Difference between regular update and update with execute immediate

Question

Hi everyone, I have seen some code where developers have executed insert and update statement using execute immediate.
for example :
execute immediate ('Update employees set employee_salary = :x');
I can update record using the following statement where x is a number (salary)
update employee
set employee_salary = x;
It works fine as well
Whats the difference? and what way is recommended
Thanks

Answer 1

My guess is that sqlplus does a commit on exit:
In session 1:
SQL> create table test (col1 number);
Table created.
SQL> begin
  2    execute immediate 'insert into test values (1)';
  3  end;
  4  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.In session 2:
SQL> select * from test;
no rows selectedIn session 1:
SQL> exec execute immediate 'insert into test values (2)';
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.In session 2:
SQL> select * from test;
no rows selectedIn session 1:
SQL> disconnect
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Oracle Label Security, OLAP and Data Mining optionsIn session 2:
SQL> select * from test;
      COL1
         1
         2