Error PLS 00363 expression "string" cannot be used as an assignment target in sentence SELF.ATTRIBUTE1:=PARAMETER;

Question

Hi everybody. I wrote de following  type
create or replace TYPE ALMACEN AS OBJECT
  id_almacen number(10),
  descripcion varchar2(40),
  existencias number(6),
  precio number(4),
  member function movimiento (p_num number)  return boolean
create or replace TYPE BODY ALMACEN AS
  member function movimiento (p_num number)  return boolean AS
  v_inf boolean;
  n number(6);
  BEGIN
    if self.existencias+p_num>=0 then
    self.existencias:=existencias+p_num;
    return TRUE;
    else return FALSE;
    end if;
  END movimiento;
END;
I have Oracle 11g release I.
In previous releases it worked, but now SQLDeveloper marks
self.existencias:=existencias+p_num;
Error PLS 00363  expression "string" cannot be used as an assignment target in sentence
Please, What's wrong?
Thanking in advance

Answer 1

Hi,
Not quite a PL/SQL XML question but anyway...
Since the member function modifies the object instance, the implicit argument "self" must be declared explicitly as "IN OUT" :
member function movimiento (self in out nocopy almacen, p_num number)  return boolean