Oracle and PL/SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

4-9. Collecting Related Routines into a Single Unit

Problem

You have a number of procedures and functions that formulate an entire application when used together. Rather than defining each subprogram individually, you prefer to combine all of them into a single, logically related entity.

Solution

Create a PL/SQL package that in turn declares and defines each of the procedures together as an organized entity. You declare each of the subprograms in the package specification (otherwise known as a header) and define them in the package body.

The following example shows the creation of a PL/SQL package containing two procedures and a variable.

First, you create the package specification:

CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE process_employee_time IS   total_employee_salary              NUMBER; ...