Question

I’m trying to pass an array of (varchar) data into an Oracle procedure. The Oracle procedure would be either called from SQL*Plus or from another PL/SQL procedure like so:

BEGIN
 pr_perform_task('1','2','3','4');
END;

pr_perform_task will read each of the input parameters and perform the tasks.

I’m not sure as to how I can achieve this. My first thought was to use an input parameter of type varray but I’m getting Error: PLS-00201: identifier 'VARRAY' must be declared error, when the procedure definiton looks like this:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE PR_DELETE_RECORD_VARRAY(P_ID VARRAY) IS

To summarize, how can I pass the data as an array, let the SP loop through each of the parameters and perform the task ?

I’m using Oracle 10gR2 as my database.

Answer 1

This is one way to do it:

SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE MyType AS VARRAY(200) OF VARCHAR2(50);
  2  /

Type created

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE testing (t_in MyType) IS
  2  BEGIN
  3    FOR i IN 1..t_in.count LOOP
  4      dbms_output.put_line(t_in(i));
  5    END LOOP;
  6  END;
  7  /

Procedure created

SQL> DECLARE
  2    v_t MyType;
  3  BEGIN
  4    v_t := MyType();
  5    v_t.EXTEND(10);
  6    v_t(1) := 'this is a test';
  7    v_t(2) := 'A second test line';
  8    testing(v_t);
  9  END;
 10  /

this is a test
A second test line

To expand on my comment to @dcp’s answer, here’s how you could implement the solution proposed there if you wanted to use an associative array:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE p IS
  2    TYPE p_type IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(50) INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
  3  
  4    PROCEDURE pp (inp p_type);
  5  END p;
  6  /

Package created
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY p IS
  2    PROCEDURE pp (inp p_type) IS
  3    BEGIN
  4      FOR i IN 1..inp.count LOOP
  5        dbms_output.put_line(inp(i));
  6      END LOOP;
  7    END pp;
  8  END p;
  9  /

Package body created
SQL> DECLARE
  2    v_t p.p_type;
  3  BEGIN
  4    v_t(1) := 'this is a test of p';
  5    v_t(2) := 'A second test line for p';
  6    p.pp(v_t);
  7  END;
  8  /

this is a test of p
A second test line for p

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed

SQL> 

This trades creating a standalone Oracle TYPE (which cannot be an associative array) with requiring the definition of a package that can be seen by all in order that the TYPE it defines there can be used by all.