Using PL/Scope we can collect information about every identifier in your PL/SQL code compiled in the database - where is it declared and defined and where is it assigned, called or referenced. We can query that information to find out lots of interesting information about our code, but it can become convoluted hierarchical queries if we want to follow the entire call stack.

Using 26ai native Property Graph in the database, we can treat such data as a graph and query "paths" of code calls with SQL/PGQ instead of hierarchical queries. These can be visualized using the APEX Graph Visualization Plug-in.

The visualization will show the code in the database, no matter if the application front is APEX or some other client, so we can use this on any PL/SQL based application. If it's an APEX application, remember that PL/Scope does not catch code embedded in for example APEX pages - to take advantage of this technique, we should place our code in packages.

Let's try and see how much knowledge about our code we can gain in this way. Do we have unused code anywhere? Can it help impact analysis if we want to change some code? Will the visualization show us whether we have nicely modularized code or a heap of tangled spaghetti?