Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages

2.2. Using Effective Coding Style for Packages

A package is a collection of PL/SQL elements, including data structures (from cursors to constants) and program units (procedures and functions). Packages are generally the most complicated and extended pieces of code PL/SQL developers will write. To make matters worse, the current array of PL/SQL development environments do not offer any tools for viewing and managing a package as a collection. A package is treated and presented no differently from a single function—just a whole bunch of lines of source code.

As a result, it is up to you to design and write your package to make it as readable and maintainable as possible. There are two fundamental strategies you can employ to help meet this objective:

Strategy 1: Use all available techniques to make your code as clean, modular, and structured as possible.

Strategy 2: Come up with a consistent coding style and format for your packages—and get people to follow that style.

Many of the other best practices covered in this chapter address the first strategy—which is clearly the more important and difficult of the two. In this section, I suggest elements of a coding style for packages. It is absolutely critical that you adopt an effective coding style and employ it consistently. This style should be compatible, of course, with the style you use throughout your PL/SQL code. It should also, however, include components that reflect and support the structure and significance of the package. ...