Re: implicit / explicit?

From: John Leggitt <johnml_at_istar.ca>
Date: 1998/03/27
Message-ID: <arGS.124$uC4.957761@NewsRead.Toronto.iSTAR.net>#1/1

Implicit means "done by Oracle" and explicit means "done by the programmer" so for example:

for v_counter in 1..20 loop -- v_counter is implicitly declared as a binary_integer data type

    null;                                           -- You do not have to

explicitly declare it first
end loop;

An implicit cursor is one that is created by Oracle everytime a DML statement is issued in your code. You can examine certain cursor attributes of this implicit cursor by using the syntax: SQL%attributename. Example: sql%rowcount used right after an update or other DML will tell you how many rows were fetched by the implicit cursor.

An explicit cursor is one that you declare and use yourself in code. Buy yourself Scott Uman's book PL/SQL Programming by Oracle Press (now Oracle 8). It is the best.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
JohnL

Richard Fairbairn wrote in message <1998032618194776740_at_zetnet.co.uk>...
>Can someone please tell me what the difference is between an implicit
>variable and an explicit variable? Ditto for cursors?
>
Received on Fri Mar 27 1998 - 00:00:00 CST