Chapter 4B:

More Advanced PL/SQL Programming

Monday 2/23/2015

Abdou Illia

MIS 4200 - Spring 2015

Lesson B Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to:
Create PL/SQL decision control structures
Use SQL queries in PL/SQL programs
Create loops in PL/SQL programs
Create PL/SQL tables and tables of records
Use cursors to retrieve database data into PL/SQL
programs
Use the exception section to handle errors in
PL/SQL programs

IF/THEN

Decision control structures

Alter order in which statements execute
Based on values of certain variables
Syntax:
IF condition THEN
commands that execute if condition is TRUE;
END IF;
Condition
Expression evaluates to TRUE or FALSE
If TRUE commands execute

 Question: What two lines do you need to change to make the program
display Today is not Friday when the current day is different than
Friday?
4

IF/THEN/ELSE
Syntax:
IF condition THEN
commands that execute if condition is TRUE;
ELSE
commands that execute if condition is FALSE;
END IF;

Evaluates ELSE command if condition FALSE

Nested IF/THEN/ELSE

Placing one or more IF/THEN/ELSE statements

within program statements that execute after IF or
ELSE command
Important to properly indent program lines

IF/THEN/ELSE

Nested IF/THEN/ELSE

IF/ELSIF

Logical Operators AND, OR, and NOT

Create complex expressions for decision control structure
condition
AND: Expressions on both sides of operator must be true
for combined expression to be TRUE
OR: Expressions on either side of operator must be true
for combined expression to be TRUE
Order of evaluation (precedence):
NOT
AND
OR

Parentheses can be used to override precedence and force the9

program to evaluate the OR first

Using SQL Queries in PL/SQL Programs

Use SQL action query
Put query or command in PL/SQL program
Use same syntax as the syntax used to execute query or command
in SQL*Plus
Can use variables instead of literal values like Tammy
To specify data values

INSERT INTO Student (s_first)

VALUES (curr_first_name);

WHERE s_first = curr_first_name;

10

Changing the values

one by one and
adding them to the
table requires a lot of
coding. What is the
best way of
handling this kind
of repetitive job in
programming?

Loops
Systematically executes program statements
Periodically evaluates exit condition to determine if
loop should repeat or exit
Pretest loop
Evaluates exit condition before any program
commands execute

Posttest loop
Executes program commands before loop evaluates
exit condition for first time

PL/SQL has 5 types of loop structures:

LOOPEXIT
- WHILELOOP
LOOPEXIT WHEN
- Numeric FOR loop
Cursor FOR loop

12

The LOOP...EXIT Loop

SQL statement
CREATE TABLE count_table
(counter NUMBER(2));

Pretest or posttest
Syntax:

Syntax

LOOP
[program statements]
IF condition THEN
EXIT;
END IF;
[additional program
statements]
END LOOP;

The LOOP...EXIT WHEN Loop

Syntax (posttest loop)

LOOP
program statements
EXIT WHEN condition;
END LOOP;

The WHILE...LOOP
Syntax

WHILELOOP
is a Pretest loop

Q: Why the SELECT

* FROM count_table
shows only counter 6
to 10?

WHILE condition LOOP

program statements
END LOOP;

The Numeric FOR Loop

Does not require explicit counter increment
Syntax
FOR counter_variable IN start_value .. end_value
LOOP
program statements
END LOOP;

Cursor
A pointer to memory location on database server
Used to:
Retrieve and manipulate database data in PL/SQL
programs

Types:
Implicit cursor
Explicit cursor

Implicit Cursors
Context area
A memory location created by INSERT, UPDATE,
DELETE, or SELECT
Contains information about query (# rows, etc.)

Active set
Set of data rows that query retrieves when a SELECT query
is issued

Implicit cursor
A pointer to the context area
Called so, because you do not need to write code to
explicitly create the cursor or retrieve its values
Used to assign output of SELECT query to PL/SQL program
variables when query will return only one record*
* Error occurs if query returns no records or more than one record

Implicit Cursors (continued)

To retrieve data using implicit cursor in PL/SQL,
you add an INTO clause to the SELECT query
Syntax:
SELECT field1, field2, ...
INTO variable1, variable2, ...
FROM table1, table2, ...
WHERE join_conditions
AND search_condition_to_retrieve_1_record;

Variables must be declared in Declaration section

Variables must have same data types as fields
To avoid errors, %TYPE reference data type
should be used

Implicit Cursors (continued)

Explicit Cursors
Retrieve and display data in PL/SQL programs for
query that might
Retrieve multiple records
Return no records at all

Must explicitly write the code to

Declare cursor
Open cursor
Fetch data rows
Close cursor

Explicit Cursors (continued)

Declare explicit cursor syntax:
CURSOR cursor_name IS select_query;

Open explicit cursor syntax:

OPEN cursor_name;

Fetch values using LOOPEXIT WHEN loop:

LOOP
FETCH cursor_name INTO
variable_name(s);
EXIT WHEN cursor_name%NOTFOUND;

Close cursor syntax:

CLOSE cursor_name;
Note: When the cursor is declared, system doesnt check errors in the query. It
creates the memory structure to store the active set. The PL/SQL interpreter
checks for error and interprets the query when opening the cursor

Q: At this point, what is the

value for current_bldg_code?

The declared
variable is used
to retrieve the
cursor content
and to display

 Using %ROWTYPE variable to display explicit

cursor values

Using a cursor and a single variable to

retrieve multiple fields values

Handling Runtime Errors in PL/SQL

Programs

Runtime errors

Occur when an exception (unwanted event) is raised

Cause program to fail during execution

Possible causes (exceptions):

Division by zero
- inserting incompatible data
Constraint violation - retrieving 0/several rows with implicit cursor

Exception handling
Programmers place commands in EXCEPTION section

Handle exception options

Correct error without notifying user of problem
Inform user of error without taking corrective action

After exception handler executes

Program ends

DECLARE
variable declarations
BEGIN
program statements
EXCEPTION
error-handling statements
END;

Handling error procedure depends the type of exception:

Predefined exception
User-defined exception

- undefined exception

Predefined Exceptions
Most common errors that occur in programs
PL/SQL language:
Assigns exception name
Provides built-in exception handler for each predefined exception

System automatically displays error message informing user of

nature of problem

Exception Handler Syntax

Can create exception handlers to display alternate
error messages

Using the WHEN OTHERS exception

The SQLERRM built-in function is used to handle other exception

To use the SQLERRM function, you must
Declare a VARCHAR2 variable
Assign the declared variable the errors text and code

Undefined Exceptions
Less common errors
Do not have predefined names
Must explicitly declare exception in programs
declaration section
Associate new exception with specific Oracle error
code
Create exception handler in exception section
Using same syntax as for predefined exceptions

Example of undefined exception

Loc_id 60 doesnt exist in LOCATION

The ORA-02291 exception is not predefined.

Need to explicitly declare the exception and write a handler

Creating an exception handler

Syntax

DECLARE
e_exception_name EXCEPTION;
PRAGMA EXCEPTION_UNIT(e_exception_name, -Oracle_error_code);

User-defined Exceptions
Used to handle an exception that
Does not raise Oracle runtime error
But requires exception handling to
Enforce business rules or
Ensure integrity of database

Example:
Internal Northwoods rule is Users can delete row
from the ENROLLMENT table only if s_grade is
NULL
Trying to delete a delete an ENROLLMENT row
where the s_grade is not NULL will raise an
exception that needs to be handled