It would be helpful if the DECODE function could be supported in PL/SQL.
Currently, if we use DECODE directly in PL/SQL, we get an error:
return decode(num1, num2, 'SAME', 'DIFFERENT');
ORA-06553: PLS-204: function or pseudo-column 'DECODE' may be used inside a SQL statement only
DECODE is useful because when comparing two different columns, it considers two NULL values to be equivalent.
I'm aware that there are workarounds, such as SELECT INTO:
select decode(num1, num2, 'SAME', 'DIFFERENT')
into v_decode
from dual;
But that's not as clean as using DECODE directly.
Could DECODE be added to PL/SQL?
Feel free to let me know if I've misunderstood something.