Exception block insert

Question

I am just wondering if it's except-able to put and insert in the exception block? What I would like is if date2 is null kick off an error. if there are no records where date2 is null then go ahead and insert the new record. Is this common practice or should I use sql%rowcount or put count in to variable and check if greater then 0?
create or replace
PROCEDURE X_INSERT
(P_ID NUMBER,
P_DATE1 DATE,
P_DATE2 DATE
AS
a NUMBER;
BEGIN
select ID into a from X where ID = P_ID
AND DATE_2 IS NULL ;
if sql%found then
raise_application_error(-20000, 'record exists');
END IF;
exception
when no_data_found then
insert into X values (P_ID,P_DATE1, P_DATE2);
END X_INSERT;

Answer 1

>
I am just wondering if it's except-able to put and insert in the exception block?
>
No - I do not think that approach is acceptable and would not recommend it.
You need any exception LOGGING (inserts) to be permanent even if the transaction is rolled back.
One way to accomplish this is to write a LOG procedure (e.g. SP_LOG) that uses PRAGMA AUTONOMOUS_TRANSACTION so that the logging will occur even if the original transaction is rolled back. You can have overloaded versions of SP_LOG that take different sets of parameters.
The code in the exception block would call the LOG procedure to do the logging and would pass it any information relevant to the exception and where it was caused. A sample generic EXCEPTION block might be
  EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS THEN
   /* Build error string to help debug problem */
   v_error_text := ('Exception :'
                    || SQLERRM
                    || ' Parse error :'
                    || TO_CHAR (SQLCODE)
                    || ' at position '
                    || TO_CHAR (DBMS_SQL.LAST_ERROR_POSITION)
                    || ' SQL Text used :'
   /* Log this error in a table - for researching problems. */
   SP_LOG ( v_error_text );
  END main_sp;There would normally be other parameters to the log procedure to identify the stored procedure and package name where the exception was raised, the exception error stack and so on.
The exception block might also need to re-raise the exception rather than make it disappear so that the caller is aware of the exception that occured.
In your case there is no real exception. You just want to log information.
So instead of raising an exception you would just modify your code to call the logging procedure.
if sql%found then
   SP_LOG('Cannot INSERT record into myTable - record exists');
END IF;