In this chapter, we will discuss the Data Types in PL/SQL. The PL/SQL variables, constants and parameters must have a valid data type, which specifies a storage format, constraints, and a valid range of values. We will focus on the SCALAR and the LOB data types in this chapter. The other two data types will be covered in other chapters.

PL/SQL Scalar Data Types and Subtypes

PL/SQL Scalar Data Types and Subtypes come under the following categories −

PL/SQL provides subtypes of data types. For example, the data type NUMBER has a subtype called INTEGER. You can use the subtypes in your PL/SQL program to make the data types compatible with data types in other programs while embedding the PL/SQL code in another program, such as a Java program.

PL/SQL Numeric Data Types and Subtypes

Following table lists out the PL/SQL pre-defined numeric data types and their sub-types −

Following is a valid declaration −

DECLARE 
   num1 INTEGER; 
   num2 REAL; 
   num3 DOUBLE PRECISION; 
BEGIN 
   null; 
END; 
/ 

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed 

PL/SQL Character Data Types and Subtypes

Following is the detail of PL/SQL pre-defined character data types and their sub-types −

PL/SQL Boolean Data Types

The BOOLEAN data type stores logical values that are used in logical operations. The logical values are the Boolean values TRUE and FALSE and the value NULL.

However, SQL has no data type equivalent to BOOLEAN. Therefore, Boolean values cannot be used in −

• SQL statements
• Built-in SQL functions (such as TO_CHAR)
• PL/SQL functions invoked from SQL statements

PL/SQL Datetime and Interval Types

The DATE datatype is used to store fixed-length datetimes, which include the time of day in seconds since midnight. Valid dates range from January 1, 4712 BC to December 31, 9999 AD.

The default date format is set by the Oracle initialization parameter NLS_DATE_FORMAT. For example, the default might be ”DD-MON-YY”, which includes a two-digit number for the day of the month, an abbreviation of the month name, and the last two digits of the year. For example, 01-OCT-12.

Each DATE includes the century, year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. The following table shows the valid values for each field −

PL/SQL Large Object (LOB) Data Types

Large Object (LOB) data types refer to large data items such as text, graphic images, video clips, and sound waveforms. LOB data types allow efficient, random, piecewise access to this data. Following are the predefined PL/SQL LOB data types −

PL/SQL User-Defined Subtypes

A subtype is a subset of another data type, which is called its base type. A subtype has the same valid operations as its base type, but only a subset of its valid values.

PL/SQL predefines several subtypes in package STANDARD. For example, PL/SQL predefines the subtypes CHARACTER and INTEGER as follows −

SUBTYPE CHARACTER IS CHAR; 
SUBTYPE INTEGER IS NUMBER(38,0);

You can define and use your own subtypes. The following program illustrates defining and using a user-defined subtype −

DECLARE 
   SUBTYPE name IS char(20); 
   SUBTYPE message IS varchar2(100); 
   salutation name; 
   greetings message; 
BEGIN 
   salutation := ''Reader  
   greetings := ''Welcome to the World of PL/SQL 
   dbms_output.put_line(''Hello '' || salutation || greetings); 
END; 
/ 

When the above code is executed at the SQL prompt, it produces the following result −

Hello Reader Welcome to the World of PL/SQL 
 
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. 

NULLs in PL/SQL

PL/SQL NULL values represent missing or unknown data and they are not an integer, a character, or any other specific data type. Note that NULL is not the same as an empty data string or the null character value ””. A null can be assigned but it cannot be equated with anything, including itself.