Overview of Procedures, Functions, and Packages

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Oracle Database XE offers the capability to store programs in the database. This functionality enables commonly required code to be written and tested once and then accessed by any application that requires the code. Database-resident program units also ensure that the same processing is applied to the data when the code is invoked, making the development of applications easier and providing consistency between developers.

You can write database-resident programs in PL/SQL, and can use Object Browser to manage source types such as procedures, functions, and packages. The actions include creating, compiling, creating synonyms for, granting privileges on, and showing dependencies for these source types.

This chapter describes the main types of program units you can create with PL/SQL: procedures, functions, and packages. Procedures, functions, and packages are saved and stored in the database, and can be used as building blocks for applications.

For information on the features of the PL/SQL language, see Using PL/SQL.

This section contains the following topics:

• Stored Procedures and Functions

• Packages