Re: PL/SQL as an alternative to C?

In article <2DEC199314175089_at_cccs.umn.edu>, mcj_at_cccs.umn.edu (Mark C. Jones) writes:
>
> I am currently working on a project which involves the development of batch and
> interface programs that would normally be written using C with ESQL or OCI calls.
> Since Oracle offers the alternative of PL/SQL I wonder if any of you can give
> me ideas of relative benchmarks of a PL/SQL versus C with ESQL for cursor
> processing. Is there any size constraint involved in PL/SQL performance. Is
> PL/SQL known to have many bugs. Any information that would help direct me in
> choosing to develop in C versus PL/SQL would be most helpful.

C might be faster in some situations while PL/SQL excels in the client/server environment. There is a 'lines' limit to the size of the PL/SQL code but it's up in the 10's of thousands of lines. PL/SQL can actually be imbedded in the database so a simple call will do everything. The only thing missing from PL/SQL is an I/O facility to external objects (ie files) but you can code around this by using temporary tables.

PL/SQL probably has less bugs than the C code your planning to write 8^}.

If you want to code in C then do so, a good reason to code in C would be if you can't understand a blocking structure unless its enclosed in wriggly brackets 8^}.

-- 
Bruce...        pihlab_at_cbr.hhcs.gov.au

"If you swallow a live frog first thing in the morning ...
 Nothing worse will happen to either of you for the rest of the day."

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* Bruce Pihlamae  --  Database Administration                     *
* Commonwealth Department of                                      * 
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