PL/SQL represents Oracle’s version of procedural extensions to SQL within the context of an Oracle database. While SQL is very effective at retrieving data from a relational database, it lacks the programming structures to extract the data components and present them in a manner that facilitates effective presentation for decision making. PL/SQL seeks to fill that gap. It includes several structured programming concepts, and runs within the Oracle front-end tools like SQL-Plus and SQL-Developer.
Some features of PL/SQL include:
- Block structured program development
- Closely integrated with SQL – can embed SQL statements in PL/SQL code
- Supports a variety of data types – integers, floats, Boolean, strings, in addition to all SQL data types
- Includes standard programming structures – sequence, selection, and iteration
- Provides error-checking facilities
- Can be used to set up stored functions and procedures – that can be called by others
- Allows for the definition of triggers – in response to an event
- Employs a cursor structure for processing multiple rows and columns of data
The complete PL/SQL Language Reference is available at Oracle. If you choose to download the material, keep in mind that the entire manual is over 800 pages and can be challenging to read. The PL/SQL sessions in class will cover program structures, datatypes, variables, procedures, functions, triggers, database access, cursor processing, and error handling – that should prove sufficient for the assignments.