Question

can I use a case in oracle 11g to do some operations(within PL/SQL) or it has to return a value, I mean, i can do this in mysql:

Select <column> from <table> where <conditions>;

case <column>   
 when 1 then      
  -- Quite many processes, queries, inserts, etc   
 when 2 then  
  -- some complex code  
-- And so on

Is it possible to achieve in oracle ?
I also would like to know if I can do this, ’cause im getting an oracle error in that line
i mean, set some variables in ELSE’s Case statement

CASE WHEN <condition> THEN varY := z ELSE var1:= x, var2:=x, var3:=y END

Answer 1

If you’re really talking about PL/SQL, the code you can certainly do multiple operations in a CASE statement. The code that you posted should work just fine other than the syntax error where a CASE statement in PL/SQL ends with END CASE not END.

SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf

  1  declare
  2    l_var1 number := 4;
  3    l_var2 number := 8;
  4  begin
  5    case when l_var1 = l_var2
  6         then l_var1 := 12;
  7         else
  8            l_var1 := 10;
  9            l_var2 := 6;
 10            dbms_output.put_line( 'I''m in the ELSE clause' );
 11     end case;
 12* end;
SQL> /
I'm in the ELSE clause

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

If you are talking about SQL, rather than PL/SQL, then no, you cannot embed procedural statements like assigning PL/SQL variables in a CASE statement in SQL.