CODEWITHSUNDEEP
oracle-databaseplsqlcolon-equals
dansch
dansch

Reputation: 6267

what's the difference between ::= and := in oracle?

This is impossible to search on google, bing, yahoo, etc, because it uses symbols. How annoying!

What's the difference between ::= and := in oracle's pl/sql?

Upvotes: 7

Views: 4870

Answers (2)

TommCatt
TommCatt

Reputation: 5636

The only place (that I'm aware of) where ::= is used is in the syntactical description of PL/SQL (or any other language, for that matter) using Backus-Naur Form (BNF). The ::= symbol is a part of the BNF descriptive language itself, not a part of the language being described. There are many tutorials for BNF -- have fun!

Upvotes: 3

Rahul Tripathi
Rahul Tripathi

Reputation: 172408

I am not sure about ::= as I have not seen that in Oracle but the wiki says about :=

In computer programming languages, the equals sign typically denotes either a boolean operator to test equality of values (e.g. as in Pascal or Eiffel), which is consistent with the symbol's usage in mathematics, or an assignment operator (e.g. as in C-like languages). Languages making the former choice often use a colon-equals (:=) or ≔ to denote their assignment operator. Languages making the latter choice often use a double equals sign (==) to denote their boolean equality operator.

Also check here:

The assignment operator in PL/SQL is a colon plus an equal sign (:=). PL/SQL string literals are delimited by single quotes

Upvotes: 7

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