A new feature for PL/SQL was introduced in V12, pragma UDF. UDF stands for User Defined Functions. It can speed up any SQL you have that uses PL/SQL functions you created yourself.

{please see this second post on some limitations of pragma UDF in respect of IN & RETURN data types and parameter defaults}.

We can create our own functions in PL/SQL and they can be called from both PL/SQL and SQL. This has been possible since V7.3 and is used extensively by some sites to extend the capabilities of the database and encapsulate business logic.

A problem with this, though, is that every time you swap from SQL to PL/SQL (or the other way around) you have to do a context switch each time, which can be quite cpu and memory intensive. If you are using your own PL/SQL function in the SELECT list of a SQL statement and…