Computation ???

Question

I am new to Apex. We have 3.2 on a 10.2.0.4 database. I have a table with a column MONTHLY_SAVINGS. When the user clicks Apply Changes I want to calcualte the ANNUAL_SAVINGS (MONTHLY_SAVINGS * 12). I cannot get it to work.
I tried creating a new computaion. Can anyone help me out. Something like PL/SQL Function Body
declare
y number;
begin
y := (:P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS * 12);
return y;
end;
The MONTHLY_SAVINGS and ANNUAL_SAVINGS are displayed as text on screen but are numbers in the database. Do I need to do a to_number and then convert back to to_char when I return?
I get this error
ORA-06550: line 1, column 27: PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "DECLARE" when expecting one of the following: ( - + case mod new not null avg count current exists max min prior sql stddev sum variance execute forall merge time timestamp interval date pipe

Answer 1

Hi,
:P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS as any other APEX item is a string.
It means that you have default conversion from string to number and default format mask in your database is
not consistent with value entered in :P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS.
You shouldn't rely on default conversion but make conversion yourself.
For instance if :P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS is entered in 99999.99 format
you should use:
declare
y number;
begin
y := (to_number(:P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS,'9999999.99') * 12);
return y;
end;
If :P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS is entered by user you should add validation
to verify that :P69_MONTHLY_SAVINGS is entered correctly.
Lev