Calling inline function in PL/SQL

Question

Hi,
We have Oracle 8.1.7 on HP-UX. I am getting the error during execution of following code. Please help me what's the wrong.
Thanks.
set serveroutput on
Declare
t_number Number(4);
Function test(p_text varchar2)
Return integer
IS
Begin
Return 2 ;
End;
Begin
Select test('123') into t_number from dual;
Dbms_output.put_line('number is :' || t_number) ;
End;
Select test('123') into t_number from
ERROR at line 13:
ORA-06550: line 13, column 9:
PLS-00231: function 'TEST' may not be used in SQL
ORA-06550: line 13, column 2:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

Answer 1

Attempting to select from the dual table causes Oracle to look for a sql function outside of the pl/sql block. Just assign the value to the variable without selecting from dual. Please see the example below.
scott@ORA92> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
scott@ORA92> DECLARE
  2    t_number NUMBER(4);
  3    FUNCTION test
  4        (p_text   IN  VARCHAR2)
  5         RETURN       NUMBER
  6    IS
  7    BEGIN
  8        RETURN 2;
  9    END test;
10  BEGIN
11    t_number := test ('123');
12    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('number is :' || t_number) ;
13  END;
14  /
number is :2
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.