Chapter 2. Oracle 12c SQL and PL/SQL New Features

Oracle released Oracle Database 12c in July 2013. From a technology standpoint, it was an important product release as the focus was consolidation of databases on public and private cloud infrastructures. Oracle Database 12c introduces the new Multitenant architecture that allows multiple databases to run as a tenant within a single database. The new design assures tenant isolation and security, and enhances manageability of consolidated databases, Oracle Database 12c provides more than 500 new features including multitenant architecture and many others related to security, high availability, and performance. The chapter covers the key features introduced in the latest product release.

Oracle Database 12c has made considerable improvements to the SQL and PL/SQL languages. The language enhancements in Oracle Database 12c focus on support for ANSI SQL standards, effortless code writing and migration from non-Oracle to Oracle compliant code. This chapter discusses many such enhancements and features of Oracle Database 12c.

The outline of the chapter is as follows:

• The Multitenant architecture
• SQL new features
• PL/SQL new features
• Oracle Database 12c In-Memory option