Oracle PL/SQL For Dummies

Chapter 11

Advanced Datatypes

In This Chapter

Working with large objects (LOBs)

Enforcing standards with user-defined subtypes

Defining datatypes

Creating collections

Collecting data with bulk operations

To be able to handle many of the complex programming situations that can arise in building database systems, Oracle includes some advanced datatypes and ways to handle large objects, user-defined types and subtypes, and collections.

It is important to understand how to use these datatypes correctly and efficiently in your code, and in the sections in this chapter, we show you how.

Handling Large Objects in the Database

Less-experienced database professionals might think that the three major datatypes (DATE, NUMBER, VARCHAR2) are enough to build most systems. However, this is rarely the case. In modern systems, you might want to store pictures, movies, documents, and sounds. The basic Oracle character datatype (VARCHAR2) can hold only 4,000 characters (about the size of a page of ...