PL/SQL identifiers are constants, variables, exceptions, procedures, cursors, and reserved words. The identifiers consist of a letter optionally followed by more letters, numerals, dollar signs, underscores, and number signs and should not exceed 30 characters. By default, identifiers are not case-sensitive. So you can use integer or INTEGER to represent a numeric value. You cannot use a reserved keyword as an identifier.
PL/SQL is pronounced as a language but it is not a language typically rather than it is a mechanism or technology implemented on Oracle server to manipulate Oracle database programmatically using SQL command What is PL/SQL? PL/SQL stands for Procedural Language extension of SQL. PL/SQL is a combination of SQL along with the procedural features of programming languages. It was developed by Oracle Corporation in the early 90’s to enhance the capabilities of SQL. It is a block structure language. To design a program using a language and provides four different blocks namely Declare Input Process Output
The PL/SQL supports single line and multi-line comments. All characters available inside any comment are ignored by PL/SQL compiler. The PL/SQL single-line comments start with the delimiter – - (double hyphen) and multi-line comments are enclosed by /* and */.
To design a programme using a language the minimum requirement is a variable and variable minimum requirement is data type. PL/SQL provides two types of data types : Scalar data type Composite data type Large Object (LOB) Scalar data type - It is a data type which can store one value at one point of time in form of one variable. The example of scalar data type are char, varchar, varchar2, number, date, Boolean. Numeric - Numeric values, on which arithmetic operations are performed. Character - Alphanumeric values that represent single characters or strings of characters. Boolean - Logical values, on which logical operations are performed. Datetime - Dates and times.