Advanced SQL: Cursors

& Stored Procedures

Instructor: Mohamed Eltabakh

meltabakh@cs.wpi.edu

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Today’s Roadmap
l  Views
l  Triggers

l  Cursors
l  Stored Procedures

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Using Select Inside Triggers
Create Trigger EmpDate
Before Insert On Employee
For Each Row - Execute Select inside trigger
Declare - Store the result in temp variables
temp date;
Begin
Select sysdate into temp from dual;
IF (:new.hireDate is null) Then Works fine if the Select
:new.hireDate := temp;
returns one tuple…
End IF;
End;
/ Create Trigger EmpDate
Before Insert On Employee
- Select two columns
For Each Row
Declare
into two variables
tempAge number;
tempName varchar2(100);
Begin
Select age, name into tempAge, tempName from R where ID = 5;
….
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End;
/
 Cursors: Introduction
l  Select statement may return many records
Select empID, name, salary
From Employee
Get 0 or more records
Where salary > 120,000;

l  What if inside a trigger:

l  Want to execute a select statement This’s what a cursor
l  Get one record at a time does for you…
l  Do something with each record

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What is a Cursor
l  A mechanism to navigate tuple-by-tuple over a relation

l  Typically used inside triggers, stored procedures, or stored

functions

l  Main Idea

l  When we execute a query, a relation is returned
l  It is stored in private work area for the query
l  Cursor is a pointer to this area
l  Move the cursor to navigate over the tuples

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Creating a Cursor
Cursor name Any query can go here

Cursor <name> IS <SQL query>;

Cursor HighSalEmp IS
Select empID, name, salary
From Employee
Where salary > 120,000;

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Cursor Operations
Cursor HighSalEmp IS
l  Create cursor Select empID, name, salary
From Employee
Where salary > 120,000;

Open HighSalEmp;
l  Open cursor
l  Execute the query and put the pointer at the first tuple

Fetch HighSalEmp into <variable>;

l  Fetch next tuple
l  Pointer moves automatically when a tuple is fetched

l  Close cursor Close HighSalEmp;

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 Example 1
l  Have two tables: Customer & Product
l  When insert a new customer
l  Put in Marketing table, the customer ID along with the products labeled ‘OnSale’
Create Trigger NewCust
After Insert On Customer
For Each Row Define the cursor in ‘Declare’ section
Declare
pid number;
cursor C1 is Select product_id From Product Where label = 'OnSale';
Begin
Open the cursor
open C1;
Loop Loop over each record at a time
Fetch C1 Into pid;
IF (C1%Found) Then If the fetch returned a record
Insert into Marketing(Cust_id, Product_id) values (:new.Id, pid);
END IF;
Exit When C1%NotFound;
END Loop; Customer ID
close C1; Close the cursor 8
End; /
 Example 2: Another way

l  Use of the FOR loop with cursors

Create Trigger NewCust

After Insert On Customer
For Each Row
Declare
cursor C1 is Select product_id From Product Where label = 'OnSale';

Begin
Automatically opens the cursor and fetches
a record in each iteration
For rec In C1 Loop
Insert into Marketing(Cust_id, Product_id) values (:new.Id, rec.product_id);
End Loop;
End; /
Automatically closes the cursor That is how to read the rec
variable
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Cursor Attributes
l  These are attributes maintained by the system

l  Assume C1 is the cursor name

l  Attributes include:

l  C1%ROWCOUNT: The number of tuples in C1
l  C1%FOUND: TRUE if the last fetch was successful
l  C1%NOTFOUND: TRUE if the last fetch was not successful
l  C1%ISOPEN: TRUE if C1 is open

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 Parameterized Cursor
l  Cursors can take parameters while opening them
l  Very powerful to customize their execution each time

l  Example: Like the previous example, but select products

with price < customer’s budget
Create Trigger NewCust
After Insert On Customer
For Each Row Define the cursor with a parameter
Declare
cursor C1 (budget number) is Select product_id From Product p
Where p.label = 'OnSale' and p.price < budget;
Begin
For rec In C1(:new.budget) Loop Pass the value at open time
Insert into Marketing(Cust_id, Product_id) values (:new.Id, rec.product_id);
End Loop;
End; /
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 Summary of Cursors
l  Efficient mechanism to iterate over a relation tuple-by-
tuple

l  Main operations

l  Open, fetch, close
l  Usually used inside loops

l  Cursors can be parameterized

l  What they return depends on the passed parameters

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Today’s Roadmap
l  Views
l  Triggers
l  Assertions
l  Cursors
l  Stored Procedures

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Stored Procedures & Functions
Views

Way to register queries inside DBMS

Stored Procedures &

Functions

Way to register code inside DBMS

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Stored Procedures in Oracle
l  Stored procedures in Oracle follow a
language called PL/SQL

l  PL/SQL: Procedural Language SQL

l  Same language used inside DB triggers

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 Creating A Stored Procedure
If exists, then drop it and create it again ‘IS’ or ‘AS’ both are valid

CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE <procedureName> (<paramList>) [IS| AS]

<localDeclarations>
Begin
<procedureBody>;
End;
/

A parameter in the paramList is specified as:

<name> <mode> <type>

Mode:
IN è input parameter (default)
OUT è output parameter
INOUT è input and output parameter

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General Structure
CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE procedure_name
[ (parameter [,parameter]) ]

[IS | AS]
[declaration_section]

BEGIN
executable_section Optional section for exception handling

[EXCEPTION
exception_section]

END [procedure_name];

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Example I

Define a variable
By default, it is IN

You can use the procedure name

before the parameter name

In PL/SQL a ‘;’ ends a line without execution

Execute the command and
create the procedure

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 Example II
Declaration section
Define a cursor that references the
input parameter

When anything goes wrong, it will

come to Exception section

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Calling a Stored Procedure
l  SQL> exec <procedureName> [(<paramList>)];

SQL > exec remove_emp (10);

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Printing From Stored Procedures
Taking three parameters

Printing lines to
output screen

For the output to appear on screen. Make sure to run:

Sql > set serveroutput on;

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Features in Stored Procedures
IN parameters

Create Procedure profiler_control(start_stop IN VARCHAR2, OUT parameters

run_comm IN VARCHAR2,
ret OUT number) AS

ret_code INTEGER; Variable declaration

BEGIN
ret_code := 10; Variable assignment

IF start_stop NOT IN ('START','STOP') THEN

ret:= 0;
ELSIF start_stop = 'START' THEN
ret:= 1;
ELSE IF statement
ret:= ret_code;
END IF;
END profiler_control;
/

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More Features: CURSOR &
FOR Statement
Create Procedure OpeningBal (p_type IN string) AS
cursor C1 Is
Select productId, name, price
From products
where type = p_type;
Begin
For rec in C1 Loop
Insert into Temp values (rec.productId, rec.name, rec.price);
End Loop;
End;
/

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Return Value
l  Stored procedures can set output variables

l  Stored procedures do not return values

l  Stored functions differ from procedure in

that they return values

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Stored Functions
l  Similar to stored procedures except that they return value
CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION <functionName>
RETURN <type> [(<paramList>)] AS
<localDeclarations>
<functionBody>;

The function return a number

Select into a variable

Return to the called

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 Stored Functions

l  All features in stored procedures are valid

in stored functions

l  Functions have an extra ‘Return’ statement

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 Using Stored Procedures or
Functions
l  Stored Procedures
l  Called from other procedures, functions, triggers, or
standalone

l  Stored Functions

l  In addition to above, can be used inside SELECT statement
l  In WHERE, HAVING, or projection list

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Example I

CREATE FUNCTION MaxNum() RETURN number AS

num1 number;
BEGIN
SELECT MAX (sNumber) INTO num1 FROM Student;
RETURN num1;
END;
/

SQL> Select * from Student where sNumber = MaxNum();

Calling the function in the Where clause

(function will be executed once)
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Example II Adding a parameter

CREATE FUNCTION MaxNum(lastName_in varchar2)

RETURN number AS
num1 number;
BEGIN
SELECT MAX (sNumber) INTO num1 FROM Student
Where lastName = lastName_in;
RETURN num1;
END;
/

SQL> Select * from Student S where S.sNumber = MaxNum(S.lastName);

Calling the function in the Where clause

(function will execute with each record in Student)
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Example III
CREATE FUNCTION MaxNum(lastName_in varchar2)
RETURN number AS
num1 number;
BEGIN
SELECT MAX (sNumber) INTO num1 FROM Student
Where lastName = lastName_in;
RETURN num1;
END;
/

SQL> Select MaxNum(S.lastName) from Student S;

Calling the function in the projection list

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Summary of Stored Procedures/
Functions

l  Code modules that are stored inside the DBMS

l  Used and called repeatedly

l  Powerful programing language style

l  Can be called from other procedures, functions, triggers, or

from select statement (only functions)

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End of Advanced SQL

l  Views
l  Triggers
l  Assertions
l  Cursors
l  Stored Procedures/Functions

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