by Michael Rosenblum and Dr.Paul Dorsey Oracle ® PL/SQL FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page i 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page iv by Michael Rosenblum and Dr.Paul Dorsey Oracle ® PL/SQL FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page i Oracle® PL/SQL For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Oracle is a registered trade- mark of Oracle Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REP- RESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CON- TENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CRE- ATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CON- TAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FUR- THER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFOR- MATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2006922426 ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-9957-6 ISBN-10: 0-7645-9957-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/RX/QV/QW/IN 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page ii About the Authors Michael Rosenblum is originally from Kremenchuk, Ukraine. In 2000, he moved to the United States, where he lives with his family in Edison, New Jersey. He works as a Development DBA at Dulcian, Inc. Michael is responsible for system tuning and application architecture. He also supports Dulcian developers by writing complex PL/SQL routines and researching new features. He is a frequent presenter at various regional and national Oracle user group confer- ences. In his native Ukraine, he received the scholarship of the President of Ukraine, a Masters Degree in Information Systems, and a Diploma with Honors from the Kiev National University of Economics, Ukraine. Dr. Paul Dorsey is the founder and President of Dulcian, Inc. (www.dulcian. com), an Oracle consulting firm that specializes in business rules-based Oracle Client-Server and Web custom application development. He is the chief architect of Dulcian’s Business Rules Information Manager (BRIM®) tool. Paul is the co-author of seven Oracle Press books that have been translated into nine languages: Oracle JDeveloper 10g Handbook, Oracle9i JDeveloper Handbook, Oracle JDeveloper 3 Handbook, Oracle Designer Handbook (2 editions), Oracle Developer Forms and Reports: Advanced Techniques and Development Standards, Oracle8 Design Using UML Object Modeling. In 2003, he was honored by ODTUG as volunteer of the year, in 2001 by IOUG as vol- unteer of the year and by Oracle as one of the six initial honorary Oracle 9i Certified Masters. Paul is an Oracle Fusion Middleware Regional Director. He is the President of the New York Oracle Users’ Group and a Contributing Editor of the International Oracle User Group’s SELECT Journal. He is also the founder and chairperson of the ODTUG Business Rules Symposium (now called Best Practices Symposium), currently in its sixth year, and the J2EE SIG. Dedications Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Vladimir Zaguskin, who was always able to give me a simple explanation of not-so-simple things. — Michael Rosenblum, Edison, NJ, 2006 Dedicated to Dr. Robert Stafford Sterling (my mentor in graduate school and no dummy) and to his namesake Robert Stefan Dorsey (born December 2005, who I hope will also not be a dummy). — Dr. Paul Dorsey, Colonia, NJ, 2006 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page iii 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page iv Authors’ Acknowledgments Michael Rosenblum: I would like to thank my co-author, Dr. Paul Dorsey (a well-known guru in the Oracle world), for inviting me to take part in writing this book and for all his patience working with me for the last five years. Also, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our project manager, Caryl Lee Fisher. She not only kept the lazy authors on track, but even managed to convert my not-exactly-native English into something people could read. Of course, the book in the form you are reading it would not have been possible without our wonderful technical editor Leslie Tierstein (you can’t imagine the number of small “bugs” she discovered in the original drafts). And, last but not least, love and special thanks to my wife Dora for withstanding the added pressure on her while I was writing this book. Dr. Paul Dorsey: I would first like to acknowledge my co-author Michael (“Misha”) Rosenblum. It is a joy to work with someone possessing such drive and intellect. His unwillingness to be sloppy in his code and thinking have given not only this book, but all his work, an aspect of excellence all too unusual in this industry. I would also like to thank Caryl Lee Fisher (our unac- knowledged “co-author”). Caryl Lee kept Misha and me on track and helped wordsmith the entire manuscript. This is my eighth such collaboration involving Caryl Lee, and I can safely say that I am not sure whether I ever would have published even my first book without her assistance. She acted as the intermediary between the excellent editors at Wiley and the authors, thereby averting virtually certain bloodshed. She helped to foster the illusion that we are very easy authors to work with. Leslie Tierstein provided her always impeccable technical edits. I have worked with her on a number of projects, and she provides many valuable contributions to the finished prod- uct. A special thank you goes to my lovely wife Ileana. She not only endured all my time away from home (for the 3 months preceding and following my son’s birth) working on this book, but she also provided serious technical assistance, since she is a first-rate developer in her own right. Both authors would like to thank their colleagues Mark Hernandez, Marc Bacchus, John Rydzy, and Stephen Germany for their help in reviewing the code samples and text for accuracy. The authors would also like to thank the Wiley team of Rebecca Huehls, Virginia Sanders, Tiffany Ma, and Terri Varveris for their help with this project. 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page v Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Rebecca Huehls Acquisitions Editors: Tiffany Ma, Terri Varveris Copy Editor: Virginia Sanders Technical Editor: Leslie Tierstein Editorial Manager: Leah P. Cameron Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Carl Byers, Denny Hager, Alicia B. South Proofreaders: Dwight Ramsey, Techbooks Indexer: Techbooks Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_599577 ffirs.qxp 5/1/06 12:08 PM Page vi Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I: Basic PL/SQL Concepts.......................................7 Chapter 1: PL/SQL and Your Database ............................................................................9 Chapter 2: The PL/SQL Environment.............................................................................23 Part II: Getting Started with PL/SQL............................39 Chapter 3: Laying the Groundwork: PL/SQL Fundamentals .......................................41 Chapter 4: Controlling Program Flow ............................................................................85 Chapter 5: Handling Exceptions ...................................................................................105 Chapter 6: PL/SQL and SQL Working Together...........................................................127 Part III: Standards and Structures .............................163 Chapter 7: Putting Your Code in the Right Place........................................................165 Chapter 8: Creating Naming Standards .......................................................................187 Chapter 9: Creating Coding Standards ........................................................................201 Part IV: PL/SQL Data Manipulations ..........................219 Chapter 10: Basic Datatypes.........................................................................................221 Chapter 11: Advanced Datatypes.................................................................................253 Part V: Taking PL/SQL to the Next Level.....................289 Chapter 12: Transaction Control..................................................................................291 Chapter 13: Dynamic SQL and PL/SQL ........................................................................313 Chapter 14: PL/SQL Best Practices .............................................................................335 Part VI: The Part of Tens ...........................................355 Chapter 15: Ten PL/SQL Tips ........................................................................................357 Chapter 16: Ten Common Mistakes to Avoid in PL/SQL............................................377 Index .......................................................................397 02_599577 ftoc.qxp 5/1/06 12:09 PM Page vii 02_599577 ftoc.qxp 5/1/06 12:09 PM Page viii