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After completing this week’s section you will learn about the basic concepts on SQL, SQL *Plus and PL/SQL. Please use discussion board if you have any questions, we will help you with more details explanation. If you don’t understand and practice in the order we provide it will be difficult for you to learn Oracle.
Please feel free to comment on the sections where we can improve the content. The concepts are pretty much the same in any version of Oracle. Please note that most the url's are colored in Blue. Please slide your mouse on those links and click to access.
Section 1: Using SQL *Plus to communicate with Oracle Databases
SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool that is installed with every Oracle Server or Client installation. It has a command-line user interface, and more recently, a web-based user interface called iSQL*Plus.
On Windows platforms, context menu options accessed through the right mouse button enable local files to be sent to the iSQL*Plus user interface. SQL*Plus has its own commands and environment, and it provides access to the Oracle RDBMS. It allows you to enter and execute SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus and operating system commands to perform the following:
- enter SQL*Plus commands to configure the SQL*Plus environment
- enter, edit, store, retrieve, and run SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks
- format, perform calculations on, store, and print from query results
- interact with an end user
- startup and shutdown a database
- connect to a database
- define variables
- capture errors
- list column definitions for any table
- perform database administration
This chapter introduces you to SQL*Plus, covering the following topics:
Introducing SQL*Plus
This chapter provides introductory information to help you get started with SQL*Plus.
Specific topics discussed are: Using SQL*Plus
This chapter explains how to start and use SQL*Plus from both the command-line interface and the graphical user interface, and describes the graphical user interface menu options. It also describes how to use and configure the iSQL*Plus Extension for Windows.
Specific topics discussed are: Introduction to SQL - Types of SQL Commands, Writing Simple SELECT Statements
- Simple SELECT statements
- Logical Operators and Aggregation
- JOINs and VIEWs
- Subqueries and Schema
Please download the following simple tutorials which helps you understand the topics we are trying to cover in this section.
Please review the following sections in detail after you complete the tutorial from the download link above.
PL/SQL is structured into blocks and can use conditional statements, loops and branches to control program flow. Variables can be scoped so that they are only visible within the block where they are defined.
PL/SQL is a database-orientated programming language that extends Oracle SQL with procedural capabilities. We will review in this lab the fundamental features of the language and learn how to integrate it with SQL to help solving database problems.
PL/SQL programs are organized in functions, procedures and packages. There is a limited support for object-oriented programming. PL/SQL is based on the Ada programming language.
PL/SQL blocks come in three types,
- Anonymous procedure:An anonymous procedure is an unnamed procedure, it can't be called. It is placed where it is to be run, normally attached to a database trigger or application event.
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Named procedure:A named procedure may be called, it may accept inbound parameters but won't explicitly return any value.
- Named function:A named function may also be called, it may accept inbound parameters and will always return a value.
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