How to return multiples values useing functions

Question

Hi to all,
I am using functions to return multiple values of two rows or multiple rows.
For example emp id = 100 and i need to return the value for this(empid) input and output of this first_name and salary.
I am tried in this way below but got errors (ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got HR.EMP_TYPE)
create or replace type emp_type as object(first_name varchar2(20),salary number);
create or replace function f1(empid in number)
return emp_type
as
emp_record emp_type;
begin
select first_name,salary into emp_record.first_name,emp_record.salary from employees where employee_id = empid ;
return emp_record;
end;
select f1(100) from dual;

Answer 1

Sql is Sql and plsql is plsql. Though we can almost use all the sql objects inside a plsql code but vice versa is not always possible. Since plsql is tightly integrated with sql , if you return a number/date/varchar2 datatype values from plsql code to sql code,there is nothing wrong .Sql acknowledges this return type and knows well about how to handle it .But plsql record is a plsql specific datatype ,oracle was not built keeping in mind the fact that people will be creating difference types of records in plsql .So if you return a plsql datatype into a sql statement (which is processed by a sql engine) ,you need to tell oracle that I have written a plsql code which is going to return a record type so that sql engine can interpret it well.
So all you need to do is create record in sql (known as object in sql ),when you make one, the entry is going to be shown in user_types views. Now use it like any other data type. I assume that the forum link provided in the above post is the best one to understand.
Thanks,
Rahul