ArrayBindSize and Size for PLSQLAssociativeArrays

Question

Hey there,
I'm a complete newbie to ODP.NET and was hoping someone may be able to help with an issue. I basically need to call an SP from a VB.NET application and got as far as I could with the code below. The problem is that the parameters associates to this SP are all direction output. As a result, i'm having trouble trying to use the ArrayBindSize property and the Size property since I don't know what the number/size of the output from running the SP will exactly be? Does anyone see my predicament?
I'm also seeing the following errors when I try to compile my application:
Value of type '1-dimensional array of String' cannot be converted to '1-dimensional array of Integer' because 'String' is not derived from 'Integer'.
Thanks in advance!
Public Function RunSPReturnDS()
Try
Dim oraConnString As String = "Data Source=*****;User Id=******;Password=*****;"
Dim oraConnection As New OracleConnection(oraConnString)
oraConnection.Open()
MessageBox.Show("Connection works!", "SUCCESS", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
oracleCMD = oraConnection.CreateCommand
oracleCMD.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
oracleCMD.CommandText = "OCDI_UTILITIES.GET_EXISS_TODAY"
pStatus = New OracleParameter("P_STATUS", OracleDbType.Int32)
pStatusText = New OracleParameter("P_STATUS_TEXT", OracleDbType.Varchar2)
pRecReturned = New OracleParameter("P_RECORDS_RETURNED", OracleDbType.Int32)
pMsgSysNameList = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_SYSTEM_NAME_LIST", OracleDbType.Varchar2)
pMsgLastInDateTime = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_LAST_IN_DATETIME_LIST", OracleDbType.Date)
pMsgGoodIn = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_GOOD_IN_LIST", OracleDbType.Int32)
pMsgBadIn = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_BAD_IN_LIST", OracleDbType.Int32)
pMsgLastOutDateTime = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_LAST_OUT_DATETIME_LIST", OracleDbType.Date)
pMsgGoodOut = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_GOOD_OUT_LIST", OracleDbType.Int32)
pMsgBadOut = New OracleParameter("P_MSG_BAD_OUT_LIST", OracleDbType.Int32)
pStatus.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pStatusText.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pRecReturned.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgSysNameList.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgLastInDateTime.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgGoodIn.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgBadIn.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgLastOutDateTime.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgGoodOut.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pMsgBadOut.CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray
pStatus.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pStatusText.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pRecReturned.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgSysNameList.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgLastInDateTime.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgGoodIn.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgBadIn.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgLastOutDateTime.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgGoodOut.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pMsgBadOut.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output
pStatus.Size = 10
pStatusText.Size = 10
pRecReturned.Size = 10
pMsgSysNameList.Size = 10
pMsgLastInDateTime.Size = 10
pMsgGoodIn.Size = 10
pMsgBadIn.Size = 10
pMsgLastOutDateTime.Size = 10
pMsgGoodOut.Size = 10
pMsgBadOut.Size = 10
'pStatus.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pStatusText.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pRecReturned.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgSysNameList.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgLastInDateTime.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgGoodIn.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgBadIn.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgLastOutDateTime.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgGoodOut.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
'pMsgBadOut.ArrayBindSize = New Int32(10) {100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100}
pStatus.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
pStatusText.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeStr()
pRecReturned.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
pMsgSysNameList.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeStr()
pMsgLastInDateTime.ArrayBindSize =
pMsgGoodIn.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
pMsgBadIn.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
pMsgLastOutDateTime.ArrayBindSize =
pMsgGoodOut.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
pMsgBadOut.ArrayBindSize = BindArraysToSizeInt()
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pStatus)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pStatusText)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pRecReturned)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgSysNameList)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgLastInDateTime)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgGoodIn)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgBadIn)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgLastOutDateTime)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgGoodOut)
oracleCMD.Parameters.Add(pMsgBadOut)
oracleCMD.ExecuteNonQuery()
For i As Integer = 0 To pStatus.Size - 1
Console.WriteLine(pStatus.Value(i))
Next
'ListView1.Items(3).SubItems.Add(P_STATUS)
pStatus.Dispose()
pStatusText.Dispose()
pRecReturned.Dispose()
pMsgSysNameList.Dispose()
pMsgLastInDateTime.Dispose()
pMsgGoodIn.Dispose()
pMsgBadIn.Dispose()
pMsgLastOutDateTime.Dispose()
pMsgGoodOut.Dispose()
pMsgBadOut.Dispose()
oracleCMD.Dispose()
oraConnection.Dispose()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message.ToString(), "ERROR", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
End Try
End Function
Private Function BindArraysToSizeInt() As Integer()
Dim ArrBindSizeInt(collectionObjectsInt.Count - 1) As Integer
For i As Integer = 0 To collectionObjectsInt.Count - 1
ArrBindSizeInt(i) = collectionObjectsInt(i).ToString().Length
Next i
Return ArrBindSizeInt
End Function
Private Function BindArraysToSizeStr() As String()
Dim ArrBindSizeStr(collectionObjectsStr.Count - 1) As String
For i As Integer = 0 To collectionObjectsStr.Count - 1
ArrBindSizeStr(i) = collectionObjectsStr(i).ToString().Length
Next i
Return ArrBindSizeStr
End Function
End Class

Answer 1

Well - yes and no :-)
When it comes to desktop displays then historically the term resolution has been used to describe only the Pixel Dimensions of the physical display and not the pixels per unit of measurement. Typically we don't bother any more about the screen PPI because its usually high enough not to be a problem.
Projectors on the other hand display the image on varying screen sizes due to the distance from the screen. This makes resolution in terms of PPI important again. Yes, the projector has 'fixed' pixel dimensions but because the screen size varies the PPI will also vary. The further away the screen gets the larger the Pixels get and at some distance the image gets very 'pixellated' i.e you start to see the actual pixels.
The other thing to keep in mind is that projectors are typically driven from a PC ( I guess we should include the Mac folks in this :-) )which may have a resolution (pixel dimensions) much higher than the projector. This may mean that you have to change the display properties on your PC to match or you may be lucky that the projector can re-sample for you.
To answer the OP then the resolution in terms of PPI is more a question of controlling the distance between projector and screen and you need to check this visually although the venue may limit what you can actually do.
In terms of Image Size (Pixel Dimensions) then I would say it depends on how critical you and your audience are, but to be honest there are probably other factors like colour, brightness and contrast that are going to be bigger issues than image sharpness.
Colin #2