What is front-end & back-end?Can we use SQL as front-end?What is SQL,PL/SQL,Oracle? What r the differences?

Answer 1

Generally, a front end is the software that controls how a user interacts with a complex other piece of software. The back end, is usually that complex piece of software that users need help using. Oracle is often described as a back end application.

I guess, SQL and PL/SQL COULD be described as a front end application. But in my mind they are built into Oracle. I tend to think of FE apps as those applications that make it easier to use that complex app. Things like report writers, and point & click query builders, that sort of thing.

Answer 2

Sql Front End

Answer 3

back-end = database ergo SQL/Oracle
frontend is the application or interface you use to present all the backend stuff in a meaningful way...ex: web interface

no you cant use SQL as a front-end...not unless you want your users directly destroying your database.

Answer 4

back end is the database where user data stored and front end is the what appears to the users
Oracle has a product xalled D2k which can be used as front end

Answer 5

SQL (commonly expanded to Structured Query Language — see History for the term's derivation) is the most popular computer language used to create, modify, retrieve and manipulate data from relational database management systems. The language has evolved beyond its original purpose to support object-relational database management systems. It is an ANSI/ISO standard.

SQL is commonly spoken in initialism-style ess-cue-el (see English alphabet) — regarded as more formal — or in a phonetically-amalgamated form that mirrors the English word sequel. Concerning the names of major database products (or projects) containing the letters SQL, each has its own convention: MySQL is officially and commonly pronounced "My Ess Cue El"; PostgreSQL is expediently pronounced postgres; and Microsoft SQL Server is commonly spoken as Microsoft-sequel-server.

more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

PL/SQL (Procedural Language/Structured Query Language) is Oracle Corporation's proprietary server-based procedural extension to the SQL database language. (Some other SQL database management systems offer languages similar to PL/SQL.) Its syntax strongly resembles that of the Ada programming language.

PL/SQL supports variables, conditions, arrays, and exceptions. Implementations from version 8 of the Oracle RDBMS onwards have included features associated with object-orientation.

The underlying SQL functions as a declarative language. Standard SQL—unlike some functional programming languages—does not require implementations to convert tail calls to jumps. SQL does not readily provide "first row" and "rest of table" accessors, and it cannot easily perform some constructs such as loops. PL/SQL, however, as a Turing-complete procedural language which fills in these gaps, allows Oracle database developers to interface with the underlying relational database in an imperative manner. SQL statements can make explicit in-line calls to PL/SQL functions, or can cause PL/SQL triggers to fire upon pre-defined Data Manipulation Language (DML) events.

PL/SQL stored procedures (functions, procedures, packages, and triggers) which perform DML get compiled into an Oracle database: to this extent their SQL code can undergo syntax-checking. Programmers working in an Oracle database environment can construct PL/SQL blocks of such functionality to serve as procedures, functions; or they can write in-line segments of PL/SQL within SQL*Plus scripts.

While programmers can readily incorporate SQL DML statements into PL/SQL (as cursor definitions, for example, or using the SELECT ... INTO syntax), Data Definition Language (DDL) statements such as CREATE TABLE/DROP INDEX etc require the use of "Dynamic SQL". Earlier versions of Oracle required the use of a complex built-in DBMS_SQL package for Dynamic SQL where the system needed to explicitly parse and execute an SQL statement. Later versions have included an EXECUTE IMMEDIATE syntax called "Native Dynamic SQL" which considerably simplifies matters. Any use of DDL in Oracle will result in an implicit commit. Programmers can also use Dynamic SQL to execute DML where they do not know the exact content of the statement in advance.

PL/SQL offers several pre-defined packages for specific purposes. Such PL/SQL packages include:

* DBMS_OUTPUT - for output operations to non-database destinations
* DBMS_JOB - for running specific procedures/functions at a particular time (i.e. scheduling)
* DBMS_XPLAN - for formatting "Explain Plan" output
* DBMS_SESSION
* DBMS_METADATA - for extracting meta data from the data dictionary (such as DDL statements)
* UTL_FILE - for reading and writing files on disk
* UTL_HTTP - for making requests to web servers from the database
* UTL_SMTP - for sending mail from the database (via an SMTP server)

Oracle Corporation customarily adds more packages and/or extends package functionality with each successive release of the Oracle DBMS.

more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/SQL

The ORACLE or Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine, an early computer built by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was based on the IAS architecture developed by John von Neumann. As with all computers of its era, it was a one of a kind machine that could not exchange programs with other computers (even other IAS machines). It used vacuum tubes, transistors, and diodes. It used a Williams tube for 2048 words of memory. Its addition time was 70 microseconds, the multiplication time was 370-590 microseconds, and the division time was 590 microseconds. These times include the storage access time, which was about 62 microseconds.

more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORACLE_%28computer%29