What does "IS" do in Oracle procedures?

user_6059951 0
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I want to create a procedure in Oracle; however, any sample that I look on the internet, has an "IS" syntax, which I couldn't find any functionality for it.

CREATE [OR REPLACE] PROCEDURE procedure_name
    [ (parameter [,parameter]) ]

IS
    [declaration_section]

BEGIN
    executable_section

[EXCEPTION
    exception_section]

END [procedure_name];

Does anyone know what does "IS" do?

syntax stored-procedures oracle
2 Answers

IS is part of Create procedure syntax: (can be replace with AS)

It separate the procedure definition from its contents.

The optional declaration section that follows allows you to declare local variables.

user_72949000

IS, in this context, tells us (and the compiler) that what follows is the body of the procedure. Its absence tells us (and the compiler) that it is merely a declaration (e.g. a forward declaration in a package body):

create or replace package body mypkg is

  -- this is just a forward declaration for the procedure
  procedure myproc (id in number);

  -- this is the full definition of the procedure
  procedure myproc (id in number)
  IS
    ..body of myproc..;

end mypkg;

In the case of a schema-level procedure, we could (in theory) have a syntax that makes the IS optional since there is no need for forward declarations; but (thankfully) the designers of PL/SQL kept the syntax consistent with the in-package syntax so IS is still required anyway.

user_1032950
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