Learning Oracle PL/SQL

Chapter 2. Fundamentals

To do anything really interesting with PL/SQL, you need an understanding of the fundamentals of the language: what constitutes a valid statement, how you name things, how you construct programs, and so on. You also need at least a basic understanding of how to work with a hands-on tool like SQL*Plus so you can run the examples yourself. After reading through this chapter, you should be able to look at existing PL/SQL code and understand the different sections of code and the roles they play; you should also be able to build your own simple blocks of code.

In order to make the material easier to find later, I have resorted to organizing this chapter in more of a reference format rather than the example-driven format that you'll find elsewhere in the book.