Database Reference
In-Depth Information
24
Basic PL/SQL
In this chapter:
What is PL/SQL?
What are variables and PL/SQL datatypes?
What are procedures, functions, triggers, and packages?
How is data retrieved from the database using PL/SQL?
What programming control structures exist in PL/SQL?
What is dynamic or generic SQL?
This chapter covers basic reference material and examples on how to
write programs in PL/SQL. It should be noted that the PL/SQL is a wrap-
per extension of Oracle SQL in that its original purpose was that of data-
base access only. However, in recent years, PL/SQL has been expanded
voluminously to become more of a programming language.
24.1
What is PL/SQL?
PL/SQL is an acronym for Programming Language/SQL. Structured
Query Language (SQL) is a scripting language. A scripting language usually
does not allow any dependencies between separate, following commands.
Note:
This is not strictly true for all scripting languages. Even though
UNIX shell scripting has many features, attempting to write complex appli-
cations using only UNIX shell scripting can lead to expensive problems.
