SA0951a Oracle Practical: PL/SQL Cursors, Procedures,

Functions

Remember to: SET SERVEROUTPUT ON. Also, the code

examples below use the LECT tables. So, if you have
used the My_ prefix on your tables, use them.

Task 1: a first cursor

The code below is designed to print out the salaries over 30000 for all personnel. You
can type this code in directly if you wish or copy and paste it. What we want you to do is
look at the output you get and be able to describe what each line of code is doing.

DECLARE
CURSOR high_salaries IS SELECT snum, surname,salary FROM personnel
where salary > 30000;
v_snum personnel.snum%TYPE;
v_surname personnel.surname%TYPE;
v_salary personnel.salary%TYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN high_salaries;
LOOP
FETCH high_salaries INTO v_snum,v_surname,v_salary;
EXIT when high_salaries%NOTFOUND;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_snum ||' '||v_surname||' '|| v_salary);
END LOOP;
CLOSE high_salaries;
END;

Write your brief notes about the code here:

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Task 2: a cursor with errors

a) The cursor code below is designed to update personnel salaries based on where they
work. Only there are lots of errors in it for you to sort out. Good luck, look very, very
carefully and try to learn by interpreting the error messages you get. Sometimes they
ARE useful! If you don’t get it all sorted right away you can always come back to it.
Go onto the next question if you get stuck as you can persevere with this in your own
time.

declare

03/02/2019 Page 1
cursor c1 select snum, city from personnel p, branch b where p.div=b.div;
v_city b.city%type ;
v_snum personnel.snum%type;
v_salary_1 number=30000;
v_salary_2 number(4):=25000;
v_salary_3 number:=20000;
v_salary personnel.salary%type;
begin
open c1;
loop
fetch c1 into v_snum, v_city;
exit where c1%NOTFOUND;
If v_city='LONDON' then v_salary:=v_salary1;
elsif v_city='BRISTOL' then v_salary:=v_salary_2;
else v_sal:=v_salary_3;
end if;
update my_personnel set salary = v_salary where snum=v_snum;
endloop;
close ;
end;

Task 3: Storing and Executing PL/SQL

In order to store PL/SQL, simply replace the DECLARE word with:

CREATE PROCEDURE average_salary IS

A block which outputs the average result and current date and user is given below.

DECLARE
average NUMBER(7,2);
Begin
SELECT AVG(salary) INTO average FROM personnel;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('As of ' || SYSDATE);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('The average salary is ' || Average);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Prepared by ' || USER);
END;

 Edit and store this code now as a procedure.

 Run it.

If you've got that, congratulations, you've stored a PL/SQL procedure.

 If you still have compilation errors, check everything very carefully especially
spelling and punctuation! Also try the command SHOW ERRORS for an idea of what
went wrong.

 Now execute the procedure

Task 4: Changing a stored procedure

Say you now want to get the average salary just for branch 10.
The code you need is

03/02/2019 Page 2
CREATE PROCEDURE average_salary IS
Today DATE := SYSDATE;
Average NUMBER(7,2);
Begin
SELECT AVG(salary) INTO Average FROM personnel WHERE div=10;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('As of ' || Today);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Average salary for branch 10 is ' || Average);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Prepared by ' || USER);
END;

 Do the CREATE PROCEDURE process again, adding the WHERE clause as shown
above.
 You will probably get the message
" ERROR at line 1: ORA-00955: name is already used by an existing object"
Why?
………………………………………………………………………………..

To solve this problem, you could DROP the procedure first. But there is a better way:
 Use
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE …….
at the top and try again.

That should have worked.

Note: The words OR REPLACE after CREATE make sure that if the procedure exists
already, you can edit it.

Task 5: Procedure with parameter

So we know how to change the stored procedure. What would you do if you want the
average for another branch? It's tedious to change the stored procedure every time we
want different values. It would be so much nicer to be able to just specify the branch
code when we execute the procedure.
The solution to this is to use input parameters. This can be done quite easily, you only
need a few changes to the block. They are highlighted in bold below (note how the output
is also changed):

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE average_salary(branchID CHAR) IS CHAR is the

Today DATE := SYSDATE; data type
Average NUMBER(7,2); matching
Begin VARCHAR2
SELECT AVG(salary) INTO Average FROM Personnel WHERE div=branchID;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('As of ' || Today);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('The average for branch ' || branchID || ' is ' || Average);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Prepared by ' || USER);
END;

 Create this procedure now and execute it.

 Run the procedure twice, inserting different values each time.

03/02/2019 Page 3
Task 6: Declaring Procedures within procedures and calling them

Study the code below and write down the output you would expect the program to
produce, then execute the main procedure and see if you were right. You’ll need to
understand the MOD function in particular. Basically it returns a zero if the result of a
division by a specified number is an integer. Be clear about how the control is being
passed to and fro between the procedures

create or replace procedure main_proc

is
v_test number:=4;
procedure inner_proc1
is
begin
dbms_output.put_line(v_test||' inner procedure one');
end inner_proc1;
procedure inner_proc2
is
begin
dbms_output.put_line(v_test||' inner procedure two');
end inner_proc2;
begin
while v_test <=10 loop
inner_proc1;
if mod(v_test,2)=0 then
inner_proc2;
end if;
v_test:=v_test+1;
end loop;
end main_proc;

Task 7: Function
Study the function and procedure below. They are written to calculate the total mileage
for a given division name.
The procedure accepts a division name and then calls a function to calculate the total
mileage, which then returns the result to the procedure. The result is printed to the
screen.

Your task is to ANNOTATE the code with comments so that you understand what the
code is doing.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE avemiles(divisionName varchar2)

is
V_divID Branch.div%type;
V_aveMiles personnel.salary%type;
BEGIN
SELECT div into v_divID
FROM branch WHERE divname=divisionName;
v_aveMiles:=get_aveMiles(v_divID);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Division '||v_divID||' has '||v_aveMiles||' average mileage');
END;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_aveMiles (i_div IN NUMBER)

03/02/2019 Page 4
 RETURN number
IS
v_aveMiles Transport.Mileage%type;
BEGIN
SELECT avg(Mileage)
INTO v_aveMiles FROM Transport
WHERE div=i_div;
RETURN v_aveMiles;
END get_aveMiles;

You can TEST the function on its own using the following code:

SELECT get_avemiles(10) from dual;

You can now test the Procedure (which calls the function you have already tested) using
the following:

Execute avemiles(‘ADMIN’)

So now you can play around with the code by trying it out on different Division Names to
see if it works.

What would you change if you wanted to calculate the maximum mileage for any
division?

Task 8: More practice with functions.

Study the code below which uses functions embedded within a main
function to do some fairly trivial arithmetic.

Again, see if you can work out what the output from the program function would be by
tracing control within the code and record it below. Pay particular attention to the
RETURN.

create or replace function calculate

(v_1 in number, op in varchar2, v_2 in number)
return number
is
v_return number;
function add
return number
is
begin
return v_1+v_2;
end add;
function subtract
return number
is
begin
return v_1-v_2;
end subtract;
function multiply
return number

03/02/2019 Page 5
 is
begin
return v_1*v_2;
end multiply;
function divide
return number
is
begin
return v_1/v_2;
end divide;
begin
if op='+' then v_return:=Add;
elsif op='-' then v_return:=subtract;
elsif op='*' then v_return:=multiply;
elsif op ='/' then v_return:=divide;
else v_return:=null;
end if;
return v_return;
end calculate;

To test the program you can use Oracle’s DUAL dummy table in SELECT statements.
For instance, try:

SELECT calculate(2,’+’,3) from dual;

This should call the function and perform the arithmetic for you. Make sure you
understand how the ‘calling’ is achieved in the above statement.
Try passing various parameters to test the code works. Try passing a zero for a division
for example!

Task 9: The code below is similar in that it calculates an average

result.
We know we can calculate the average easily in SQL, but just for illustration purposes
see how the function achieves the result then see if you can expand the code to perform
the minimum and maximum salary as well.

create or replace function calc_stats

(OP VARCHAR2)
return number
is
v_return number;
function average
return number
is
v1 number;
begin
select avg(salary) into v1 from personnel;
return v1;
end average;
begin
if op='average' then v_return:=average;
end if;
return v_return;

03/02/2019 Page 6
 end calc_stats;

Remember to test the code by typing SELECT calc_stats(‘average’) from dual;

Task 10: Developing your cursor skills

Create a routine that could be run each month to insert pension contribution details into
a PENSIONS table. So create the table first.

CREATE TABLE MY_PENSIONS

(snum NUMBER(4),
P_employee NUMBER(9,2),
P_employer NUMBER(9,2),
P_date DATE);

Your code should accept three prompts:

a) the date
b) the amount of employee contribution (less than 10%).
c) the amount of employer contribution (less than 10%).

The calculation you need to consider is simply:

Salary * contribution /12 (as it is a monthly contribution).

You’ll need to declare variables for all of your prompts and for anchoring variables to the
datatypes in the PENSIONS table for the insertion of data.

Task 11: Developing function skills

Write a function that calculates tax on a personnel member’s salary.

You should then be able to test your function by typing something like:

SELECT surname, first name, salary, tax(35000,500) from dual; (the two parameters
being salary and bonus respectively).

Things you need to know and incorporate (read carefully and try to work out the formulae
from the information given):

1. Pass two parameters for salary and bonus

2. Taxable salary is the salary + bonus – tax allowance
3. Tax allowance is a constant at £4335
4. There are two tax limits at £3999 (lower) and £28999 (upper)
5. Salary is tested against these tax limits
6. If salary is less than the lower tax limit then tax is calculated as 10% of
taxable salary
7. If salary is between the two tax limits then tax is calculated as 22% of taxable
salary
8. If salary is higher than the upper tax limit then tax is calculated as:

22% of the upper limit + 40% of the difference between the taxable salary and
the upper limit.

03/02/2019 Page 7