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PL/SQL variable naming standards
Oracle Tips
Coriolis Publishing
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Oracle Program Identifier
Standards
When declaring variables and constants, the developer should preface a
meaningful identifier with one of the prefixes shown below:
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Datatype prefixes for use in identifiers.
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|
Datatype |
Prefix |
Example |
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binary_integer |
bi |
biArrayIndex |
|
boolean |
b
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bStudentQualifiesForAid |
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char |
c
|
cYesOrNo |
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date |
d
|
dEnrolledDate |
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exception |
x
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xTABLE_DOES_NOT_EXIST |
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integer |
i
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iCoursesCarried |
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long |
l
|
lComments |
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longraw |
lr |
lrStudentPhoto |
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natural |
na |
naArrayIndex |
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number |
n
|
nRemainingBalance |
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raw |
r
|
rStudentPhoto |
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rowid |
row |
rowStudent |
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varchar2 |
v
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vStudentFirstName |
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Identifiers should always use mixed-case and capital letters to indicate
separation of elements within an identifier. Thus, a variable of type
varchar2 that holds a student’s first name would be vStudentFirstName.
The identifiers used for explicitly declared cursors should be meaningful;
the suffix _cur should be appended to the identifier. For example:
CURSOR Students_cur
IS
SELECT first_name, middle_name, last_name, overall_gpa, most_recent_gpa
FROM STUDENTS;
Identifiers declared using %TYPE should still include a datatype
prefix as part of the identifier name:
nStudentSSN STUDENTS.ssn%TYPE;
Identifiers declared using %ROWTYPE should be named like the object
that is lending the variable its structure. These identifiers should always
include the _rec suffix as part of the identifier:
Students_rec STUDENTS%ROWTYPE;
FailingStudents_rec FailingStudents_cur%ROWTYPE;
This is an excerpt from "High Performance Oracle Database
Automation", by Jonathan Ingram and Donald K. Burleson, Series Editor.
