Chapter 4. Working with PL/SQL

Unique to the Oracle database, PL/SQL code forms the core of many Oracle database applications. Whether a database-centric application or one using open source technologies, if the Oracle database underpins the application, PL/SQL code is almost certainly present and is stored in the database or sent in blocks of code to the database for execution. PL/SQL is a language extension to SQL, offering a procedural language structure in the Oracle Database, which is required for more complex application development. SQL Developer supports PL/SQL development by allowing you to work with text files or develop and test code directly against the database.

In this section, we will review this support and show you how to create, compile, and debug PL/SQL and look at a number of useful features available to facilitate writing PL/SQL. This chapter is not about teaching PL/SQL or best practice programming techniques. Instead, the examples used here serve to illustrate how the tool might be used and are based on the many coding examples available in the Oracle documentation.