Overview

PL/SQL or Procedural Language for SQL is an extended version of SQL programming, designed specifically by Oracle for its relational databases, to be programmed alongside SQL and Java. As a programming language, it is derived from SQL and incorporates object-oriented programming (OOPS) concepts such as procedures, functions, loops, conditional statements, etc. Also, this programming language consents to variables & constants declaration, similar to Java and other OOPS-based programming languages.

PL/SQL

• PL/SQL is an extension of SQL that allows developers to combine the power of SQL with procedural statements. Oracle Corporation developed it in the early ’90s. It allows writing a piece of code, including the SQL query in a block (which is the basic unit of it).
• It is a high standard and readable language, so it is very easy to understand and learn. It can only be used with Oracle Database Systems and cannot be used as a standalone application like C, C++, Java, etc. It provides the facility to developers to use loops, conditions, object-oriented concepts and SQL like other database languages.
• Before this, only one query is sent to the Oracle server, which increases the load and time. But through this, multiple SQL statements are grouped and sent in a single block or subprogram, which increases the processing speed and decreases the traffic on Oracle Server.

Why should we use PL/SQL?

• Although PL/SQL at the end executes and processes the SQL statements but consider a scenario of updating the salary record with the hike of 20% of all employees in the Employee table having 1000+ values, is it practical to write the update command 1000+ times and fire SQL query each time to update the records? For this, it came into the picture as though it looping; it can be done in 2 lines of code without any interruption in between
• Moreover, it is fundamental for any web application to hide the implementation logic from the end-users. It is done through Interfaces in programming languages like Java, C++. Similarly, the database is the main module in Database intensive applications, and the SQL queries and tables are its implementation data.
• All these modules are hidden behind the PL/SQL interface. This way, it maintains the correctness, maintainability, security, and abstraction for both the developers and end-users.
• It provides a special facility to work with the triggers (Triggers are special events that are fired when any specific mentioned situation is met). This deals with various triggers like View level triggers, Database level triggers, Session level Triggers, and Table level triggers.

Advantages of PL/SQL

Below given are some of the advantages:

• It allows the users/developers to run multiple SQL statements at once by wrapping them in a block.
• It is compatible with SQL. It allows us to use all the SQL statements, data manipulation, cursor handling, transaction statements in PL/SQL blocks. There is no need for conversion between the two of them.
• It is easy to maintain the subprogram as only one copy is stored in the database server, which can be accessed by all the clients and applications using it.
• It supports scalability by the access of centralised processing on database servers, allowing multiple concurrent users to access it on a single node.
• It supports Portability, as the applications are written in PL/SQL, and are portable to computer Operating systems and hardware where the Oracle database is present and working properly.
• It provides very easy and expressive syntax, which is very easy to understand if someone is familiar with any programming language.
• It allows users to define triggers that are fired automatically when a particular situation is met.

Job career Opportunities

As a tool that is standard for Data manipulation in the market these are some of the most popular choices

• PL/SQL Developer
• Apex Developer
• GL developer
• Interface Developer
• Data Analysis
• Apps Developer