Calling a stored proc that has a parameter of a user-defined (array) type

Question

Hi,
Hope someone can help me on this, because I am really struggling...
From a c-program, I am calling stored procedures using the OCI Interface. Everything is OK, when using the standard types (integer, string, date), but I am encountering problems when one of the parameters is of a type that is defined in the database as an array. My application calls multiple array-type parameters in one call, but for the sake of simplicity, I created a test application to only use one.
The following call is working (but it needs to be called using the OCI functions):
BEGIN
p_test_table_num (pin_num1 => T_ARRAY_EH_DEP(1,2,3));
END;
My first step was to have the following combination:
statement: begin p_test_table_num(:pin_num1);end;
parameter: pin_num1
value: t_array_eh_dep(1,2,3)
That lead to the error (when executing the statement): wrong number or types of arguments
Second idea (after a lot of browsing):
statement: begin p_test_table_num(t_array_eh_dep(:pin_num1));end;
parameter: pin_num1
value: 1,2,3
This leads to the error: numeric or value error: number precision too large.
My bind function call looks like:
if (res = OCIBindByName(stmthp, &bndArray[parCount], errhp, (text *) curPar,
-1, (dvoid *) curVal, (sb4) sizeof(curVal), SQLT_NUM, (dvoid *) 0,
(ub2 *) 0, (ub2) 0, (ub4) 0, (ub4 *) 0, OCI_DEFAULT) != OCI_SUCCESS){
checkerr(errhp, "OCIBindByName", res);
OCIHandleFree(stmthp, OCI_HTYPE_STMT);
return -1;
(in this function curPar is the name of the parameter and curVal contains the value)
I also investigated the BindArrayOfStruct, but I concluded that this is to execute a stored procedure multiple times using different values for the parameters, and that is not what I want.
I really hope someone can give me a direction to look in. I also need to call string and date arrays in the same way...
Thanks
Margit

Answer 1

For those who are interested, I found the solution myself...
To use any user-defined type, you need to perform the following steps:
1. OCIBindByPos or OCIBindByName as you would bind a normal parameter
2. OCITypeByName to get a reference to the type definition in Oracle
3. OCIObjectNew to create a reference to the array (OCI_TYPECODE_VARRAY)
4. Assign a value to the column, for instance use OCIStringAssignText, OCINumberFromInt, OCIDateFromText
5. OCICollAppend ( to add the value from step 4 to collection)
6. OCIBindObject
7. OCIStmtExecute
8. OCITransCommit
Example:
if (res = OCIBindByName(stmthp, &bndArray[parCount], errhp, (text *) curPar,
-1, (dvoid *) curVal, (sb4) sizeof(curVal), SQLT_NTY, (dvoid *) 0,
(ub2 *) 0, (ub2) 0, (ub4) 0, (ub4 *) 0, OCI_DEFAULT) != OCI_SUCCESS){
checkerr(errhp, "OCIBindByName", res);
OCIHandleFree(stmthp, OCI_HTYPE_STMT);
return -1;
if (res = OCITypeByName(envhp, errhp, svchp,
(CONST text *) currentUserName, (ub4) strlen((CONST char *) currentUserName), /*schema*/
(CONST text *) "T_ARRAY_EH_DEP", (ub4) strlen((CONST char *) "T_ARRAY_EH_DEP"), /* type */
(CONST text *) 0, (ub4) 0, OCI_DURATION_SESSION, OCI_TYPEGET_HEADER,
&type_array_eh_dep) != OCI_SUCCESS){
checkerr(errhp, "OCITypeByName", res);
OCIHandleFree(stmthp, OCI_HTYPE_STMT);
return -1;
OCIArray* eh_dep_array = (OCIArray*)0;
OCINumber eh_dep_num;
OCIObjectNew(envhp, errhp, svchp, OCI_TYPECODE_VARRAY, type_array_eh_dep,
(dvoid*) 0, OCI_DURATION_DEFAULT, TRUE, (dvoid**)&eh_dep_array);
/* get the values from the incoming array */
curArrayItem = SOM_AtrValGetStrList(arrayValuesListMem,
arrayValuesListAtr, arrayValueCount);
do {
if (STR_Eq(curArrayItem, "NULL")){
OCICollAppend(envhp, errhp, (CONST dvoid *)0, &null_ind,
(OCIArray*) eh_dep_array);
else{
tmpInt = atoi(curArrayItem);
OCINumberFromInt(errhp, &tmpInt, sizeof(int), OCI_NUMBER_SIGNED,
&eh_dep_num);
OCICollAppend(envhp, errhp, (CONST dvoid *)&eh_dep_num, (CONST dvoid *) 0,
(OCIArray*) eh_dep_array);
arrayValueCount = arrayValueCount + 1;
curArrayItem = SOM_AtrValGetStrList(arrayValuesListMem,
arrayValuesListAtr, arrayValueCount);
printf( "curArrayItem = %s\n", curArrayItem );
} while (STR_Eq(curArrayItem, "%%%") == falseCN);
arrayValueCount = arrayValueCount + 1; /* skip the %%% */
if (res = OCIBindObject(bndArray[parCount], errhp,
(OCIType *)type_array_eh_dep, (dvoid **) &eh_dep_array,
(ub4 *) 0, (dvoid **) 0, (ub4 *) 0) != OCI_SUCCESS){
checkerr(errhp, "OCIBindObject", res);
OCIHandleFree(stmthp, OCI_HTYPE_STMT);
return -1;
}