Re: Seeking Advice: MS SQL DBA learning Oracle?

On 08 May 2002 13:06:58 GMT, sqljoe_at_aol.com (SQLJoe) wrote:
>What is the major
>differences between SQL, SQL plus, and PL/SQL?

SQL is the basic language for doing queries, insert / update / delete etc. one statement at a time.

PL/SQL lets you do loops, IF-THEN, procedure calls, declare variables, etc. with SQL statements interspersed. You would typically use it for the bodies of triggers and stored procedures. There are lots of APIs callable from PL/SQL.

SQL*Plus is a tool for interactively issuing SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks. Many of its commands are concerned with formatting the output --- how wide to make each column, whether to pause after each N lines, etc.

Each one has its own reference book, and various others explain how to accomplish particular tasks with one language or a mixture of languages:

http://tahiti.oracle.com/pls/db901/db901.docindex?preference=SQL

When you're typing away in SQL*Plus, it isn't so important which command is part of which language or tool, so there is a quick reference that combines syntax for SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus:

http://tahiti.oracle.com/pls/db901/db901.sql_keywords

John

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