FOR Loop

PL/SQL for loop is used when when you want to execute a set of statements for a predetermined number of times. The loop is iterated between the start and end integer values. The counter is always incremented by 1 and once the counter reaches the value of end integer, the loop ends.

Syntax of for loop:

FOR counter IN initial_value .. final_value LOOP  

  LOOP statements;   

END LOOP;  

• initial_value : Start integer value
• final_value : End integer value

PL/SQL For Loop Example 1

Let’s see a simple example of PL/SQL FOR loop.

BEGIN  

FOR k IN 1..10 LOOP  

-- note that k was not declared  

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(k);  

END LOOP;  

END;   

After the execution of the above code, you will get the following result:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Note: You must follow these steps while using PL/SQL WHILE Loop.

• You don’t need to declare the counter variable explicitly because it is declared implicitly in the declaration section.
• The counter variable is incremented by 1 and does not need to be incremented explicitly.
• You can use EXIT WHEN statements and EXIT statements in FOR Loops but it is not done often.

PL/SQL For Loop Example 2

DECLARE   

VAR1 NUMBER;  

BEGIN   

VAR1:=10;  

FOR VAR2 IN 1..10  

LOOP  

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (VAR1*VAR2);  

END LOOP;  

END; 

Output:

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100

PL/SQL For Loop REVERSE Example 3

Let’s see an example of PL/SQL for loop where we are using REVERSE keyword.

DECLARE   

VAR1 NUMBER;  

BEGIN   

VAR1:=10;  

FOR VAR2 IN REVERSE 1..10  

LOOP  

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (VAR1*VAR2);  

END LOOP;  

END;  

Output:

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10