Question

I have a function that takes as one of it’s arguments a VARRAY of pl/sql Objects. How do I execute this stored procedure and bind the resultset that it returns to a data grid in TOAD for Oracle?

Answer 1

After some searching around, I found the answer to my own problem. Say your varray type was called varchar_pair_array and the objects stored in this array were called varchar_pair_object. varchar_pair_object is a simple object that has two varchars as it’s members.

Here is the code for executing a proc that takes in a varray of varchar_pair_object (s):

DECLARE 
  RetVal SYS_REFCURSOR;
  a_simplevalue VARCHAR2(200);
  another_simplevalue VARCHAR2(200);
  my_array_of_varchar_pairs VARCHAR_PAIR_ARRAY; -- assume varchar_pair_array is defined somewhere else
  my_obj VARCHAR_PAIR_OBJECT; -- assume varchar_pair_object is defined somewhere else
  my_other_obj VARCHAR_PAIR_OBJECT;
BEGIN 
  a_simplevalue := 'hello';
  another_simplevalue := 'there';
  my_obj := VARCHAR_PAIR_OBJECT('nice to meet you', 'greetings');
  my_other_obj := VARCHAR_PAIR_OBJECT('goodbye', 'ciao');
  my_array_of_varchar_pairs := VARCHAR_PAIR_ARRAY(); 
  my_array_of_varchar_pairs.EXTEND(2); -- this should be the number of objects you plan to put into the array
  my_array_of_varchar_pairs(1) := my_obj;
  my_array_of_varchar_pairs(2) := my_other_obj; 

  RetVal := my_function ( a_simplevalue, another_simplevalue, my_array_of_varchar_pairs); -- assuming your array takes two varchars and one array of VARCHAR_PAIR_OBJECT (s)
  :to_grid := RetVal;

END;

Copy paste this code in TOAD’s sql editor and change it to adapt to your function and types and hit F9. TOAD will ask you the type of the :to_grid variable. Select cursor (assuming your function returns a ref cursor) and hit enter. TOAD will bind the result set to a data grid.

Links that helped me:

http://www.smart-soft.co.uk/Oracle/oracle-plsql-tutorial-part-11.htm (good tutorial on collections)
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/appdev.920/a96624/10_objs.htm#1972 (especially useful in this case is the section on declaring and initializing objects)

With very little change the same can be done with a procedure.