Exception Handling

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Overview Of Error Handling
 
There are number of reasons due to which run time
errors may be raised during the execution of a PL/SQL
block. Although you cannot anticipate all possible errors,
you can plan to handle certain kinds of errors, meaningful
to your PL/SQL program. With many programming
languages, unless you disable error checking, a runtime
error such as stack overflow or division by zero stops
normal processing and returns control to the operating
system. With PL/SQL, a mechanism called exception
handling lets you "bulletproof" your program so that it
can continue operating in the presence of errors.
 
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When an error occurs, an exception is raised; normal
execution is stopped and control is transferred to an
exception-handling section of PL/SQL program. A
specific section can be defined in the program to
handle exceptions. Separate subroutines called
exception handlers can be created to perform all
exception processing. Once an exception is raised and
control is transferred to the exception part of a
program, it cannot return to the execution part of the
program.
 

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Handling of Errors
Errors are handles in two ways, one is to trap the error
and other is to propagate to the calling environment.
 
Trapping an exception
If the exception is raised in the executable section of the
block, processing branches to the corresponding exception
handler in the exception section of the block. If PL/SQL
successfully handles the exception, then the exception does
not propagate to the enclosing block or environment. The
PL/SQL block terminates successfully as shown in figure  

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Propagating an Exception
 
If the exception is raised in the executable section of
the block and there is no corresponding exception
handler, the PL/SQL block terminates with failure and
the exception is propagated to the calling environment as
shown in figure 
 

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Syntax
EXCEPTION
WHEN exception1 [OR exception2 ………] THEN
statement1;
statement2;
[WHEN exception3 [OR exception4 ………] THEN
statement1;
statement2;
..…………..]
[WHEN OTHERS THEN
statement1;
statement2;
……..]  
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In the Syntax:
 Exception
It is the standard name of a predefined exception or the
name of a user defined exception declared within the
declarative section.
Statement
It is one ore more PL/SQL or SQL statements
Others
It is an optional exception-handling clause that traps
unspecified exceptions.
 

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WHEN OTHERS Exception Handler
 
The exception-handling section traps only those
exceptions specified; any other exceptions are not
trapped unless you use the OTHERS exception handler.
This traps any exception not yet handled.
 
For this reason, OTHERS is the last exception handler
defined. The OTHERS handler traps all exceptions not
already trapped.
 

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Some Guidelines to Trap Exception
 
♦ Begin the exception-handling section of the block with the
keyword EXCEPTION.
 ♦ Define several exception handlers, each with its own set of
actions, for the block.
 ♦ When an exception occurs, PL/SQL processes only one handler
before leaving the block.
 ♦ Place the OTHERS clause after all other exception-handling
clauses.
 ♦ You can have at most one OTHERS clause.
♦ Exceptions cannot appear in assignment statements or SQL
statements.

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Advantages of Exceptions
 
Using exceptions for error handling has several
advantages. These are:
 
♦ With exception handling no need to check errors
after each SQL command. So, errors processing is not
mixed with normal processing. Without exception
handling, every time you issue a command, you must check
for execution errors, as follows:
 BEGIN SELECT ... -- check for 'no data found'
error SELECT ... -- check for 'no data found' error
SELECT ...--check for 'no data found' error
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END; 
In this case error processing is not clearly separated
from normal processing.
 
With exceptions, you can handle errors conveniently
without the need to code multiple checks, as follows:
BEGIN
SELECT ...
SELECT ...
SELECT ... ...
EXCEPTION WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN /*
catches all 'no data found'
errors */
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END; 
So, exception provides the mechanism to handle multiple
errors, without intermixing the error checks with normal
code.
♦ Exceptions improve readability by letting you isolate
error-handling routines.
♦ Exceptions also improve reliability. You need not worry
about checking for an error at every point it might occur.
Just add an exception handler to your PL/SQL block. If the
exception is ever raised in that block (or any sub-block), you
can be sure it will be handled.
 
♦ All error conditions can be captured with OTHERS
clause in the exception handler, which provides a mechanism
to process all expectedOracle
errors asCourse
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as those unforeseen.
 
18.4 Exception Types
 
There are two types of exceptions:
 
♦ Implicitly raised exceptions
 
♦ Explicitly raised exceptions

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Implicitly raised exceptions
 
PL/SQL provides a predefined set of exceptions that
are implicitly raised (automatically raised) by the
system at run time in case an error is encountered in
PL/SQL.
 
There are two types of implicitly raised exceptions:
 
♦ Predefined Oracle Server
♦ Non-predefined Oracle Server
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2 Explicitly raised exceptions
 
User can also define their own set of user-defined
exceptions and explicitly raise them on encountering an
error condition.

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Trapping Predefined Oracle Server errors
 
PL/SQL has a set of exceptions that are predefined
for the common Oracle system errors. Predefined
exceptions are used to detect and handle Oracle
system errors that occur internally at program run
time.
 An internal exception is raised implicitly whenever
your PL/SQL program violates an Oracle rule or
exceeds a system-dependent limit. Every Oracle error
has a number, but exceptions must be handled by name.
So, PL/SQL predefines some common Oracle errors as
exceptions. For example, PL/SQL raises the
predefined exception NO_DATA_FOUND if a SELECT
INTO statement returns no rows.
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List of Some Predefined Exceptions

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PL/SQL provides a limited set of predefined exceptions for
the internal oracle system errors, but it provides a mechanism
to declare user-defined exceptions to handle the other
unnamed Oracle System errors. An exception variable can be
defined and linked to the error using the PRAGMA
EXCEPTION_INIT statement in a block’s declarative section.
 Syntax:
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (exception_name,error_number);
 PRAGMA is the keyword that signifies that the statement is a
compiler directive, which is processed at compile time and not
at run time. Rather, it directs the PL/SQL compiler to
associate an exception name with an Oracle system error
number.

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Steps to trapping a Non-predefined Oracle Server
Exception
 
1. Declare the name for the exception within the
declarative section.
 Syntax
exception EXCEPTION;
 Here, exception is the name of the exception.
 2. Associate the declared exception with the standard
Oracle Server error number using the PRAGMA
EXCEPTION_INIT statement.

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 Syntax

PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(exception,
error_number);
Here: exception is the previously declared exception.
error_number is a standard Oracle
Server error number.
 
Reference the declared exception within the
corresponding exception-handling routine.
 
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To show use of User Defined System Exceptions

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User defined exceptions are used to handle error
conditions specific to a application program. For
example, in case of Library system the date of issue of a
book cannot be more than date of return, if that
happens then an error must be raised explicitly by the
application programmer and that facility is developed
with the help of User defined exceptions. Unlike
predefined exceptions, user-defined exceptions must be
declared and must be raised explicitly by RAISE
statements.

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Steps to Trap user-defined exceptions
 
1. Declare the name for the user-defined exception
within the declarative section.
 
Syntax
Exception_name EXCEPTION;
 
Here: exception_name is the name of the exception.
 

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2. Use the RAISE statement to raise the exception
explicitly within the executable section.
 
Syntax
RAISE exception_name;
Here: exception is the previously declared exception.
 
3. Reference the declared exception within the
corresponding exception handling routine.

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Declaring User-Defined Exceptions
 
Exceptions can be declared only in the declarative part of a
PL/SQL block, subprogram, or package. You declare an
exception by introducing its name, followed by the keyword
EXCEPTION.
 
Syntax
<exception_name> EXCEPTION;
 

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In the following example, you declare an exception
named past_due:
 DECLARE past_due EXCEPTION;  Exception and
variable declarations are similar. But remember, an
exception is an error condition, not a data item. Unlike
variables, exceptions cannot appear in assignment
statements or SQL statements. However, the same
scope rules apply to variables and exceptions.
 

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Raising User-Defined Exceptions
 
User-defined exceptions must be explicitly raised
when associated error condition is detected. During
program execution checking can be done for error
conditions specified as EXCEPTION in the DECLARE
section of PL/SQL program. If an error condition is
encountered, calling the RAISE statement explicitly
raises the defined exception. RAISE statement for a
given exception can be placed anywhere within the
scope of that exception.

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: We can also raise a predefined exception explicitly as
shown below.
 
 
 

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Scope Rules of User defined Exceptions
 
An exception cannot be declared twice in the same block.
However, the same exception can be declared in two
different blocks. Exceptions declared in a block are
considered local to that block and global to all its sub-blocks.
Because a block can reference only local or global exceptions,
enclosing blocks cannot reference exceptions declared in a
sub-block.
 
If a global exception is re-declared in a sub-block, the local
declaration prevails. So, the sub-block cannot reference the
global exception unless it was declared in a labeled block, in
which case the following syntax is valid:
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block_label.exception_name.
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Error Trapping Functions
 
In an exception handler, you can use the functions
SQLCODE and SQLERRM to find out which error
occurred and to get the associated error message.
 

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For internal exceptions, SQLCODE returns the number of the
Oracle error. The number that SQLCODE returns is negative
unless the Oracle error is no data found, in which case
SQLCODE returns +100. SQLERRM returns the corresponding
error message. The message begins with the Oracle error
code.
 
For user-defined exceptions, SQLCODE returns +1 and
SQLERRM returns the message: User-Defined Exception
 
If no exception has been raised, SQLCODE returns zero and
SQLERRM returns the message: ORA-0000: normal,
successful completion
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The maximum length of an Oracle error message is 512
characters. SQLCODE or SQLERRM cannot be directly
used in a SQL statement. Instead, their values must be
assigned to local variables, which can be used in the
SQL statement.

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9 How Exceptions Propagate?  
When an exception is raised, if PL/SQL cannot find a
handler for it in the current block or subprogram,
the exception propagates. That is, the exception
reproduces itself in successive enclosing blocks until
a handler is found or there are no more blocks to
search. In the latter case, PL/SQL returns an
unhandled exception error to the host environment.

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Because the block in which it was declared has no
handler for the exception named past_due, it propagates
to the enclosing block. But, according to the scope rules,
enclosing blocks cannot reference exceptions declared in
a sub-block. So, only an OTHERS handler can catch the
exception.
 

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Reraising of an Exception
 
Sometimes, we want to reraise an exception, that
is, handle it locally, then pass it to an enclosing
block. For example, we might want to roll back a
transaction in the current block, then log the
error in an enclosing block. To reraise an
exception, simply place a RAISE statement in the
local handler, as shown in the following example:

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Handling Raised Exceptions
 
When an exception is raised, normal execution of your
PL/SQL block or subprogram stops and control transfers
to its exception-handling part, which is formatted as
follows:
 

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To catch raised exceptions, you must write exception
handlers. Each handler consists of a WHEN clause,
which specifies an exception, followed by a sequence of
statements to be executed when that exception is
raised. These statements complete execution of the
block or subprogram; control does not return to where
the exception was raised. In other words, you cannot
resume processing where you left off.
 
The optional OTHERS exception handler, which is always
the last handler in a block or subprogram, acts as the
handler for all exceptions not named specifically. Thus, a
block or subprogram can have only one OTHERS handler.
As the following example shows, use of the OTHERS
handler guarantees that no exception will go unhandled:
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Multiple exceptions execute same statements
If you want two or more exceptions to execute the same
sequence of statements, list the exception names in the
WHEN clause, separating them by the keyword OR, as
follows:
EXCEPTION WHEN over_limit OR under_limit OR
VALUE_ERROR THEN -- handle the error  
 If any of the exceptions in the list is raised, the associated
sequence of statements is executed. The keyword OTHERS
cannot appear in the list of exception names; it must appear
by itself. You can have any number of exception handlers,
and each handler can associate a list of exceptions with a
sequence of statements. However, an exception name can
appear only once in the exception-handling part of a PL/SQL
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Exceptions Raised in Declarations
Exceptions can be raised in declarations by faulty initialization
expressions. For example, the following declaration raises an exception
because the constant limit cannot store numbers larger than 999:
 DECLARE limit CONSTANT NUMBER(3) := 5000;
-- raises an exception
BEGIN
...
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN -- cannot catch the exception
END;  
 Handlers in the current block cannot catch the raised exception because
an exception raised in a declaration propagates immediately to the
enclosing block.
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Exceptions Raised in Handlers
 
Only one exception at a time can be active in the exception-
handling part of a block or subprogram. So, an exception
raised inside a handler propagates immediately to the
enclosing block, which is searched to find a handler for the
newly raised exception. From there on, the exception
propagates normally. Consider the following example:
 
EXCEPTION WHEN INVALID_NUMBER THEN
INSERT INTO ... -- might raise DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX
WHEN DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX THEN .-- cannot catch the
exception
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Branching to or from an Exception Handler
 
A GOTO statement cannot branch to an exception
handler; nor can it branch from an exception handler into
the current block. For example, the following GOTO
statement is illegal:

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Unhandled Exceptions
 
Remember, if it cannot find a handler for a raised
exception, PL/SQL returns an unhandled exception error
to the host environment, which determines the outcome.
For example, in the Oracle Precompilers environment, any
database changes made by a failed SQL statement or
PL/SQL block are rolled back. You can avoid unhandled
exceptions by coding an OTHERS handler at the topmost
level of every PL/SQL block and subprogram.

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 References
Simplified Approach To Oracle By Kalyani Publishers

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