Help on CAST function, defining TYPE TABLE and using a REF cursor

Question

Hi,
I have written a procedure (lookup) inside a package (lookup_pkg) as shown below.
Procedure has an output variable of type PL/SQL TABLE which is defined in the package.
I want to write a wrapper procedure lookupref to the procedure lookup to return a ref cursor.
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE lookup_pkg AS
TYPE t_lookup_refcur IS REF CURSOR;
CURSOR c_lookup IS
     Select columns1,2,3,....100
               FROM A, B, C, D, E
               WHERE ROWNUM < 1;
TYPE t_lookup IS TABLE OF c_lookup%ROWTYPE;
Procedure lookup(id Number, o_lookup OUT t_lookup);
End lookup_pkg;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY lookup_pkg As
Procedure lookup(id Number, o_lookup OUT t_lookup) IS
BEGIN
END lookup;
Procedure lookupref(id Number, o_lookupref OUT t_lookup_refcur) IS
o_lookup t_lookup;
BEGIN
lookup(id, o_lookup t_lookup);
OPEN t_lookup_refcur FOR
SELECT *
     FROM TABLE(CAST(o_lookup AS t_lookup));
Exception
End lookupref;
END lookup_pkg;
When I compile this procedure, I am getting invalid datatype Oracle error and
cursor points the datatype t_lookup in the CAST function.
1. Can anyone tell me what is wrong in this. Can I convert a PL/SQL collection (pl/sql table in this case) to PL/SQL datatype table or does it need to be a SQL datatype only (which is created as a type in database).
Also, to resolve this error, I have created a SQL type and table type instead of PL/SQL table in the package as shown below.
create or replace type t_lookuprec as object
               (Select columns1,2,3,....100
               FROM A, B, C, D, E
               WHERE ROWNUM < 1);
create or replace type t_lookup_tab AS table of t_lookuprec;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY lookup_pkg As
Procedure lookup(id Number, o_lookup OUT t_lookup) IS
BEGIN
END lookup;
Procedure lookupref(id Number, o_lookupref OUT t_lookup_refcur) IS
o_lookup t_lookup;
BEGIN
lookup(id, o_lookup t_lookup);
OPEN t_lookup_refcur FOR
SELECT *
     FROM TABLE(CAST(o_lookup AS t_lookup_tab));
Exception
End lookupref;
END lookup_pkg;
When I compile this package, I am getting "PL/SQL: ORA-22800: invalid user-defined type" Oracle error and
points the datatype t_lookup_tab in the CAST function.
2. Can anyone tell me what is wrong. Can I create a type with a select statement and create a table type using type created earlier?
I have checked the all_types view and found that
value for Incomplete column for these two types are YES.
3. What does that mean?
Any suggestions and help is appreciated.
Thanks
Srinivas

Answer 1

create or replace type t_lookuprec as object
(Select columns1,2,3,....100
FROM A, B, C, D, E
WHERE ROWNUM < 1);You are correct that you need to use CREATE TYPE to use the type in SQL.
However unless I am mistaken you appear to have invented your own syntax for CREATE TYPE, suggest you refer to Oracle documentation.