Named PL/SQL blocks of code which can be invoked using parameters are called PL/SQL sub programs.

Advantages of PL/SQL subprograms are

- The application makes a single call to the database to run a block of statements which improves performance against running SQL multiple times. This will reduce the number of calls between the database and the application.

- PL/SQL is secure since the code resides inside the database thus hiding internal database details from the application. The application will only make a call to the PL/SQL sub program

- PL/SQL and SQL go hand in hand so there would be no need of any translation required between PL/SQL and SQL.

PL/SQL is Procedural Language SQL that is an extension of SQL that results in a more structural language composed of blocks. It is mainly used in writing applications that needs to be structured and has error handling.

In a correlated query, the outer query is related to the inner query. This means one or more columns in the outer query are referenced. It’s used when the outer queries value is being used by inner query. For example, we need to find which employee had more perks in the current month than they did in the previous month. The correlated subquery is executed for each row of perks information in the parent query to first determine what the perks were for each employee in the previous month. This data, in turn, is compared to perks for each employee in the current month, and only those employees whose perks in the current month were greater that their previous month's perks are returned.

Joins are used to combine data of one or more tables. Joins should be used when there is abundant data. Joins can be LEFT, RIGHT, OUTER, INNER or even SELF JOIN. The purpose is to bind data from multiple tables without any receptivity

SQL*plus allows SQL and PL/SQL scripts to interactively run in command line.

It allows three kinds of commands to run; SQL, PL/SQL and SQL * Plus commands. It’s most commonly used by DBA’s to interact with the oracle database.

RDBMS is a database management system based on relational model defined by E.F.Codd. Data is stored in the form of rows and columns. The relations among tables are also stored in the form of the table.

Features:
- Provides data to be stored in tables
- Persists data in the form of rows and columns
- Provides facility primary key, to uniquely identify the rows
- Creates indexes for quicker data retrieval
- Provides a virtual table creation in which sensitive data can be stored and simplified query can be applied.(views)
- Sharing a common column in two or more tables(primary key and foreign key)
- Provides multi user accessibility that can be controlled by individual users

- Sub Query also termed as Nested Query or Inner Query is used to get data from multiple tables.
- A sub query is added in the where clause of the main query.

There can be two types of subqueries:
a.) Correlated sub query :
- It can reference column in a table listed in the from list of the outer query but is not as independent as a query.
b.) Non-Correlated sub query :
- Results of this sub query are submitted to the main query or parent query.
- It is independent like a query

A synonym can be called as an alias for a table, view, sequence or program unit. It is basically of two types:
- Private - Only the owner can access it.
- Public - Can be accessed by any database user.