Collections in Oracle PL/SQL
   Oracle uses collections in PL/SQL the same way other languages use arrays. Oracle provides three basic collections, each with an assortment of methods.   Index-By Tables (Associative Arrays)  Nested Table  Varrays  Collection Methods  Multiset Operations  Multidimensional Collections    Related articles.   Associative Arrays in Oracle 9i  Bulk Binds (BULK COLLECT & FORALL) and Record Processing in Oracle    Index-By Tables (Associative Arrays)   The first type of collection is known as index-by tables. These behave in the same way as arrays except that have no upper bounds, allowing them to constantly extend. As the name implies, the collection is indexed using  BINARY_INTEGER  values, which do not need to be consecutive. The collection is extended by assigning values to an element using an index value that does not currently exist.   SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000 DECLARE   TYPE table_type IS TABLE OF NUMBER(10)     INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;      v_tab  table_type;   ...