Oracle PL/SQL For Dummies

Chapter 10

Basic Datatypes

In This Chapter

Processing numeric data

Working with DATE and TIMESTAMP datatypes

Using the BOOLEAN datatype

Working with characters and strings

A datatype is a construct that defines the storage format, constraints, and range limitations of constants, parameters, and variables. In addition to all the datatypes available in SQL (for example, NUMBER, VARCHAR2, DATE, and so on), PL/SQL includes some variations on these datatypes as well as some additional types not available in SQL. This chapter provides an overview of the basic datatypes that PL/SQL supports.

Introducing the Main Datatype Groups

In previous chapters, you use a number of built-in PL/SQL datatypes. There are four main groups:

Scalar datatypes represent single values that can’t be divided into parts. Scalar datatypes are divided into families:

• Numeric datatypes encompass information that can be represented as digits.

• Character datatypes are used for textual information (up to 32K). ...