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Message Posted: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 @ 09:50:01 GMT

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PL SQL is the procedural environment on Oracle, as opposed to SQL/PLUS which is more akin to BTEQ. Teradata does now support stored procedures, like Oracle, but I've yet to use this facility or come across an instance in which there was a cast-iron need to do so.

PL SQL allows record-by-record processing and complex logic using variables and cursors etc to be applied in OLTP environments. There is less need for such facilities in a d/w environment, especially as Teradata does not support the concept of record position, in line with relational theory (value ordered indexes are then exception, but that's for ease of retrieval, not for record-by-record processing).

Oracle developers struggle at first to get used to the lack of procedural constructs at their disposal on Teradata. A slight change in mindset is all that is required. Teradata operates on sets of records, not individual records. I prefer to think of the procedural environment as being 'not needed' rather than 'not there'.

Paul Johnson.

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