Exceptions in a WHILE loop

Question

Hi ,
I want to do something like this
While Condition
LOOP
BEGIN
Insert into table1 values(......);
Insert into table2 values(......);
Insert into table3 values(......);
Insert into table4 values(......);
Insert into table5 values(......);
Insert into table6 values(......);
condition := FALSE
EXCEPTION
When OTHERS THEN
<capture the error while inserting into an Error table>
END;
END LOOP;
Now I want that If one of the insert statement within the loop fails (say table2)
the exception should be captured and next insert statement (table3) should be
executed.
How can I do this ? I guess I wont even need a loop can any one help
Thanks

Answer 1

I was just going to give an example like that, which I will post below.
@OP: I am not advocating that this is the best way to do this, but I thought you might like an example that you can maybe use for learning or testing things out. Below is an example of putting each insert in its own begin-end block so that the exception can be handled and processing can continue.
create table foo (foo_id number primary key, column2 varchar2(50));
create table error_tbl (dt_tm date default sysdate, err_msg varchar2(2000));
insert into foo (foo_id, column2) values (2, 'data');  --pre-populated so that insert #2 will fail
insert into foo (foo_id, column2) values (4, 'data');  --pre-populated so that insert #4 will fail
commit;
declare
  v_err varchar2(1000);
  procedure insert_stuff(p_id in number, p_col2 in varchar2) is
  begin
    insert into foo (foo_id, column2) values (p_id, p_col2);
  exception when others then
    v_err := substr(SQLERRM,1,1000);
    insert into error_tbl (err_msg)
    values ('Error on id: '||to_char(p_id)||' column2: '||p_col2||' '||v_err);
  end insert_stuff;
begin
  for i in 1..5 loop
    insert_stuff(i,'new stuff');
  end loop;
  commit;
end;
select * from foo;
FOO_ID     COLUMN2
2           data
4           data
1           new stuff
3           new stuff
5           new stuff
select * from error_tbl;
DT_TM                       ERR_MSG
7/20/2012 3:09:15 PM       Error on id: 2 column2: new stuff ORA-00001: unique constraint (AMARTIN.SYS_C0049104) violated
7/20/2012 3:09:15 PM       Error on id: 4 column2: new stuff ORA-00001: unique constraint (AMARTIN.SYS_C0049104) violatedInserts 1, 3, and 5 succeeded, but inserts 2 and 4 failed due to the primary key constraint. Processing in the loop continued despite the error.
There are concerns with running code this way, some of which have already been brought up, but you may find this useful nonetheless.