Oracle in a Nutshell

Chapter 10. PL/SQL Packages

A package is a collection of PL/SQL or Java objects that are packaged or grouped together. Packages may contain procedures, functions, variables, constants, and a variety of other objects.

Oracle uses the package construct to extend the capabilities of the core database through built-in packages (written in PL/SQL) for developers to call from their PL/SQL programs. Many new Oracle features are implemented in the form of packages. For example, the Advanced Queuing facility uses the DBMS_AQ and DBMS_AQADM packages. Some packages, like DBMS_STATISTICS, encapsulate commonly used functionality in an enhanced form.

You can also write your own packages, as described in Chapter 9.

This chapter consists of brief descriptions of the procedures and functions included in the PL/SQL packages that are a part of the Oracle database. The packages are listed alphabetically. For each package, we include a listing of the interfaces for the procedures and functions, along with brief summaries of the parameters passed to each program unit. In general, optional parameters are enclosed in square brackets ([ ]) throughout this book. In this chapter, we’ve used a special convention to indicate parameters used only in Oracle9i: these are enclosed in square brackets with the sharp character (#) appended to distinguish such parameters from ordinary optional parameters.

For detailed information on these packages and their use, see the Oracle documentation. For packages available through ...