A package cursor is a cursor which you declare in the package specification without an SQL statement.The SQL statement for the cursor is attached dynamically at runtime from calling procedures.

In our case, db_block_buffers was changed from 60 to 1000 (std values are 60, 550 & 3500) shared_pool_size was changed from 3.5MB to 9MB (std values are 3.5, 5 & 9MB) open_cursors was changed from 200 to 300 (std values are 200 & 300) db_block_size was changed from 2048 (2K) to 4096 (4K) {at the time of database creation}. The initial SGA was around 4MB when the server RAM was 32MB and The new SGA was around 13MB when the server RAM was increased to 128MB.

Subprograms pass information using parameters.The variables or expressions referenced in the parameter list of a subprogram call are actual parameters.For example, the following procedure call lists two actual parameters named emp_num and amount: Eg.raise_salary(emp_num, amount);

The variables declared in a subprogram specification and referenced in the subprogram body are formal parameters.For example, the following procedure declares two formal parameters named emp_id and increase: Eg.PROCEDURE raise_salary (emp_id INTEGER, increase REAL) IS current_salary REAL;

PL/SQL requires that you declare an identifier before using it.Therefore, you must declare a subprogram before calling it.This declaration at the start of a subprogram is called forward declaration.A forward declaration consists of a subprogram specification terminated by a semicolon.