Find a element in a collection (associative array)

Question

I am wondering is there any way that I can look for an item in an array when the subscript is not part of a key of a table.I mean if in a employee table I can fill the array with employee info if the subscript say employee id is numeric.
employee(emp_rec.emp_id) := emp_rec;
and then while searching I can search by emp_id ,,,,but what if emp_id is character then do you guys have any ideas on how to assign a subscript which will make the search easier .
thanks
Manohar.

Answer 1

With associative arrays indexed by a string (in your case, employee name), you can just use the EXISTS method. Much faster than looping through looking for a match.
sql>declare
  2    type arr is table of emp.ename%type index by emp.ename%type;
  3    v_arr   arr;
  4    v_name  emp.ename%type;
  5  begin
  6    for r in (select ename from emp) loop
  7      v_arr(r.ename) := null;
  8    end loop;
  9    v_name := 'KING';
10    if v_arr.exists(v_name) then
11      dbms_output.put_line(v_name || ' exists');
12    else
13      dbms_output.put_line(v_name || ' does not exist'); 
14    end if;
15    v_name := 'SHETTY';
16    if v_arr.exists(v_name) then
17      dbms_output.put_line(v_name || ' exists');
18    else
19      dbms_output.put_line(v_name || ' does not exist'); 
20    end if;
21  end;
22  /
KING exists
SHETTY does not exist
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.