Lingaraj RH

• Jul 12th, 2006

 

Internally the Oracle database supports two procedural languages, namely PL/SQL and Java. This leads to questions like "Which of the two is the best?" and "Will Oracle ever desupport PL/SQL in favour of Java?".

Many Oracle applications are based on PL/SQL and it would be difficult of Oracle to ever desupport PL/SQL. In fact, all indications are that PL/SQL still has a bright future ahead of it. Many enhancements are still being made to PL/SQL. For example, Oracle 9iDB supports native compilation of Pl/SQL code to binaries.

PL/SQL and Java appeal to different people in different job roles. The following table briefly describes the difference between these two language environments:

PL/SQL:

Data centric and tightly integrated into the database

Proprietary to Oracle and difficult to port to other database systems

Data manipulation is slightly faster in PL/SQL than in Java

Easier to use than Java (depending on your background)

Java:

Open standard, not proprietary to Oracle

Incurs some data conversion overhead between the Database and Java type systems

Java is more difficult to use (depending on your background)