Jeff Moden (6/11/2010)Excellent point, Paul. I never understood why Oracle chose to separate "SQL" from "PL/SQL".
That's a very good question which puzzled me for a long time.
Even when I do not have a definitive answer to it I know SQL was introduced around 1979 - most probably version 4 - when PL/SQL is a "modern" days innovation from 1992 - Oracle version 7.
Since PL/SQL follows the general structure and syntax of Ada while SQL is nothing but the Oracle implementation of the more structurally simple IBM's SQL my guess is that integration of the two languages was beyond the scope of the project. I remember Oracle documentation from those days introducing PL/SQL as a structured extension of SQL.
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Pablo (Paul) Berzukov
Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.
Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.