Oracle Database Basics

1. What is SQL?
➢ Structured Query Language (SQL) is the set of statements with which all Programs and Users
access data in an Oracle Database. The language, Structured English Query Language (SEQueL)
was developed by IBM Corporation. SEQueL later became SQL (still pronounced “sequel”). In
1979, Relational Software, Inc. (now Oracle) introduced the first commercially available
implementation of SQL.
➢ SQL Tasks:
(i) Querying data
(ii) Inserting, Updating and Deleting rows in a table
(iii) Creating, Replacing, Altering and Dropping objects
(iv) Controlling access to the Database and its objects
(v) Guaranteeing database consistency and integrity

2. Basic elements of Oracle SQL.

2.1 Datatype
2.2 Literals
2.3 Format Models
2.4 Nulls
2.5 Comments
2.6 Database Objects
2.7 Schema Object names and Qualifiers
2.8 Syntax for Schema objects and parts in SQL Statements

2.1 Datatype
Each value manipulated by Oracle Database has a datatype. The datatype of a value associates a
fixed set of properties with the value. These properties cause Oracle to treat values of one datatype
differently from values of another.
The category of datatype divided into following sections:
2.1.1 Oracle Built-in Datatypes
2.1.2 ANSI, DB2, and SQL/DS Datatypes
2.1.3 User-Defined Types
2.1.4 Oracle-Supplied Types
A datatype is either Scalar or Non-Scalar. A scalar type contains an atomic value, whereas a non-
scalar (sometimes called as “Collections”) contains a set of values. A Large Object (LOB) is a special
form of scalar datatype representing a larger scalar value of binary or character data.

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 2.1.1 Oracle Built-in Datatypes
2.1.1.1 Character Datatypes
2.1.1.2 Number Datatypes
2.1.1.3 Long and Raw Datatypes
2.1.1.4 Datetime Datatypes
2.1.1.5 Large Object Datatypes
2.1.1.6 ROWID Datatypes

2.1.1.1 Character Datatypes

(i) CHAR
(ii) VARCHAR2
(iii) NCHAR
(iv) NVARCHAR2
2.1.1.2 Number Datatypes
(i) Number
(ii) Binary-Float
(iii) Binary-Double
2.1.1.3 Long and Raw Datatypes
(i) LONG
(ii) LONG RAW
(iii) RAW
2.1.1.4 Datetime Datatypes
(i) DATE
(ii) Timestamp with <Local> Time Zone
(iii) Interval Year to Month
(iv) Interval Day to Second
(v) Timestamp
2.1.1.5 Large Object Datatypes
(i) BLOB
(ii) CLOB
(iii) NCLOB
(iv) BFILE
2.1.1.6 ROWID Datatypes
(i) ROWID
(ii) UROWID

2.1.2 ANSI, DB2, and SQL/DS Datatypes

(i) Character/Character Varying
(ii) Char Varying / NChar Varying
(iii) Varchar
(iv) National Character / National Char
(v) Numeric / Decimal / Dec
(vi) Integer / Int / Smallint
(vii) Float
(viii) Double Precision
(ix) Real

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 2.1.3 User-Defined Types
This is defined by User
2.1.4 Oracle-Supplied Types
(i) Any-Types
(ii) XML-Types
(iii) Spatial-Types
(iv) Media-Types
(v) Expression-Filter-Type

2.2 Literals
The term Literals and Constant values are synonymous and refer to a fixed data value. For
Example, ‘JACK’, ‘BLUE ISLANDS’, and ‘101’ are all character literals. 1000, 5000 are Numeric literals.
Character literals are enclosed in single quotation marks so that Oracle can distinguish them from schema
object names.
These are of 4 categories:
2.2.1 Text Literals
2.2.2 Numeric Literals
2.2.3 Datetime Literals
2.2.4 Interval Literals

2.2.1 Text Literals

Use the text literal notation to specify values whenever it appears in the syntax of
expressions, contains, SQL functions, and SQL statements in other parts of this reference. This reference
uses the terms text literals, character literals and string interchangeably. These literals are always
surrounded by single quotation marks.

Syntax: N ‘C’ or n ‘C’

• Here, N or n specifies the literal using the national character set (NCHAR or NVARCHAR2 data)
• Here, C is any member of the User’s character set. A single quotation mark (‘) within the literal
must be preceded by an escape character. To represent one single quotation mark within a
literal, enter two single quotation marks.
• ‘’ are two single quotation marks that begin and end text literals.
Example: N ‘This is text literal’
N ‘This is ‘’text’’ literal with single quote inside literal’
‘Hello’
’01-Jan-2023’

Syntax: Q ‘quote-delimiter C quote-delimiter’

Or
q ‘quote-delimiter C quote-delimiter’
• Here, Q or q indicates that the alternative quoting mechanism will be used. This mechanism
allows a wide range of delimiters for the text string.
• Here, the outermost ‘’ are two single quotation marks that precede and follows, respectively,
the opening and closing quote-delimiter.

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 • C is any member of the user’s character set. You can include the quotation marks (‘’) in the text
literals made up of C characters. You can also include the quote-delimiter, as long as it is not
immediately followed by a single quotation mark.
• Quote-delimiter is any single or multibyte character except Space, Tab, and Return. If the
opening quote-delimiter is one of [, {, <, or (, then the closing quote-delimiter must be the
corresponding ], }, >, or ).
• A text literal can have maximum length of 4000 bytes.
Example:
q ‘! Name like ‘%DBMS-%%’ !’
q ‘< ‘So, ‘She said, ‘It’s finished.’ >’
q ‘ ” name like ‘[‘ “ ’

2.2.2 Numeric Literals

2.2.2.1 Integer Literals
Example:
7
+255
2.2.2.2 Number and Floating-Point Literals
Example:
Number Literal example:
25
+6.34
0.5
25e-03
-1
Floating-Point Example:
25f
+6.34f
0.5d
-1D
• Here, + or – indicates a positive or negative value. Positive sign is default.
• e or E, indicates that the number is specified in scientific notation. The digit after E
specify the exponent. The exponent can range from -130 to 125.
• f or F indicates that the number is a 32-bit binary floating point number (of type
BINARY-FLOAT).
• d or D indicates that the number is a 64-bit binary floating point number (of type
BINARY-DOUBLE).
• If you omit f or F and d or D, then the number is of type NUMBER.
• A Number of type NUMBER can store a maximum of 38 digits of precision. If the
literals requires more precision than provided by NUMBER, BINARY-FLOAT or BINARY-
DOUBLE, then Oracle truncates the value.

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 2.2.3 Datetime Literals
Oracle supports four Datetime datatypes:
(A) Date
(B) Timestamp
(C) Timestamp with Time Zone
(D) Timestamp with Local Time Zone

(A) Date Literals

You can specify a DATE value as a string literal, or you can convert a character or
numeric value to a Date value with the TO_DATE function.
ANSI Format Example: DATE ‘1998-12-25’
The ANSI Date literal contains no time portion, and must be specified in exactly this format
(‘YYYY-MM-DD’)
Oracle’s alternate Format Example:
TO_DATE (’98-DEC-25 17:30’, ‘YY-MON-DD HH24:MI’)
TO_DATE (’03-OCT-02’, ’DD-MON-YY’)
’03-OCT-02’

• The Date Function SYSDATE returns the current system Date and Time
• The function CURRENT_DATE returns the current session Date.

(B) Timestamp Literals

The TIMESTAMP datatype stores Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, and Second, and fractional
Second values.
Example: TIMESTAMP ‘1997-01-31 09:26:50.124’

(C) Timestamp with Time Zone Literals

This datatype is a variant of TIMESTAMP that includes a Time Zone offset.
Example:
TIMESTAMP ‘1997-01-31 09:26:56.66 +2:00’
TIMESTAMP ‘1999-04-15 8:00:00 -8:00’

(D) Timestamp with Local Time Zone Literals

The Timestamp with Local Time Zone datatype differs from Timestamp with Time Zone in
that data stored in the database in normalized to the database Time Zone. The Time Zone offset is not
stored as part of the column data. There is no literal for this datatype.

2.2.4 Interval Literals

An Interval literal specifies a period of time. You can specify these differences in terms of
Years and Months, or in terms of Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds.
Oracle Database supports two types of interval literals, YEAR TO MONTH and DAY TO
SECOND. Each type contains a Leading field and may contain a Trailing field.
The Leading field defines a basic unit of Date or Time being measured.
The Trailing field defines the smallest increment of the basic unit being considered.
If you have Date data in Numeric form, the you can use the NUMTOYMINTERVAL or
NUMTODSINTERVAL conversion function to convert the numeric data into interval values.

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 (A) INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH
Syntax: Interval ‘Integer [-integer]’ YEAR [(Precision)] TO MONTH
Leading Field
Trailing Field This is the maximum number of digits in the Leading field. This
(Optional digit can be from 0 to 9. Default is 2.

Examples:
1. INTERVAL ‘123-2’ YEAR(3) TO MONTH
It means, Interval indicates 123 years, 2 months
2. INTERVAL ‘123’ YEAR(3)
An interval of 123 years, 0 months
3. INTERVAL ‘300’ MONTH(3)
An interval of 300 months
4. INTERVAL ‘4’ YEAR
Maps to INTERVAL ‘4-0’ YEAR TO MONTH and indicates 4 years
5. INTERVAL ‘50’ MONTH
Maps to INTERVAL ‘4-2’ YEAR TO MONTH and indicates 50 months or 4 years 2 months
6. INTERVAL ‘123’ YEAR
Returns an error, because the default precision is 2, and ‘123’ has 3 digits
7. We can add or subtract one interval literal with another.
INTERVAL ‘5-3’ YEAR TO MONTH i.e. 5 years 3 months
+
INTERVAL ‘20’ MONTH i.e. 1 year 8 months
=
INTERVAL ‘6-11’ YEAR TO MONTH i.e. 6 years 11 months

8. INSERT INTO EMPLOYEES (EMP_ID, YEARS_OF_EXPERIENCE) VALUES

(111, INTERVAL ’10-2’ YEAR TO MONTH);
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES;
Output:
EMP_ID YEARS_OF_EXPERIENCE
---------- --------------------------------
111 +10-02

2.3 Format Models

A Format Model is a character literal that describes the format of Datetime of Numeric data
stored in a character string. A format model doesn’t change the internal representation of the value in the
database.
2.3.1 Number Format Models
• In the TO_CHAR function to Translate a value of NUMBER, BINARY-FLOAT, or BINARY-
DOUBLE datatype to VARCHAR2 datatype.
• In the TO_NUMBER function to Translate a value of CHAR or VARCHAR2 datatype to
NUMBER datatype.

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 • In the TO_BINARY_FLOAT and TO_BINARY_DOUBLE functions to Translate CHAR and
VARCHAR2 expressions to BINARY-FLOAT, or BINARY-DOUBLE values.

Examples:
TO_CHAR (5678, ‘9,999’) = ‘5,678’
TO_CHAR (45, ’99.99’) = ’45.00’

2.3.2 Datetime Format Models

• In the TO_* datetime functions to Translate a character value that is in a format other
than the default format into a Datetime value. (The TO_* Datetime functions are
TO_CHAR, TO_DATE, TO_TIMESTAMP, TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ, TO_YMINTERVAL, and
TO_DSINTERVAL).
• The total length of a Datetime format model cannot exceed 22 characters.

Examples:
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘DD-MM-YY’) = ’05-03-20’
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘DDTH’) = 04TH
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘DDSP’) = FOUR
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘DDSPTH’) = FOURTH
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘DDTHSP’) = FOURTH
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘fmDDTH’) = 4th
TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, ‘fmDay’) || ‘ Special’ = Tuesday’s Special

2.4 NULLS
• If a column in a row has no value, then the column is said to be NULL, or to contain
NULL.
• Any Arithmetic expression containing a NULL always evaluates to NULL. For example,
NULL added to 10 is NULL. In fact all operators (except concatenation) return NULL
when given a NULL operand.
• All Scalar functions (except REPLACE, NVL, and CONCAT) return NULL when given a
NULL argument.
• To test for NULLS, use only the comparison conditions IS NULL and IS NOT NULL.
• NULL represents a lack of data, a NULL cannot be equal or unequal to any value or to
another NULL.
• If you use any other condition with Nulls and the result depends on the value of the
NULL, then the result is UNKNOWN.
• A condition that evaluates to UNKNOWN acts almost like FALSE. For example, a
SELECT statement with a condition in the WHERE clause that evaluates to UNKNOWN
returns no rows.

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 Examples:

Condition Value of A Evaluation

A IS NULL 10 FALSE
A IS NOT NULL 10 TRUE
A IS NULL NULL TRUE
A IS NOT NULL NULL FALSE
A = NULL 10 UNKNOWN
A != NULL 10 UNKNOWN
A = NULL NULL UNKNOWN
A != NULL NULL UNKNOWN
A = 10 NULL UNKNOWN
A != 10 NULL UNKNOWN

2.5 Comments
• Comments can make your application easier for you to read and maintain. Comments
within SQL statements do not affect the statement execution.
• A comment can appear between any keywords, parameters, or punctuation marks in
a statement. You can include a Comment in a statement in two ways:
(A) Begin the comment with a Slash and an Asterisk (/*). Proceed with the
text of the comment. This text can span multiple lines. End the comment with
an Asterisk and a Slash (*/).
(B) Begin the comment with two hyphens (--). Proceed with the text of the
comment. This text cannot extend to a new line. End the comment with a line
break.
• You can associate a comment with a Table, View, Materialized View, or Column using
the COMMENT Command. Comments associated with schema objects are stored in
the data dictionary.

2.6 Database Objects

2.6.1 Schema Objects
A Schema is a collection of logical structures of data, or schema objects. A schema is
owned by a database user and has the same name as that user. Each user owns a single schema. Schema
objects can be created and manipulated with SQL and include the following types of objects:
 Clusters
 Constraints
 Database Links
 Database Triggers
 Dimensions
 External Procedure Libraries
 Index-Organized Tables
 Indexes
 Indextypes
 Java Classes, Java Resources, Java Sources
 Materialized Views
 Materialized View Logs

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  Object Tables
 Objects Types
 Object Views
 Operators
 Packages
 Sequences
 Stored Functions, Stored Procedures
 Synonyms
 Tables
 Views

2.6.2 Non-Schema Objects

Other types of objects are also stored in the database and can be created and
manipulated with SQL but are not contained in a schema.
 Contexts
 Directories
 Parameter Files (PFILEs) and Server Parameter Files (SPFILEs).
 Profiles
 Roles
 Rollback Segments
 Tablespaces
 Users

2.7 Schema Object Names and Qualifiers

2.7.1 Schema Object Naming Rules
• Every database object has a name. In a SQL statement, you represent the name of an
object with a quoted identifier or a non-quoted identifier.
• A quoted identifier begins and ends with double quotation marks (“). If you name a
schema object using a quoted identifier, then you must use the double quotation
marks whenever you refer to that object.
• A non-quoted identifier is not surrounded by any punctuation.
• The following list of rules applies to both quoted and non-quoted identifiers:
(A) Names must be 1 to 30 bytes long with these exceptions:
=> Names of databases are limited to 8 bytes.
=> Names of database links can be as long as 128 bytes.
(B) Non-quoted identifiers cannot be Oracle Database reserved words. Quoted
identifiers can be reserved words.
(C) Non-quoted identifiers must begin with an alphabetic character from your
database character set. Quoted identifiers can begin with any character.
(D) Non-quoted identifiers can contain only alphanumeric characters from your
database character set and the Underscore (_), Dollar sign ($), and Pound sign (#).
Database links can also contain Period (.) and “at” sign (@).
Oracle strongly discourages you from using $ and # in Non-quoted identifiers.
Quoted identifiers can contain any characters and punctuation marks as well as
spaces.
(E) Within a namespace, no two objects can have the same name.

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 The following schema objects shares one namespace:
 Tables
 Views
 Sequences
 Private Synonyms
 Stand-alone Procedures
 Stand-alone stored Functions
 Packages
 Materialized Views
 User-defined Types

Each of the following schema objects has its own namespace:

 Indexes
 Constraints
 Clusters
 Database Triggers
 Private Database Links
 Dimensions

Each of the following nonschema objects also has its own namespace:
 User Roles
 Public Synonyms
 Public Database Links
 Tablespaces
 Profiles
 Parameter Files (PFILEs) and Server Parameter File (SPFILEs)

(F) Non-quoted identifiers are not case sensitive. Oracle interprets them as
Uppercase. Quoted identifiers are case sensitive.

3. Database
The Database is the repository for Data and the Engine that manages access to it. An Oracle
Database is a set of files on disk. It exists until these files are deliberately deleted. A Database
collects data, stores, and organizes data, and retrieves related data used by a business.

4. DBMS
A DataBase Management System (DBMS) controls the storage, organization, and retrieval of data.
In a DBMS, the Kernal code is the software piece that manages the storage and memory component
of the Database. There is Metadata in the DBMS that keeps track of all the components of the
Database, also known as the Dictionary. The Code or language used to retrieve data from the
Database is known as SQL.

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 5. RDBMS
A Relational DataBase Management System (RDBMS) is an organized model of Subjects and
characteristics that have relationships among the subjects. RDBMS structures are easy to
understand and build. These structures are logically represented using the Entity-Relational (ER)
model.

6. ORDBMS
An RDBMS that implements Object-Oriented features such as User-defined Types, Inheritance, and
Polymorphism is called ORDBMS. It lets you create User-defined Object Types in the Relational
Database system.

7. Characteristics of a Relational Database

Relational Database have the following three major characteristics that constitute a well-defined
RDBMS:
 Structures are objects that store or access data from the database. Tables, Views, and
Indexes are example of Structures in Oracle.
 Operations are the actions that are used to define the structures or to manipulate data
between the structures. SELECT statements and CREATE statements are examples of
Operations in Oracle.
 Integrity Rules govern what kind of actions are allowed on data and database structure.
These rules protect the data and the structure of the database. The Primary Keys and
Foreign Keys are examples of Integrity Rules in Oracle.

8. Logical Model
In the design phase of the system development cycle, a Logical model of the database is created. A
logical model of an RDBMS is typically a block diagram of Entities and Relationships, referred to as
Entity-Relationship (ER) model or ER Diagram. An ER model has Entity, Relationship, and Attributes.
The Logical model also provides information known as access paths.

 An Entity in a logical model is much like a Noun in grammar – a person, place or thing.
 The characteristics of an Entity are known as its Attributes. Attributes are detailed
information about an entity that serves Qualify, Identify, Classify, or Quantify it.
 There are Optional and Mandatory attributes. An Asterisk (*) along with the attribute
name indicates that it is mandatory. The Optional attribute may be indicated with a small
“o”.
 Relationship identifies the relation between the tow or more entities. In the ER model, a
solid line (___) represents a mandatory relationship, and a Crowfoot represents the
“Many”. Optional occurrence is represented by a dotted line (-----).
 Unique Identifier (UID) is represented in the diagram using a Pound (#) symbol.

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 ER MODEL

 There are three types of relationships can be defined between the Entities:
(i) One-to-One: A One-to-One relationship is one in which each occurrence of one entity is
represented by a single occurrence in another entity.

(ii) One-to-Many: A One-to-Many relationship is one in which an occurrence of an entity can be

represented by many occurrences in another entity.

(iii) Many-to-Many: A Many-to-Many relationship is one in which an occurrence from one entity
can be represented by one or more occurrences in another entity, and an occurrence from the
second entity may be represented by one or many occurrences in the first entity.
Many-to-Many relationships should not exist in RDBMS because they cannot be properly joined
to represent a single row correctly. To solve this, create another entity that has an One-to-Many
relationship with the first entity and an One-to-Many relationship with the second entity.

9. Physical Model
The Physical Model is created by taking the logical model and creating a database and database
objects to represent the entities and relationships.
In the Physical model, each Entity becomes a TABLE and attributes of the entity become COLUMNS
of the table. The relationship between the entities is part of one or more CONSTRAINTS between
the tables.
The Unique Identifiers (UID) of an entity become the PRIMARY KEY of the table. Stored procedures,
functions, and Triggers may be created to enforce business rules.

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 Defining FOREIGN KEY ensures the referential integrity of the data. It defines the relationship
between the tables.

Oracle implements the RDBMS characteristics using the following set of structures:
 Tables are used for data storage.
 Views and Synonyms are created for data access.
 Indexes are used to speed up data retrieval.
 Primary Keys, Foreign Keys, and Unique Keys are called Constraints and are created to
enforce data integrity.
 Triggers are created to satisfy the business rules.
 Roles and Privileges are used for Security.
 Procedures, Function, and Packages are used to code the Application.

The physical structure of an Oracle Database server consists of two major components: The
Database and the Instance.
The Database is a set of physical files saved on the disk that store information.
The Instance is a set of memory structures and processes that uses the physical components to
manipulate and retrieve data.

Host Machine * The host machine is where the Oracle Instance is running

Instance

User
SGA

PGA

Background
Processes

Storage Disk
Database
Files
Files
Files

10. Connections and Users

When you create a new Oracle Database, several default users are automatically created.
❖ SYS is the data dictionary or meta data dictionary owner for the database. You connect SYS
to Start and Stop database and other key administrative tasks.

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 ❖ SYSTEM is a powerful administrative user in the database. Initially, you use this user
connection to create database users and other administrations in the database.
❖ In a container database, the users are either common or local. Common users are visible on
the container as well as in all pluggable databases. They have the same Username and
Password across all pluggable database and in the container database. The schema for
common user is still local to each pluggable database and the container database.
❖ A Schema is a collection of database objects owned by a user account in the database. A
Schema and a User have a One-to-One relationship in the database. A schema is created as
a user in the database, but when the user owns database objects, it is called a Schema.
❖ When an object is created under someone’s schema, the user has full privilege on the object
by default.
❖ Using Oracle’s Roles and Privileges, a schema owner or administrator can grant privilege on
his or her object (such as a table) to another user in the same database. This is known as
Object-level privilege.
❖ For certain user, you may want to grant privileges on all the objects in the database. This is
accomplished by using the System Privileges.

Connecting to SQL*Plus
SQL*Plus is Oracle’s Command-Line interface to the Oracle database.
Once you are in SQL*Plus, you can connect to another database or change your connection
by using the CONNECT command, with the below Syntax:

CONNECT <username>/<password>@<connect-string>

The slash separates the username and password. The connect string following @ is the
database alias name known as the net service name.
You may replace the connect string with a construct called the easy connect.
Syntax: [//]Host[:Port]/<service-name>

For example: To connect to database service named C12DB1 on Machine DINESH_PC, where
the listener is running in port 1521, use:

SQLPLUS system@”DINESH_PC:1521/C12DB1”

Once you are connected to SQL*Plus, you will get the SQL> prompt. This is default prompt,
which can be changed using the SET SQLPROMPT command. To Exit from SQL*Plus, use the
EXIT or QUIT command.

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11. Operators
Operator Description
+ Addition operator
:= Assignment operator
=> Association operator
% Attribute indicator
' Character string delimiter
. Component indicator
|| Concatenation operator
/ Division operator
** Exponentiation operator
( Expression or list delimiter (begin)
) Expression or list delimiter (end)
: Host variable indicator
, Item separator
<< Label delimiter (begin)
>> Label delimiter (end)
/* Multiline comment delimiter (begin)
*/ Multiline comment delimiter (end)
* Multiplication operator
" Quoted identifier delimiter
.. Range operator
= Relational operator (equal)
<> Relational operator (not equal)
!= Relational operator (not equal)
~= Relational operator (not equal)
^= Relational operator (not equal)
< Relational operator (less than)
> Relational operator (greater than)
<= Relational operator (less than or equal)
>= Relational operator (greater than or equal)
@ Remote access indicator
-- Single-line comment indicator
; Statement terminator
- Subtraction or negation operator

12. Identifiers
Identifiers name PL/SQL elements, which include:
• Constants
• Cursors
• Exceptions
• Keywords
• Labels
• Packages
• Reserved words
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 • Subprograms
• Types
• Variables

Reserved Words and Keywords

Reserved words and keywords are identifiers that have special meaning in PL/SQL.
You cannot use reserved words as ordinary user-defined identifiers. You can use them
as quoted user-defined identifiers, but it is not recommended.
You can use keywords as ordinary user-defined identifiers, but it is not recommended.

Begins with: Reserved Words

A ALL, ALTER, AND, ANY, AS, ASC, AT
B BEGIN, BETWEEN, BY
C CASE, CHECK, CLUSTERS, CLUSTER, COLAUTH, COLUMNS, COMPRESS, CONNECT, CRASH, CREATE, CURSOR
D DECLARE, DEFAULT, DESC, DISTINCT, DROP
E ELSE, END, EXCEPTION, EXCLUSIVE
F FETCH, FOR, FROM, FUNCTION
G GOTO, GRANT, GROUP
H HAVING
I IDENTIFIED, IF, IN, INDEX, INDEXES, INSERT, INTERSECT, INTO, IS
L LIKE, LOCK
M MINUS, MODE
N NOCOMPRESS, NOT, NOWAIT, NULL
O OF, ON, OPTION, OR, ORDER, OVERLAPS
P PROCEDURE, PUBLIC
R RESOURCE, REVOKE
S SELECT, SHARE, SIZE, SQL, START, SUBTYPE
T TABAUTH, TABLE, THEN, TO, TYPE
U UNION, UNIQUE, UPDATE
V VALUES, VIEW, VIEWS
W WHEN, WHERE, WITH

Begins with: Keywords

A A, ADD, ACCESSIBLE, AGENT, AGGREGATE, ARRAY, ATTRIBUTE, AUTHID, AVG
B BFILE_BASE, BINARY, BLOB_BASE, BLOCK, BODY, BOTH, BOUND, BULK, BYTE
C, CALL, CALLING, CASCADE, CHAR, CHAR_BASE, CHARACTER, CHARSET, CHARSETFORM, CHARSETID, CLOB_BASE, CLONE, CLOSE, COLLECT,
COMMENT, COMMIT, COMMITTED, COMPILED, CONSTANT, CONSTRUCTOR, CONTEXT, CONTINUE, CONVERT, COUNT, CREDENTIAL, CURRENT,
C CUSTOMDATUM
D DANGLING, DATA, DATE, DATE_BASE, DAY, DEFINE, DELETE, DETERMINISTIC, DIRECTORY, DOUBLE, DURATION
E ELEMENT, ELSIF, EMPTY, ESCAPE, EXCEPT, EXCEPTIONS, EXECUTE, EXISTS, EXIT, EXTERNAL
F FINAL, FIRST, FIXED, FLOAT, FORALL, FORCE
G GENERAL
H HASH, HEAP, HIDDEN, HOUR
I IMMEDIATE, INCLUDING, INDICATOR, INDICES, INFINITE, INSTANTIABLE, INT, INTERFACE, INTERVAL, INVALIDATE, ISOLATION
J JAVA
L LANGUAGE, LARGE, LEADING, LENGTH, LEVEL, LIBRARY, LIKE2, LIKE4, LIKEC, LIMIT, LIMITED, LOCAL, LONG, LOOP
M MAP, MAX, MAXLEN, MEMBER, MERGE, MIN, MINUTE, MOD, MODIFY, MONTH, MULTISET
N NAME, NAN, NATIONAL, NATIVE, NCHAR, NEW, NOCOPY, NUMBER_BASE

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 OBJECT, OCICOLL, OCIDATE, OCIDATETIME, OCIDURATION, OCIINTERVAL, OCILOBLOCATOR, OCINUMBER, OCIRAW, OCIREF, OCIREFCURSOR,
OCIROWID, OCISTRING, OCITYPE, OLD, ONLY, OPAQUE, OPEN, OPERATOR, ORACLE, ORADATA, ORGANIZATION, ORLANY, ORLVARY, OTHERS,
O OUT, OVERRIDING
PACKAGE, PARALLEL_ENABLE, PARAMETER, PARAMETERS, PARENT, PARTITION, PASCAL, PIPE, PIPELINED, PLUGGABLE, PRAGMA, PRECISION,
P PRIOR, PRIVATE
RAISE, RANGE, RAW, READ, RECORD, REF, REFERENCE, RELIES_ON, REM, REMAINDER, RENAME, RESULT, RESULT_CACHE, RETURN,
R RETURNING, REVERSE, ROLLBACK, ROW
SAMPLE, SAVE, SAVEPOINT, SB1, SB2, SB4, SECOND, SEGMENT, SELF, SEPARATE, SEQUENCE, SERIALIZABLE, SET, SHORT, SIZE_T, SOME,
SPARSE, SQLCODE, SQLDATA, SQLNAME, SQLSTATE, STANDARD, STATIC, STDDEV, STORED, STRING, STRUCT, STYLE, SUBMULTISET,
S SUBPARTITION, SUBSTITUTABLE, SUM, SYNONYM
TDO, THE, TIME, TIMESTAMP, TIMEZONE_ABBR, TIMEZONE_HOUR, TIMEZONE_MINUTE, TIMEZONE_REGION, TRAILING, TRANSACTION,
T TRANSACTIONAL, TRUSTED
U UB1, UB2, UB4, UNDER, UNPLUG, UNSIGNED, UNTRUSTED, USE, USING
V VALIST, VALUE, VARIABLE, VARIANCE, VARRAY, VARYING, VOID
W WHILE, WORK, WRAPPED, WRITE
Y YEAR
Z ZONE

Predefined Identifiers
Predefined identifiers are declared in the predefined package STANDARD.
An example of a predefined identifier is the exception INVALID_NUMBER.
For a list of predefined identifiers, connect to Oracle Database as a user who has the
DBA role and use this query:
SELECT TYPE_NAME FROM ALL_TYPES WHERE PREDEFINED='YES';

BFILE CLOB NAMED COLLECTION PL/SQL LONG RAW TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TZ
BINARY ROWID DATE NAMED OBJECT PL/SQL LONG RAW REF TIMESTAMP WITH TZ
BINARY_DOUBLE FLOAT NUMBER PL/SQL PLS INTEGER TABLE UROWID
PL/SQL BINARY
BINARY_FLOAT INTEGER INTEGER PL/SQL RECORD TIME VARCHAR
INTERVAL DAY TO TIME WITH
BLOB SECOND PL/SQL BOOLEAN PL/SQL REF CURSOR TZ VARCHAR2
INTERVAL YEAR TO
CHAR MONTH PL/SQL COLLECTION PL/SQL ROWID TIMESTAMP VARYING ARRAY

You can use predefined identifiers as user-defined identifiers, but it is not

recommended. Your local declaration overrides the global declaration.

User-Defined Identifiers
A user-defined identifier is:
• Composed of characters from the database character set
• Either ordinary or quoted

Make user-defined identifiers meaningful. For example, the meaning of

cost_per_thousand is obvious, but the meaning of cpt is not.

Ordinary User-Defined Identifiers

An ordinary user-defined identifier:
• Begins with a letter
• Can include letters, digits, and these symbols:
– Dollar sign ($)

DINESH Page 17 of 18
 – Number sign (#)
– Underscore (_)
• Is not a reserved word.
The database character set defines which characters are classified as letters and digits.
The representation of the identifier in the database character set cannot exceed 30
bytes.
Examples of acceptable ordinary user-defined identifiers:
X
t2
phone#
credit_limit
LastName
oracle$number
money$$$tree
SN##
try_again_
Examples of unacceptable ordinary user-defined identifiers:
mine&yours
debit-amount
on/off
user id

Quoted User-Defined Identifiers

A quoted user-defined identifier is enclosed in double quotation marks. Between the
double quotation marks, any characters from the database character set are allowed
except double quotation marks, new line characters, and null characters. For example,
these identifiers are acceptable:
"X+Y"
"last name"
"on/off switch"
"employee(s)"
"*** header info ***"

The representation of the quoted identifier in the database character set cannot exceed
30 bytes (excluding the double quotation marks).
A quoted user-defined identifier is case-sensitive, with one exception: If a quoted user defined
identifier, without its enclosing double quotation marks, is a valid ordinary
user-defined identifier, then the double quotation marks are optional in references to
the identifier, and if you omit them, then the identifier is case-insensitive.

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