Dynamically call different functions inside a function

Question

Hi there,
I was wondering if it is possible to dynamically define the function that you want to call. Almost like passing the function name that i want to call as a parameter.
I am calling a function, but do not want to hardcode the function I am calling. I have different functions that all return a boolean value, and i want to call all of them at different times through the same procedure/function.
Is this possible???
Thank you in advance!
Tanja

Answer 1

Or combine your functions to use function overloading, then you can use the same name...
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  create or replace package mypk as
  2    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN NUMBER, param2 IN NUMBER) RETURN BOOLEAN;
  3    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN VARCHAR2, param2 IN VARCHAR2) RETURN BOOLEAN;
  4    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN BOOLEAN, param2 IN BOOLEAN) RETURN BOOLEAN;
  5    PROCEDURE test;
  6* end;
SQL> /
Package created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  create or replace package body mypk as
  2    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN NUMBER, param2 IN NUMBER) RETURN BOOLEAN IS
  3    BEGIN
  4      RETURN (param1*2) = param2;
  5    END;
  6    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN VARCHAR2, param2 IN VARCHAR2) RETURN BOOLEAN IS
  7    BEGIN
  8      RETURN param1 = param2;
  9    END;
10    FUNCTION gen_function (param1 IN BOOLEAN, param2 IN BOOLEAN) RETURN BOOLEAN IS
11    BEGIN
12      RETURN NOT(param1) = param2;
13    END;
14    PROCEDURE test IS
15    BEGIN
16      IF gen_function(1,2) THEN
17        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test1: True');
18      ELSE
19        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test1: False');
20      END IF;
21      IF gen_function('Fred','John') THEN
22        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test2: True');
23      ELSE
24        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test2: False');
25      END IF;
26      IF gen_function(TRUE,FALSE) THEN
27        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test3: True');
28      ELSE
29        DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Test31: False');
30      END IF;
31    END;
32* end;
SQL> /
Package body created.
SQL> exec mypk.test;
Test1: True
Test2: False
Test3: True
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>;)