PL/SQL: How do I declare session variables?

Question

How do I declare a session variable in PL/SQL - one that will persist for the duration of the session only, without me having to store it in the database itself?

Answer 1

I like to use a short, but intuitive syntax and thus would create e.g. some ctx package that just provides one function to set and get some global "variables".
(valid for the current session only ; in my case no need to implement it as user-created-context variables, but easily changeable to it under the hood ; example with some foo varchar2 and bar number vars)

usage:

select ctx.foo from dual                                                 -- => null (init)
select ctx.foo('a') from dual                                            -- => 'a'
select ctx.foo('b') from dual ; select ctx.foo from dual                 -- => 'b', 'b'

.

-- (optimizer should cause the subquerys unselected columns not to be executed:)
select 'ups' from (select ctx.foo('a') from dual) ; select ctx.foo from dual   -- => null

select ctx.bar(1.5) from dual ; select ctx.bar from dual                 -- => 1.5,  1.5
-- ...

package header:

create or replace package  ctx  as

  -- select ctx.foo from dual                                            -- => null (init)
  -- select ctx.foo('a') from dual                                       -- => 'a'
  -- select ctx.foo('b') from dual ; select ctx.foo from dual            -- => 'b', 'b'
  -- (optimizer should cause the subquerys unselected columns not to be executed:)
  -- select 'ups' from (select ctx.foo('a') from dual) ; select ctx.foo from dual
    -- => null
  -- parallel_enable for queries since it should not change inside of them
  function foo(  set varchar2 := null  ) return varchar2  parallel_enable;

  -- (samples like in foo above as executable test comments like in foo above skipped for 
  -- brevity)
  function bar(  set number := null  ) return  number  parallel_enable;

end;

package body:

create or replace package body  ctx  as

  foo_  varchar2(30);  -- e.g. 'blabla'
  bar_  number;


  -- internal helper function for varchars
  function set_if_not_null( ref  in out  varchar2,  val  varchar2  ) return varchar2 as 
  begin
    if  val is not null  then  ref := val;  end if;
    return ref ;
  end;


  -- internal helper function for numbers
  function set_if_not_null( ref  in out  number,  val number  ) return  number  as begin
    if  val is not null  then  ref := val;  end if;
    return ref ;
  end;


  -- (same test comments like in foo above skipped for brevity)      
  function foo(  set varchar2 := null  ) return varchar2  parallel_enable as begin
    return set_if_not_null(  foo_,  set  ) ;
  end;


  -- (same test comments like in foo above skipped for brevity)      
  function bar(  set number := null  ) return  number  parallel_enable as begin
    return set_if_not_null(  bar_,  set  ) ;
  end;

end;

If you know that the variable (foo) may change within a single query then remove parallel_enable, which should otherwise be more performant if queries are parallelizable.

Depending on ones needs one could of course add some foo_reset() to set it to null etc..