Oracle 11g PL/SQL Positions of CONTANT variables in PACKAGE - plsql

Question

I have strictly optimization problem. where in my PACKAGE I should place CONSTANT variables when procedure/function is being called many times ?
Let's look at this:
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE WB_TEST IS
PROCEDURE TEST;
END WB_TEST;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY WB_TEST IS
FUNCTION PARSER(IN_PARAM IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
LC_MSG CONSTANT VARCHAR2(80) := 'Hello USERNAME! How are you today?';
LC_PARAM CONSTANT VARCHAR2(10) := 'USERNAME';
BEGIN
RETURN REPLACE(LC_MSG, LC_PARAM, IN_PARAM);
END PARSER;
PROCEDURE TEST IS
BEGIN
FOR I IN 1 .. 1000 LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(PARSER(TO_CHAR(I)));
END LOOP;
END TEST;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(1000000);
END WB_TEST;
/
Or is better to do something like that:
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE WB_TEST IS
PROCEDURE TEST;
END WB_TEST;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY WB_TEST IS
GC_MSG CONSTANT VARCHAR2(80) := 'Hello USERNAME! How are you today?';
GC_PARAM CONSTANT VARCHAR2(10) := 'USERNAME';
FUNCTION PARSER(IN_PARAM IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
BEGIN
RETURN REPLACE(GC_MSG, GC_PARAM, IN_PARAM);
END PARSER;
PROCEDURE TEST IS
BEGIN
FOR I IN 1 .. 1000 LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(PARSER(TO_CHAR(I)));
END LOOP;
END TEST;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(1000000);
END WB_TEST;

Answer 1

It is extremely unlikely to matter from a performance standpoint. The code the PL/SQL compiler generates should be identical in both cases-- the constants will almost certainly get compiled inline where they are referenced.
The only reason to prefer one over the other would be code clarity and variable scoping. If the constants are really local to the PARSER function-- if they aren't likely to be useful to other methods in the package, they ought to be declared as part of the function. If, on the other hand, they are likely to be useful to other methods in the package, they ought to be declared as part of the package body. If they are likely to be useful to methods outside the package, they ought to be declared as part of the package specification.