Question

I’m struggling with PL/SQL functions. I’m trying to write a function which would take in a table of objects, filter that table, based on some criteria (I intend to test values against other tables) and the return filtered table.

My table type is defined as follows:

CREATE TYPE test_obj AS OBJECT (test_id NUMBER(16,0), test_name VARCHAR2(50));
CREATE TYPE test_tbl AS TABLE OF test_obj;

The function might look like this.

CREATE OR REPLACE
FUNCTION filterme(i_test IN test_tbl) RETURN test_tbl AS 
  o_test test_tbl;
BEGIN
  --NOT WORKING: SELECT INTO o_test FROM i_test t WHERE t.test_id > 10;
  RETURN o_test;
END filterme;

But what do I put inside?

Answer 1

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION filterme(i_test IN test_tbl)
RETURN test_tbl
AS
  ret_tab test_tbl = test_tbl();
begin
  for i in 1 .. i_test.count loop
    if i_test(i).test_id > 10 then /* do the test */
      ret_tab.extend(1);
      ret_tab(ret_tab.count) := i_test(i);
    end if;
  end loop;
  return ret_tab;
end;