C H A P T E R  10

PL/SQL Collections and Records

Collections are single-dimensional arrays of data all with the same datatype and are accessed by an index; usually the index is a number, but it can be a string. Collections indexed by strings are commonly known as hash arrays.

Records are groups of related data, each with its own field name and datatype, similar to tables stored in the database. The record data structure in PL/SQL allows you to manipulate data at the field or record level. PL/SQL provides an easy method to define a record's structure based on a database table's structure or a cursor. Combining records and collections provide a powerful programming advantage described in the following recipes.