms, packages, and
triggers. We have already used this package all throughout our tutorial.
Let us look at a small code snippet that would display all the user tables in the database. Try it in
your database to list down all the table names:
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line (user || ' Tables in the database:');
FOR t IN (SELECT table_name FROM user_tables)
LOOP
dbms_output.put_line(t.table_name);
END LOOP;
END;
/

DBMS_OUTPUT Subprograms
The DBMS_OUTPUT package has the following subprograms:
S.N

Subprogram & Purpose

DBMS_OUTPUT.DISABLE;
Disables message output

DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(buffer_size IN INTEGER DEFAULT 20000);

Enables message output. A NULL value of buffer_size represents unlimited
buffer size.

DBMS_OUTPUT.GET_LINE (line OUT VARCHAR2, status OUT INTEGER);

Retrieves a single line of buffered information.

4

DBMS_OUTPUT.GET_LINES (lines OUT CHARARR, numlines IN OUT

INTEGER);
Retrieves an array of lines from the buffer.

DBMS_OUTPUT.NEW_LINE;
Puts an end-of-line marker

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT(item IN VARCHAR2);
Places a partial line in the buffer.

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(item IN VARCHAR2);
Places a line in the buffer.

Example:
DECLARE
lines dbms_output.chararr;
num_lines number;
BEGIN
-- enable the buffer with default size 20000
dbms_output.enable;
dbms_output.put_line('Hello Reader!');
dbms_output.put_line('Hope you have enjoyed the tutorials!');
dbms_output.put_line('Have a great time exploring pl/sql!');
num_lines := 3;
dbms_output.get_lines(lines, num_lines);
FOR i IN 1..num_lines LOOP
dbms_output.put_line(lines(i));
END LOOP;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Hello Reader!
Hope you have enjoyed the tutorials!
Have a great time exploring pl/sql!
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL allows defining an object type, which helps in designing object-oriented database in
Oracle. An object type allows you to crate composite types. Using objects allow you
implementing real world objects with specific structure of data and methods for operating it.
Objects have attributes and methods. Attributes are properties of an object and are used for
storing an object's state; and methods are used for modeling its behaviors.
Objects are created using the CREATE [OR REPLACE] TYPE statement. Below is an example
to create a simple address object consisting of few attributes:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE address AS OBJECT

(house_no varchar2(10),
street varchar2(30),
city varchar2(20),
state varchar2(10),
pincode varchar2(10)
);
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Let's create one more object customer where we will wrap attributes and methods together to
have object oriented feeling:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE customer AS OBJECT
(code number(5),
name varchar2(30),
contact_no varchar2(12),
addr address,
member procedure display
);
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Instantiating an Object
Defining an object type provides a blueprint for the object. To use this object, you need to create
instances of this object. You can access the attributes and methods of the object using the
instance name and the access operator (.) as follows:
DECLARE
residence address;
BEGIN
residence := address('103A', 'M.G.Road', 'Jaipur', 'Rajasthan','201301');
dbms_output.put_line('House No: '|| residence.house_no);
dbms_output.put_line('Street: '|| residence.street);
dbms_output.put_line('City: '|| residence.city);
dbms_output.put_line('State: '|| residence.state);
dbms_output.put_line('Pincode: '|| residence.pincode);
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
House No: 103A
Street: M.G.Road
City: Jaipur
State: Rajasthan
Pincode: 201301
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Member Methods
Member methods are used for manipulating the attributes of the object. You provide the
declaration of a member method while declaring the object type. The object body defines the

code for the member methods. The object body is created using the CREATE TYPE BODY
statement.
Constructors are functions that return a new object as its value. Every object has a system
defined constructor method. The name of the constructor is same as the object type. For example:
residence := address('103A', 'M.G.Road', 'Jaipur', 'Rajasthan','201301');

The comparison methods are used for comparing objects. There are two ways to compare
objects:

Map method: The Map method is a function implemented in such a way that its value
depends upon the value of the attributes. For example, for a customer object, if the
customer code is same for two customers, both customers could be the same and one. So
the relationship between these two objects would depend upon the value of code.

Order method: The Order methods implement some internal logic for comparing two
objects. For example, for a rectangle object, a rectangle is bigger than another rectangle if
both its sides are bigger.

Using Map method

Let us try to understand above concepts using the following rectangle object:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rectangle AS OBJECT
(length number,
width number,
member function enlarge( inc number) return rectangle,
member procedure display,
map member function measure return number
);
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Creating the type body:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY rectangle AS
MEMBER FUNCTION enlarge(inc number) return rectangle IS
BEGIN
return rectangle(self.length + inc, self.width + inc);
END enlarge;
MEMBER PROCEDURE display IS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Length: '|| length);
dbms_output.put_line('Width: '|| width);
END display;
MAP MEMBER FUNCTION measure return number IS
BEGIN
return (sqrt(length*length + width*width));
END measure;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:

Type body created.

Now using the rectangle object and its member functions:

DECLARE
r1 rectangle;
r2 rectangle;
r3 rectangle;
inc_factor number := 5;
BEGIN
r1 := rectangle(3, 4);
r2 := rectangle(5, 7);
r3 := r1.enlarge(inc_factor);
r3.display;
IF (r1 > r2) THEN -- calling measure function
r1.display;
ELSE
r2.display;
END IF;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Length: 8
Width: 9
Length: 5
Width: 7
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Using Order method

Now, the same effect could be achieved using an order method. Let us recreate the rectangle
object using an order method:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rectangle AS OBJECT
(length number,
width number,
member procedure display,
order member function measure(r rectangle) return number
);
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Creating the type body:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY rectangle AS
MEMBER PROCEDURE display IS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Length: '|| length);
dbms_output.put_line('Width: '|| width);
END display;
ORDER MEMBER FUNCTION measure(r rectangle) return number IS
BEGIN
IF(sqrt(self.length*self.length + self.width*self.width)>
sqrt(r.length*r.length + r.width*r.width)) then
return(1);
ELSE

return(-1);
END IF;
END measure;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type body created.

Using the rectangle object and its member functions:

DECLARE
r1 rectangle;
r2 rectangle;
BEGIN
r1 := rectangle(23, 44);
r2 := rectangle(15, 17);
r1.display;
r2.display;
IF (r1 > r2) THEN -- calling measure function
r1.display;
ELSE
r2.display;
END IF;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Length: 23
Width: 44
Length: 15
Width: 17
Length: 23
Width: 44
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Inheritance for PL/SQL Objects:

PL/SQL allows creating object from existing base objects. To implement inheritance, the base
objects should be declared as NOT FINAL. The default is FINAL.
The following programs illustrate inheritance in PL/SQL Objects. Let us create another object
named TableTop, which is inheriting from the Rectangle object. Creating the base rectangle
object:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rectangle AS OBJECT
(length number,
width number,
member function enlarge( inc number) return rectangle,
NOT FINAL member procedure display) NOT FINAL
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Creating the base type body:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY rectangle AS
MEMBER FUNCTION enlarge(inc number) return rectangle IS

BEGIN
return rectangle(self.length + inc, self.width + inc);
END enlarge;
MEMBER PROCEDURE display IS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Length: '|| length);
dbms_output.put_line('Width: '|| width);
END display;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type body created.

Creating the child object tabletop:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE tabletop UNDER rectangle
(
material varchar2(20);
OVERRIDING member procedure display
)
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.

Creating the type body for the child object tabletop:

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY tabletop AS
OVERRIDING MEMBER PROCEDURE display IS
BEGIN
dbms_output.put_line('Length: '|| length);
dbms_output.put_line('Width: '|| width);
dbms_output.put_line('Material: '|| material);
END display;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type body created.

Using the tabletop object and its member functions:

DECLARE
t1 tabletop;
t2 tabletop;
BEGIN
t1:= tabletop(20, 10, 'Wood');
t2 := tabletop(50, 30, 'Steel');
t1.display;
t2.display;
END;
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Length: 20
Width: 10
Material: Wood
Length: 50
Width: 30
Material: Steel

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Abstract Objects in PL/SQL

The NOT INSTANTIABLE clause allows you to declare an abstract object. You cannot use an
abstract object as it is; you will have to create a subtype or child type of such objects to use its
functionalities.
For example,
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rectangle AS OBJECT
(length number,
width number,
NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL MEMBER PROCEDURE display)
NOT INSTANTIABLE NOT FINAL
/

When the above code is executed at SQL prompt, it produces the following result:
Type created.