Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Unit – IV
PL/ SQL and Triggers
4.1 Basics of PL / SQL

• Oracle programming language – SQL , provides various functionalities required to

manage a database.
• SQL is so much powerful in handling data and various database objects. But it lacks
some of basic functionalities provided by other programming language.
• For example, SQL does not provide basic procedural capabilities such as conditional
checking, branching and looping.
• In SQL, it is not possible to control execution of SQL statements based on some
condition or user inputs.
• Oracle provides PL/SQL (Procedural Language / Structured Query Language) to
overcome disadvantages of SQL.
• PL/SQL is super set of SQL.
• PL/SQL supports all the functionalities provided by SQL along with its own procedural
capabilities.
• Any SQL statements can be used in PL/SQL program with no change, except SQL’s data
definition statements such as CREATE TABLE.
• Data definition statements are not allowed because PL/SQL code is compile time. So, it
cannot refer to objects that do not yet exist.

4.1.1 Data types

• PL/SQL is super set of the SQL. So, it supports all the data types provided by SQL.
• Along with this, in PL/SQL Oracle provides subtypes of the data types.
• For example, the data type NUMBER has a subtype called INTEGER.
• These subtypes can be used in PL/SQL block to make the data type compatible with the
data types of the other programming languages.

The various data types can be given as below:

Category Data Type Sub types/values

BINARY_INTEGER, DEC, DECIMAL,
Numerical NUMBER DOUBLE PRECISION,
FLOAT, INTEGER, INT, NATURAL,
POSITIVE, REAL, SMALLINT
CHAR, LONG, CHARACTER,VARCHAR, STRING, NCHAR,
Character VARCHAR2 NVARCHAR2
Date DATE
Binary RAW, LONG RAW
Boolean BOOLEAN Can have value like TRUE, FALSE and NULL.
RowID ROWID Stores values of address of each record.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 1

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

4.2 Advantages of PL/SQL over SQL

1) Procedural Capabilities:
• PL/SQL provides procedural capabilities such as condition checking, branching and
looping.
• This enables programmer to control execution of a program based on some conditions
and user inputs.

2) Support to variables:
• PL/SQL supports declaration and use of variables.
• These variables can be used to store intermediate results of a query or some expression.

3) Error Handling:
• When an error occurs, user friendly message can be displayed.
• Also, execution of program can be controlled instead of abruptly terminating the
program.

4) User Defined Functions:

• Along with a large set of in-build functions, PL/SQL also supports user defined functions
and procedures.

5) Portability:
• Programs written in PL/SQL are portable.
• It means, programs can be transferred and executed from any other computer hardware
and operating system, where Oracle is operational.

6) Sharing of Code:
• PL/SQL allows user to store compiled code in database. This code can be accessed and
shared by different applications.
• This code can be executed by other programming language like JAVA.

❖ Creating and Executing a PL/SQL Block

•
To create and execute a PL/SQL block, follow the steps given below:
•
Open any editor like as notepad. An EDIT command can be used on SQL prompt to open
a notepad from the SQL * PLUS environment.
• The following syntax creates and opens a file:
EDIT filename
Example:
EDIT D:/PLSQL/test.sql
• Create and open a file named ‘test.sql’.
• Write a program code or statements in a file and save it.
• File should have ‘.sql’ extension and last statement in file should be ‘/’.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 2

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

• To execute this block, use any of the following commands on prompt.

1. RUN filename
2. START fileName
3. @ FILENAME

Example:
@ D:/PLSQL/test.sql

4.3 Control Structures: Conditional, Iterative, Sequential

• In PL/SQL , the flow of execution can be controlled in three different manners as given
below:
o Conditional Control
o Iterative Control
o Sequential Control

1) Conditional Control:

• To control the execution of block of code based on some condition, PL/SQL provides the
IF statement.
• The IF – THEN – ELSEIF – ELSE – END IF construct can be used to execute specific
part of the block based on the condition provided.

Syntax:
IF condition THEN
-- Execute commands
ELSIF condition THEN
--- Execute commands
ELSE
--- Execute commands
END IF;

Example:
Declare
n number:=&n;

Begin
if mod(n,2)=0 then
dbms_output.put_line('number is even');
else
dbms_output.put_line('number is odd');
end if;
End;
/

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 3

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

2) Iterative Control:

• Iterative control allows a group of statements to execute repeatedly in a program. It is

called Looping.

• PL/SQL provides three constructs to implement loops, as listed below:

1. LOOP
2. WHILE
3. FOR

• In PL/SQL, any loop starts with a LOOP keyword and it terminates with an END
LOOP keyword.
• Each loop requires a conditional statement to control the number of times a loop is
executed.

1. LOOP

Syntax:
LOOP
-- Execute commands
END LOOP

• LOOP is an infinite loop. It executes commands in its body infinite times.

• So, it requires an EXIT statement within its body to terminate the loop after executing
specific iteration.

Example:
DECLARE
i NUMBER := 1;
BEGIN
LOOP
EXIT WHEN i>10;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i);
i := i+1;
END LOOP;
END;

2. WHILE

Syntax:
WHILE Condition
LOOP
-- Execute commands
END LOOP

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 4

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

• The WHILE loop executes commands in its body as long as the condition remains
TRUE.
• The loop terminates when the condition evaluates to FALSE or NULL.
• The EXIT statement can also be used to exit the loop.

Example:
DECLARE
i INTEGER := 1;
BEGIN
WHILE i <= 10
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(i);
i := i+1;
END LOOP;
END;

3. FOR

Syntax:
FOR counter IN initial_value .. final_value
LOOP
statements;
END LOOP;
Example:

DECLARE
k INTEGER;
BEGIN
FOR k IN 1..10
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (k);
END LOOP;
END;

3) Sequential Control:

• Normally, execution proceeds sequentially within the block of code.

• Sequence can be changed conditionally as well as unconditionally.
• To alter the sequence unconditionally, the GOTO statement can be used.

Syntax:

GOTO label_name;
..

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 5

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

..
<<label_name>>
Statement;

Example:

DECLARE
a number(2) := 10;

BEGIN
<<loopstart>>

WHILE a < 20
LOOP
dbms_output.put_line ('value of a: ' || a);
a := a + 1;
IF a = 15 THEN
a := a + 1;
GOTO loopstart;
END IF;
END LOOP;
END;
/

4.4 Exceptions: Predefined Exceptions, User defined exceptions

• Run-time errors can be handled in some useful way rather than getting system specific
message and terminating program directly. It’s called exception handling.
There are two types of exception:

1) System Exception: In PL/SQL, various run-time errors are associated with different
exceptions. These types of exceptions are known as system exception.

2) User-defined Exception: User also can define their own exception is known as user-
defined exception.

• Exception handler scans the PL/SQL block to check existence of the Exception
Handling section within block.

• If it is available then it is checked to find the code to handle exception.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 6

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Syntax:

EXCEPTION

WHEN exceptionName THEN

-- code to handle exception.

• Here, it contains more than on WHEN clauses.

• An exceptionName is a character string represents an exception to be handled.
• If exception handling section is available and an exception is raised then the
appropriate code is executed. Otherwise an exception is handled using default exception
handling code that is simply displaying an error message or terminating the program.

❖ Types of Exceptions

• Exception can be either System Exception (Pre-defined Exception ) or User-define

Exception.
• System Exceptions can be further divide in to two parts:

o Named Exceptions
o Numbered Exceptions

1) Named Exceptions:

• Particular name given to some common system exceptions is known as Named

Exception.
• Oracle has defined 15 to 20 named exceptions.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 7

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Handling Named Exceptions

Create an Account with Acc_No as a primary key. Write a PL/SQL block to insert a record in
this table. Also handle named exceptions DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX. Which is raised on
encountering duplicate value for primary or unique key. (Assume table is available)

DECLARE
-- declare required variable
no Account.Acc_No%TYPE;
bal Account.Balance%TYPE;
branch Account.B_Name%TYPE;
BEGIN

--read an account number, balance and branch name for new record no := &no;

bal := &bal;
branch := &branch;
--insert record into Account table

INSERT INTO Account VALUES (no, bal, branch); --commit and display message confirming
insertion

COMMIT;
dbms_output.put_line(‘Record inserted successfully.’);
EXCEPTION
--handle named exception

WHEN DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX THEN

dbms_output.put_line(‘Duplicate value found for primary
key.’);
END;
/

Output:
Enter value for no: ‘A01’
Enter value for bal: 5000
Enter value for no: ‘RJT’
Record inserted successfully

2) Numbered Exceptions:

• These exceptions are identified by using negative signed number, such as -1200.
• Oracle has defined more than 20000 numbered exceptions.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 8

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Handling Numbered Exception

• A WHEN clause in exception handling section required a character string representing

exception name to be handled.
• So, numbered exceptions cannot be handled directly like named exception.
• To handle numbered exceptions, they need to be bound with some names. This binding is
provided in declaration section.
• After that it can be handle like named exception in exception section.

Syntax:

DECLARE

exceptionName EXCEPTION;

PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (exceptionName, errorName);

BEGIN

--execute commans . . .

EXCEPTION

WHENexcepetionName THEN

-- code to Handle Exception . . .

END ;

/
• A PRAGMA is a call to pre-compiler that binds the numbered exception to some name.
• A function EXCEPTION_INIT takes two parameters: one is exception name and number
of the exception to be handled.
• Once binding is provided, exception can be handle in exception handling section using
WHEN clause.

Example: Along with named exception, in above example also handle numbered exception with
number -1200, which is raised on encountering for primary or NOT NULL key. (Assume table is
available)

DECLARE

exNull EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (exNull, -1200);

no Account.Acc_No%TYPE;

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 9

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

bal Account.Balance%TYPE;
branch Account.B_Name%TYPE;

BEGIN
--read an account number, balance and branch name for new record
no := &no;
bal := &bal;
branch := &branch;

--insert record into Account table

INSERT INTO Account VALUES (no, bal, branch);
COMMIT;
dbms_output.put_line(‘Record inserted successfully.’);

EXCEPTION

--handle named exception

WHEN DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘Duplicate value found for primary key.’);
--handle numbered exception
WHEN exNull THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘Null value found for primary key.’)
END;
/

Output 1 :
Enter value for no: ‘A02’
Enter value for bal: 6000
Enter value for no: ‘RJT’
Record inserted successfully.
Output 2 :
Enter value for no: null
Enter value for bal: 10000
Enter value for no: ‘SRT’
Null value found for primary key.

3) User-defined Exceptions:
• User also can define their own exceptions are known as user define exceptions.
• These exceptions are used to validate business rules like balance for any account should
not be negative value.
• User-defined exceptions need to be declared, raised and handled explicitly.

Syntax:

DECLARE
exceptionName EXCEPTION ;

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 10

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

BEGIN
--SQL and PL/SQL statement

IF condition THEN
RAISE exceptionName
END IF ;

EXCEPTION

WHEN exceptionName THEN

-- code to Handle Exception

END ;

Handling User-defined Exceptions

DECLARE
exNull EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (exNull, -1200);
myEx EXCEPTION;

no Account.Acc_No%TYPE;
bal Account.Balance%TYPE;
branch Account.B_Name%TYPE;

BEGIN

--read an account number, balance and branch name for new record no := &no;

bal := &bal;
branch := &branch;

--check balance, if negative, raise ‘myEx’ exception

IF bal > 0 THEN
RAISE myEx;
END IF ;

--insert record into Account table

INSERT INTO Account VALUES (no, bal, branch);

--commit and display message confirming insertion

COMMIT;

dbms_output.put_line(‘Record inserted successfully.’);

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 11

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

EXCEPTION

--handle named exception

WHEN DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘Duplicate value found for primary key.’);

--handle numbered exception

WHEN exNull THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘Null value found for primary key.’)

--handle user-defined exception

WHENmyEx THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘Balance cannot be negative value.’)

END;
/

Output 1 :
Enter value for no: ‘A03’
Enter value for bal: 6000
Enter value for no: ‘RJT’
Record inserted successfully.
Output 2 :
Enter value for no: ‘A04’
Enter value for bal: -10000
Enter value for no: ‘SRT’
Balance cannot be negative value.

4.5 Cursors: Static (Implicit & Explicit), Dynamic

• Whenever an SQL statement is executed, Oracle reserves a private SQL area in

memory.
• The data required to execute the statement are loaded in this memory area from the hard
disk.
• Once data are stored in memory, they are processed as per the operation.
• After processing is finished, updated data are stored back to the hard disk and memory is
freed.
• Cursor comes into picture for this kind of processing.
• A Cursor is an area in memory where the data required to execute SQL statement.
• So, a cursor referred as work area.
• So, the size of the cursor will be the same as a size to hold this data.
• Active Data Set: The data (Set of rows) that is stored in the cursor is called Active Data
Set.
• Result Set: Data is stored in cursor because of some SQL statement. So, it is called
Result Set.
• Current Row: The row that is being processed is called the Current Row.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 12

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

• Row Pointer: A pointer that is used to track the current row is known as Row Pointer.
• Cursor Attributes: Multiple cursor variables are used to indicate the current status of the
processing being done by the cursor. These kinds of variables are known as Cursor
Attributes.

Attribute Description

Its return value is TRUE if DML statements like INSERT, DELETE

and UPDATE affect at least one row or more rows or a SELECT
%FOUND
INTO statement returned one or more rows. Otherwise it returns
FALSE.

Its return value is TRUE if DML statements like INSERT, DELETE

%NOTFOUND and UPDATE affect no row, or a SELECT INTO statement return no
rows. Otherwise it returns FALSE. It is a just opposite of %FOUND.

It always returns FALSE for implicit cursors, because the SQL

%ISOPEN cursor is automatically closed after executing its associated SQL
statements.

It returns the number of rows affected by DML statements like

%ROWCOUNT INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE or returned by a SELECT INTO
statement.

• There are two types of cursors in PL/SQL:

o Implicit Cursor
o Explicit Cursor

1) Implicit Cursor:

• A cursor is called an Implicit Cursor, if it is opened by Oracle itself to execute SQL

Statement like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE.
• It is opened and managed by Oracle itself. So, user needs not to care about it. o We
cannot use implicit cursors for user defined work.
• Oracle performs following operation to manage an implicit cursor:
• Reserve an area in memory to store data required to execute SQL statement.
• Occupy this area with required data.
• Processes data.
• Frees memory area by closes a cursor, when processing is completed.
• The syntax to use attributes of implicit cursor can be given as:

SQL%AttributeName

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 13

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

• The value of the cursor attribute always refers to the SQL command that was executed
most recently.
• Before open implicit cursor, its attribute contains NULL as value.

Example:

DECLARE

-- Declare required variables branch

Account.B_Name%TYPE;

BEGIN

-- read a number from the user

branch := &branch;

-- display number of record updated if any

IF SQL%FOUND THEN
dbms_output.put_line(‘ Total ’|| SQL%ROWCOUNT || ‘ records are
updated.’);
ELSE
dbms_output.put_line(‘ Given branch not available.‘);
END IF ;

END;
/

Output 1:
Enter value for branch: ‘surat’
Given branch not available.

Output 2 :
Enter value for branch:’RJT’
Total 2 records are updated.

2) Explicit Cursor:

• A cursor is called Explicit Cursor, if it is opened by user to process data through

PL/SQL block.
• It is opened by user. So, user has to take care about managing it.
• It is used when there is a need to process more than one record individually.
• Even though the cursor stores multiple records, only one record can be processed at a
time, which is called as current row.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 14

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

• Following steps required to manage an explicit cursor:

Declare a cursor
Open a cursor
Fetching data
Processing data
Closing cursor

❖ Declare a Cursor:

Syntax:
CURSOR cursorName IS SELECT …. ;
• A cursor with cursorName is declared.
• It is mapped to a query given by SELECT statement.
• Here, only cursor will be declared. No any memory is allocated yet.

Example:
CURSOR cursorAcc IS
SELECT Acc_No, Balance, B_Name FROM Account ;

❖ Open a Cursor:

• Once cursor is declared we can open it.

• When cursor is opened following operations are performed:
• Memory is allocated to store the data.
• Execute SELECT statement associated with cursor.
• Create active data set by retrieving data from table.

Syntax:
OPEN cursorName ;

❖ Fetching Data:

• We cannot process selected row directly. We have to fetch column values of a row into
memory variables.
• This is done by FETCH statement.

Syntax:
FETCH cursorName INTO variable1, variable2………. ;

• Retrieve data from the current row in the active data set and stores them in given
variables.
• Data from a single row are fetched at a time.
• After fetching data, updates row pointer to point the next row in an active data set.
• Variables should be compatible with the columns specified in the SELECT statement.

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 15

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Example:
FETCH cursorAcc INTO no, balance, bname ;

• Fetched account number, balance and branch name from current row in active data set
and store them in respective variables.
• To process more than one record, the FETCH statement is enclosed within loop like

LOOP … END LOOP can be used.

❖ Processing data:

• This step involves actual processing of current row by using PL/SQL as well as SQL
statements..

❖ Closing Cursor:

• A cursor should be closed after the processing of data completes. Once you close the
cursor it will release memory allocated for that cursor.
• If user forgets to close the cursor, it will be automatically closed after termination of the
program.

Syntax:
CLOSE cursorName ;

• The syntax to use attributes of explicit cursor can be given as:

SQL%AttributeName
Example:

DECLARE
-- declare a cursor
CURSOR cursorAcc IS
SELECT Acc_No, Balance, B_Name FROM Account ;
--declare required variables
no Account.Acc_No%TYPE ;
balance Account.Balance%TYPE;
branch Account.B_Name%TYPE;

BEGIN
--open a cursor
OPEN cursorAcc ;

--if cursor is opened successfully then process data

--Else display error message
IF cursorAcc%ISOPEN THEN
LOOP

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 16

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

--fetch data from cursor row into variavbles

FETCH cursorAcc INTO no, balance, branch;

--if no record available in active data set then exit from loop
EXIT WHEN cursorAcc%NOTFOUND ;

--process data. If record belongs to ‘RJT’ branch, transfer it

IF branch = ‘RJT’ THEN

-- insert record into Account_RJT table

INSERT INTO Account_RJT VALUES(no, balance);

--delete record from the Account table

DELETE FROM Account WHERE Acc_No = no ;

END IF ;
END LOOP;

ELSE
dbms_output.put_line (‘Cursor cannot be opened.’) ;
END IF ;
END ;
/

4.6 Procedures & Functions

• A procedure or function is a group of PL/SQL statements that performs specific task.

• A procedure and function is a named PL/SQL block of code. This block can be
compiled and successfully compiled block can be stored in Oracle database. This
procedure and function is called Stores Procedure or Function.
• We can pass parameters to procedures and functions. So that their execution can be
changed dynamically.

❖ Creating a Procedure

Syntax:

CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE proc_name (argument [IN, OUT, IN OUT]

datatype)
IS
Declaration section
BEGIN
Execution section
EXCEPTION
Exception section
END ;

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 17

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

❖ Executing a Procedure

There are two ways to execute a procedure:

Syntax:
EXECUTE [or EXEC] procedure_name (parameter) ;
Example:

create or replace procedure myproc (id IN NUMBER, name IN VARCHAR2)

is
begin
insert into user values(id,name);
end;
/

❖ Creating a Function

Syntax:
CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION func_name (argument IN dataType…)
RETURN dataType

IS
Declaration section
BEGIN
Execution section
EXCEPTION
Exception section
END ;

Example:
Create or replace function adder(n1 in number, n2 in number)
Return number

Is
n3 number(8);
Begin
n3 :=n1+n2;
Return n3;
End;
/

❖ Executing a Function

Syntax:
SELECT function_name (parameter) FROM dual ;

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 18

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

4.7 Fundamentals of Database Triggers

• A trigger is a group or set of SQL and PL/SQL statements that are executed by Oracle
itself.
• The main characteristic of the trigger is that it is fired automatically when DML
statements like Insert, Delete, and Update is executed on a table.
• The advantages of triggers are as given below:
o To prevent misuse of database.
o To implement automatic backup of the database.
o To implement business rule constraints, such as balance should not be negative.
o Based on change in one table, we want to update other table.
o To track the operation being performed on specific tables with details like
operation, time when it is performed, user name who performed it, etc..

❖ :NEW and :OLD Clause

• In a row level trigger, the trigger fires for each related row. And sometimes it is required
to know the value before and after the DML statement.
• Oracle has provided two clauses in the RECORD-level trigger to hold these values. We
can use these clauses to refer to the old and new values inside the trigger body.
• :NEW – It holds a new value for the columns of the base table/view during the trigger
execution
• :OLD – It holds old value of the columns of the base table/view during the trigger
execution

4.8 Creating Triggers

Syntax:

CREATE [OR REPLACE ] TRIGGER trigger_name

{BEFORE | AFTER }
{INSERT [OR] | UPDATE [OR] | DELETE}
ON table_name

FOR EACH ROW]

WHEN (condition)

DECLARE
Declaration-statements
BEGIN
Executable-statements
EXCEPTION
Exception-handling-statements
END;

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 19

Subject Name: RDBMS Unit No: 4 Subject Code: 4330702

Example:

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER age_changes

BEFORE DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE ON student

FOR EACH ROW

WHEN (NEW.CODE > 0)

DECLARE
age_diff number;

BEGIN
age_diff := :NEW.age - :OLD.age;
dbms_output.put_line ('Prevoius age: ' || : OLD.age);
dbms_output.put_line ('Current age: ' || : NEW.age);
dbms_output.put_line ('Age difference: ' || age_diff);

END;
/

4.9 Types of Triggers: Before, after for each row, for each statement
Triggers can be classified based on the following parameters.

❖ Classification based on the timing

• BEFORE Trigger: It fires before the specified event has occurred.

• AFTER Trigger: It fires after the specified event has occurred.

❖ Classification based on the level

• STATEMENT level Trigger: It fires one time for the specified event statement.
• ROW level Trigger: It fires for each record that got affected in the specified event. (only
for DML)

VPMP Polytechnic, Gandhinagar 20