OOP concept in pl/sql

Question

Hi!,
I am new to pl/sql , i want to understand the oop concept please anybody guide me.... where it is used in real environment?
any ebook which i have to prefer for basics... please contribute your ideas about it.
Edited by: user12077151 on Feb 7, 2010 11:29 AM
Edited by: user12077151 on Feb 7, 2010 11:30 AM

Answer 1

user12077151 wrote:
I am new to pl/sql , i want to understand the oop concept please anybody guide me.... where it is used in real environment?PL/SQL supports a number of OOP concepts - such as abstract classes, inheritance, polymorphism and so on. I did a basic example of customised data types in {message:id=2352848} - here I've explored using custom data types for dealing with 1000's of variant data attributes (called MIBs) from hardware devices (instead of using varchar2 for all values).
What I do not consider a good idea though is mixing OOP with actual database design. Relational design is by far simpler, and provides easier use and better performance.
The same consideration needs to be given for PL/SQL. PL/SQL is usually used as a database interface layer - instead of the Java/.Net/etc client having to know the db structures and use SQL, this is abstracted and presented via a PL/SQL interface. In such a case, using OOP in PL/SQL will not be of much benefit as using custom SQL data types on the client side is not the norm. (it is supported by the Oracle client driver, but requires a more complex approach than simply using standard SQL types already supported by the client language).
Within PL/SQL itself, OOP can be beneficial. It can be used to make something complex (e.g. like DBMS_SQL cursors) into a much simpler and more flexible OO interface instead.
Using OOP in PL/SQL is no different than using any other programming technique - in that you need to make sure that it is the better option for doing the job. That it makes writing code easier. Makes maintenance easier. Makes the code more robust. Enables the code to perform well. Etc.