Could not show multiple records while could show only one record

Question

Hi, all
I have an oracle 10g db running on a Linux E3 server.
I have two tables:
CREATE TABLE "IMMUNODATA"."DEMOGRAPHICS" (
"SUBJECTID" INTEGER NOT NULL,
"WORKID" INTEGER,
"OMRFHISTORYNUMBER" INTEGER,
"OTHERID" INTEGER,
"BARCODE" INTEGER,
"GENDER" VARCHAR2(1),
"DOB" DATE,
"RACEAI" INTEGER,
"RACECAUCASIAN" INTEGER,
"RACEAA" INTEGER,
"RACEASIAN" INTEGER,
"RACEPAC" INTEGER,
"RACEHIS" INTEGER,
"RACEOTHER" VARCHAR2(50),
"SSN" VARCHAR2(11),
PRIMARY KEY("SUBJECTID") VALIDATE
CREATE TABLE "IMMUNODATA"."MEDICATION" (
"ID" INTEGER NOT NULL ,
"THEDATE" DATE ,
"SUBJECTID" INTEGER NOT NULL,
"MED_PAGENOTCOMPLETED" VARCHAR2(500) ,
"MEDICATION_NAME" VARCHAR2(100),
"MEDICATION_CLASSIFICATION" VARCHAR2(100),
"MEDICATION_DOSENUM" VARCHAR2(50),
"MEDICATION_DOSEMEASURE" VARCHAR2(100),
"MEDICATION_ROUTE" VARCHAR2(100),
"MEDICATION_FREQ" VARCHAR2(100),
"MEDICATION_BEGIN" DATE,
"MEDICATION_END" DATE,
"BARCODE" INTEGER,
"DATASOURCE" VARCHAR2(50),
"NOCHANGE" INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY("ID") VALIDATE,
FOREIGN KEY("SUBJECTID") REFERENCES "IMMUNODATA"."DEMOGRAPHICS" ("SUBJECTID") VALIDATE
I want to show an output to combine all medication records of one person into one, and I created a function.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION COMMEDICATION(p_subjectid IN immunodata.medication.subjectid%TYPE ) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
v_medication VARCHAR2(1000);
BEGIN
FOR c IN (SELECT THEDATE, MED_PAGENOTCOMPLETED, MEDICATION_NAME, MEDICATION_CLASSIFICATION, MEDICATION_DOSENUM, MEDICATION_DOSEMEASURE,MEDICATION_ROUTE,MEDICATION_FREQ,MEDICATION_BEGIN,MEDICATION_END,DATASOURCE,NOCHANGE FROM immunodata.medication WHERE subjectid = p_subjectid)
LOOP
IF v_medication IS NULL THEN
v_medication := c.THEDATE||' '||c.MED_PAGENOTCOMPLETED||' '||c.MEDICATION_NAME||' '||c.MEDICATION_CLASSIFICATION||' '||c.MEDICATION_DOSENUM||' '||c.MEDICATION_DOSEMEASURE||' '||c.MEDICATION_ROUTE||' '||c.MEDICATION_FREQ||' '||c.MEDICATION_BEGIN||' '||c.MEDICATION_END||' '||c.DATASOURCE||' '||c.NOCHANGE;
ELSE
v_medication := v_medication||','||c.THEDATE||' '||c.MED_PAGENOTCOMPLETED||' '||c.MEDICATION_NAME||' '||c.MEDICATION_CLASSIFICATION||' '||c.MEDICATION_DOSENUM||' '||c.MEDICATION_DOSEMEASURE||' '||c.MEDICATION_ROUTE||' '||c.MEDICATION_FREQ||' '||c.MEDICATION_BEGIN||' '||c.MEDICATION_END||' '||c.DATASOURCE||' '||c.NOCHANGE;
END IF;
END LOOP;
RETURN v_medication;
END;
and I performed this selection statement:
SQL> select subjectid, barcode, COMmedication(subjectid) from immunodata.demographics where barcode=500135;
SUBJECTID BARCODE
COMMEDICATION(SUBJECTID)
33 500135
15-SEP-00 Cyclophosphamide Immunosuppresant .7 MG IV MONTLY FORM1 ,15-SEP-00 Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) Immunosuppresant 400 MG DAILY FORM1
It is exactly what I need， so I want to show all records in the tables.
SQL> select subjectid, barcode, COMmedication(subjectid) from immunodata.demographics;
ERROR:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at "SYS.COMMEDICATION", line 9
no rows selected
It seems that one record could be shown, but multiple could not.
Is there anything wrong with my code or other things?
Thanks!
Qian

Answer 1

It seems that one record could be shown, but multiple could not.
Is there anything wrong with my code or other things?
It means that there is at least one subjectid in your table for which the value of v_medication in the function exceeds 1000 characters.
You may want to increase the size of v_medication to 4000, which would be the upper limit for the function's return value.
pratz