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Changes to SQL*Plus and
PL/SQL
Oracle Tips by
Burleson
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Obviously, such drastic changes to the supported datatypes require
changes to SQL*Plus and PL/SQL to support the new datatypes. The
following sections take a brief look as some of the changes made to
SQL*Plus and PL/SQL.
SQL Changes
In addition to allowing columns of the new datatypes to be defined,
Oracle has added several commands to be used with the new datatypes:
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ALTER TYPE
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CREATE DIRECTORY
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CREATE LIBRARY
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CREATE TYPE
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CREATE TYPE BODY
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DROP TYPE
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DROP TYPE BODY
In addition to these new commands, Oracle8 offers some new built-in
functions and object views. While a complete discussion of the new
commands isn’t necessary, you may want to know a little more about
some new built-in functions and a new type of object called an object
view.
New Built-In Functions
Oracle8 has added several new built-in trigonometric functions.
These functions are listed in Table E.1.
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Table E.1 New trigonometric SQL functions. |
|
Function |
Purpose |
|
acos() |
Returns the arc cosine of a parameter, n,
in radians. |
|
asin() |
Returns the arc sine of a parameter, n,
in radians. |
|
atan() |
Returns the arc tangent of a parameter, n,
in radians. |
|
atan2() |
Returns the arc tangent of two parameters,
x and y, in radians. |
Object Views
An object view is a construct implemented in Oracle8 to ease
the migration from the relational database to the object-relational
database. Object views allow you to query and manipulate relational
data as if the data were object data.
PL/SQL Changes
PL/SQL fully supports all the new Oracle8 datatypes. For instance,
you may declare object and varray types in your
functions, procedures, and packages just like variables of any other
datatype.
Summary
This appendix hasn’t covered everything you need to know about
Oracle8, nor could it do so without taking an enormous amount of
space. Instead, this appendix provides an overview of some of the new
concepts contained in Oracle8. Just like Oracle7, Oracle8 promises to
revolutionize the way databases are created using Oracle.
This is an excerpt from the book "High Performance Oracle
Database Automation" by Jonathan Ingram and Donald K.
Burleson, Series Editor. |
