Oracle PL/SQL by Example

Description

Using PL/SQL for Oracle Database 21c, you can build solutions that deliver unprecedented performance and efficiency in any environment, including the cloud. Oracle PL/SQL by Example, Sixth Edition, teaches all the PL/SQL skills you’ll need, through real-world labs and extensive examples. Now fully updated for the newest version of PL/SQL 21c, it covers everything from basic syntax and program control through the latest optimization and tuning enhancements.

Step by step, you’ll walk through every key task, mastering today’s most valuable Oracle 21c PL/SQL programming techniques on your own. Start by downloading the supporting schema and exercises from informit.com/title/9780138062835. Once you’ve done an exercise, the author doesn’t just present the answer: She offers an in-depth discussion introducing deeper insights and modern best practices.

This book’s approach fully reflects the author’s award-winning experience teaching PL/SQL to professionals at Columbia University in New York City. New database developers and DBAs can use it to get productive fast; experienced PL/SQL programmers will find it to be a superb Oracle Database 21c solutions reference.

New in This Edition

• Updated code examples throughout
• New iteration controls for the FOR LOOP statement, such as stepped range, multiple iterations, collection, and cursor iterations
• Enhancements for PL/SQL qualified expressions
• Performance enhancements for PL/SQL functions, such as SQL macro, and better control of the result cache

Other Topics Covered

• Mastering basic PL/SQL concepts and language fundamentals, and understanding SQL’s role in PL/SQL
• Using conditional and iterative program controls
• Efficiently handling errors and exceptions
• Working with cursors and triggers, including compound triggers
• Using stored procedures, functions, and packages to write modular code that other programs can run
• Working with collections, object-relational features, native dynamic SQL, bulk SQL, and other advanced features

Preface xvii
Introduction to PL/SQL New Features in Oracle 21c xxiii
Chapter 1 PL/SQL Concepts 1
Lab 1.1: PL/SQL Architecture 2
    PL/SQL Architecture 2
    PL/SQL Block Structure 5
    How PL/SQL Gets Executed 9
Lab 1.2: PL/SQL Development Environment 10
    Getting Started with SQL Developer 10
    Getting Started with SQL*Plus 13
    Executing PL/SQL Scripts 14
Lab 1.3: PL/SQL: The Basics 18
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE Statement 18
    Substitution Variable Feature 21
Summary 25
Chapter 2 PL/SQL Language Fundamentals 27
Lab 2.1: PL/SQL Language Components 27
    PL/SQL Variables 29
    PL/SQL Reserved Words 31
    Delimiters 32
    Literals in PL/SQL 33
Lab 2.2: Anchored Data Types 33
Lab 2.3: Scope of a Variable, Block, Nested Blocks, and Labels 35
    Scope of a Variable 35
    Nested Blocks and Labels 36
Summary 38
Chapter 3 SQL in PL/SQL 39
Lab 3.1: SQL Statements in PL/SQL 39
    Initializing Variables with the SELECT INTO Statement 40
    Using DML Statements in a PL/SQL Block 41
    Using a Sequence in a PL/SQL Block 43
Lab 3.2: Transaction Control in PL/SQL 44
    The COMMIT, ROLLBACK, and SAVEPOINT Statements 44
    The SET TRANSACTION Statement 47
Summary 48
Chapter 4 Conditional Control: IF Statements 49
Lab 4.1: IF Statements 50
    IF-THEN Statements 50
    IF-THEN-ELSE Statements 52
Lab 4.2: ELSIF Statements 55
Lab 4.3: Nested IF Statements 59
    Logical Operators 61
Summary 62
Chapter 5 Conditional Control: CASE Statements 65
Lab 5.1: CASE Statements 65
    CASE Statements 66
    Searched CASE Statements 68
Lab 5.2: CASE Expressions 74
Lab 5.3: NULLIF and COALESCE Functions 78
    NULLIF Function 78
    COALESCE Function 80
Summary 82
Chapter 6 Iterative Control: Part I 85
Lab 6.1: Simple Loops 86
    EXIT Statement 87
    EXIT WHEN Statement 91
Lab 6.2: WHILE Loops 92
    Using WHILE Loops 92
    Terminating the WHILE Loop Prematurely 95
Lab 6.3: Numeric FOR Loops 97
    Using the IN Option in the Loop 100
    Using the REVERSE Option in the Loop 103
    Using Iteration Controls in the Loop 104
    Terminating the Numeric FOR Loop Prematurely 108
Summary 109
Chapter 7 Iterative Control: Part II 111
Lab 7.1: CONTINUE Statement 111
    Using the CONTINUE Statement 112
    Using the CONTINUE WHEN Statement 116
Lab 7.2: Nested Loops 119
    Using Nested Loops 119
    Using Loop Labels 120
Summary 122
Chapter 8 Error Handling and Built-in Exceptions 125
Lab 8.1: Handling Errors 125
Lab 8.2: Built-in Exceptions 128
Summary 133
Chapter 9 Exceptions 135
Lab 9.1: Exception Scope 135
Lab 9.2: User-Defined Exceptions 139
Lab 9.3: Exception Propagation 143
    Re-raising Exceptions 148
Summary 149
Chapter 10 Exceptions: Advanced Concepts 151
Lab 10.1: RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR 151
Lab 10.2: EXCEPTION_INIT Pragma 155
Lab 10.3: SQLCODE and SQLERRM 157
Summary 160
Chapter 11 Introduction to Cursors 161
Lab 11.1: Types of Cursors 162
    Implicit Cursor 162
    Explicit Cursor 164
Lab 11.2: Table-Based and Cursor-Based Records 171
    Table-Based Records 172
    Cursor-Based Records 174
Lab 11.3: Cursor FOR Loops 175
Lab 11.4: Nested Cursors 177
Summary 179
Chapter 12 Advanced Cursors 181
Lab 12.1: Parameterized Cursors 181
Lab 12.2: Cursor Variables and Expressions 186
    Cursor Variables 187
    Cursor Expressions 193
Lab 12.3: FOR UPDATE Cursors 196
Summary 199
Chapter 13 Triggers 201
Lab 13.1: What Triggers Are 201
    Database Trigger 202
    BEFORE Triggers 205
    AFTER Triggers 210
    Autonomous Transaction 211
Lab 13.2: Types of Triggers 213
    Row and Statement Triggers 213
    INSTEAD OF Triggers 215
Summary 219
Chapter 14 Mutating Tables and Compound Triggers 221
Lab 14.1: Mutating Tables 221
Lab 14.2: Compound Triggers 223
Summary 228
Chapter 15 Collections 229
Lab 15.1: PL/SQL Tables 230
    Associative Arrays 231
    Nested Tables 233
    Collection Methods 236
Lab 15.2: Varrays 240
Lab 15.3: Multidimensional Collections 245
Lab 15.4: Collection Iteration Controls and
    Qualified Expressions 247
    Collection Iteration Controls 247
    Qualified Expressions 251
Summary 258
Chapter 16 Records 259
Lab 16.1: User-Defined Records 259
    User-Defined Records 260
    Qualified Expressions with Records 262
    Record Compatibility 263
Lab 16.2: Nested Records 265
Lab 16.3: Collections of Records 268
Summary 271
Chapter 17 Native Dynamic SQL 273
Lab 17.1: EXECUTE IMMEDIATE Statements 274
    EXECUTE IMMEDIATE Statement 275
Lab 17.2: OPEN FOR, FETCH, and CLOSE Statements 283
Summary 287
Chapter 18 Bulk SQL 289
Lab 18.1: FORALL Statements 290
    FORALL Statements 290
    SAVE EXCEPTIONS Option 294
    INDICES OF Option 296
    VALUES OF Option 297
Lab 18.2: The BULK COLLECT Clause 299
Lab 18.3: Binding Collections in SQL Statements 308
    Binding Collections with EXECUTE IMMEDIATE Statements 308
    Binding Collections with OPEN FOR, FETCH, and CLOSE Statements 314
Summary 318
Chapter 19 Procedures 319
Lab 19.1: Creating Nested Procedures 320
    Nested Procedures 320
    Parameter Modes 321
    Forward Declaration 326
Lab 19.2: Creating Stand-Alone Procedures 327
Summary 330
Chapter 20 Functions 331
Lab 20.1: Creating Nested Functions 331
Lab 20.2: Creating Stand-Alone Functions 336
Summary 340
Chapter 21 Packages 341
Lab 21.1: Creating Packages 341
    Creating a Package Specification 342
    Creating a Package Body 343
Lab 21.2: Package Instantiation and Initialization 348
    Package Instantiation and Initialization 349
    Package State 351
    Lab 21.3: SERIALLY_REUSABLE Packages 351
Summary 356
Chapter 22 Stored Code Advanced Concepts 357
Lab 22.1: Subprogram Overloading 357
Lab 22.2: Result-Cached Functions 363
Lab 22.3: Invoking PL/SQL Functions from SQL Statements 366
    Invoking Functions in SQL Statements 367
    Using Pipelined Table Functions 368
    Using SQL Macros 370
Summary 375
Chapter 23 Object Types in Oracle 379
Lab 23.1: Object Types 380
    Creating Object Types 381
    Using Object Types with Collections 385
Lab 23.2: Object Type Methods 388
    Using Constructor Methods 389
    Using Member Methods 392
    Using Static Methods 393
    Comparing Objects 393
Summary 398
Chapter 24 Storing Object Types in Tables 399
Lab 24.1: Storing Object Types in Relational Tables 400
Lab 24.2: Storing Object Types in Object Tables 403
Lab 24.3: Type Evolution 405
Summary 410
Chapter 25 Dynamic SQL with the DBMS_SQL Package 411
Lab 25.1: Generating Dynamic SQL with the DBMS_SQL Package 412
Summary 420
Appendix A PL/SQL Formatting Guide 421
Case 421
Whitespace 421
Naming Conventions 422
Comments 423
Appendix B Student Database Schema 425
Table and Column Descriptions 425

9780138062835    TOC    4/20/2023

Elena Rakhimov has more than 20 years of experience in software architecture and development in a wide spectrum of enterprise and business environments ranging from nonprofit organizations to Wall Street to her current position with a prominent consulting company. Her determination to stay “hands-on” notwithstanding, Elena managed to excel in the academic arena, having taught relational database programming at Columbia University’s highly esteemed Computer Technology and Applications program. She was educated in database analysis and design at Columbia University and in applied mathematics at Baku State University in Azerbaijan.

The world’s best hands-on PL/SQL tutorial: fully updated for PL/SQL in Oracle® Database 21c

• Teaches all the modern Oracle PL/SQL skills you need to start developing real solutions fast
• Seven chapters completely overhauled for new features, with five brand-new labs, and updated code throughout
• By an author with extensive experience in training and teaching students and employees on PL/SQL
• This revised edition will be published under the Oracle Press imprint and will be promoted via Oracle Connect newsletter and at Oracle events

• Fully updated throughout for the newest version of PL/SQL (21c), with many chapters completely overhauled
• Includes a new overview introduction to PL/SQL in Oracle 21c– overview section
• Includes new labs in five chapters, and many updated code examples throughout
• Covers Oracle 21c innovations including blockchain tables and in-database machine learning (ML) algorithms

Additional information