Question

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION layer2layerAttribute RETURN VARCHAR2 AS
/**
 * This function properly joins all layers to their appropriate fields
 */
  cursor PLACES is select * from layer l where l.layer_name like '%place%';
BEGIN
  FOR place IN PLACES
  LOOP
     Insert all
      into LAYER_JOIN_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE (ID_LAYER, ID_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE) 
        values (place.id_layer, select id_layer_attribute from layer_attribute where name_attribute = 'filter.street')
      into LAYER_JOIN_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE (ID_LAYER, ID_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE) 
        values (place.id_layer, select id_layer_attribute from layer_attribute where name_attribute = 'filter.city')
      into LAYER_JOIN_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE (ID_LAYER, ID_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE) 
        values (place.id_layer, select id_layer_attribute from layer_attribute where name_attribute = 'filter.state')
      into LAYER_JOIN_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE (ID_LAYER, ID_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE) 
        values (place.id_layer, select id_layer_attribute from layer_attribute where name_attribute = 'filter.zip')
      into LAYER_JOIN_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE (ID_LAYER, ID_LAYER_ATTRIBUTE) 
        values (place.id_layer, select id_layer_attribute from layer_attribute where name_attribute = 'filter.country')
      select * from dual;
  END LOOP;
  RETURN null;
END layer2layerAttribute;

Answer 1

You can, but you can’t use a select inside the values clause, or in place of the values clause for each into. You can either use values, or a single subquery. (See the syntax diagram). I’m also not sure why you’re using a cursor, rather than having the select from layer as the subquery instead of selecting from dual.

You can do this with a single insert though and skip the explicit cursor at the same time; in a procedure (rather than a function since you don’t need to return anything, and functions aren’t generally used when data can be updated) if neccessary:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE layer2layerAttribute AS
BEGIN
    insert into layer_join_layer_attribute (id_layer, id_layer_attribute)
    select l.id_layer, la.id_layer_attribute
    from layer l
    cross join layer_attribute la
    where l.layer_name like '%place%'
    and la.name_attribute in ('filter.street', 'filter.city', 'filter.state',
        'filter.zip', 'filter.country');
END layer2layerAttribute;

Although this looks like a one-off task to populate a new table, so you might be able to run it as a simple SQL statement. If it isn’t a one-off then you’ll get duplicates on the second execution unless you check and exclude them.