Oracle Functions: Purpose and Uses

The purpose of an Oracle function is to perform a series of operations and return a value. It can take parameters and perform calculations and processing based on the values of those parameters. Functions can be used for various purposes such as mathematical calculations, string operations, date handling, and conditional statements.

Functions can be used in SQL statements to express expressions or values of a column, for querying, filtering, sorting and other operations. Functions can also be called by other functions to provide more complex functionality.

Oracle offers a variety of built-in functions, such as numeric functions (like ABS, ROUND), string functions (like SUBSTR, UPPER), and date functions (like TO_DATE, EXTRACT). In addition, users can also create custom functions to meet their specific needs.

In conclusion, the purpose of Oracle function functions is to provide a reusable way to perform specific operations and return result values. They play a crucial role in database queries and data processing.