Accepting dynamiv user input using PL/SQL

Question

Hi,
I need to accept dynamic number of user input values.
What i need is i will enter the number of employees to be created.
If i enter 2 then i need to dynamically accept 2 employee details.
DECLARE
   v_emp_cnt    NUMBER;
   v_emp_id     VARCHAR2 (15);
   v_emp_name   VARCHAR2 (200);
BEGIN
   v_emp_cnt := &v_emp_cnt;
   FOR i IN 1 .. v_emp_Cnt
   LOOP
      DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('INSIDE LOOP');
      v_emp_id := &v_emp_id;
      v_emp_desc := &v_emp_Desc;
      INSERT INTO emp_details (process_id,
                                        column11,
                                        column12,
                                        column13)
        VALUES   ('EMPLOYEES',
                  'EMP-' || i,
                  v_emp_id,
                  v_emp_desc);
   END LOOP;
END;
/Can anyone let me know if this is the right approach to acheive my requirement. Please suggest alternatives.
Thanks
Vamsi Krishna

Answer 1

PL/SQL is a server-side language-- it doesn't have the ability to interact with a user. A client application such as SQL*Plus, can both prompt for input and submit SQL statements to the database. It's probably possible to hack together a SQL*Plus script that could do something like what you appear to be looking for but using SQL*Plus for this sort of thing would generally be the wrong architectural solution. You'd generally be better off with a small shell script that prompted the user for data and then called a stored procedure.
Justin