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Nested Tables and Varrays

Oracle now supports three types of collections for storing data: PL/SQL tables, nested tables, and VARRAYs. Nested tables and VARRAYs can both be used in PL/SQL and in database tables, while PL/SQL tables can only be used in PL/SQL. A key difference is that VARRAYs have a fixed maximum size set at creation time, while nested tables can grow dynamically with no preset limit. The document provides an example of how to define and populate a database table that uses a VARRAY column to store multiple birthdates for each employee's dependents non-atomically.

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23 views2 pages

Nested Tables and Varrays

Oracle now supports three types of collections for storing data: PL/SQL tables, nested tables, and VARRAYs. Nested tables and VARRAYs can both be used in PL/SQL and in database tables, while PL/SQL tables can only be used in PL/SQL. A key difference is that VARRAYs have a fixed maximum size set at creation time, while nested tables can grow dynamically with no preset limit. The document provides an example of how to define and populate a database table that uses a VARRAY column to store multiple birthdates for each employee's dependents non-atomically.

Uploaded by

GiheNoida
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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19.

1 Types of Collections
Oracle now supports three types of collections:

PL/SQL tables are singly dimensioned, unbounded, sparse collections of homogeneous


elements and are available only in PL/SQL (see Chapter 10). These are now called indexby tables.
Nested tables are also singly dimensioned, unbounded collections of homogeneous
elements. They are initially dense but can become sparse through deletions. Nested tables
are available in both PL/SQL and the database (for example, as a column in a table).
VARRAYs, like the other two collection types, are also singly dimensioned collections of
homogeneous elements. However, they are always bounded and never sparse. Like nested
tables, they can be used in PL/SQL and in the database. Unlike nested tables, when you
store and retrieve a VARRAY, its element order is preserved.

Using a nested table or VARRAY, you can store and retrieve nonatomic data in a single column.
For example, the employee table used by the HR department could store the date of birth for
each employee's dependents in a single column, as shown in Table 19.1.

Table 19.1: Storing a Nonatomic Column of Dependents in a Table of Employees


Id (NUMBER) Name (VARCHAR2) Dependents_ages (Dependent_birthdate_t)
10010

Zaphod Beeblebrox

12-JAN-1763
4-JUL-1977
22-MAR-2021

10020

Molly Squiggly

15-NOV-1968
15-NOV-1968

10030

Joseph Josephs

10040

Cepheus Usrbin

27-JUN-1995
9-AUG-1996
19-JUN-1997

10050

Deirdre Quattlebaum

21-SEP-1997

It's not terribly difficult to create such a table. First we define the collection type:
CREATE TYPE Dependent_birthdate_t AS VARRAY(10) OF DATE;

Now we can use it in the table definition:


CREATE TABLE employees (
id NUMBER,
name VARCHAR2(50),
...other columns...,
Dependents_ages Dependent_birthdate_t
);

We can populate this table using the following INSERT syntax, which relies on the type's default
constructor to transform a list of dates into values of the proper datatype:
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (42, 'Zaphod Beeblebrox', ...,
Dependent_birthdate_t( '12-JAN-1765', '4-JUL-1977', '22-MAR-2021'));

Differences
One chief difference between nested tables and VARRAYs surfaces when we use them as
column datatypes. Although using a VARRAY as a column's datatype can achieve much the same
result as a nested table, VARRAY data must be predeclared to be of a maximum size, and is
actually stored "inline" with the rest of the table's data.
Nested tables, by contrast, are stored in special auxiliary tables called store tables, and there is no
pre-set limit on how large they can grow. For this reason, Oracle Corporation says that VARRAY
columns are intended for "small" arrays, and that nested tables are appropriate for "large" arrays.

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