A Word About OTHERS Exception - Oracle

This is a great exception which can handle almost any type of exception within PL/SQL. In general this exception is used when you are not sure about any specific error which may raise within PL/SQL block. But you are suggested to use this exception caution. This exception is very frequently used for log eventing or auditing. The following example illustrates usage of this exception.

Declare
  v_empno emp.empno%type:=&empno;
  v_ename emp.ename%type:='&ename';
  v_deptno emp.deptno%type:=&deptno;
Begin
  Insert into emp(empno,ename,deptno)
  Values (v_empno,v_ename,v_deptno);
  dbms_output.put_line('Employee Successfully Inserted');
Exception
  When OTHERS then
    dbms_output.put_line('An error occurred. Please check your values');
End ;

You should also observe from the above example that the error message is also bit generic rather than confirming to only one scenario (like previous example). It is suggested to provide a generic error message within OTHERS exception, as you may not know any specific error which may occur.