Introduction

PL/SQL can be run as an interpreted language.

You can send messages and get responses via the database connection.

PL/SQL uses procedural code blocks.

These blocks contain commands and sets of commands, which can be named or anonymous.

Here is an anonymous code block..

<<MAIN>> 
declare 
      ... 
       Declaration section 
      ... 
begin 
      ... 
      Procedural section 
      ... 
exception 
      ... 
      Exception handler 
      ... 
end; 

Anonymous blocks can be nested in as many levels as you want:

<<MAIN>> 
declare 
     ... 
      Declaration section 
     ... 
begin 
     ... 
     Procedural section 
     ... 
          <<SUB1>> 
          declare 
           ... 
          begin 
           ... 
          end; 
     ... 
exception 
     ... 
end; 

Oracle doesn't process PL/SQL code line by line.

It handles whole messages at one time.

The root anonymous block containing all sub-elements is one logical unit.

All references and errors are analyzed in the context of that unit.

You can label all blocks including nested ones by using identifiers enclosed in << >>.

This notation allows programmers to reference elements of different blocks.

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