This section describes the declaration of variables in the PL/SQL and the scope of this variable in codes.
Variable declaration
For details about the variable declaration syntax, see Figure 1.
The above syntax diagram is explained as follows:
Examples
1 2 3 4 5 6 | DECLARE emp_id INTEGER := 7788; -- Define a variable and assign a value to it. BEGIN emp_id := 5*7784; -- Assign a value to the variable. END; / |
In addition to the declaration of basic variable types, %TYPE and %ROWTYPE can be used to declare variables related to table columns or table structures.
%TYPE attribute
%TYPE declares a variable to be of the same data type as a previously declared variable (for example, a column in a table). For example, if you want to define a my_name variable that has the same data type as the firstname column in the employee table, you can define the variable as follows:
my_name employee.firstname%TYPE
In this way, you can declare my_name even if you do not know the data type of firstname in employee, and the data type of my_name can be automatically updated when the data type of firstname changes.
%ROWTYPE attribute
%ROWTYPE declares data types of a set of data. It stores a row of table data or results fetched from a cursor. For example, if you want to define a set of data with the same column names and column data types as the employee table, you can define the data as follows:
my_employee employee%ROWTYPE
If multiple CNs are used, the %ROWTYPE and %TYPE attributes of temporary tables cannot be declared in a stored procedure, because a temporary table is valid only in the current session and is invisible to other CNs in the compilation phase. In this case, a message is displayed indicating that the temporary table does not exist.
Variable scope
The scope of a variable indicates the accessibility and availability of a variable in code block. In other words, a variable takes effect only within its scope.
Examples
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | DECLARE emp_id INTEGER :=7788; -- Define a variable and assign a value to it. outer_var INTEGER :=6688; -- Define a variable and assign a value to it. BEGIN DECLARE emp_id INTEGER :=7799; -- Define a variable and assign a value to it. inner_var INTEGER :=6688; -- Define a variable and assign a value to it. BEGIN dbms_output.put_line('inner emp_id ='||emp_id); -- Display the value as 7799. dbms_output.put_line('outer_var ='||outer_var); -- Cite variables of an outer block. END; dbms_output.put_line('outer emp_id ='||emp_id); -- Display the value as 7788. END; / |
Syntax
Figure 2 shows the syntax diagram for assigning a value to a variable.
The above syntax diagram is explained as follows:
Examples
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | DECLARE emp_id INTEGER := 7788; --Assignment BEGIN emp_id := 5; --Assignment emp_id := 5*7784; END; / |
Syntax
Figure 3 shows the syntax diagram for calling a clause.
The above syntax diagram is explained as follows:
Examples
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 | -- Create the stored procedure proc_staffs: CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE proc_staffs ( section NUMBER(6), salary_sum out NUMBER(8,2), staffs_count out INTEGER ) IS BEGIN SELECT sum(salary), count(*) INTO salary_sum, staffs_count FROM staffs where section_id = section; END; / -- Create the stored procedure proc_return: CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE proc_return AS v_num NUMBER(8,2); v_sum INTEGER; BEGIN proc_staffs(30, v_sum, v_num); --Invoke a statement. dbms_output.put_line(v_sum||'#'||v_num); RETURN; --Return a statement. END; / -- Invoke a stored procedure proc_return: CALL proc_return(); -- Delete a stored procedure: DROP PROCEDURE proc_staffs; DROP PROCEDURE proc_return; --Create the function func_return. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION func_return returns void language plpgsql AS $$ DECLARE v_num INTEGER := 1; BEGIN dbms_output.put_line(v_num); RETURN; --Return a statement. END $$; -- Invoke the function func_return. CALL func_return(); 1 -- Delete the function. DROP FUNCTION func_return; |