DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL doesn't include function parameters

Question

Sometimes, when I call DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL to get the DDL statement for a function (which we always do to ensure we're starting from the source that's actually in production), the returned text doesn't include the parameters. Other times, it does, and I'm not able to see any pattern.
I was going to just make a function and show the output, but that did show the parameters. Then I tried calling GET_DDL while logged in as SYS as SYSDBA on my development database, and I still did not get the parameters, so I don't think it's a permissions issue.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Answer 1

It's really difficult to show you exactly what I'm doing when I can't consistently reproduce the problem, as I described.
But here, I'll try.
declare
     the_ddl clob;
begin
     the_ddl := dbms_metadata.get_ddl('FUNCTION', '*****', '*****');
     dbms_output.enable(null);
     dbms_output.put_line(the_ddl);
end;
/Sometimes, it produces output like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "*****"."*****" (
     ***** in varchar2,
     ***** in number,
) return *****
...And other times, it produces output like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "*****"."*****" return *****
...I am not able to determine any consistent reason for this. In our production database, I can log in as myself and get the parameters for a specific function, but another user (that our automated process uses) doesn't see the parameters. In my development database, I log in as myself and I do not see the parameters, but I still don't see them when I log in as SYS AS SYSDBA.
For what it's worth, if I recreate the function on my development database, then subsequent calls do show the parameters.