PL/SQL Basics 1

[Bammy217]

Hi folks,

I'm a developer who has gotten slowly used to TSQL over PL/SQL and I've run into a query from my predecessor who has used a PL/SQL comman I've totally forgotten about, could someone shed a little light on the following:

Within a select he has listed: "(+)"

can anyone remind me just what it is used for?

Many thanks,
b.

We never fail, we just find that the path to succes is never quite what we thought...

 

[Dagon]

This is not strictly part of PL/SQL at all. It is part of the general Oracle SQL syntax. It means the table is outer-joined. You may be familiar with the ANSI syntax:

select e.*
from emp e
left outer join dept d
on e.deptno = d.deptno

This is represented in Oracle SQL (much more succinctly and elegantly in my view) as:

select e.*
from emp e, dept d
where e.deptno = d.deptno(+)

 

[Bammy217]

Thank you Dagon,

like i said it has been way to long since I had the pleasure of working on a real DB!!

and for the quick and helpfull response... a star for you

We never fail, we just find that the path to succes is never quite what we thought...