A very basic but trick problem--can u handel it

Question

hi guys
i have a very small but tricky problem
u see i want to get the value of a mathamatical expression (stored in a variable -varchar2) and wants to get the mathamatical value of the expression
eg
declare
a varchar2;
begin
a:='12*12';
etc....
end ;
so here i want to get 144 as the output ..
lets see how u handel it
thanx
dg

Answer 1

you can change the value assigned to variable S1 to whatever operation you need to perform.
DECLARE
     V_HANDLE     INTEGER;
     STMT          VARCHAR2(100);
     S1               VARCHAR2(50) := '12/2';
     RES               INTEGER;
BEGIN
     V_HANDLE := DBMS_SQL.OPEN_CURSOR;
     STMT := 'SELECT '||S1||' FROM DUAL';
     DBMS_SQL.PARSE(V_HANDLE, STMT, DBMS_SQL.NATIVE);
     DBMS_SQL.DEFINE_COLUMN(V_HANDLE, 1, 1);
     RES     := DBMS_SQL.EXECUTE(V_HANDLE);
     LOOP
          EXIT WHEN DBMS_SQL.FETCH_ROWS(V_HANDLE) = 0;
          DBMS_SQL.COLUMN_VALUE(V_HANDLE, 1, RES);
          DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('RES = '||RES);
     END LOOP;
     DBMS_SQL.CLOSE_CURSOR (V_HANDLE);
END;