Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The purpose of a PL/SQL function is generally used to compute and return a single value. This returned value may be a single scalar value (such as a number, date or character string) or a single collection (such as a nested table or array). User-defined functions supplement the built-in functions provided by Oracle Corporation. [6]
In standard SQL:1999 hierarchical queries are implemented by way of recursive common table expressions (CTEs). Unlike Oracle's earlier connect-by clause, recursive CTEs were designed with fixpoint semantics from the beginning. [1] Recursive CTEs from the standard were relatively close to the existing implementation in IBM DB2 version 2. [1]
Inline table-valued functions return the result set of a single SELECT statement. Multistatement table-valued functions return a table, which was built with many TRANSACT-SQL statements. User-defined functions can be invoked from a query like built‑in functions such as OBJECT_ID, LEN, DATEDIFF, or can be executed through an EXECUTE statement ...
The DUAL table is a special one-row, one-column table present by default in Oracle and other database installations. In Oracle, the table has a single VARCHAR2(1) column called DUMMY that has a value of 'X'. It is suitable for use in selecting a pseudo column such as SYSDATE or USER.
First normal form, as defined by Chris Date, permits relation-valued attributes (tables within tables). Date argues that relation-valued attributes, by means of which a column within a table can contain a table, are useful in rare cases. [14]
A function is a subprogram written to perform certain computations. A scalar function returns only one value (or NULL), whereas a table function returns a (relational) table comprising zero or more rows, each row with one or more columns. Functions must return a value (using the RETURN keyword), but for stored procedures this is not mandatory.
Many data description languages use a declarative syntax to define columns and data types. Structured Query Language (SQL), however, uses a collection of imperative verbs whose effect is to modify the schema of the database by adding, changing, or deleting definitions of tables or other elements.
Views also function as relational tables, but their data are calculated at query time. External tables (in Informix [3] or Oracle, [4] [5] for example) can also be thought of as views. In many systems for computational statistics, such as R and Python's pandas, a data frame or data table is a data type supporting the table