Oracle Database 10g Express Edition PHP Web Programming

Using Associative Arrays and PL/SQL Stored Procedures

Associative arrays in the Oracle Database 10g family of products were previously known as PL/SQL tables. PL/SQL tables were introduced in Oracle 7 as dynamic lists of scalar variables in 1993. Three years later in Oracle 7.3, PL/SQL tables were capable of managing arrays of structures, like reference cursors. PL/SQL tables were renamed with the Oracle 10g release because they now support both numeric and unique string indexes.

Associative arrays have many customized uses in PL/SQL, like managing bulk inserts and queries. Bulk operations improve the efficiency of the Oracle database server. They are also simpler to use than reference cursors for many programmers when they want to move data ...