Question

I am getting a ORA-06532 error in my pl/sql procedure. It has to do with my array, and it seems to be happening on the line that starts: “term_1 := …”. The query that selects into gets 7 records, so it should be the same amount as what I am calling for. I am a little new to the SQL array thing, so I may have missed something obvious. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

DECLARE

listOfTerms      VC50_ARRAY;
term_1           varchar2(30);
term_2           varchar2(30);
term_3           varchar2(30);
term_4           varchar2(30);
term_5           varchar2(30);
term_6           varchar2(30);
term_7           varchar2(30);

BEGIN

SELECT apl.awdp_acad_terms 
BULK COLLECT INTO listOfTerms
FROM fa_years fay 
   JOIN award_periods_ls apl
     ON apl.award_periods_id = fay.award_periods_id 
WHERE (SELECT b.awdp_fa_year as faYear 
      FROM award_periods_ls a 
           JOIN coll18_test.fa_years b ON a.award_periods_id = b.award_periods_id 
     WHERE awdp_acad_terms = v_ug_term) = fay.awdp_fa_year
ORDER BY apl.awdp_acad_terms DESC;

term_1   := listOFTerms(1);     
term_2   := listOFTerms(2);             
term_3   := listOFTerms(3);
term_4   := listOFTerms(4);             
term_5   := listOFTerms(5);             
term_6   := listOFTerms(6);             
term_7   := listOFTerms(7);   

Answer 1

I think you’re over-complicating this. You code is equivalent to:

DECLARE

   -- Declare the cursor explicitly.
   cursor c_my_cursor is
     SELECT apl.awdp_acad_terms 
       FROM fa_years fay 
       JOIN award_periods_ls apl
         ON apl.award_periods_id = fay.award_periods_id 
      WHERE ( SELECT b.awdp_fa_year as faYear 
                FROM award_periods_ls a 
                JOIN coll18_test.fa_years b 
                  ON a.award_periods_id = b.award_periods_id 
               WHERE awdp_acad_terms = v_ug_term ) = fay.awdp_fa_year
      ORDER BY apl.awdp_acad_terms DESC;

   -- Create a-user defined type that is the same as a single row in the cursor.
   type t__listOfTerms is table of c_my_cursor%rowtype index by binary_integer;
   -- Initialise a variable that is of data-type t__listofterms.
   t_listofterms t__listofterms;

BEGIN

   open c_my_cursor;
   fetch c_my_cursor bulk collect into t_listofterms;
   close c_my_cursor;

END;

You can then reference the items in your type by their index values so term_1 is the same as t_listofterms(1). There’s no need create an additional variable with the same value; you can reference it in the same way so length(term1) and length(t_listofterms(1)) are also the same.

There’s a lot of stuff out there about array processing but PSOUG is helpful as is the documentation.

---

Judging by your comment you may be referencing the collection explicitly, i.e. something := t_listofterms(7). This assumes that there is a specific number of rows. Bulk collect fills a collection from 1 to n, where n is the number of rows returned by the query. It’s often better to loop through this if you want to do something with it rather than explicit referencing. Something like,

for i in t_listofterms.first .. t_listofterms.last loop

    do_something;

end loop;