Introduction to PL/SQL

Introduction to PL/SQL :

PL/SQL, the Oracle procedural extension of SQL, is a portable, high-performance transaction-processing language.

Procedural Language/Structured Query Language.
Significant Member of Oracle Programming Language.
Extensively Used to Code Server Side
Case In-Sensitive Language.

PL/SQL stands for procedural language-structured query language. It is a significant member of Oracle programming tool set which is extensively used to code server side programming. Similar to SQL language PL/SQL is also a case-insensitive programming language.

Advantages of PL/SQL : PL/SQL has these advantages:

Tight Integration with SQL.
High Performance.
High Productivity.
Support for Object-Oriented Programming.

Main Features of PL/SQL :

PL/SQL combines the data-manipulating power of SQL with the processing power of procedural languages. When you cannot solve a problem with SQL, you can issue SQL statements from your PL/SQL program, without learning new APIs. Like other procedural programming languages, PL/SQL lets you declare constants and variables, control program flow, define subprograms, and trap runtime errors. You can break complex problems into easily understandable subprograms, which you can reuse in multiple applications.

Features Includes :

Procedures and functions.
Error Handling.
Variables and Constants.
Input and Output.
Data Abstraction.
Control Statements.
Conditional Compilation.
Processing a Query Result Set One Row at a Time.

Architecture of PL/SQL

Basic understanding of the PL/SQL architecture is beneficial to PL/SQL programmers.

PL/SQL Engine :

The PL/SQL compilation and runtime system is an engine that compiles and runs PL/SQL units.
The engine can be installed in the database or in an application development tool, such as Oracle Forms or Oracle Apex.
In either environment, the PL/SQL engine accepts as input any valid PL/SQL unit. The engine runs procedural statements, but sends SQL statements to the SQL engine in the database.