Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, 4th Edition

Loops

The LOOP construct allows you to execute a sequence of statements repeatedly. There are three types of loops: simple (infinite), FOR, and WHILE.

You can use the EXIT statement to break out of the LOOP and pass control to the statement following the END LOOP. Use the CONTINUE statement (Oracle Database 11g), described later, to break out of the current loope iteration and pass control to the next loop iteration.

Simple Loop

LOOP
   executable_statement(s)
END LOOP;

The simple loop should contain an EXIT or EXIT WHEN unless you want it to execute infinitely. Use the simple loop when you want the body of the loop to execute at least once. For example:

LOOP
   FETCH company_cur INTO company_rec;
   EXIT WHEN company_cur%ROWCOUNT > 5 OR
      company_cur%NOTFOUND;
   process_company(company_cur);
END LOOP;

Numeric FOR Loop

FOR loop_index IN [REVERSE] lowest_number..highest_number
LOOP
   executable_statement(s)
END LOOP;

The PL/SQL runtime engine automatically declares the loop index a PLS_INTEGER variable; never declare a variable with that name yourself. The lowest_number and highest_number ranges can be variables, but are evaluated only once—on initial entry into the loop. The REVERSE keyword causes PL/SQL to start with the highest_number and decrement down to the lowest_number. For example, this code:

BEGIN
   FOR counter IN 1 .. 4
   LOOP
      DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT(counter);
   END LOOP;
   DBMS_OUTPUT.NEW_LINE;

   FOR counter IN REVERSE 1 .. 4
   LOOP
      DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT(counter);
   END LOOP;
   DBMS_OUTPUT.NEW_LINE;
END;

yields the following ...