The purpose is to confuse the heck out of the person who tries to understand it. Using military vocabulary, so popular these these days, the "var" before the declare block is here to confuse and deceive the enemy. You see, if the program was written in such a way that another human being could understand it and, god forbid, maintain it, the job security of the original coder would be in double jeopardy. With unemployment numbers as high as they are, coding clearly and documenting your code is a direct attack on the still frail economy. Hopefully, my explanation answers your question. Feel free to ask more questions.
On 11/11/2003 04:44:24 PM, Maryann Atkinson wrote: > My original posting had a few lines truncated, so here I go again: > > I'm looking at a PL/SQL script that goes like this > > -- Header > var Source_Data VARCHAR2(12) > > DECLARE > Num1 NUMBER; > > BEGIN > Source_Data := '&1'; > > What's the purpose of having a VAR statement in front or Before > of the Declare section? Is it used for bind-variables, is that what it is? > > thx > maa > > -- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net > -- > Author: Maryann Atkinson > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com > San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). > Mladen Gogala Oracle DBA Note: This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. Wang Trading LLC and any of its subsidiaries each reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorized to state them to be the views of any such entity. -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Mladen Gogala INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
