Oracle PL/SQL: Key Differences Between CASE Expression and CASE Statement

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In Oracle PL/SQL, the CASE Expression and CASE Statement serve distinct purposes despite sharing similar syntax. A CASE Expression evaluates a condition and returns a single scalar value, making it suitable for assignments or inline SQL use, while a CASE Statement executes one or more procedural actions based on conditions. Their termination syntax also differs: CASE Statements close with END CASE; whereas CASE Expressions end with END. A critical behavioral difference involves unhandled cases — a CASE Statement with no matching WHEN clause and no ELSE raises a runtime ORA-06592 exception, while a CASE Expression silently returns NULL under the same circumstances. Developers should account for these distinctions to avoid unexpected runtime errors in production PL/SQL code.

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