Name
VARIABLE
Synopsis
The VARIABLE command declares bind variables. Bind variables are discussed in Chapter 7. They are real variables that can be used within a PL/SQL block or SQL statement.
Syntax
VAR[IABLE]variable_name
data_type
Parameters
- VAR[IABLE]
Is the command, which may be abbreviated VAR.
- variable_name
Is whatever name you want to give the variable. A variable name must start with a letter, but after that the name may contain any combination of letters, digits, underscores, pound signs, and dollar signs. Thirty characters is the maximum length for a variable name.
- data_type
Is the datatype of the variable. The following datatypes are allowed:
- NUMBER
Results in a floating-point number and is the same as a NUMBER variable in PL/SQL or a NUMBER column in a table. Unlike PL/SQL, SQL*Plus doesn't let you specify a length or a precision, so a declaration like NUMBER (9,2) wouldn't be allowed.
- BINARY_FLOAT
Results in a BINARY_FLOAT value. Not available before Oracle9i Database.
- BINARY_DOUBLE
Results in a BINARY_DOUBLE value. Not available before Oracle9i Database.
- CHAR [(length)]
Results in a fixed-length character string. length is optional. If it is omitted, you get a one-character string.
- NCHAR [(length)]
Results in a fixed-length character string in the national character set. Length is optional. If it is omitted, you get a one-character string.
- VARCHAR2 (length)
Results in a variable-length character string.
- NVARCHAR2 (length)
Results in a variable-length character string using the national ...
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