"Understanding Bind Variables in PL/SQL: Enhancing Performance and Security"

PL/SQL, a programming language for Oracle databases, offers bind variables as a powerful feature. Bind variables are placeholders in SQL statements that allow you to pass values at runtime, improving performance and security.

Key benefits include improved parsing time, enhanced security against SQL injection attacks, type safety, and automatic data type conversions. By using bind variables, developers can reduce errors and increase the efficiency of database operations.

In PL/SQL, bind variables are represented by a colon (:) followed by a variable name. For example, :dept_id is a placeholder that will be replaced with the value of v_dept_id when the SQL statement is executed.

Example:

DECLARE
    v_dept_id NUMBER := 10;
    v_emp_name VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
    SELECT name INTO v_emp_name
    FROM employees
    WHERE department_id = :dept_id;
END;

Source: https://dev.to/mrcaption49/bind-variables-in-plsql-hf5