Many PL/SQL developers are unaware of the STANDARD package, and its implications for their PL/SQL code. For example, it is common to find programmers who assume that names like INTEGER and TO_CHAR are reserved words in the PL/SQL language. That is not the case. They are, respectively, a datatype and a function declared in the STANDARD package.
STANDARD is one of the two default packages of PL/SQL (the other is DBMS_STANDARD). Because STANDARD is a default package, you do not need to qualify references to datatypes like INTEGER, NUMBER, PLS_INTEGER, etc., with “STANDARD”—but you could, if you so desired.
PLW-5004 notifies you if you happen to have declared an identifier with the same name as an element in STANDARD (or a SQL built-in; most built-ins—but not all—are declared in STANDARD).
Consider this procedure definition:
1 CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE plw5004 2 IS 3 INTEGER NUMBER; 4 5 PROCEDURE TO_CHAR 6 IS 7 BEGIN 8 INTEGER := 10; 9 END TO_CHAR; 10 BEGIN 11 TO_CHAR; 12 * END plw5004;
Compile-time warnings for this procedure will display as follows:
LINE/COL ERROR -------- --------------------------------- 3/4 PLW-05004: identifier INTEGER is also declared in STANDARD or is a SQL builtin 5/14 PLW-05004: identifier TO_CHAR is also declared in STANDARD or is a SQL builtin
You should avoid reusing the names of elements defined in the STANDARD package unless you have a very specific reason to do so.
