VALIDATE_CONVERSION determines whether expr can be converted to the specified data type. If expr can be successfully converted, then this function returns 1; otherwise, this function returns 0. If expr evaluates to null, then this function returns 1. If an error occurs while evaluating expr, then this function returns the error.

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION(1000 AS BINARY_DOUBLE)
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('1234.56' AS BINARY_FLOAT)
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('July 20, 1969, 20:18' AS DATE,
    'Month dd, YYYY, HH24:MI', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American')
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('200 00:00:00' AS INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND)
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('P1Y2M' AS INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH)
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('$100,00' AS NUMBER,
    '$999D99', 'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS = '',.''')
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('29-Jan-02 17:24:00' AS TIMESTAMP,
    'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS')
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('1999-12-01 11:00:00 -8:00'
    AS TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS TZH:TZM')
FROM DUAL;

SELECT VALIDATE_CONVERSION('11-May-16 17:30:00'
    AS TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE, 'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS')
FROM DUAL;

References

Oracle Docs

The SELECT INTO is actually a standard SQL query where the SELECT INTO clause is used to place the returned data into predefined variables.

create or replace function auth_Name
( v_auth_state IN author.author_state%type)
return varchar2

as
    v_authName author.author_last_name%type;
    
    begin
    select author_last_name into v_authName
    from author
    where author_state = v_auth_state;

    return v_authName;

    exception

    when TOO_MANY_ROWS
    then return 'Too Many Authors in that State';

    when NO_DATA_FOUND
    then return 'No Authors in that State';

    when others
    then raise_application_error(-20011,'Unknown Exception in authName Function');

end;

References

dba-Oracle

SELECT COUNT(*) INTO var WHERE CONDITION;

IF var > 0 THEN
SELECT NEEDED_FIELD INTO otherVar WHERE CONDITION;

In PLSQL method with count(*) is unsafe in above code. If another session deletes the row that met the condition after the line with the count(*), and before the line with the select ... into, the code will throw an exception that will not get handled.

Use the below insted,

SELECT NEEDED_FIELD INTO var WHERE CONDITION;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND

References

Stack Overflow

The SET DEFINE command changes the prefix character used to mark substitution variables. You can use SET DEFINE to turn variable substitution off.

SET DEF[INE] {OFF | ON | prefix_char}

Define is a SQL*Plus client variable. It is NOT a database level setting.

When you start SQL*Plus, variable substitution will be on by default, and the default prefix character is an ampersand. If you are running a script that uses ampersands in text strings, you may want to change the prefix character to something else. If your script doesn’t use substitution variables, you may find it easiest to turn the feature off.

References

Oreilly

A common pattern is for a component to return a list of children. In the below example when Column component is rendering the HTML will be invalid as a div is coming in the middle of the table. Whenever we are using Fragments, we can avoid that.

Take this example React snippet:

class Table extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <table>
        <tr>
          <Columns />
        </tr>
      </table>
    );
  }
}

would need to return multiple elements in order for the rendered HTML to be valid. If a parent div was used inside the render() of , then the resulting HTML will be invalid.

class Columns extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        <td>Hello</td>
        <td>World</td>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

results in a output of:

<table>
  <tr>
    <div>
      <td>Hello</td>
      <td>World</td>
    </div>
  </tr>
</table>

Fragments declared with the explicit <React.Fragment> syntax may have keys. A use case for this is mapping a collection to an array of fragments — for example, to create a description list:

function Glossary(props) {
  return (
    <dl>
      {props.items.map(item => (
        // Without the `key`, React will fire a key warning
        <React.Fragment key={item.id}>
          <dt>{item.term}</dt>
          <dd>{item.description}</dd>
        </React.Fragment>
      ))}
    </dl>
  );
}

A common pattern in React is for a component to return multiple elements. Fragments let you group a list of children without adding extra nodes to the DOM.

render() {
  return (
    <React.Fragment>
      <ChildA />
      <ChildB />
      <ChildC />
    </React.Fragment>
  );
}

Short Syntax

Here is the shorter syntax you can use for declaring fragments. It looks like empty tags:

class Columns extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <>
        <td>Hello</td>
        <td>World</td>
      </>
    );
  }
}

Motivation for fragments in React.

The %TYPE attribute lets use the datatype of a field, record, nested table, database column, or variable in your own declarations, rather than hardcoding the type names.

You can use the %TYPE attribute as a datatype specifier when declaring constants, variables, fields, and parameters. If the types that you reference change, your declarations are automatically updated.

This technique saves you from making code changes when, for example, the length of a VARCHAR2 column is increased. Note that column constraints, such as the NOT NULL and check constraint, or default values are not inherited by items declared using %TYPE.