Thursday, May 6, 2010

SERIALLY_REUSABLE Pragma in Oracle

The pragma SERIALLY_REUSABLE lets you mark a package as serially reusable. You can so mark a package if its state is needed only for the duration of one call to the server (for example, an OCI call to the server or a server-to-server RPC).


Syntax

PRAGMA SERIALLY_REUSABLE;

Keyword and Parameter Description

PRAGMA

This keyword signifies that the statement is a pragma (compiler directive). Pragmas are processed at compile time, not at run time. They do not affect the meaning of a program; they simply convey information to the compiler.

Usage Notes

You can mark a bodiless package as serially reusable. If a package has a spec and body, you must mark both. You cannot mark only the body.

The global memory for serially reusable packages is pooled in the System Global Area (SGA), not allocated to individual users in the User Global Area (UGA). That way, the package work area can be reused. When the call to the server ends, the memory is returned to the pool. Each time the package is reused, its public variables are initialized to their default values or to NULL.

Serially reusable packages cannot be accessed from database triggers. If you try, Oracle generates an error.

Examples

In the following example, you create a serially reusable package:

CREATE PACKAGE pkg_pragma IS

PRAGMA SERIALLY_REUSABLE;

num NUMBER := 0;

PROCEDURE init_pkg_state(n NUMBER);

PROCEDURE print_pkg_state;

END pkg_pragma;