PL/SQL - Constants and Literals

A constant holds a value that once declared, does not change in the program. A constant declaration specifies its name, data type, and value, and allocates storage for it. The declaration can also impose the NOT NULL constraint.

Declaring a Constant

A constant is declared using the CONSTANT keyword. It requires an initial value and does not allow that value to be changed. For example:

The PL/SQL Literals

A literal is an explicit numeric, character, string, or Boolean value not represented by an identifier. For example, TRUE, 786, NULL, 'tutorialspoint' are all literals of type Boolean, number, or string. PL/SQL, literals are case-sensitive. PL/SQL supports the following kinds of literals:

• Numeric Literals
• Character Literals
• String Literals
• BOOLEAN Literals
• Date and Time Literals

The following table provides examples from all these categories of literal values.
050 78 -14 0 +32767
6.6667 0.0 -12.0 3.14159 +7800.00
6E5 1.0E-8 3.14159e0 -1E38 -9.5e-3
'Hello, world!'
'Tutorials Point'
'19-NOV-12'