An

Training Guide

PL/SQL
for
Beginners
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PL/SQL for Beginners

Introduction

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DML not DDL 75

The SELECT Statement 76
The INTO Clause 77
The Implicit Cursor 78
UPDARE, INSERT and DELETE 79
The WHERE Clause 80
Transaction Control 82
Testing Outcome of a SQL Statement 84
Summary 86

4 - Exceptions 88
What is an Exception? 90
Types of Exception 91
Handling Exceptions 93
Exception Propagation 97
Creating Your Own Exceptions 99
Exceptions for an Oracle Error Code 100
Exceptions for your own Conditions 101
Summary 102

5 - Explicit Cursors 104

What is an Explicit Cursor? 106
How to use an Explicit Cursor 107
Declaring 108
Opening 109
Fetching 110
Closing 114
Cursor Attributes 115
A Complete Example 116
WHERE CURRENT OF 117
Cursor FOR Loop 119
Summary 122

6 – Stored Procedures & Functions 124

Stored Subprograms - An Overview 126
Procedures & Functions - The Difference 128
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Creating and using a Stored Procedure 129

Creating and using a Stored Function 139
Handling Exceptions 143
Local Subprograms 147
A Few Guidelines 149
Benefits of Stored Subprograms 150
Summary 151

7 – Packages 153
What is a Package? 155
Packages and Scope 158
Creating and using a Package 159
Overloading Subprograms 166
Invoking Packaged Functions from SQL Statements 169
Privileges & Security 173
Oracle Provided Packages 176
Summary 177

8 – Triggers 179
What is a Trigger? 181
Trigger Types 183
Creating a Trigger 185
Restrictions on Triggers 190
Summary 191

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The PL/SQL Block

All PL/SQL programs are made up of Blocks. A
PL/SQL program MUST contain at least one block. A
Block is made up of PL/SQL statements enclosed
within the keywords, BEGIN and END, for example:-
BEGIN
INSERT INTO table (col) VALUES ('XX');
END;

If you wish to make any variable declarations you

can also include a DECLARE section, for example:-
DECLARE
v_number NUMBER;

BEGIN
v_number := 10;
END;

An Exception Handler can also be included (covered

later) using the EXCEPTION keyword, as follows:-
DECLARE
v_number NUMBER;

BEGIN
v_number := 10;

EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error');
END;

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The PL/SQL Block

Multiple Blocks
A PL/SQL program can consist of several in-line
blocks, for example:-
DECLARE
v_number NUMBER;

BEGIN
v_number := 10;
Block 1

EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error 1');
END;

BEGIN
v_number := 20;
Block 2

EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error 2');
END;

BEGIN
v_number := 20;
Block 3

EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error 3');
END;

Don not worry about what the above is doing, the

code is simply used to demonstrate multiple blocks
in a single piece of code.

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The PL/SQL Block

Nested Blocks
Blocks can contain nested blocks; basically
anywhere in a PL/SQL program where an executable
statement can appear (i.e. between BEGIN and
END) then a block can also appear. For example,
BEGIN
. . . outer block statements
DECLARE
Inner Block

. . . inner block declarations

BEGIN
. . .inner block statements
END
Outer Block

. . . outer block statements

EXCEPTION
WHEN some_error THEN
BEGIN
Inner Block

. . . Error handling
EXCEPTION
. . .
END;
END

Blocks will typically be nested to break down a

larger block into more logical pieces. Also, as we will
discover later in the Exception Handling section,
nested blocks allow for greater control of errors.

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The PL/SQL Block

Block Types
There are several types of blocks:-
• Anonymous Block - Seen in the examples so
far. These blocks have no name and are generally
stored in a host file or entered directly into
SQL*Plus and executed just once.
• Named Blocks - Very much the same as an
Anonymous Block except the block is given a
label.
• Subprograms - Packages, Procedures and
Functions are blocks of code stored within the
database. These blocks are executed via a
specific call via the block name.
• Triggers - These are also named blocks that are
stored within the database. Triggers are executed
implicitly whenever the triggering event occurs.

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The PL/SQL Block

Block Types - Examples
Named Blocks - Name is enclosed in << and >>:-
<<my_block>>
DECLARE
v_number := 10;
BEGIN
v_number := v_number * 10;
END;

Subprograms - Function to square a number:-

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION square(p_number IN NUMBER)
IS
BEGIN
RETURN p_number * 2;
END;

Triggers - These are also named blocks that fire in

response to a database event.
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER audit
BEFORE DELETE ON items
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
INSERT INTO audit_table(item,description)
VALUES(:old.item,:old.description);
END;

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Scope and Visibility

The block in which an object is declared, including
any nested blocks is the scope on an object.

DECLARE
x NUMBER;

BEGIN
DECLARE
y NUMBER; Inner Block Outer Block
Scope of y Scope of x
BEGIN
. . .
END;

. . .
END;

If the variable in the inner block was also called x as

in the outer block, then whilst in the inner block, x
would refer to the x declared in the current block. x
in the outer block still exists but it has no visibility.
DECLARE
x NUMBER;

BEGIN
DECLARE
x NUMBER; x from outer
block has no
BEGIN visibility
. . .
END;

. . .
END;

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Comments
Comments can be added to your code in two ways:-
Single-line Comments
These comments start with two dashes, the
comment continues until the end of the line, for
example:-
-- Local declarations
v_number NUMBER ; -- A number variable

Multiple-line Comments
These comments begin with /* and end with */,
everything in between these delimiters is treated as
a comment, for example:-
/* Determine what the item
type is before continuing */
IF v_item_type = 'A' THEN
. . .

Multi-line comments cannot be nested.

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Comments
Comments should be used as much as possible.
Good comments can make your code much easier to
understand. Do not over-comment or include
comments for comments sake. Try not to simply
repeat what is already clear in your code, much of
PL/SQL is quite readable and comments such as:-
-- Test if v_number is equal to 10
IF v_number = 10 THEN
. . .

are useless and a waste of space. Try to explain the

business logic behind your code. If you have
produced a very complex program then your
comments should include a good description of the
algorithm involved.

I recommend you only ever single line comments,

this allows you to use multi-line comments whilst
debugging, you can easily comment out whole
chunks of your program without worrying about
illegal nesting of multi-line comments.

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Comments
Different developers have different style for
comments, it's really down to personal choice but
here are a few pointers:-
• Always indent comments to the same level as
your code
• Choose a low maintenance style, for example,
High Maintenance
-- ----------------- --
-- This is a comment --
-- ----------------- --
Low Maintenance
--
-- This is a comment
--
• Don't restate the obvious
• Try to comment each logical block of code
• Try to maintain a modification history within the
code, either at the top or bottom of a program
• Remember, other developers may need to read
your comments

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Variables
Variables are an essential part of any programming
language. A variable is simply a location in memory
where you can store data of different types.

Variables can be read or set during execution of a

PL/SQL block, values from the database can be
stored in variables as can literals and values of other
variables.

All variables must be declared before they can be

used. The declaration of a variable specifies the type
and size of the data that the variable will hold.

There are a number of different types of variable

within PL/SQL, these types fall into one of the
following categories:-
• Scalar Types - covered next
• Composite Types - covered later
Two other categories exist, Reference Type and LOB
Types, these are not covered.

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Variables - Scalar Types

A scalar type holds a single value of a specific type.
The main datatypes supported by PL/SQL are those
which correspond directly to the types held within
the database, BOOLEAN types are also supported.
Max Default
Datatype Size Size Description
NUMBER 38 38 Numeric values rounded to a
(width,scale) whole number unless a scale
is given, i.e. NUMBER(5,2)
means a numeric values 5
digits in length allowing for 2
decimal places
VARCHAR2 32767 Variable length character
(width) * data
CHAR 32767 Fixed length character data
(width) **
DATE Valid date values
BOOLEAN Boolean values TRUE and
FALSE
Several other subtypes are available, these are
basically made up from the types above. Other
types include, BINARY_INTEGER, DEC, DECIMAL,
FLOAT, DOUBLE PRECISION, INT, INTEGER,
NATURAL, NUMERIC, PLS_INTEGER and POSITIVE.
We will not cover these other types.
* A VARCHAR2 database column is only 2000 bytes long in Oracle7
and 4000 bytes long in Oracle8+
** 255 for PL/SQL v1.x

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Variables - Declaration
Before a variable can be used within your code, you
must first declare it. All declarations must appear in
the DECLARE section of your block. Variable
declaration has the following syntax:-
varname TYPE [CONSTANT] [NOT NULL] [:= value];

where varname is the name of the variable, the

CONSTANT keyword specifies this variable as a
constant (covered later), the NOT NULL keyword
ensures the value can never be NULL and the final
part is a default value; some examples:-
DECLARE
v_anumber1 NUMBER(10);
v_anumber2 NUMBER := 100;
v_astring VARCHAR2(1) NOT NULL := 'Y';

All the above are valid declarations. The following is

invalid,
v_a_string VARCHAR2(1) NOT NULL;

The above declaration is not valid because the

variable is constrained with NOT NULL and no
default value has been given.
The DEFAULT keyword can also be used if
preferred, i.e.
v_astring2 VARCHAR2(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'Y';

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Variables - Initialisation
If you declare a variable without specifying a
default/initial value, you may be wondering what
value it does contain, PL/SQL automatically
initialises all variables without a default value to
NULL. The is unlike many other languages such as C
where a variable may just contain garbage once
declared.

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Variables - Type Anchoring

Another way to declare a variables type is using the
Type Anchoring method. If you know the type of a
variable is directly related to a column on a table
within the database then you can anchor the type of
your variable to the type on the database, for
example, suppose we have a table called items,
this has a NUMBER column called item_id, then
within your PL/SQL program you could:-
v_item_id NUMBER;

This is inflexible, if the type of the database was

ever to change, you would have to change your
code, you could on the other hand anchor the type
as follows:-
v_item_id items.item_id%TYPE;

Where items is the table name and item_id is

the column name. This will always ensure that
v_item_id is the correct type.

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Variables - Type Anchoring

You can also anchor a variables type to another
variable in the same program, for example:-
v_item_id items.item_id%TYPE;
v_new_item v_item_id%TYPE;

I recommend you use type anchoring wherever

possible, it makes for more flexible code and can
avoid bugs that are introduced through incompatible
type use.

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Variables - Constants
A variable can be declared as a constant value by
using the CONSTANT keyword within the variable
declaration.
A constant allows you to assign a value to an
identifier that can then be referenced throughout
the program. Any attempt to change a constant
value will cause an error to occur.

I suggest using constants within your program

rather than using magic numbers (hardcoded
values). For example,
DECLARE
c_bad_status CONSTANT NUMBER := 5;
BEGIN
IF v_item_status = c_bad_status THEN
. . .

is much better than,

IF v_item_status = 5 THEN
. . .

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Assignments & Expressions

As already seen, a variable can be declared with a
default value, this is actually an assignment.
Assignments can appear anywhere within a block of
code, not just the DECLARE section. An Assignment
is the storing of a value in a variable. Assignment
has the following basic syntax:-
identifier := expression;

Where identifier is the variable name and expression

is the value you wish to store. The expression can
be a literal, another variable or any other type of
complex expression. Here are some basic
examples:-
v_counter := 0;
v_name := 'This is the name';
v_date := TO_DATE('10-JAN-99','DD-MON-RR');
v_processed := TRUE;
The key part of an assignment is the assignment
operator, :=, notice that this is different to the
equality operator =.

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Assignments & Expressions

The expression part of an assignment is what is
know as an RVALUE, this means that an expression
cannot be used as a statement on its own and it
must appear on the right-hand side of an
assignment.

An expression can be anything that will be

evaluated to give a result, this could be some math,
on literals and/or other variables, it could also be
the result of calling a function, in fact, almost
anything that can be done in SQL can be used as an
expression in PL/SQL. Here are some examples of
expressions:-
5 * 10
v_count + 50
first_digit(names_cur.full_name)
SYSDATE

When used in assignments, they are as follows:-

v_total := 5 * 10;
v_count := v_count + 50;
v_first_name := first_name(names_cur.full_name);
v_today := SYSDATE;

When evaluating numeric expressions, normal

operator precedence applies.

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Assignments & Expressions

Boolean expressions are always evaluated to TRUE
or FALSE (and sometimes NULL). A Boolean
expression is referred to as a condition when used
in control flow statements (such as IF). All of the
following are Boolean expressions:-
5 > 10
X < Y
A = B AND D > E

When used in assignments, they are as follows:-

v_boolean := 5 > 10;
v_x_is_bigger_than_y := X < Y;
x_continue := A = B AND D > E;

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Assignments & Expressions

Remember the logical (relational) operators from
the SQL course, here they are again:-
Logical Operators
Operator Meaning
= equal to (equality)
!= not equal to (inequality)
<= less than or equal
>= more than or equal
< less than
> more than
Three other operators exist AND, OR and NOT,
these operators accept Boolean values and return
Boolean values based on the following truth table.
NOT TRUE FALSE NULL
FALSE TRUE NULL
AND
TRUE TRUE FALSE NULL
FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
NULL NULL FALSE NULL
OR
TRUE TRUE TRUE NULL
FALSE TRUE FALSE NULL
NULL TRUE NULL NULL
Any of the above operators can be used as part of
an expression.

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Assignments & Expressions

There are some more advanced operators available
within PL/SQL, these are LIKE, IS NULL, BETWEEN
and IN, these work exactly the same as they do in
SQL (the WHERE clause), here are some examples:-
v_valid_type := v_item_type LIKE 'QB%';
v_not_set := IS NULL v_number;
v_in_range := v_id BETWEEN 10 AND 50;
v_in_list := v_id IN(10,30,50,70,90);

Almost all functions that can be used within SQL can

also be used in an expression. Note that the
DECODE function as well as any group functions
CANNOT be used.

Expressions can be as complex as you like, although

I recommend that you try to keep them
understandable (and maintainable), if an expression
is 10 lines long then you probably want to re-think
your code.

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PL/SQL From SQL*Plus

Before we move on, let us first see how we can
execute a PL/SQL program. The easiest and most
common method of running a PL/SQL program
which is an anonymous block is via SQL*Plus.

There a two basic ways to execute PL/SQL from

SQL*Plus:-
• Enter PL/SQL directly into the SQL buffer and run
it.
• Create a PL/SQL script file and then execute that
file from SQL*Plus.

We will take a quick look at both. We will be using

SQL*Plus for executing PL/SQL throughout the rest
of this course.

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PL/SQL From SQL*Plus

The first method of executing PL/SQL from
SQL*Plus is by entering PL/SQL commands directly
into the SQL buffer, this is done much the same as
it is for entering SQL commands, with one major
difference, when entering a SQL statement, you
terminate the statement with a blank line or
semicolon, this does not work for PL/SQL programs,
you must terminate the PL/SQL program with a dot
'.', you can then execute the PL/SQL block by
entering RUN or '/' at the prompt, for example:-
SQL> DECLARE
2 v_number NUMBER := 0;
3 BEGIN
4 v_number := v_number + 10;
5 END;
6 . - This will terminate the block
SQL> / - This will execute the block

You can edit PL/SQL in the usual way with SQL*Plus

commands or by typing ed to invoke the editor.
If the PL/SQL code is executed successfully you
should see:-
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

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PL/SQL From SQL*Plus

The second method of executing PL/SQL from
SQL*Plus is by creating PL/SQL script files. These
files are entered and executed in the exact same
way as SQL script files. Here is an example to
refresh your memory:-
SQL> DECLARE
2 v_number NUMBER := 0;
3 BEGIN
4 v_number := v_number + 10;
5 END;
6 .
SQL> SAVE myfile.pls
SQL> CLEAR BUFFER
SQL> GET myfile.pls
SQL> /
SQL> START myfile.pls
SQL> @myfile.pls

In the above example, a file called myfile.pls is

created, the buffer is cleared and the file is
retrieved, it is then executed three times.

Viewing Errors
In any errors are present in your program (compile
time errors), you can view errors by querying the
USER_ERRORS database view, a more convenient
method is to use the SQL*Plus command:-
SQL> show err[ors]

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Viewing the Results

Okay, so we've written our first PL/SQL program, it
all worked okay, but we saw nothing, we got no
messages back at all. How do we get output back
from PL/SQL?

There are four main ways to get output from

PL/SQL, these are:-
• Insert information into a table and query back the
table
• Use a SQL*Plus bind variable
• Use the Oracle supplied package DBMS_OUTPUT
to send output to the screen
• Use the Oracle supplied package UTL_FILE to
send out to a host file. This is an advanced topic
and will be covered at the end of the course.

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Viewing the Results - Method 1

The first method of viewing the result of a PL/SQL
program is by inserting information into a database
table.
First, create a table to store the information, this
can be called anything you like, i.e.
SQL> CREATE TABLE my_debug
2 ( date_created DATE
3 , text VARCHAR2(500));

Now for the PL/SQL:-

SQL> DECLARE
1 l_x NUMBER := 0;
2 BEGIN
3 INSERT INTO my_debug
4 VALUES (SYSDATE,'Before='||TO_CHAR(l_x));
5 l_x := l_x + 10;
6 INSERT INTO my_debug
7 VALUES (SYSDATE,'After='||TO_CHAR(l_x));
8 END;
9 .
SQL> /

Now query back the table, ordering the data by the

date column:-
SQL> SELECT text
1 FROM my_debug
2 ORDER BY date_created;

You should now see the following:-

TEXT
--------------
Before=0
After=10

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Viewing the Results - Method 2

Another way to view the result of your PL/SQL
program is by using SQL*Plus bind variables.
First, you need to declare your SQL*Plus bind
variable, this is done with the VARIABLE command,
VARIABLE has the following syntax:-
VAR[IABLE] name [NUMBER|CHAR[(n)]|VARCHAR2[(n)]]

So, we declare a variable:-

SQL> VAR result NUMBER

Now the PL/SQL:-

SQL> DECLARE
1 l_x NUMBER := 0;
2 BEGIN
3 l_x := l_x + 10;
4 :result := l_x;
5 END;
6 .
SQL> /

Now, print the value in SQL*Plus:-

SQL> print result

You should now see:-

RESULT
--------------
10

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Viewing the Results - Method 3

Yet another way to view the result of your PL/SQL
program is by using an Oracle supplied package
(packages are covered later), DBMS_OUTPUT. This package
contains several procedures that can be used to
print output on screen (as well as providing other
facilities).
Before you can use DBMS_OUTPUT you must first
enable output in SQL*Plus with the following
command:-
SET serverout[put] ON|OFF [SIZE n]

Size specifies the size of the output buffer in bytes,

if this buffer overflows, you will get the following
error:-
ORA-20000: ORU-10027: buffer overflow, limit of n bytes

So, to switch on output and specify a size:-

SQL> SET serverout ON SIZE 1000000

I suggest always setting the size to a large number,

this way you are less likely to encounter problems
with overflows. It is a good idea to include the
above line a file called login.sql, this is executed
each time you enter SQL*Plus.

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Viewing the Results - Method 3

Once output is enabled you can use the following
procedures:-
Procedure Description
PUT Append text to the current line of the output buffer
NEW_LINE Put and end-of-line marker into the output buffer,
this effectively flushes the buffer.
PUT_LINE Append text and an end-of-line marker to the
current line in the output buffer. This also flushes
the buffer.

When calling a packaged procedure from within

PL/SQL, you must qualify the procedure name with
the package name, so, to print a Hello World
message:-
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Hello World');

Is the same as:-

DBMS_OUTPUT.put('Hello');
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(' World');

And is also the same as:-

DBMS_OUTPUT.put('Hello World');
DBMS_OUTPUT.new_line;

NOTE
Output is only given once the PL/SQL code has
finished.

Method 4 is covered later.

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Flow Control
PL/SQL provides many structures that control the
flow of a program. PL/SQL provides the following
conditional expressions:-
• IF statement
• EXIT statement
The following looping structures are also provided:-
• Simple LOOP
• FOR loop (Numeric FOR Loop)
• WHILE loop
• Loop Labels
• Block Labels
• The GOTO statement
• CURSOR FOR loop (covered later)
Flow control structures are an essential part of any
third generation programming language, it is these
constructs combined with variables and
subprograms that give PL/SQL its power over SQL.
We will now take a look at each of the flow control
statements mentioned above.

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Flow Control
The IF Statement
The IF statement allows PL/SQL to take different
actions based on certain conditions, its syntax is
very similar to the IF statement found in many
other programming languages.

Condition
We have covered conditions already but just to
recap, a condition is the result of a Boolean
expression, for example, the condition:-
X > Y

is TRUE if X is more than Y, otherwise FALSE.

Action
An action is one or more PL/SQL statements. An
action can be anything from inserting into a table to
performing more IF statements.

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Flow Control
The IF Statement
The IF statement has the following syntax:-
IF condition1 THEN
action1;
[ELIF condition2 THEN
action2;]
[ELSE
action3;]
END IF;

For example,
DECLARE
l_x NUMBER := 10;
l_y NUMBER := 20;
BEGIN
IF l_x > l_y THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('X is greater than Y');
ELIF l_x < l_y THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(X is less than Y');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('X is equal to Y')
END IF;
END;

The above PL/SQL program declares two variables,

l_x and l_y, they are defaulted to 10 and 20
respectively, then the program tests whether l_x is
greater than, less than or equal to l_y. The ELSE
part of the statement is like a catch all, it basically
says, if l_x does not match anything then perform
this action.

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Flow Control
The IF Statement
Here is a flowchart of the previous example:-

TRUE Is l_x > FALSE

l_y?

TRUE Is l_x < FALSE

l_x is more
l_y?
than l_y

l_x is less l_x is equal

than l_y to l_y

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Flow Control
Simple Loop
A loop is a section of code that needs to be
executed a number of times. PL/SQL has many
kinds of loops, the most basic form of loop, a simple
loop has the following syntax:-
LOOP
statements ..
END LOOP;

In the above loop, the statements are executed

forever, this is because the loop has no way out,
there is no condition applied to the loop that will
stop it. To ensure the loop has a condition that can
stop it you must use the EXIT statement. This has
the following syntax:-
EXIT [WHEN condition];

where condition can be any kind of Boolean

expression, for example:-
LOOP
l_x := l_x + 10;

EXIT WHEN l_x > 100;

END LOOP;

In the above example, the loop will continue adding

10 to l_x until it is more than 100.

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Flow Control
Simple Loop
The EXIT statement can also be used inside an IF
statement:-
LOOP
l_x := l_x + 10;

IF l_x > 100 THEN

EXIT;
END IF;
END LOOP;

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Flow Control
The FOR Loop
A FOR (numeric FOR) loop is similar to the simple
loop we have already seen, the main difference is
the controlling condition is found at the start of the
loop and the number of iterations is known in
advance, whereas with a simple loop the number of
iterations is not known and is determined by the
loop condition (the EXIT statement). The FOR loop
has the following syntax:-
FOR variable IN [REVERSE] start_value .. end_value
LOOP
statements ..
END LOOP;

The variable is the controlling variable, its value

starts as start_value and increments until it
reaches end_value. The REVERSE keyword can
be used to execute to loop in the opposite direction.

variable is only in scope so long as the loop is

running, if you need to preserve its value then you
must set a declared variable to its value within the
loop.

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Flow Control
The FOR Loop
Here are a few examples of using a numeric FOR
loop.
To display numbers 1 to 10:-
FOR counter IN 1 .. 10
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(counter);
END LOOP;

To display numbers 10 to 1:-

FOR counter IN REVERSE 1 .. 10
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(counter);
END LOOP;

The start_value and end_value do not have to

be numeric literals, they can be any expression that
results in a numeric value, for example:-
DECLARE
l_days NUMBER;
BEGIN
l_days := l_date2 - l_date1;
FOR counter IN 0..l_days
LOOP
INSERT INTO date_table
(date) VALUES
(l_date2 + counter);
END LOOP;
END;

The above example calculates the number of days

between two dates and inserts a row into a table for
each date.

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Flow Control
The WHILE Loop
The WHILE loop again is very similar to the simple
loop, even more so than the FOR loop. A WHILE
loop will continue so long as a condition is true. Its
syntax is as follows:-
WHILE condition
LOOP
statements . .
END LOOP;

The condition can be any Boolean expression that

can be used in an IF or EXIT statement,
statements can be any sequence of PL/SQL
statements. Using the previously seen simple loop
example, it can be written using a WHILE loop:-
WHILE l_x <= 100
LOOP
l_x := l_x + 10;
END LOOP;

The above example says, continue to increment l_x

so long as l_x is less than or equal to 100. Notice
the difference in condition compared to the EXIT
statement, this condition says continue so long as
condition is true, whereas the EXIT statement says
stop processing if a condition is true.

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Flow Control
Nested Loops
Loops can be nested to almost any number of
levels. You can nest different kinds of loops within
other types, for example, you may have a numeric
FOR loop which is nested within a WHILE loop, for
example:-
WHILE l_continue
LOOP

Inner Loop

Outer Loop
FOR count IN 20..29
LOOP
l_total := count + l_x;
END LOOP;

l_continue := l_max > l_total;

END LOOP;

The above example has two nested loops, a FOR

within a WHILE. The WHILE will continue so long as
the variable l_continue is true and the FOR loop
will iterate from 20 to 29 (10 times). After
processing the FOR loop, l_continue is set to the
result of the Boolean expression l_max >
l_total, if this is FALSE then the WHILE will end.

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Flow Control
Labelling Loops
Let's say you have written some code which makes
use of nested loops, how do you make the program
terminate an outer loop from an inner loop?
This can be done is two ways:-
• Raise an exception, we cover exceptions later
• Label the loop and use the EXIT statement, we
cover this method next.

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Flow Control
Labelling Loops
You can give loops a label, you do this by prefixing
the loop with the following:-
<< label-name >>

for example,
<<my_loop>>
WHILE l_continue
LOOP
. . . .
END LOOP my_loop;

If you have a nested loop, you can exit the outer

loop from within the inner loop by using the EXIT
statement with a loop label, for example:-
<<outer>>
WHILE l_continue
LOOP

<<inner>>
FOR count IN 20..29
LOOP
l_total := count + l_x;

EXIT outer WHEN l_total > l_overflow;

END LOOP inner;

l_continue := l_max > l_total;

END LOOP outer;

The above example checks the value of l_total

within the FOR loop, if it is greater than the variable
l_overflow then the outer loop is exited. The
label name in the END LOOP in optional.

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Flow Control
Labelling Blocks
You can label a block in the same way you can label
a loop, for example:-
<<block1>>
DECLARE
l_x NUMBER;
BEGIN
l_x := 10;

Block 1
<<block2>>
DECLARE
Block 2
l_x NUMBER;
BEGIN
l_x := 20;
END block2;

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_x);
END block1;

The variable l_x in block2 refers to l_x declared in

block 2, l_x declared in block1 has no visibility. You
can make block 1's l_x visible by qualifying l_x
with the block label:-
<<block1>>
DECLARE
l_x NUMBER;
BEGIN
l_x := 10;

<<block2>>
DECLARE
l_x NUMBER;
BEGIN
block1.l_x := 20;
END block2;

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_x);

END block1;

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Flow Control
The GOTO Statement
Using labels, you can use the GOTO statement.
GOTO allows you to directly jump (branch) to a
particular section of code. GOTO is unconditional and
final, there is no return. Here is an example:-

DECLARE
l_x NUMBER := 30;
l_y NUMBER := 20;
BEGIN
IF l_x >= l_y THEN
GOTO skip_calc;
END IF;

l_x := l_y;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('l_x is now same as l_y');

<<skip_calc>>
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_x);

END;

The GOTO in the above block simply skips the

calculation part of the code if l_x is greater than
l_y. You cannot use the GOTO statement to pass
control into the middle of a sub-block.

I recommend you avoid using GOTO, overuse can

make programs very hard to follow and leads to
unstructured code.

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PL/SQL Coding Style

As far as the fundamentals of PL/SQL go, that is it,
we have covered pretty much everything you need.
Before we summarise the session and begin the first
set of exercises, we will have a quick look at PL/SQL
coding styles.

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Good programming style is hard to define because
everyone has their own personal tastes, but, there
are guidelines you can follow to ensure that your
coding is understandable by others and even
yourself if you return to the code months later.

Programming style does not really affect how a

program runs, it does affect how the program is
debugged, enhanced and even coded in the first
place. Coding style involves good use of variable
names, whitespace and comments, consider the
following block of code:-
declare
a1 number:=10;
a2 number:=20;
a3 number;
begin if a1 > a2 then a3:=a1-a2; elsif a1<a2 then
a3:=a2-a1; else a3:=0; end if; end;

The above code is VERY hard to read and

understand, this is incredibly BAD coding style.
Imagine if 6 months later you had to change this
code,….forget it!!!!!

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Okay, we've seen some bad style (or no style), so
lets re-write the same code in a good style:-
DECLARE
l_first NUMBER := 10;
l_second NUMBER := 20;
l_difference NUMBER;
BEGIN
--
-- Determine difference between two numbers
--
IF l_first > l_second THEN
l_difference := l_first - l_second;
ELSIF l_first < l_second THEN
l_difference := l_second - l_first;
ELSE
l_difference := 0;
END IF;
END;

Which would you prefer to come back too?

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Coding Style Guidelines:-
Style of comments
Comment should be used everywhere where some
kind of explanation is required, usually at the start
of each logical block of code or procedure. It is also
good practice to comment each of the variables
declared within a block. As said earlier, do not over
comment.
Variable Names
Choose short and meaningful names for your
variables where you can. the variable
l_difference is much better than n3. Also, prefix
your variables with a single letter which describes
the type of variable, I usually use the following
prefixes:-
Prefix Used on Example
l_ and g_ Local and global variables l_counter, g_status
v_ Another commonly used v_counter
prefix for program variables
c_ Constant declaration c_cancel_flag
p_ Parameter p_output_file
t_ User-defined type t_employee
tb_ PL/SQL Table tb_employees
r_ PL/SQL record r_employee_info
_cur (suffix) Cursror employee_cur

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Variable Names
You can of course use any kind of prefixes you like,
but you should pick a style and stick too it. Some
organisations have their own in-house guidelines on
style, if so, try your best to stick to these.
Using a good prefix (or suffix) along with a
meaningful name can make code more self-
documenting and much easier to read and
understand.
Capitalisation
PL/SQL is not a case sensitive language, so case has
no affect on the program itself, thus you are not
forced to use a particular case. This means you can
use capitalisation to your advantage. Good use of
case would be:-
• Use upper case for ALL reserved words (BEGIN,
END, DECLARE, IF,…etc)

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Capitalisation
• Use lowercase for all variables, column names
and database objects. Some developers prefer to
capitalise the first letter of each word in a
variable, e.g. l_CountUpdates.
• Package member functions and procedures in
lowercase with the package name in uppercase,
e.g. DPOPPOPR.process
• SQL keywords in uppercase (SELECT, DELETE,
WHERE,…etc)
• Built-in functions in uppercase (NVL,
SUBSTR,…etc)
Whitespace
Whitespace is very important when it comes to
readability. You should use whitespace as follows:-
• Always indent logical blocks, i.e. indent code
within a BEGIN and END, always indent the
contents of a loop, likewise an IF statement.
Indents should really be around 4 spaces.

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PL/SQL Coding Style

Whitespace
• Separate blocks of code or groups of statements
with a blank line.
• Try to line up sections of multiple lines, i.e. The
datatypes of variable within the DECLARE section.

Good programming style is something that comes

with experience, the more you code, the better your
style will be (it could of course get worse, if you
yourself understand a language better, you may be
less inclined to follow a good style because it looks
okay to you, avoid this). But, you need to ensure
you start as you mean to go on.

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Summary
Phew!!! That was a lot of information to take in. To
summarise then, we have learnt:-
• Basic syntax of PL/SQL
• The PL/SQL block
• Multiple Blocks
• Nested Blocks
• Block Types - Anonymous, Named, Subprograms
and Triggers
• Scope and Visibility
• Comments - Single and Multiple line
• Variables - Scalar types, Declaration, Initialisation,
Type Anchoring
• Constants
• Assignments and Expressions
• PL/SQL from SQL*Plus
• Viewing the Results
• Flow Control - Branching, Looping, Nested Loops,
Labelling Loops, Labelling Blocks and GOTO
• PL/SQL coding Style
Now lets test our knowledge!!!

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What is Next?
Section 3 deals with using SQL from with PL/SQL.
We look at constructing a SELECT statement and
using it within PL/SQL, we will also look at
transaction control and explain what an Implicit
Cursor is?

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Section Three
SQL within PL/SQL

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SQL within PL/SQL

In this section we cover how you use SQL

statements within a PL/SQL program. Specifically we
cover:-
• DML not DDL
• The SELECT Statement
• The INTO Clause
• The Implicit Cursor
• UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE
• The WHERE clause
• Transaction Control
• Testing Outcome of a SQL Command
At the end of this section there will be several self-
test questions to answer and exercises to perform

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DML not DDL

In you remember back to the SQL course, DML
stands for Data Manipulation Language and allows
you to query and change data within the database,
whereas DDL stands for Data Definition Language
and allows you to modify the structure of the
database.
PL/SQL allows you to directly use any DML
statement within a block of code, it does not allow
the direct use of DDL commands, for example, you
can construct a SELECT statement within PL/SQL
but not a CREATE TABLE statement.

NOTE
Oracle provides a package called DBMS_SQL which
allows you to create dynamic SQL and PL/SQL,
using this package it is possible to perform DDL
within PL/SQL. This is quite an advanced topic and
is not covered on this course.

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The SELECT Statement

Constructing a SELECT statement within PL/SQL is
very simple, it is almost the same as creating a
SELECT from within SQL*Plus with one major
difference, take a look at the following SELECT
statement:-
SELECT ename
FROM emp
WHERE sal = (SELECT MAX(sal) FROM EMP);

The above code will select the highest paid

employee and display their name. This is fine for
SQL*Plus but it will not work in PL/SQL, why?, well
the reason is that once the data has been
SELECTed then it has nowhere to go, remember we
said that PL/SQL does not support direct screen
output.
So, we have to tell PL/SQL where to put the data
once selected, we do this with the INTO clause.

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The INTO Clause

Taking the previous example, we would construct
the statement using INTO as follows:-
SELECT ename
INTO <variable>
FROM emp
WHERE sal = (SELECT MAX(sal) FROM emp);

The above code will do the same as the previous

example but this time the data returned will be
stored in a variable. Variables can be any
valid/suitable PL/SQL variable or SQL*Plus bind
variable. So, as a complete example:-

DECLARE
l_emp_name emp.ename%TYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT ename
INTO l_emp_name
FROM emp
WHERE sal = (SELECT MAX(sal) FROM emp);

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_emp_name);
END;

The INTO is mandatory, a syntax error will occur if

you omit it. A SELECT statement MUST return one
and only one row, if no rows or more than one row
is returned then an error will occur. We will discuss
how we handle these errors later.

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The Implicit Cursor

All data selected using SQL statements within
PL/SQL is done using something called a cursor,
there are two basic types of cursor, explicit (covered
later) and implicit. An Implicit cursor is where you
use a SELECT statement without the specific use of
cursors (i.e. no cursor keywords), PL/SQL creates an
implicit cursor for you.

An Implicit cursor works as follows:-

• Open the cursor
• Fetch from the cursor to get data
• Fetch again to check if any more rows are found

The term cursor is quite confusing at first, simply

think of a cursor as a term given to the retrieval of
data within PL/SQL, or in other words, a SELECT
statement. Explicit cursors are used to SELECT
more than one row and are covered later.

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UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE

You can use the SQL statements UPDATE, INSERT
and DELETE in PL/SQL in the exact same way as
you would in SQL*Plus, for example:-

BEGIN
-- Clear down debug table
DELETE debug;

-- Give salary increase

UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.15;

-- Log salary increase is debug table

INSERT INTO debug (text)
VALUES ('Give everyone a 15% pay increase');

END;

The above example first of all clears down the

debug table, then gives all employees a 15% pay
increases, then a row is inserted into the debug
table.
You can use INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE without
restriction is PL/SQL.

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The WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause in an integral part of any
UPDATE, DELETE or SELECT statement. The WHERE
clause determines what rows are affected/selected
by the statement. A WHERE clause generally consists
of one or more conditions that determine if a row is
to be SELECTed, UPDATEd or DELETEd. Any
statement that can have a WHERE clause generally
takes the form:-
<SELECT|UPDATE|DELETE>
[WHERE condition];

Within the WHERE clause you can reference any

appropriate PL/SQL variable, constant or SQL*Plus
bind variable, for example:-
DECLARE
l_find_job VARCHAR2(10) := 'PROGRAMMER';
BEGIN
UPDATE emp
SET job = 'DEVELOPER'
WHERE job = l_find_job;
END;

The above example declares a variable called

l_find_job, this is then referenced within the
UPDATE statement to determine which employees
need their job title changing.

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The WHERE Clause

Be very careful when using PL/SQL variables within
a WHERE clause, you must ensure that you do not
use a variable with the same name as a column on
the table, for instance, using the previous example,
if we had written it as follows:-
DECLARE
job VARCHAR2(10) := 'PROGRAMMER';
BEGIN
UPDATE emp
SET job = 'DEVELOPER'
WHERE job = job;
END;

What do think would happen here? ALL rows on the

emp table would have been updated because
PL/SQL would determine that the WHERE clause is
saying "where job on emp is equal to job on emp",
this will be true for all rows on the table, therefore
all rows will be updated.

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Transaction Control
The COMMIT and ROLLBACK statements control
transactions. A transaction is not determined by a
block. For example:-
BEGIN
UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.15
WHERE TRUNC(hiredate) <
TRUNC(ADD_MONTHS(SYSDATE,-36));

COMMIT;

UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.10
WHERE TRUNC(hiredate) <
TRUNC(ADD_MONTHS(SYSDATE,-24));
COMMIT;

END;

The above code gives all employees who were hired

more than 3 years ago a 15% pay increase, it then
gives all employees hired more than 2 years ago a
10% pay increase. This is a single PL/SQL block with
two transactions.
In some cases the host environment affects
transactions created/started in a PL/SQL block, i.e. if
you execute a PL/SQL block within PL/SQL without
COMMITting the transaction, when you leave
SQL*Plus the transaction is automatically
committed.

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Transaction Control
You can also make use of the SAVEPOINT
statement within PL/SQL, for example:-
BEGIN
DELETE debug;
SAVEPOINT deleted_debug;

DELETE transactions;
ROLLBACK TO deleted_debug;

COMMIT;
END;

You can also mix transactions within PL/SQL and the

host environment, for example,
SQL> BEGIN
2 DELETE debug;
3 SAVEPOINT deleted_debug;
4 DELETE transactions;
5 END;
6 /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> ROLLBACK TO deleted_debug

SQL> COMMIT;

In this example, the transaction is started within a

PL/SQL block, but the host environment (in this case
SQL*Plus) finished it off.

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Testing Outcome of a SQL Statement

Whenever you issue a SQL statement in a PL/SQL
block, whether it is a SELECT statement or some
other DML statement, PL/SQL creates an implicit
cursor, this cursor is automatically given an
identifier of SQL. Attached to this identifier are a
number of attributes that can be queried to
determine the outcome of the SQL command. The
following attributes are available:-
Attribute Description
SQL%ROWCOUNT The number of rows processed by
the SQL statement
SQL%FOUND TRUE if at least one row was
processed by the SQL statement,
otherwise FALSE
SQL%NOTFOUND TRUE is no rows were processed by
the SQL statement, otherwise FALSE.

Note that when a SELECT statement fails (i.e. no

rows or more than one row) then an exception is
raised, exceptions are covered in the next section.
These attributes are commonly used to test the
outcome on an UPDATE, INSERT or DELETE.

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Testing Outcome of a SQL Command

If you issue DML statement and it affects no rows,
then PL/SQL does not consider this a failure, so no
exceptions are raised. Therefore you need a method
of determining if your DML has actually done
anything, this is where SQL attributes are useful.
For example, suppose we have an UPDATE
statement that should display some message if no
rows are updated, here is how you do it:-
DECLARE
l_rows_updated NUMBER;
BEGIN
UPDATE some_table
SET processed = 'Y'
WHERE processed = 'N';

IF SQL%NOTFOUND THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('No rows updated');
ELSE
l_rows_updated := SQL%ROWCOUNT;
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Updated :'||
TO_CHAR(l_rows_updated));
END IF;
END;

Also, notice the use of SQL%ROWCOUNT to display

the number of rows updated. This code could also
have been written using the SQL%FOUND attribute
simply by reversing the logic.

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Summary

To summarise then, we have seen that you can use

SQL within PL/SQL in almost the same way as you
can in SQL*Plus. Note that you can't directly issue a
DDL statement, only DML (including SELECT). All
SQL commands use what is known as an implicit
cursor.
• You can perform DML commands within PL/SQL
in almost the same way as you can from
SQL*Plus. DDL commands can't directly be used.
• The SELECT Statement requires an INTO clause
and must return one and only one row.
• Implicit Cursors are created for all SQL
commands within PL/SQL
• Transactions can be controlled using the COMMIT
and ROLLBACK commands.
• You can test the outcome of a SQL command
using SQL cursor attributes.

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What is Next?
In section 4 we look at exceptions. We describe
what an exception is and how they are handled. We
also take a quick look at user-defined exceptions.

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Section Four
Exceptions

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Exceptions
This section deals with exceptions. We will be
covering the following:-
• What is an Exception?
• Types of Exception
• Handling Exceptions
• Exception Propagation
• Creating your own Exceptions
At the end of this section there will be several self-
test questions to answer and exercises to perform

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What is an Exception?
An Exception is an identifier in PL/SQL that is used
to trap for an abnormal condition. During the
execution of a block, if an error occurs then an
exception is raised, the block will terminate and
control will pass to the exception handler if present.

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Types of Exception
There are two types of exception:-
• Pre-defined - PL/SQL comes with several
predefined exceptions, these are directly
associated with Oracle error codes.
• User-Defined - These are declared by the
programmer and can be associated with an
Oracle error code that has no exception or they
can be wholly your own error condition.

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Types of Exception
PL/SQL comes with many pre-defined exceptions,
these are directly associated with an Oracle error
code. The exception provides a much easier way to
trap for certain conditions, i.e. trapping for
NO_DATA_FOUND is easier and more intuitive that
checking for Oracle error code -1403. Here is a list
of the more common exceptions:-
Exception Oracle Error Occurs when …
DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX -1 Attempt to store a
duplicate key
NO_DATA_FOUND -1403 SELECT statement
returns no rows
VALUE_ERROR -6502 Arithmetic,
truncation,
conversion error
INVALID_CURSOR -1001 Invalid cursor
operation such as
closing an already
closed cursor
TOO_MANY_ROWS -1422 If a SELECT
statement returns
more than one row
INVALID_NUMBER -1722 Attempt to convert a
non-numeric value to
a numeric

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Handling Exceptions
Exceptions are handled through the use of
Exception Handlers. An Exception handler is a
section of PL/SQL code found at the end of a block
labelled EXCEPTION. Within this section of code you
use the WHEN statement to handle specific
exceptions. For example:-
DECLARE
l_string VARCHAR2(2);
BEGIN
l_string := 'ABC';
END;

In the above example, we declare a variable

l_string of type VARCHAR2 which is 2 in length,
then we try to store a 3-digit string in it, this
automatically raises the exception VALUE_ERROR
which will give the following output:-
declare
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error
ORA-06512: at line 4

Once the exception is raised the block terminates

and the program ends, you have no control of what
happens once this error occurs.

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Handling Exceptions
A much better way to handle this problem is by
using an Exception Handler, so, using the previous
example but with an Exception Handler this time:-
DECLARE
l_string VARCHAR2(2);
BEGIN
l_string := 'ABC';
EXCEPTION
WHEN value_error THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Could not store value');
END;

this would give the following output:-

Could not store value

When the error occurs this time, control is passed to

the EXCEPTION section where the WHEN
value_error statement catches the error and
displays a more meaningful message. You now have
full control over what happens once an error occurs,
you could for example, write some information to an
external file or insert a row into another table, you
can pretty much do anything you like.

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Handling Exceptions
There is a special exception handler called OTHERS,
this can be used with the WHEN statement to trap
ALL exceptions not already catered for. For
example:-
DECLARE
l_name emp.ename%TYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT ename
INTO l_name
FROM emp
WHERE empno = l_empno;

EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Could not find employee');
WHEN OTHERS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('A Fatal Error Occurred');
END;

In this example, we a explicitly checking for

NO_DATA_FOUND, but also, if ANY other error
occurs, we want to simply display the message 'A
Fatal Error Occurred'.

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Handling Exceptions
There are two very useful functions that can be
used in conjunction with Exception Handlers:-
• SQLCODE - Returns the error number associated
with the exception.
• SQLERRM - Returns the complete error message
for the exception, including the error code.
Putting these to use in the previous example:-
DECLARE
l_name emp.ename%TYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT ename
INTO l_name
FROM emp
WHERE empno = l_empno;

EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Could not find employee');
WHEN OTHERS THEN
IF SQLCODE = -1422 THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Too many rows returned');
ELSE
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Fatal Error : '||SQLERRM);
END IF;
END;

As we can see in the above example, if the WHEN

OTHERS code is executed then error code is
checked and one of two messages is displayed.

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Exception Propagation
Exception Propagation is the way exceptions are
passed to the enclosing block if they are left un-
handled. For example, if an error occurs in the
following code within the inner block, then the
exception is passed to the enclosing block where it
is then handled:-

DECLARE
l_string1 VARCHAR2(3);
BEGIN
l_string1 := 'ABC';

DECLARE
l_string2 VARCHAR2(3);
BEGIN
l_string2 := 'ABCD';
Exception raised here and
END; passed to enclosing block
where it is handled
EXCEPTION
WHEN value_error THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error');

END;
Be aware that if an exception is not handled by any
handler then the exception will propagate out to the
host environment, thus completely stopping
execution of your PL/SQL program.

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Exception Propagation
You may want certain actions to be performed if an
error occurs but you may still want the program to
continue, you do this by enclosing your code in its
own block with its own exception handler, if the
statement fails, you catch the exception and then
continue with the rest of the program as normal, for
example:-

DECLARE
l_string VARCHAR2(3);

BEGIN
l_string := 'ABC'; Exception raised here
BEGIN
l_string := 'ABCD';

EXCEPTION
Handled here
WHEN VALUE_ERROR THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line
('Could not store value');
END;
Execution continues here
l_string := 'DE';
END;

In the above example, if an exception is raised

when setting the value of l_string to ABCD then
the exception is handled because this line of code is
enclosed in its own block with its own handler, once
handled, execution continues at the first line of code
after the block.

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Creating your own Exceptions

You can easily create your own exceptions. These
user-defined exceptions can be directly related to an
Oracle error code that currently has no exception or
they can be your own error conditions.

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Creating your own Exceptions

Exceptions for an Oracle Error Code
There a literally hundreds of errors that can occur,
only a few have exceptions defined for them, you
can create exceptions for these codes very easily.
You do this in two steps, first declare your exception
name, then associate your declared name with the
Oracle Error code, for example, to create an
exception called e_fetch_failed which should
occur when Oracle Error -1002 occurs you would do
the following:-
DECLARE
e_fetch_failed EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(e_fetch_failed,-1002);
BEGIN
FETCH cursor INTO record;
WHEN If this FETCH fails then error -
WHEN fetch_failed THEN 1002 is raised automatically
. . . which is now associated with
e_fetch_failed

This method is much easier to read and understand

than the alternative which would be to have a WHEN
OTHERS and then check SQLCODE for -1002.

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Creating your own Exceptions

Exceptions for your own Conditions
You may have written a program that does a
number of things, one of those things might be
checking if a value has exceeded another value, if
this condition is true then you may want to raise
your own exception thus trapping for the condition.
You do this by declaring your exceptions and then
explicitly raising that exception with the RAISE
command. For example:-
DECLARE
e_too_many EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
IF l_count > l_max_count THEN
RAISE e_too_many;
END IF;
. . .
EXCEPTION
WHEN e_too_many THEN
. . .
In the above example, we first declare an exception
called e_too_many, we then check if l_count is
more than l_max, if it is then we RAISE
e_too_many. You can create exceptions for
practically anything.

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Summary
We have seen that Exceptions are basically PL/SQL's
method of handling errors that occur during
execution of a block.
• There a two types of Exception, pre-defined and
user-defined
• Exceptions are handled with exception handlers
within your code.
• Exceptions always propagate to the enclosing
block if left un-handled.
• You can create your own exceptions for Oracle
Error codes and your own error conditions.

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What is Next?
In section 5 we will cover explicit Cursors, we will
describe what an explicit cursor is and how to use
them.

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Section Five
Explicit Cursors

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Explicit Cursors
In this section we will learn about Explicit Cursors,
we will cover:-
• What is an Explicit Cursor?
• How to use an Explicit Cursor . . .
• Opening
• Fetching From
• Closing
• Cursor Attributes
• A Complete Example
• WHERE CURRENT OF clause
• Cursor FOR Loops

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What is an Explicit Cursor?

An Explicit Cursor is a named construct within
PL/SQL that is used for retrieving rows from the
database. There are two types of cursor:-
• Implicit - We have seen these already in section
3. These are generally a standalone SELECT (or
other DML) statements within PL/SQL, they can
only return a single row.
• Explicit - These are used to fetch more than one
row from the database.

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How to use an Explicit Cursor

Using Explicit Cursors is a little more complex than
implicit cursors. Basically, there are 4 steps that
need to taken:-
• Declare - A cursor must be declared before it can
be used
• Open - A declared cursor needs to be opened
before any data can be retrieved
• Fetch - Once open, rows can be fetched from the
cursor
• Close - When you have finished with the cursor,
you must ensure you close it.

These steps can be carried out manually one at a

time or they can be almost automated by using a
Cursor FOR Loop that we will cover later.

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Explicit Cursor - Declaring

The declaration of a cursor, names it and defines
the query that will be used. For example,
CURSOR employees_cur
IS
SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = 'CLERK';

The above code declares a cursor called

employees_cur, the SELECT statements is parsed
(validated) at this point but it is not executed. The
cursor must de declared in the DECLARE section of
your block.
You can also use parameters in your cursor as
follows:-
CURSOR employees_cur(p_job VARCHAR2)
IS
SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = p_job;

The above code declares a cursor that accepts 1

parameter, p_job, this parameter is then
referenced within the SELECT statement.
The SELECT statement can be any valid SELECT
statement.

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Explicit Cursor - Opening

Once declared, before you can retrieve any data you
must first open the cursor, opening the cursor
actually executes the query and places a pointer just
before the first row, for example:-

OPEN employees_cur;

Any parameters passed are evaluated at this point.

Here is the OPEN statement again but this time with
a parameter:-
OPEN employees_cur('CLERK');
or
OPEN employees_cur(l_employee_job);

All rows are determined and are now called the

active set. The active set is now ready for fetching.

You can use a cursor attribute called ISOPEN to test

whether a cursor is already open, for example:-
IF employees_cur%ISOPEN THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Already open');
ELSE
OPEN employees_cur(l_employee_job);
END IF;

The above code checks to see if a cursor is open

already before attempting the OPEN statement.

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Explicit Cursor - Fetching

Once open, rows can be fetched from the active set,
this is done with the FETCH statement. Data
FETCHed from a cursor MUST be fetched into a
variable, one variable is required for each column
returned.
DECLARE
CURSOR employees_cur(p_job VARCHAR2)
IS
SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = p_job;

l_empno emp.empno%TYPE;
l_ename emp.ename%TYPE;

BEGIN

OPEN employees_cur('CLERK');

FETCH employees_cur
INTO l_empno,l_ename;
. . .

In the above example, the cursor is opened and a

row is retrieved, the columns are stored in the
variables l_empno and l_ename.

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Explicit Cursor - Fetching

A more convenient way to store the columns
returned in a cursor is to use a PL/SQL record. A
PL/SQL record is a complex datatype that is similar
to a structure in C. PL/SQL records can be created in
two ways, manually which we will cover later and by
row anchoring. Row anchoring is similar to type
anchoring that we looked at earlier but instead of
anchoring a type to a particular column on a table,
you anchor the type to all columns on a table or all
columns returned by a cursor. For example, using
the previous example:-
DECLARE
CURSOR employees_cur(p_job VARCHAR2)
IS SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = p_job;

r_emp_rec employees_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN employees_cur('CLERK');

FETCH employees_cur INTO r_emp_rec;

. . .

The important part of the above code is the

declaration of the record, r_emp_rec, notice the
use of %ROWTYPE

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Explicit Cursor - Fetching

Once data has been FETCHed into a record, it can
be read back using dot notation, using the previous
example, we would display both columns from the
FETCH as follows:-
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(r_emp_rec.empno);
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(r_emp_rec.ename);

Using PL/SQL records to read FETCHed data comes

into its own when you are dealing with table and
cursors with many columns.

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Explicit Cursor - Fetching

You can FETCH more than one row from a cursor
using the FETCH statement within a looping
construct. For example:-
LOOP
FETCH employees_cur INTO r_emp_rec;
END LOOP;

Each successive call to FETCH will return the next

row from the active set. The problem with the
above code is that the will never stop, it will FETCH
all rows from the table and then continue issuing
the FETCH statement but this will retrieve no data,
so it will forever issue the FETCH without returning
anything. To exit from the loop we need to check
whether the last FETCH actually returned anything,
we do this with the cursor attributes %FOUND and
%NOTFOUND.
LOOP
FETCH employees_cur INTO r_emp_rec;
EXIT WHEN employees_cur%NOTFOUND;
END LOOP;

The above code will return all rows in the active set,
then exit the loop the first time the FETCH returns
no data.

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Explicit Cursor - Closing

Once you have finished with the cursor, you should
ALWAYS close it, you do this with the CLOSE
statement:-
CLOSE employees_cur;

Once closed the cursor can be re-opened.

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Explicit Cursor - Cursor Attributes

There are 4 explicit cursor attributes that can be
used within your code, some we have seen
already:-
Attribute Description
%ROWCOUNT The number of rows fetched
%FOUND TRUE if the last FETCH returned a row,
otherwise FALSE
%NOTFOUND TRUE if the last FETCH did not return a
row, otherwise FALSE
%ISOPEN TRUE is the named cursor is already
open, otherwise FALSE

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Explicit Cursor - A Complete Example

Here is a complete example of using an explicit
cursor:-
DECLARE
-- Declare cursor to get employee info
CURSOR employee_cur(p_job VARCHAR2)
IS
SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = p_job;

-- Declare record to hold cursor row

r_emp_rec employees_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN employee_cur('CLERK');

LOOP
-- Retrieve row from active set
FETCH employee_cur INTO r_emp_rec;

-- Exit loop if last fetch found nothing

EXIT WHEN employee_cur%NOTFOUND;
END LOOP;

CLOSE employee_cur;

END;

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Explicit Cursor - WHERE CURRENT OF

A special clause exists that can be used with SQL
commands and cursors, this is the WHERE CURRENT
OF clause. You use this clause in an UPDATE or
DELETE statement instead of specifying column
names in the WHERE clause, it allows you to
reference the current row in the active set. It must
be used in conjunction with the FOR UPDATE clause
in the cursor declaration to ensure the rows are
locked.
DECLARE
-- Declare cursor to get employee info
CURSOR employee_cur(p_job VARCHAR2)
IS
SELECT empno
, ename
FROM emp
WHERE job = p_job
FOR UPDATE;

-- Declare record to hold cursor row

r_emp_rec employees_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
LOOP
-- Retrieve row from active set
FETCH employee_cur INTO r_emp_rec;

UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.15
WHERE CURRENT OF employee_cur;

-- Exit loop if last fetch found nothing

EXIT WHEN employee_cur%NOTFOUND;
END LOOP;

CLOSE employee_cur;

END;

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Explicit Cursor - WHERE CURRENT OF

The previous example retrieves and locks rows from
the emp table, then the rows are updated using
WHERE CURRENT OF clause.

The FOR UPDATE clause will ensure the rows are

locked when the OPEN cursor is performed. If a lock
cannot be obtained because some other process is
holding locks on the same data, then the program
will wait until these locks are free and the locks can
all be obtained successfully. You can change this
behaviour by adding the keyword NOWAIT after
FOR UPDATE in the cursor declaration, this
specifies that the program should not wait until
locks are obtained, doing this though will not allow
you to use the WHERE CURRENT OF clause in a
SQL statement.

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Explicit Cursor - Cursor FOR Loop

Within PL/SQL there is a special kind of FOR loop
that is designed for working with explicit cursors. A
Cursor FOR Loop OPENs, FETCHes from and CLOSEs
a cursor automatically. The data from the active set
is automatically put into a record that is implicitly
created. The basic syntax for a cursor FOR loop is as
follows:-
DECLARE
CURSOR <name>[parameters]
IS
<query ….>
BEGIN
FOR <record name> in <cursor name>[parameters]
LOOP
. . .
END LOOP;
END;

The record name does not need to be declared as it

is automatically done so for you and it is in scope
for the duration of the loop. Using cursor FOR loops
in a great deal easier than manually processing
cursors.

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Explicit Cursor - Cursor FOR Loop

Using a snippet of code for an example, we can
clearly see the advantage of using cursor FOR loops.
Without Cursor FOR Loop

. . .
r_emp_rec employees_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN employee_cur('CLERK');

LOOP
FETCH employee_cur INTO r_emp_rec;
<process data here>
EXIT WHEN employee_cur%NOTFOUND;
END LOOP;

CLOSE employee_cur;

END;

With Cursor FOR Loop

BEGIN
FOR r_emp_rec IN employee_cur('CLERK')
LOOP
<process data here>
END LOOP;
END;

Notice that there is no record declaration, OPEN,

FETCH, EXIT or CLOSE statements.

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Explicit Cursor - Cursor FOR Loop

You can even use cursor FOR loops without
declaring the cursor first, this is called a Cursor FOR
Loop with a SELECT sub-statement, it basically has
the following form:-
BEGIN
FOR r_emp_rec IN (SELECT ename FROM EMP)
LOOP
<process data here>
END LOOP;
END;

As you can see, this form of cursor FOR loop does

not use a declared cursor, instead the query is
defined within the loop itself.

One drawback of using this type of cursor FOR loop

is the fact that you cannot read cursor attributes,
this is because the cursor is not declared with a
name.

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Summary
• Explicit Cursors are named PL/SQL constructs for
querying multiple rows
• You use the OPEN statement to open an explicit
cursor
• Rows are retrieved with the FETCH statement
• The CLOSE statement closes the cursor
• Cursor Attributes - ROWCOUNT, FOUND,
NOTFOUND and ISOPEN
• WHERE CURRENT OF clause
• Cursor FOR Loops - Using declared cursors and
SELECT sub-statements

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What is Next?
The next section deals with Stored Procedures and
Functions. All the code we have seen so far have
been in the form of an Anonymous Block, this is an
unnamed block of PL/SQL that you execute by
providing SQL*Plus with the actual filename of the
code, Stored Procedures and Functions are blocks of
code which are stored in the database and can be
executed from any other PL/SQL block.

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Section Six
Stored Procedures &
Functions

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Stored Procedures & Functions

In this section we will learn how to create and
execute our own stored procedures and functions. A
stored procedure or function is a block of PL/SQL
with a name that is stored in the database. This
named PL/SQL block can be called from any other
PL/SQL block, whether it be an anonymous block or
another procedure or function. We will cover:-
• Stored Subprograms - An overview
• Procedures and Functions - The difference
• Creating a Stored Procedure
• Creating a Stored Function
• Handling Exceptions in Stored Subprograms
• Local Subprograms
• Guidelines
• Benefits of Stored Subprograms

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Stored Subprograms - An Overview

The collective name for stored Procedures and
Functions is Stored Subprograms, this also includes
two other PL/SQL constructs called Packages and
Triggers, these will be covered in a later section.
A Stored Procedure or Function can be called from
almost anywhere, this could be SQL*Plus, Oracle
Forms & Reports or within another Stored
Subprogram. Stored functions can even be executed
from within a SQL statement.

The stored code is held in compiled form within the

database itself, this gives it an added performance
benefit over an anonymous block, which is parsed
and compiled at run-time.

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Stored Subprograms - An Overview

The following diagram illustrates how stored
procedures are invoked, stored and executed.

Oracle Forms Oracle Reports SQL*Plus

Calls Stored Calls Stored Calls Stored

Procedures & Procedures & Procedures &
Functions Functions Functions

Client

Server

Oracle Server

Storage &
Execution of
Stored
Procedures &
Functions

You can partition the logic of your application very

easily using stored procedures and functions. When
developing an application, try to keep all logic that
requires data access within the database itself, all
client activity should reside in the client, this can
drastically reduce network traffic.

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Procedures & Functions - The Difference

So what is the difference between a procedure and
a function? Basically, a procedure can be thought of
as a PL/SQL or SQL command, like the COMMIT
command for instance. COMMIT is a command that
performs some action, it is used by itself, not as
part of any other statement, whereas a function is
part of an expression, a function has a value, its
return value.

Oracle itself comes with many functions, NVL,

DECODE, SUBSTR,…etc, are all functions, they
usually accept data and return some data, this data
is then used as part of another statement.

Procedures and functions are created in almost the

same way, the major difference being that a
function requires a return value. We will take a look
at creating and using both procedures and
functions.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

You create a stored procedure with the CREATE
PROCEDURE statement. Its has the following
syntax:-
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE proc_name
[(argument [IN|OUT|IN OUT] type [DEFAULT value]
. . .
argument [IN|OUT|IN OUT] type)]
IS|AS
<declarative section>
BEGIN
<procedure body>
[EXCEPTION
<exception handlers>]
END;

Generally, always use CREATE OR REPLACE, this

ensures that the procedure is always created, if you
used CREATE then an error would occur if you
attempted to re-create it, you would have to DROP
the procedure first.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Procedure Name
The procedure name can be almost anything you
like, use the same naming rules as you would for
any other database object, in general, try to keep
the name meaningful but short.
Argument List
The argument list specifies what arguments
/parameters the procedure can accept. You can
have as many arguments as you like. You first
specify the argument name followed by the
argument mode, this can be one of:-
Mode Description
IN Input parameter only, the value passed is
input only. It is not returned to the invoking
statement. If you omit mode, then IN is
assumed.
OUT Output only. These parameters are used to
pass values back to the invoking statement
IN OUT Both input and output. Values can be read
from and passed back the invoking statement.
You follow the mode with the datatype of the
argument, this can be one of DATE, NUMBER or
VARCHAR2. You can if you wish anchor the datatype
to a column on a table.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Declarative Section
After the argument list follows the declarative
section of the procedure, this is the same as the
DECLARE section of an anonymous block but using
the IS or AS keyword. In here you put all your local
variables and cursor declarations.
Procedure Body
Now comes the main part of the procedure, its
body. In here goes the actual code of the
procedure. This can be anything you like.
Exception Section
A procedure being just a PL/SQL block, can have its
own exception section. You would handle all
exceptions for the procedure in here.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Actual & Formal Parameters
When you invoke a procedure, you may provide
parameters, these are referred to as Actual
Parameters. The argument list in the procedure
definition what is known as the Formal Parameter
list. At run time, the Actual Parameter values are
copied into the Formal Parameters that are then
used throughout the procedure body. Any
arguments specified as OUT or IN OUT are then
copied from the Formal Parameters back into the
Actual Parameters when the procedure ends.

Anything declared within the procedure is only

within scope for the duration of the procedure and
cannot be used by anything other than the
procedure.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Example 1
Okay, enough talk, lets see some actual code to
create a procedure.
The following code creates a simple procedure that
is used to log debug information into a debug
table:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE debug
( p_program_name IN VARCHAR2
, p_text IN VARCHAR2)
IS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO debug
( program_name
, text
, logged_at ) VALUES
( p_program_name
, p_text
, SYSDATE);
END;

The above procedure accepts two arguments, one

containing the program name you are debugging,
the other is the debug text. The procedure simply
inserts a row into a table called debug.
Now anywhere where you want to insert data into
the debug table, you simply make a call to the
procedure rather than having to write the INSERT
statement everytime.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Invoking Example 1
This debug procedure can be invoked from within
another PL/SQL block as follows:-
debug('My Program','Debug text is here');

And that’s it!!

You can execute a procedure directly within

SQL*Plus by entering:-
EXEC debug('My Program','Debug text is here');

The EXEC SQL*Plus command simply surrounds the

PL/SQL code (in this case the procedure call to
debug) with BEGIN and END keywords, making it an
anonymous block.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Example 2
The following code creates a procedure that is used
to obtain information about an employee:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE EmpInfo
( p_empno IN emp.empno%TYPE
, p_ename OUT emp.ename%TYPE
, p_job OUT emp.job%TYPE
, p_deptno OUT emp.deptno%TYPE)
IS
CURSOR emp_info_cur(p_empno emp.empno%TYPE)
IS
SELECT ename
, job
, deptno
FROM emp
WHERE empno = p_empno;

r_emp_info emp_info_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN emp_info_cur(p_empno);

FETCH emp_info_cur INTO r_emp_info;

CLOSE emp_info_cur;

p_ename := r_emp_info.ename;
p_job := r_emp_info.job;
p_deptno := r_emp_info.deptno;

END;

The above procedure takes 4 arguments, the first is

the employee number you want information about,
the next 3 are output parameters that will contain
the information when the procedure ends.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Invoking Example 2
The following code might be used to invoke this
procedure:-
DECLARE
l_ename emp.ename%TYPE;
l_job emp.job%TYPE;
l_deptno emp.deptno%TYPE;

BEGIN
EmpInfo( 7902
, l_ename
, l_job
, l_deptno);

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_ename);
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_job);
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_deptno);

END;

The above code declares 3 local variables, these are

used to hold the values that EmpInfo returns. The
procedure is then called and the local variables are
then displayed.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Positional & Named Parameters
Actual parameters are matched with formal
parameters by their position in the argument list, for
example, if we have a procedure that accepts 3
parameters, then the first formal parameter is
matched with the first actual parameter when the
procedure is invoked, the second with the second
and so on.
Actual Formal
Parameters Parameters
l_param1 p_param1
l_param2 p_param2
l_param3 p_param3
l_param4 p_param4

Each actual parameter value is copied into its

positional formal parameter equivalent, wholly
based on its position in the parameter list. Any
parameter with default values you do not wish to
specify MUST be at the end of the list so as not to
affect the position of the parameters.

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Creating a Stored Procedure

Positional & Named Parameters
Another method of providing parameters is to use
Named Notation, this is where you give the actual
Formal parameter names when you invoke the
procedure or function. This allows you to specify
any parameters in any order.
Actual Formal
Parameters Parameters
p_param2=>l_param1 p_param1
p_param4=>l_param2 p_param2
Empty p_param3
Empty p_param4

When invoking the procedure, you prefix each

actual parameter with its formal parameter name,
for example,
BEGIN
SomeProc( p_param2 => 10
, p_param4 => l_string);
END;

Both notations can be mixed but if you do so you

must ensure all positional parameters appear before
any named parameters.

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Creating a Stored Function

A function is created in almost the same way as a
procedure, they only major difference is the fact the
a function needs a return value. A procedure is a
PL/SQL statement itself, whereas a function is what
is known an RVALUE, this is something that can
appear on the right hand side of an expression, for
example:-
l_full_name := GetName(p_empno);

The above code assigns the result of a function

called GetName to a variable called l_fullname,
in this case the function accepts a single parameter,
the employee number and it returns the name for
that employee.

Functions can be used almost anywhere within an

expression, this could be the condition of an IF
statement, a WHILE condition or any number of
other types of expression. Functions (with some
restrictions) can also be used within a SQL
statement.

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Creating a Stored Function

Functions are created with the CREATE FUNCTION
statement, it has the following syntax:-
CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION proc_name
[(argument [IN|OUT|IN OUT] type [DEFAULT value]
. . .
argument [IN|OUT|IN OUT] type)]
RETURN return-type
IS|AS
<declarative section>
BEGIN
<function body>

[EXCEPTION
<exception handlers>]
END;

The function body should include as least one

RETURN statement, it has the following syntax:-
RETURN expression;

Where expression is any valid expression. The

type of the expression is converted to the type
specified by the RETURN clause in the function
definition. The RETURN statement passes control
immediately back to the calling program, you can
have more than one RETURN but only one will be
executed. You can also use RETURN in a procedure
body but no value is returned, it can be used simply
to return control to the calling program.

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Creating a Stored Function

Example 1
The following code creates a function that will
return an employee name based on the employee
number given:-
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION GetName
(p_empno emp.empno%TYPE)
RETURN VARCHAR
IS
CURSOR empname_cur(p_empno emp.empno%TYPE)
IS
SELECT ename
FROM emp
WHERE empno = p_empno;

r_empname empname_cur%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
OPEN empname_cur(p_empno);

FETCH empname_cur INTO r_empname;

IF empname_cur%NOTFOUND THEN
r_empname.ename := 'UNKNOWN EMPLOYEE';
END IF;

CLOSE empname_cur;

RETURN r_empname.ename;
END;

First, the above function declares a cursor to

retrieve the employee name, the cursor is then
opened, a fetch is performed, if no rows are found
then the name is set to UNKNOWN EMPLOYEE, the
cursor is closed and the name is returned to the
calling program.

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Creating a Stored Function

Invoking Example 1
The following code could be used to invoke the
GetName function:-
DECLARE
l_employee_name emp.ename%TYPE;

BEGIN
l_employee_name := GetName(7902);

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(l_employee_name);
END;

The function could also be called from a SQL

statement as follows:-
SELECT GetName(empno) name
, amount
FROM bonus;

To allow functions to be called from within a SQL

statement, it must meet certain restrictions, these
restrictions are referred to as purity levels which are
briefly covered in the next section on Packages.

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Handling Exceptions
The way you handle errors that occur in your code
is pretty much down to you, personal style or
company/client guidelines may dictate your method.
In any case, here are a few pointers for Exception
Handling within stored subprograms:-
• Make your function or procedure as robust as
possible, i.e. error trap anything that can go
wrong - because it probably will!!
• Make use of the EXCEPTION section in your
code, handle local exceptions in here and pass
the exception on to the calling program using a
statement called RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR,
see next slide for an example.
• If a procedure can either work or fail then try to
convert it into a function with a BOOLEAN return
value, this should be TRUE if the function worked
okay, otherwise FALSE.
• You can use OUT or IN OUT parameters in
procedures and function to pass back status
information.

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Handling Exceptions
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
This statement can be used to pass error
information back to a calling program, it takes the
following syntax:-
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(error_number,error_text);

Where the error_number is any number between

-20000 and -20999 and error_text is the text
you want to appear as the error message in the
calling program. Once called, this statement
immediately passes control back to the calling
program and raises your error as if it were a user-
defined exception, it is then for the calling program
to handle the exception correctly.

NOTE - Testing and Debugging

To test and/or debug a stored subprogram, it is
common practice to create a small PL/SQL block
that can be executed directly within SQL*Plus. You
can display debug messages directly to the screen
using the DBMS_OUTPUT package.

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Handling Exceptions
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
Here is an example:-
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION balance
(p_account IN NUMBER)
RETURN NUMBER
IS
l_balance NUMBER;
BEGIN
SELECT balance
INTO l_balance
FROM bank_account
WHERE account_no = p_account;

RETURN l_balance;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20500
, 'Unknown Account Number');
END;

The above code creates a function called balance

that returns the current balance of a specified
account. If the balance cannot be found because
the account does not exist then the
NO_DATA_FOUND exception is raised in the function,
to the calling program this would probably mean
nothing, so an error is raised with an error number
of -20500 and error text of 'Unknown Account
Number'.

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Handling Exceptions
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
Given the function balance, here is how you could
catch the error it returns:-
DECLARE
l_account_balance NUMBER;

e_unknown_account EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(e_unknown_account,-20500);

BEGIN

l_account_balance := balance(14956);

EXCEPTION

WHEN e_unknown_account THEN

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('Error : '||SQLERRM);

END;

The above code declares a variable to hold the

return value of the balance function. It also
declares a user-defined exception called
e_unknown_account, it then ensures the error
number -20500 is associated with this exception. If
an error -20500 occurs then the exception handler
will catch it and act accordingly.

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Local Subprograms
Stored subprograms are stored within the database
itself. Another type of subprogram is one that is
local only to a block of PL/SQL, these subprograms
are defined in the declaration section of another
block of code. They are generally created for helper
routines, i.e. routines that are useful only to the
program they defined in and therefore should not be
available to anyone else. Local subprograms are
defined in almost the same way as a stored
subprogram, the only difference being the you do
not prefix the FUNCTION or PROCEDURE statement
with CREATE OR REPLACE. The definition of a
local subprogram should be in the declarative
section of a PL/SQL block, after any other
declarations (such as variables, constants,
cursors,..etc)

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Local Subprograms
Here is a common example of the local
subprogram:-
DECLARE
l_account_balance NUMBER;

e_unknown_account EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT(e_unknown_account,-20500);

PROCEDURE p(p_text IN VARCHAR2)

IS
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(p_text);
END;

BEGIN

l_account_balance := balance(14956);

p('Balance = '||TO_CHAR(l_account_balance));

EXCEPTION

WHEN e_unknown_account THEN

p('Error : '||SQLERRM);

END;

The above anonymous block contains a local

subprogram called p, this is simply a replacement
for DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line, this is useful
because it can simply save a great deal of typing.

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A Few Guidelines
Here are a few guidelines for developing stored
subprograms:-
• Generic - if possible, try to make your
subprogram as generic as possible, this way, it is
likely to be re-used more often
• Robust - make your subprogram as robust as
possible, trap anything that can go wrong
• One Action - try to ensure you subprogram only
performs one action, by this I mean one logical
action, if more than one action is needed then
more than one subprogram is needed
• Local subprograms - Make use of local
subprograms, they can make your code easier to
read and debug, though be careful, overuse can
have the opposite effect
• Arguments/Parameters - many arguments can
make your subprogram flexible but also make it
hard to use, try to derive as many values as you
can from other values

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Benefits of Stored Subprograms

Using stored subprograms gives a number of
benefits:-
Performance
• PL/SQL is parsed at compile time and not runtime
• Can reduce network traffic by bundling database
calls
• Re-parsing for multiple users is reduced due to
shared SQL
Security and Integrity
• Other database objects (tables,…etc) can be
protected and only accessed via
functions/procedures
• Ensure related actions are performed together or
not at all
Development
• Shared code, write once, use all - code can be
called from anywhere within an application
• Debugging is simplified
• Implement changes in one place
• Can make changes online

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Summary
Stored subprograms, in particular Procedures and
Functions are very powerful constructs.
• Stored and executed in the database
• Procedures are PL/SQL statements
• Functions are RVALUES's that can be used in
expressions
• Functions can also be invoked from a SQL
statement
• Error handling with
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
• Subprograms can be local to a block

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What is Next?
In the next section we take a look at Packages.
Packages are one of PL/SQL's most powerful
features. They allow you to group together,
variables, cursors, functions and procedures into
one object.

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Section Seven
Packages

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Packages
This section deals with one of PL/SQL's most
powerful features, the Package. In particular, we
cover:-
• What is a Package?
• Packages and Scope
• Creating a Package
• Overloading
• Invoking Functions from SQL Statements
• Privileges & Security
• Oracle supplied Packages

This course is a beginners guide to PL/SQL and

therefore Packages (as with all other subjects) are
covered very briefly, whole volumes of text have
been written describing how to implement and take
advantage of packages. The following notes should
be enough to get you started.

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What is a Package?
A Package is another type of named PL/SQL block. A
Package allows you to create related objects
together. A Package is stored in the database as
with Stored Procedures and Functions, though a
Package cannot be local to a block. A Package has
two parts, a Specification (or header) and a Body,
each part is stored separately within the database.
The Specification of a Package contains details of
what can be found in the Package, though it does
not contain any of the code that implements the
Package, this code is stored within the Package
Body.

Basically, a package is a declarative section of code,

in that anything that can appear in the declarative
section of a PL/SQL block can appear in a package,
this could be variables, cursor, exceptions, functions
or procedures.

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What is a Package?
Objects declared in the specification are called
public objects, that is, they can be seen and used by
anyone with the correct privileges.

The package body contains the actual

implementation of the package. This is the code that
defines what the package actually does. Each
function and procedure declared in the specification
must have the definition in the body. Everything
that can be declared in the specification can also be
declared in the body without actually being in the
specification, these objects are known as private
objects, or in other words, nobody else can see or
use them, they can only be seen/used by the
package itself.

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What is a Package?
A typical package will consist of many public
functions and procedures, these are declared in the
specification and defined in the body. A typical
package may also contain many private variables,
cursors, exceptions, functions and procedures, all
defined in the body. We will look at creating a
typical package over next few slides.
A Typical Package
Specification

Function A Declaration
Package

Public Object Declarations

Procedure B Declaration

Private Variable
Private Variable

Function A Definition

Public Object Definitions

Procedure B Definition
Package
Body

Procedure C Definition

Procedure D Definition Private Object Definitions

Function E Definition

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Packages and Scope

Any object, whether it is a variable or function, that
is declared in the specification is visible and within
scope outside of the package so long as the object
name is prefixed with package name, for example,
assume we have a package called bank_account
with a public function called withdraw, we can call
the withdraw function from a PL/SQL block as
follows:-
BEGIN
BANK_ACCOUNT.withdraw(l_account_no,l_amount);
END;

The above function call is almost the same as calling

a stored function, the only difference being the
function is qualified with the owning package name.

Any object declared within the package body only, is

only visible and in scope to the package itself. You
may, for example, create private variables used only
by the package itself, or you may create helper
procedures, as in the p procedure created earlier.

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Creating a Package
Before we write any code, we need to define what
our package actually does; here is a description for
our package:-
• Maintain a bank balance
• Make withdrawals (reduce balance)
• Make deposits (increase balance)
• Query balance
Also, we can define some business rules at this
point:-
• Balance cannot be overdrawn
• There should be some kind of limit to how much
can be withdrawn per transaction.

We now have the definition of the bank account

package, now for its implementation.

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Creating a Package
First, you need to create the package specification,
this is done with the following statement:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE package_name
IS|AS
<package-specification>
END [package name]

The name can be almost anything you like, the

same restrictions apply as with all identifiers. Try to
make the name useful, generally the package name
will relate to what its contents relate to, for
example, if a package contains functions and
procedures for working with bank accounts, such as
withdraw and deposit, then a good package
name might be bank_account. The package
specification can be anything that would normally
appear in the declarative section of a block of code
(except for function and procedure bodies, this code
is in the body).
The package specification and body can appear in a
single file or separate files. The usual practice is to
give the source filename an extension of pkg for a
single file or pks (pkh) and pkb for separate files.

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Creating a Package
Looking at the description for our bank account
package, we can see that:-
• We require 3 public functions or procedures:-
1. Withdrawal
2. Deposit
3. Balance query
• We require private data
1. Current balance
2. Maximum allowed per withdrawal

Using packages, we can protect our data; by making

data such as balance private and providing
procedures or functions to access this data, we are
assured that nothing else can modify this data.

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Creating a Package
Now, let's create our package specification:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE bank_account
IS
-- Procedure for making a withdrawal
PROCEDURE withdraw(p_amount IN NUMBER);

-- Procedure for making a deposit

PROCEDURE deposit(p_amount IN NUMBER);

-- Function to query the balance

FUNCTION balance RETURN NUMBER;
END;

That’s it!!! Our Package specification is done. This

can be thought of as the public interface for our
package, i.e. anything that appears in here is visible
and within scope for all programs outside the
package.

Keeping the package specification in a separate file

facilitates modifications later, this means that you
can change the body of a package (so long as the
spec is not affected) without affecting any programs
which use the package. It also allows you to hide
your implementation.

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Creating a Package
We now need to create the package body, this is
where the actual code appears for all public
subprograms as well as any other private objects.
You create the body with the following statement:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY package_name
IS|AS
<package-body>
END [package name]

As you can see, the only major difference for the

body is the inclusion of the word BODY in the first
line.

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Creating a Package
The following code will create our package body:-
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY bank_account
IS
--
-- Private data objects
--
-- Hold account balance, initialised to 0
v_balance NUMBER := 0;

-- Hold maximum withdrawl amount

v_max_withdrawl CONSTANT NUMBER := 250;

--
-- Private functions/procedures
--
-- Print text to screen
PROCEDURE p(p_text IN VARCHAR2)
IS
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(p_text);
END;

--
-- Public function/procedure definitions
--
-- Procedure for making a withdrawal
PROCEDURE withdraw(p_amount IN NUMBER)
IS
l_new_balance NUMBER:= v_balance - p_amount;
BEGIN
IF p_amount > l_max_withdrawal THEN
-- Ensure amount is within limit
p('Withdrawals limited to '||
TO_CHAR(l_max_withdrawl)||
' per transaction');
-- No overdrafts allowed
ELSIF l_new_balance < 0 THEN
-- No overdrafts allowed
p('No overdraft available');
p('Cash available : '
||TO_CHAR(v_balance));
ELSE
v_balance := v_balance - p_amount;
p('Here is your cash!');
END IF;
END withdraw;

continued . . .

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Creating a Package
-- Procedure for making a deposit
PROCEDURE deposit(p_amount IN NUMBER)
IS
BEGIN
IF p_amount <= 0 THEN
p('Deposit must be at least £1');
ELSE
v_balance := v_balance + p_amount;
p('Thankyou!');
END IF;
END;

-- Function to query the balance

FUNCTION balance RETURN NUMBER
IS
BEGIN
RETURN v_balance;
END;
END;

To make use of this package, you might do the

following:-
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(BANK_ACCOUNT.balance);

BANK_ACCOUNT.withdraw(100);

BANK_ACCOUNT.deposit(500);

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(BANK_ACCOUNT.balance);

BANK_ACCOUNT.withdraw(275);

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line(BANK_ACCOUNT.balance);
END;

As you can see, the package is a very powerful

construct, it lends itself to very structured code and
some of the benefits of object orientation (there is
small discussion on this subject later).

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Overloading Subprograms
Overloading is method of creating more than one
subprogram (function or procedure) with the same
name but with different arguments. This allows you
to create very useful subprograms that can act in
different ways depending on what data they are
given. Oracle comes with many overload
subprograms, take the built-in function TO_CHAR,
this function is overload even though it appears to
be a single function whenever you use it, have a
look at the function declarations below:-
TO_CHAR(number)
TO_CHAR(number,format)
TO_CHAR(date)
TO_CHAR(date,formart)

As you can see, the TO_CHAR function works in 4

different ways, with numbers and dates, with and
without a format mask, whenever you use the
function, the system determines which function to
call based on the supplied arguments.

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Overloading Subprograms
How might we use subprogram overloading in our
bank account package?
Lets say we want to add functionality that allows the
user to withdraw all remaining funds, we could do
this in a number of ways:-
1. Get current balance and withdraw that amount
2. Change the withdraw procedure to add a flag
which indicates you want all the cash
3. Create a new procedure to withdraw all the cash
All of the above are very possible (and easy in this
case) but a much better method would be to
overload the withdraw procedure; change it so
that if no arguments are provided then withdraw all
current funds.

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Overloading Subprograms
Our specification would now contain two
declarations of withdraw:-
PROCEDURE withdraw;
PROCEDURE withdraw(p_amount IN NUMBER);

The body would contain the new version of

withdraw as follows:-
PROCEDURE withdraw
IS
BEGIN
v_balance := 0;
END;

or even . . .
PROCEDURE withdraw
IS
withdraw(balance);
END;

The second method is better still, as it makes use of

the existing withdraw function which is good
because additional functionality does not have to be
repeated, it also makes use of the balance
function to find out the current balance. So
withdraw without any arguments is just a wrapper
for withdraw with arguments. To the user, it's just
a single function.

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Invoking Packaged Functions from SQL

Statements
As mentioned earlier, stored functions can be
executed from within a SQL statement, examples of
these are TO_CHAR, NVL, DECODE, SUBSTR,…etc.

You can create your own functions that can be

invoked this way so long as your function meets
certain restrictions. These restrictions are
determined by Purity Levels. The Purity Levels tells
PL/SQL what kind of things your function does. The
Purity level is automatically determined for stored
functions but for packaged functions you must
manually set the purity level, this is because when
compiling code with a packaged function call, the
compiler is only concerned with the package
specification when determining if your code is
correct. As you know, the actual code for a package
is in the body and this is not used at compile time,
so purity levels cannot be determined.

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Invoking Stored Functions from SQL

Statements
Purity Levels
There are four Purity Levels for functions:-
Purity Level Meaning Description
WNDS Writes no database The function does not modify ANY
state database table using DML.
RNDS Reads no database The function does not read ANY
state database tables using SELECT
WNPS Write no package The function does not modify any
state packaged variables
RNPS Reads no package The functions does not read any
state packaged variables
Using the above Purity Levels, the following
restrictions are applied:-
• Any function that is called from a SQL statement
CANNOT modify database tables (WNDS)
• To allow functions to be executed remotely or in
parallel, a function CANNOT read or write
packaged variables (WNPS,RNPS)
• Functions called within SELECT, SET or VALUES
clauses can write packaged variables, all others
must have WNPS

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Invoking Stored Functions from SQL

Statements
In addition to the restrictions already mentioned,
the following must also be taken into account:-
• The function MUST be stored in the database,
local subprograms cannot be used
• Only parameters with a mode of IN can be used.
• The return type and formal parameters of the
function MUST be a valid database type (i.e. not
BOOLEAN, RECORD,..etc)

NOTE - Testing and Debugging

To test and/or debug a packaged procedure or
function, it is common practice to create a small
PL/SQL block that can be executed directly from the
SQL*Plus prompt, you can display debug messages
directly to the screen using the DBMS_OUTPUT
package. Use the SYSTEM.dual table for testing
packaged functions within a SQL statement.

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Invoking Stored Functions from SQL

Statements
So, how do we manually set the purity level of a
packaged function?
RESTRICT_REFERENCES Pragma
You need to inform the compiler of the purity level
of the function within the package specification with
a compiler pragma. This pragma has the following
syntax:-
PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(function, purity...);

For example, to allow our BANK_ACCOUNT.

balance function to be used within SQL we would
need to first determine the purity levels then apply
them. We can see that our function simply reads a
packaged variable, so the only purity level not
applicable is RNPS (read no package state),
therefore:-
PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(balance,WNPS,RNDS,WNPS);

would need to appear directly after the function

declaration in the package specification.

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Privileges & Security

What follows is a few notes on Oracle privileges and
security and why they are important to PL/SQL.

Before you can create and/or execute any kind of

stored program, you need the correct privileges to
do so. This is usually controlled by your DBA but
you should still be aware of it as there maybe
occasions where you have created a stored
subprogram and you need to allow other people to
execute your code.

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Privileges & Security

The following table lists the operations you may
want to perform and the required privileges to do
so.
Operation Required Privilege And . . .
CREATE CREATE PROCEDURE system Access to all objects
privilege referenced by the
procedure
CREATE OR Ownership of the procedure and Access to all objects
REPLACE CREATE PROCEDURE system referenced by the
privilege or CREATE ANY procedure
PROCEDURE system privilege
ALTER Ownership of procedure or ALTER Access to all objects
ANY PROCEDURE system privilege referenced by the
procedure
DROP Ownership of procedure or DROP
ANY PROCEDURE system privilege
EXECUTE Ownership of procedure or EXECUTE
object privilege or EXECUTE ANY
PROCEDURE system privilege

Stored subprograms execute in there owners

security domain, this means you can allow other
users indirect access to objects that a subprogram
references so long as that user has EXECUTE
privilege on your procedure.

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Oracle Provided Packages

Oracle comes with many pre-built packages (both
client and server), we have already seen
DBMS_OUTPUT, this is simply a package to add
functionality to PL/SQL for input and output. There
are many other packages available.

Going through each of the supplied packages is

beyond the scope of this course, as we are only
concerned with learning the basics for now, but I
will mention them so that you are aware of what is
available (server packages only). You can then take
it upon yourself to further investigate the
functionality and use of these packages.

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Oracle Provided Packages

The following tables lists some of the supplied
packages available:-
Supplied Package Functionality
DBMS_ALERT Signal that an event has occurred
within the database
DBMS_APPLICATION_ Allows registration of an application
INFO with the database, used for tuning
purposes.
DBMS_DDL Compile procedures, functions and
packages
DBMS_DESCRIBE Helps obtain information about
database objects
DBMS_JOB Schedule periodic jobs within the
database
DBMS_LOCK Performs application lock
synchronisation
DBMS_OUTPUT General input/output package
DBMS_PIPE Allows programmatic communication
between database sessions
DBMS_SQL Allows the creation of dynamic SQL &
PL/SQL within PL/SQL
DBMS_TRANSACTION Control of logical transactions
UTL_FILE Host file input and output

Many other packages exists:-

DBMS_AQ, DBMS_AQADM, DBMS_DEFER,
DBMS_DEFER_SYS, DBMS_DEFER_QUERY,
DBMS_LOB, DBMS_REFRESH, DBMS_SNAPSHOT,
DBMS_REPCAT, DBMS_REPCAT_AUTH,
DBMS_REPCAT_ADMIN, DBMS_ROWID,
DBMS_SESSION and DBMS_SHARED_POOL.
…and many more.

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Summary
As we have seen, the Package is a very powerful
construct.
• A Package is a construct used for grouping
related data and functions/procedures
• A Package consists of a specification and a body
• Public object declaration in specification
• Private and public object definition in body
• Packages are created with the CREATE PACKAGE
statement
• Function/Procedure Overloading
• Packaged Functions can be invoked from with
SQL Statements though with some restrictions
• Oracle provides many pre-built packages

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What is Next?
The next and final section deals with the remaining
type of named subprogram, the database Trigger. A
database Trigger is a PL/SQL block that is implicitly
executed when a particular event in the database
occurs.

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Section Eight
Triggers

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Triggers
We now come to the remaining type of named
subprogram, the database Trigger. In this section
we cover:-
• What is a Trigger?
• Trigger types
• Creating a Trigger
• Restrictions on Triggers
This course is a beginners guide to PL/SQL and
therefore Triggers (as with all other subjects) are
covered very briefly. The following notes should be
enough to get you started.

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What is a Trigger?
A trigger is a block of PL/SQL which is implicitly
invoked (fired) whenever a particular event occurs
in the database.

The PL/SQL within a trigger can be almost anything

that would appear in a normal block with a few
restrictions.

Whenever any data on a database table changes,

via a DML statement (INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE)
this is considered an event, triggers can be attached
to these events.

Triggers are very much like any other named

PL/SQL block in that they have a name, a
declarative section, a body and an exception
section, though triggers cannot accept any
arguments, nor can they be fired explicitly.

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What is a Trigger?
Triggers have many possible uses, they could for
example, be used for:-
• Auditing System - because triggers are
guaranteed to fire, they are an ideal method of
auditing changes to a table, for example, you
could audit/log changes to a customer record.
• Automatically signal other programs that they
need to perform some action
• Archiving System - Archiving data can be
achieved very easily with triggers
• Maintaining Derived Values - Derived values can
be maintained with ease, for example, a stock
system need never actually change the stock
quantity, a trigger on the transaction table could
maintain it for you
• Complex Integrity Constraints - You may have
some complex integrity constraints that cannot be
implemented as declarative constraints on the
table

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Trigger Types
The trigger type determines when the trigger
actually fires. There are 12 trigger types in all, these
types fall into one of two categories, the type
category:-
• Statement - These triggers fire in response to a
DML statement being issued
• Row - These triggers fire for all rows affected by
a DML statement. These are identified by the FOR
EACH ROW clause in the trigger definition.
Each of the above types has a further six types,
these belong, again, to one of two categories, the
timing category:-
• BEFORE - These triggers fire before the
statement is executed
• AFTER - These fire after the statement has
executed
Now the event category:-
• INSERT, UPDATE & DELETE - This determines
the kind of DML statement that fires the trigger.

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Creating a Trigger
Triggers are created with the CREATE TRIGGER
statement, it has the following syntax:-
CREATE [OR REPLACE] TRIGGER trigger_name
BEFORE|AFTER trigger_event [OR trigger_event ...]
[OF column_list ] ON table
[FOR EACH ROW]
[WHEN (trigger condition)]
BEGIN
<trigger body>
END;

Trigger Name
This can be any legal identifier, again, as with all
objects, it is a good idea the make the name
meaningful, so for example, a trigger to audit an
items price might be called, audit_item_price.
Trigger Event
This is the keyword INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE.
Multiple events can be specified using the OR
keyword, such as INSERT OR UPDATE.

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Creating a Trigger
Column List
This specifies the columns you want checking before
the trigger fires, the correct event may have
occurred but if the column list does not include a
column that was changed, the trigger will not fire.
Table
This specifies the triggering table.
FOR EACH ROW Clause
If present, then the trigger will file for each row
affected by the DML statement.
Trigger Condition
This acts as a condition that can be applied to
determine whether the trigger should fire or not.
You add a condition with the WHEN clause, the
condition itself can be practically anything that
would normally appear in an IF statement. Only
valid in a ROW level trigger. Enclose the whole
condition is parentheses.
Trigger Body
This is the actual code of the trigger. It is usual for
this simply to contain a stored procedure call.

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Creating a Trigger
As an example, we shall create a trigger that
maintains a stock record based on a transactions
table. The definition of our trigger is:-
• We have a transaction table that records issues
and receipts
• We have a stock table that contains data relating
to current stock figures
• We want to automatically maintain the current
stock quantity based on ONLY transactions of
type ISS (issue) and RCT (receipt).

NOTE - Testing & Debugging

Testing and Debugging Triggers is a little tricky, this
is because you cannot output anything to the screen
from a trigger, you have to log execution in another
table or an external file. To actually fire the trigger
you have to cause the triggering event to occur, this
is usually done with DML entered directly at the
SQL*Plus prompt.

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Creating a Trigger
To create a trigger to accomplish the above, the
following code is needed:-
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER stock_quantity
BEFORE INSERT
ON transactions
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN new.transaction_type IN ('ISS','RCT')
DECLARE
l_use_quantity stock.quantity%TYPE;

BEGIN
IF :new.transaction_type = 'ISS' THEN
l_use_quantity := :new.quantity * -1;
ELSE
l_use_quantity := :new_quantity;
END IF;

UPDATE stock
SET quantity = quantity + l_use_quantity
WHERE item = :new.item;
END;

The above trigger will fire before any rows are

inserted into the transactions table, only when the
transaction type is either ISS (issue) or RCT
(receipt). If the transaction is an issue then the
quantity is made negative to ensure stock is
reduced. The quantity on the stock table is then
updated by the transaction quantity for the
transaction item.
Notice the use of the new keyword, we will discuss
this next.

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Creating a Trigger
You can reference values on the triggering table
during execution of the trigger with the new and
old keywords.
The new keyword is used to reference the value of
columns on a new or updated row, whereas the old
keyword is used to reference the value of a column
on a row being deleted or updated. See the
following table:-
Operation OLD Value NEW Value
INSERT NULL the new inserted
value
UPDATE the column value the column value
before the update after the update
DELETE the column value NULL
before deletion

Within the body of the trigger, you need to prefix

the old and new keywords with a colon (:), for
example,
:new.value = another_value;

Within the WHEN clause, DO NOT prefix the

keyword with a colon.

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Creating a Trigger
You may want to combine trigger events into one
trigger, i.e. your trigger may fire on INSERT OR
DELETE, but you may still want to take different
actions depending on the actual triggering event.
You can do this by using the INSERTING,
UPDATING and DELETING functions.
These functions simply return TRUE or FALSE
depending on what the trigger event was. Here is
an example:-
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER audit
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE on items
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF INSERTING THEN
INSERT INTO audit_log('Row Inserted');
ELSIF UPDATING THEN
INSERT INTO audit_log('Row Updated);
ELSIF DELETING
INSERT INTO audit_log('Row Deleted);
END IF;
END;
The above trigger will simply insert a row into the
audit_log table, the text inserted depends on
what the trigger event is.

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Restrictions on Triggers
There are a number of restrictions placed on the
code that is placed within a trigger body, these
restrictions also apply to any stored subprogram
invoked from the trigger.
• You CANNOT use COMMIT, SAVEPOINT and
ROLLBACK statements.
• Do not change data in the primary key, foreign
key or unique key columns of a constraining
table including the triggering table. A
constraining table is a table that may need to be
queried for referential integrity purposes. This
can create what is called a mutating table. Solving

problems with mutating tables is a complex topic and is beyond

the scope of this course.

• Do not read values from the changing table, use

:old and :new instead.
• Be aware of the performance implications, i.e. a
table with 10 triggers firing on INSERT's will be
much slower than inserting into a table with no
triggers.

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Summary
• Triggers are named PL/SQL blocks and have
many possible uses
• Triggers fire when an event on the database
occurs
• There are 12 trigger types, Row level, Statement
Level, BEFORE and AFTER, INSERT, UPDATE and
DELETE
• Create triggers with the CREATE TRIGGER
statement
• Restrict firing with WHEN clause
• Reference triggering table columns with :old
and :new
• Using INSERTING, UPDATING and DELETING
functions when combining trigger events
• Be aware of restrictions and possible performance
issues

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What is Next?
We have reached the end of the course, if you
followed all sections and attempted the exercises,
you should be able to produce your own PL/SQL
programs. You should also be able to support some
existing PL/SQL programs, in that you will be able to
read and understand most of the code.
We have covered a great deal of topics in a very
short space of time so do not be too concerned if
you haven't quite taken it all in, as said throughout
the course, it is a beginners guide, it is meant to
equip you with enough knowledge to at least get
you started on the road to becoming a PL/SQL
Developer.

If you can, starting working with PL/SQL as soon as

possible, re-read these course notes and any other
documentation you can find. Your real PL/SQL
knowledge with come from experience, the more
you get the better you will be.
Good Luck!!

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