A collection method is a PL/SQL subprogram—either a function that returns information about a collection or a procedure that operates on a collection. Collection methods make collections easier to use and your applications easier to maintain.

Using PL/SQL Collections with SQL Statements. Collections let you manipulate complex datatypes within PL/SQL. Your program can compute subscripts to process specific elements in memory, and use SQL to store the results in database tables.

To use collections in an application, you define one or more PL/SQL types, then define variables of those types. You can define collection types in a procedure, function, or package. You can pass collection variables as parameters to stored subprograms.

It is a general concept that encompasses lists, arrays, and other familiar datatypes. Each element has a unique subscript that determines its position in the collection. PL/SQL offers these collection types: Index-by tables, also known as associative arrays, let you look up elements using arbitrary numbers and strings for subscript values.

PL/SQL lets you define two kinds of composite data types: collection and record. A composite data type stores values that have internal components. You can pass entire composite variables to subprograms as parameters, and you can access internal components of …

PL/SQL offers three kinds of collections: associative arrays, nested tables, and varrays (short for variable-size arrays). Nested tables extend the functionality of associative arrays (formerly called "PL/SQL tables" or "index-by tables").

PL/SQL has three collection types—associative array, VARRAY (variable-size array), and nested table.

The operands of CAST are a collection declared locally (in a PL/SQL anonymous block for example) and a SQL collection type. CAST converts the local collection to the specified type. That way, you can manipulate the collection as if it were a SQL database table.

Primary Author: Louise Morin. Contributing Authors: S. Moore, L. Jayapalan, P. Huey, E. Belden, K. Rich, V. Moore. Contributors: D. Alpern, S. Agrawal, H. Baer, S ...

PL/SQL offers two kinds of collections: nested tables and varrays (short for variable-size arrays). Collections work like the arrays found in most third-generation programming languages. However, collections can have only one dimension and must be indexed by integers.