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Data Type

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balwant kaur
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Datatypes in PL/SQL

PL/SQL datatypes are not just limited to writing SQL queries but they are used in the PL/SQL
block as well, just like any other programming language.

Provising a datatype specifies how any data will be stored and processed by Oracle when any
PL/SQL code block is executed.

Datatype defines the type of data being used, whether it is a number or a word(string) or a
single character etc. Following datatypes can be used in PL/SQL depending upon the type of
data required:

So we have 4 broader categories of datatypes and they are:

1. Scalar Types: These are basic datatypes which generally holds a single value like a
number or a string of characters. Scalar types have 4 different categories which are
listed in the diagram above, namely Number Types, Character and String, Boolean
Types and Date and Time etc.
2. LOB Types: This datatype deals with large objects and is used to specify location of
these large objects like text files, images etc which are generally not stored outside the
database.

3. Reference Types: This datatype is used to hold pointer values which generally stores
address of other program items.

4. Composite Types: Last but not the least, as the name suggests this type of data is a
composition of individual data which can be manipulated/processed separately as
well.

We won't be covering all these different datatypes below, but we will be covering the ones
which are most widely used.

NUMBER(p,s)

Range: p= 1 to 38 s= -84 to 127

This datatype is used to store numeric data. Here, p is precision s is scale.

Example:

1. Age NUMBER(2); where , Age is a variable that can store 2 digits

2. percentage NUMBER(4,2); where, percentage is a variable that can store 4 (p) digits
before decimal and 2 (s) digits after decimal.

CHAR(size)

Range: 1 to 2000 bytes

 This datatype is used to store alphabetical string of fixed length.

 Its value is quoted in single quotes.

 Occupies the whole declared size of memory even if the space is not utilized by the
data.

Example:
1. Rank CHAR(10); where, rank is a variable that can store upto 10 characters. If the
length of data(charcaters) stored in rank is 5 then it will still occupy all the 10 spaces.
5 space in the memory will get used and the rest blank memory spaces will be wasted.

VARCHAR(size)

Range: 1 to 2000 bytes

 This datatype is used to store alphanumeric string of variable length.

 Its value is quoted in single quotes.

 Occupies the whole declared size of memory even if the space is not utilized by the
data.

Example:

1. address VARCHAR(10); where, address is a variable that can occupy maximum 10


bytes of memory space and can store alphanumeric value in it. Unused spaces are
wasted.

VARCHAR2(size)

Range: 1 to 4000 bytes

 This datatype is used to store alphanumeric string of variable length.

 Its value is quoted in single quotes.

 It releases the unused space in memory, hence saving the unused space.

Example:

1. name VARCHAR2(10); where, name is a variable that can occupy maximum 10


bytes of memory to store an alphanumeric value. The unused memory space is
released.
DATE

Range: 01-Jan-4712 BC to 31-DEC-9999

 It stores the data in date format DD-MON-YYYY

 The value for this datatype is written in single quotes.

Example:

1. DOB DATE; where, DOB is a variable that stores date of birth in defined format
(i.e,’13-FEB-1991’)

%TYPE

 It stores value of that variable whose datatype is unknown and when we want the
variable to inherit the datatype of the table column.

 Also, its value is generally being retrieved from an existing table in the database,
hence it takes the datatype of the column for which it is used.

Example:

1. Student sno %TYPE;, where Student is the name of the table created in database
and sno is variable whose datatype is unknown and %TYPE is used to store its value.

BOOLEAN

 This datatype is used in conditional statements.

 It stores logical values.

 It can be either TRUE or FALSE

Example:

1. isAdmin BOOLEAN; where, isAdmin is a variable whose value can be TRUE or


FALSE depending upon the condition being checked.

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