What is PL/SQL?

• Oracle PL/SQL is an extension of the SQL language that combines the data manipulation power of SQL with the processing capacity of a procedural language in order to build extraordinarily strong SQL queries.
• PL/SQL ensures that SQL statements are handled without error by increasing the database's security, portability, and resilience.
• You can instruct the PL/SQL compiler on "what to do" via SQL and "how to accomplish it" via its procedural approach.
• It gives programmers more power than other database languages because of its usage of loops, conditions, and object-oriented notions. The full form of PL/SQL is "Procedural Language additions to SQL."

PL/SQL Full Form

PL/SQL stands for "Procedural Language Extensions to the Structured Query Language." According to Oracle Corporation, the procedural extension for SQL and the Oracle relational database is known as PL/SQL. It is a high-performance, fully integrated database language.

What Is a PL/SQL Developer?

Oracle's PL/SQL Developer is a free Integrated Development Environment that allows you to effortlessly accomplish a wide range of database activities and develop software in the Oracle Database environment. End users can use the PL/SQL Developer IDE's GUI and plugins to speed up their database-related activities.

The Architecture of PL/SQL

The following three elements make up the majority of the PL/SQL architecture:

1. PL/SQL Block
2. PL/SQL Engine
3. Database Server

PL/SQL block:

• This part includes the actual PL/SQL code.
• This is made up of numerous sections that logically segment the code (declarative section for defining objectives, execution section for processing statements, exception handling section for dealing with problems), as well as the SQL that is used to interface with the database server.
• The architecture's first phase, which serves as the primary input, handles all PL/SQL units as PL/SQL blocks.

The various PL/SQL unit types are listed below.

• Anonymous Block
• Function
• Library
• Procedure
• Package Body
• Package Specification
• Trigger
• Type
• Type Body

PL/SQL Engine

• The PL/SQL engine is where the real code processing takes place.
• The input is divided into PL/SQL units and SQL components by the PL/SQL engine (as shown in the image below).
• The PL/SQL engine will handle the separated PL/SQL components.
• The SQL component will be sent to the database server, where actual database interaction will take place.
• It can be installed on both the application and database servers.

Database Server:

• The PL/SQL engine is where the real code processing occurs.
• The PL/SQL engine separates the input into PL/SQL units and SQL components (as shown in the image below).
• The PL/SQL engine will handle the separated PL/SQL components.
• The SQL component will be sent to the database server, where the real database interaction will take place.
• It can be installed on both the application server and the database server.

Features & Advantages of PL/SQL

• Better performance because SQL is executed in bulk rather than individually.
• Tight SQL integration that is extremely productive
• Completely portable
• Tight security protects concepts from object-oriented programming.
• Potential for scalability and management
• Supports Support for Web App Development Server page development

Disadvantages of PL/SQL

• PL/SQL stored procedures make extensive use of memory.
• Stored routines lack debugging features.
• Any changes to the underlying database have an impact on the presentation layer.
• does not differentiate between front-end and back-end developers
• It is difficult to separate HTML and PL/SQL programming.

Conclusion

The PL/SQL engine is housed in the Oracle engine. The Oracle engine can process both a single SQL statement and a block of many statements. If the SQL statements are contained within a PL/SQL block, executing any number of SQL statements requires only one call to the Oracle engine.