To the point guide to PL/SQL

PL/SQL provides a data structure called Varrays is single-dimensional, where can store a same type of elements for fixed length. The arrays variable maximum length defined at the time of declaration.

Points of varrays:

• Fixed length.
• Elements of Arrays of the same type.

All varrays consist of contiguous memory locations. The lowest address corresponds to the first element and the highest address to the last element.

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Creating a Varray Type:

Size is mandatory in creating varray variable

declare
 type VarrayType is varray(size) of ElementType;
...
create or replace type VarrayType is varray(size) of ElementType;

Let's now check some of the details from above syntax

• varray_type_name is a variable name,
• size: number of elements in the varray,
• element_type: data type of the data of the array.

CREATE Or REPLACE TYPE studname AS VARRAY(5) OF VARCHAR2(20);
/
Type created.

The syntax for creating a VRRAY type:

TYPE varray_type_name IS VARRAY(n) of <element_type>

Example

Type rank IS VARRAY(3) OF INTEGER;

Example

DECLARE
   type studname IS VARRAY(3) OF VARCHAR2(20);
   type rank IS VARRAY(3) OF INTEGER;
   names studname;
   score rank;
  BEGIN
   names := studname ('Pooja', 'Ravi', 'Rathan');
   score:= rank (2, 1, 3);
      FOR x in 1.. 3 LOOP
      dbms_output.put_line('Detail of Student: ' || names (x) || '
      Rank: ' || score (x));
   END LOOP;
END;
/

When you execute above code you will get

Detail of Student: Pooja Rank: 2
Detail of Student: Ravi Rank: 1
Detail of Student: Rathan Rank: 3
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

In next part of this guide we will check on what procedures are and how we use them.