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Oracle PL/SQL Data Types: Boolean, Number,

Date [Example] PL/SQL
Tutorials
What is PL/SQL Datatypes? 1) What Is PL/SQL?

2) SQL Vs PL/SQL Vs T-
A data type is associated with the
SQL
specific storage format and range
constraints. In Oracle, each value or 3) Blocks in PL/SQL

constant is assigned with a data type. 4) PL/SQL First

Program
Basically, it defines how the data is 5) Oracle PL/SQL Data
stored, handled and treated by Oracle Types
during the data storage and processing.
6) PL/SQL Variable
Identifiers
The main difference between PL/SQL
and SQL data types is, SQL data type are limited to table column while the PL/SQL 7) Oracle PL/SQL
Collections
data types are used in the PL/SQL blocks. More on this later in the tutorial.

8) Oracle PL/SQL
Following is the diagram of different Data Types in PL/SQL Records Type

9) Decision Making
Statements

10) PL/SQL: CASE

Statement

11) Oracle PL/SQL

LOOP

In this tutorial, you will learn-

CHARACTER Data Type

NUMBER Data Type
BOOLEAN Data Type
DATE Data Type
LOB Data Type

CHARACTER Data Type:

This data type basically stores alphanumeric characters in string format.

The literal values should always be enclosed in single quotes while assigning them to
CHARACTER data type.

This character data type is further classified as follows:

CHAR Data type (fixed string size)

VARCHAR2 Data type (variable string size)
VARCHAR Data type
NCHAR (native fixed string size)
NVARCHAR2 (native variable string size)
LONG and LONG RAW

Data Type Description Syntax

CHAR This data type stores the string
value, and the size of the string is grade CHAR;
fixed at the time of declaring the manager CHAR (10):= 'gur
variable. u99';

Oracle would be blank-

padded the variable if the Syntax Explanation:
variable didn't occupy the
entire size that has been The first declaration
declared for it, Hence Oracle statement declared the
will allocate the memory for variable 'grade' of CHAR data
declared size even if the type with the maximum size
variable didn't occupy it fully. of 1 byte (default value).
The size restriction for this The second declaration
data type is 1-2000 bytes. statement declared the
CHAR data type is more variable 'manager' of CHAR
appropriate to use where ever data type with the maximum
fixed the size of data will be size of 10 and assigned the
handled. value 'guru99' which is of 6
bytes. Oracle will allocate the
memory of 10 bytes rather
than 6 bytes in this case.

VARCHAR2 This data type stores the string,

but the length of the string is not manager VARCHAR2(10) :=
fixed. ‘guru99';

The size restriction for this

data type is 1-4000 bytes for Syntax Explanation:
table column size and 1-32767
bytes for variables. The above declaration
The size is defined for each statement declared the
variable at the time of variable variable 'manager' of
declaration. VARCHAR2 data type with the
But Oracle will allocate maximum size of 10 and
memory only after the assigned the value 'guru99'
variable is defined, i.e., Oracle which is of 6 bytes. Oracle will
will consider only the actual allocate memory of only 6
length of the string that is bytes in this case.
stored in a variable for
memory allocation rather
than the size that has been
given for a variable in the
declaration part.
It is always good to use
VARCHAR2 instead of CHAR
data type to optimize the
memory usage.

VARCHAR This is synonymous with the

VARCHAR2 data type. manager VARCHAR(10) :=
‘guru99';
It is always a good practice to
use VARCHAR2 instead of
VARCHAR to avoid behavioral Syntax Explanation:
changes.
The above declaration
statement declared the
variable 'manager' of
VARCHAR data type with the
maximum size of 10 and
assigned the value 'guru99'
which is of 6 bytes. Oracle will
allocate memory of only 6
bytes in this case. (Similar to
VARCHAR2)

NCHAR This data type is same as CHAR

data type, but the character set native NCHAR(10);
will of the national character set.
Syntax Explanation:
This character set can be
defined for the session using The above declaration
NLS_PARAMETERS. statement declares the
The character set can be variable 'native' of NCHAR
either UTF16 or UTF8. data type with the maximum
The size restriction is 1-2000 size of 10.
bytes. The length of this variable
depends upon the (number of
lengths) per byte as defined in
the character set.

NVARCHAR2 This data type is same as

VARCHAR2 data type, but the Native var NVARCHAR2(1
character set will be of the 0):='guru99';
national character set.

This character set can be Syntax Explanation:

defined for the session using
NLS_PARAMETERS.
The character set can be The above declaration
either UTF16 or UTF8. statement declares the
The size restriction is 1-4000 variable 'Native_var' of
bytes. NVARCHAR2 data type with
the maximum size of 10.

LONG and This data type is used to store

LONGRAW large text or raw data up to the Large_text LONG;
maximum size of 2GB. Large_raw LONG RAW;

These are mainly used in the

data dictionary. Syntax Explanation:
LONG data type is used to
store character set data, while
LONG RAW is used to store The above declaration
data in binary format. statement declares the
LONG RAW data type accepts variable 'Large_text' of LONG
media objects, images, etc. data type and 'Large_raw' of
whereas LONG works only on LONG RAW data type.
data that can be stored using
character set. Note: Using LONG data type is
not recommended by Oracle.
Instead, LOB data type should be
preferred.

NUMBER Data Type:

This data type stores fixed or floating point numbers up to 38 digits of precision. This
data type is used to work with fields which will contain only number data. The variable
can be declared either with precision and decimal digit details or without this
information. Values need not enclose within quotes while assigning for this data type.

A NUMBER(8,2);
B NUMBER(8);
C NUMBER;

Syntax Explanation:

In the above, the first declaration declares the variable 'A' is of number data type
with total precision 8 and decimal digits 2.
The second declaration declares the variable 'B' is of number data type with total
precision 8 and no decimal digits.
The third declaration is the most generic, declares variable 'C' is of number data
type with no restriction in precision or decimal places. It can take up to a maximum
of 38 digits.

BOOLEAN Data Type:

This data type stores the logical values. It represents either TRUE or FALSE and mainly
used in conditional statements. Values need not enclose within quotes while assigning
for this data type.

Var1 BOOLEAN;

Syntax Explanation:

In the above, variable 'Var1' is declared as BOOLEAN data type. The output of the
code will be either true or false based on the condition set.

DATE Data Type:

This data type stores the values in date format, as date, month, and year. Whenever a
variable is defined with DATE data type along with the date it can hold time
information and by default time information is set to 12:00:00 if not specified. Values
need to enclose within quotes while assigning for this data type.

The standard Oracle time format for input and output is 'DD-MON-YY' and it is again
set at NLS_PARAMETERS (NLS_DATE_FORMAT) at the session level.

newyear DATE:='01-JAN-2015';
current_date DATE:=SYSDATE;

Syntax Explanation:

In the above, variable 'newyear' is declared as DATE data type and assigned the
value of Jan 1st, 2015 date.
The second declaration declares the variable current_date as DATE data type and
assigned the value with current system date.
Both these variable holds the time information.

LOB Data Type:

This data type is mainly used to store and manipulate large blocks of unstructured
data's like images, multimedia files, etc. Oracle prefers LOB instead of the a LONG data
type as it is more flexible than the LONG data type. The below are the few main
advantage of LOB over LONG data type.

The number of column in a table with LONG data type is limited to 1, whereas a
table has no restriction on a number of columns with LOB data type.
The data interface tool accepts LOB data type of the table during data replication,
but it omits LONG column of the table. These LONG columns need to be replicated
manually.
The size of the LONG column is 2GB, whereas LOB can store up to 128 TB.
Oracle is constantly improving the LOB data type in each of their releases according
to the modern requirement, whereas LONG data type is constant and not getting
many updates.

So, it is always good to use LOB data type instead of the LONG data type. Following are
the different LOB data types. They can store up to the size of 128 terabytes.

1. BLOB
2. CLOB and NCLOB
3. BFILE

Data Description Syntax

Type
BLOB This data type stores the LOB data in the
binary file format up to the maximum Binary_data BLOB;
size of 128 TB. This doesn't store data
based on the character set details, so
that it can store the unstructured data Syntax Explanation:
such as multimedia objects, images, etc.
In the above, variable
'Binary_data' is declared as
a BLOB.

CLOB CLOB data type stores the LOB data into

and the character set, whereas NCLOB stores Charac_data CLOB;
NCLOB the data in the native character set.
Since these data types use character set
based storage, these cannot store the Syntax Explanation:
data like multimedia, images, etc. that
cannot be put into a character string. In the above, variable
The maximum size of these data types is 'Charac_data' is declared as
128 TB. CLOB data type.

BFILE
BFILE are the data types that stored
the unstructured binary format data
outside the database as an operating-
system file.
The size of BFILE is to a limited
operating system, and they are read-
only files and can't be modified.

Summary
We have covered the different simple data types that are available in PL/SQL along
with their syntax. We will learn about complex data types in further topics.

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