Results for “a_form_d”

AI-generated from documented ETRM metadata — verify critical details on the linked pages.

Overview

SYS.DIANA is a low-level PL/SQL package body that forms part of the Oracle Database's internal parser infrastructure, specifically the DIANA (Descriptive Intermediate Attributed Notation for Ada) subsystem that Oracle inherited from its Ada compiler heritage. Although it resides in the SYS schema, it is shipped as part of every Oracle E-Business Suite database, including EBS 12.1.1 and 12.2.2, because the RDBMS kernel itself depends on it. The package exposes a large family of thin accessor functions that navigate a parse-tree structure known as a "node" or "pidl" (parse intermediate definition language) tree. Each function accepts a node identifier and returns a related node by walking a fixed ordinal edge in the tree via the internal primitive pidl.ptg_nd. The abbreviated names of the functions, such as A_ACTUAL, A_BLOCK_, and A_EXP_VO, correspond to grammar productions and syntactic categories recognized by the compiler front end.

Key Procedures and Functions

The ETRM metadata documents 213 procedures and functions in this package body, all of which follow the same accessor pattern: a single pidl.ptnod input node and a pidl.ptnod return value obtained by calling pidl.ptg_nd(node, n) with a fixed ordinal n. Representative members include:

• A_ACTUAL — returns the "actual" child node of a parameter association, used to resolve the argument expression supplied at a call site.
• A_ALIGNM, A_BLOCK_, A_CLUSTE, A_CONNEC — navigate representation-specification and structural clauses such as alignment, block, cluster, and connection attributes.
• A_BINARY, A_EXP, A_EXP1, A_EXP2, A_EXP_VO — return the operands of binary and unary expression productions, exposing left and right expression sub-trees.
• A_CONSTD, A_CONSTT, A_D_, A_D_CHAR, A_D_R_, A_D_R_VO — traverse constant and data-declaration productions, distinguishing character and record variants.
• A_CONTEX, A_EXCEPT, A_FORM_D — return context, exception-handler, and formal-declaration sub-nodes respectively.

Because the functions are pure tree walkers with no side effects, they are invoked extremely frequently during compilation and are typically inlined or cached by the PL/SQL runtime.

Tables Accessed

The package body contains no SQL data manipulation language. None of the APPS synonyms or base tables listed in the ETRM cross-reference are directly referenced by SYS.DIANA. All of its state is held in memory within the parse tree passed to it as a PL/SQL record parameter. Consequently there are no DML statements, no cursor definitions, and no table lookups to document. Any apparent table-level dependencies arise indirectly through the caller, not from within this package.

Usage Notes

SYS.DIANA is not intended to be called from EBS application code, concurrent programs, or Oracle Forms. It is a private implementation detail of the Oracle kernel and is not part of any supported public API. The ETRM metadata records that the package is referenced by one other package, confirming its role as an internal helper rather than an entry point. The user search term "node--nnnncmd" suggests a query related to node navigation commands; in EBS environments such searches commonly originate from tooling that inspects internal dictionary objects or from diagnostic scripts tracing compiler behaviour. Custom code should never invoke SYS.DIANA, and doing so risks breakage across database versions or patch levels. Administrators investigating it should rely on supported dictionary views and Oracle Support rather than on direct invocation of these accessors.