Oracle PLSQL Tutorial (Part 3)

This is the 3rd of a series of introductory Oracle PLSQL tutorials to show you how it can be used to improve the performance of and simplify the implementation of your Oracle systems.

Oracle PL/SQL Language Elements

PL/SQL is a block-structured language, modeled on Ada. Unsurprisingly, this makes the language look like Ada rather than C or Java, but the language constructs are common to all modern high-level languages even if the names may not be the same.

For PL/SQL the language elements consist of:-

loops
- numeric and cursor FOR loops (the latter act on the results of queries)
- WHILE loops
- simple LOOPs
Conditional and sequential control statements

IF THEN and IF THEN ELSE
GOTO (but the use of this is usually not necessary)
simple and searched CASE statements

anonymous blocks
named blocks
- PROCEDURES
- FUNCTIONS
the usual assignment and expression comparison statements

The major difference between the look of PL/SQL and Java or C is in the assignment statements and expression comparison or condition statements.

In Java/C/C++ the assignment operator is the single "=" and the comparison operator is "==" (i.e. 2 "=" signs together) whereas in PL/SQL, Ada, Modula-2 and Pascal, the single "=" is used as the comparison operator and ":=" is used as the assignment operator.

On top of the normal language elements is of course the tight integration with Oracle which allows SQL statements to be embedded directly in PL/SQL programs and enables PL/SQL functions to be called directly from SQL.

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Why not take advantage of our classroom-based Oracle training courses to extend, enhance and expand your knowledge of PL/SQL? With our partners we offer courses across the country and provide on-site and customised training. See the Oracle training page for details of our scheduled courses or contact us for more information.

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Click here for Oracle PLSQL Tutorial Part 2 - Oracle PLSQL Features Summary

This tutorial continues here: Oracle PLSQL tutorial Part 4 - Using Oracle PL/SQL

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