How to return oracle type from select statment

Question

I have the following oracle[b] types
create or replace type course_obj as object
     name varchar2(20),
     start_date date,
     instructor varchar2(20)
create or replace type course_arr
is varray(10000) of course_obj;
create or replace type student_obj as object
first_name varchar2(50),
last_name varchar2(50),
student_number number,
courses course_arr
create or replace type student_arr
is varray(10000) of student_obj;
package
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE testing
AS
FUNCTION get_student_info ( student_number in number ) RETURN student_arr PIPELINED;
END;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY testing
AS
FUNCTION get_student_info ( student_number in number ) RETURN student_arr PIPELINED IS
course1 course_obj;
course2 course_obj;
courses course_arr := course_arr();
student student_obj;
BEGIN
course1 := course_obj('Computer 101', sysdate, 'John Anderson');
course2 := course_obj('Computer 102', sysdate, 'Jo Doe');
courses.extend;
courses(1) := course1;
courses.extend;
courses(2) := course2;
student := student_obj('Jack', 'Smith', 781509790, courses);
PIPE ROW(student);
END;
END;
When I issue the following select SQL
select student_number, courses from table(testing.get_student_info(1))
The result I get is
student
number courses
781509790 ((Computer 101, 9/7/2006 5:13:11 PM, John Anderson), (Computer 102, 9/7/2006 5:13:11 PM, Jo Doe), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , )
How can I return the result as
student
number name start date instructor
781509790 Computer 101 9/7/2006 5:13:11 PM John Anderson
781509790 Computer 102 9/7/2006 5:13:11 PM Joe Doe

Answer 1

Hi,
Instead of creating varray, create a table type of objects for both courses as well as students like below.
create or replace type course_obj as object
name varchar2(20),
start_date date,
instructor varchar2(20)
create or replace type course_arr
as TABLE OF course_obj;
create or replace type student_obj as object
first_name varchar2(50),
last_name varchar2(50),
student_number number,
courses course_arr
create or replace type student_arr as TABLE OF student_obj
Then create a pipelined function like below,
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_student_info ( student_number in number )
RETURN student_arr PIPELINED IS
student_arr1 student_arr:=student_arr();
course_arr1 course_arr:=course_arr();
i number:=0;
BEGIN
i:=i+1;
course_arr1.extend;
student_arr1.extend;
course_arr1(course_arr1.count) := course_obj('maths',sysdate,'vv2');
student_arr1(student_arr1.count) := student_obj('raja','ram',23232,course_arr1);
PIPE ROW(student_arr1(i));
course_arr1(course_arr1.count) := course_obj('computer',sysdate,'vv');
student_arr1(student_arr1.count) := student_obj('raj','raam',223232,course_arr1);
PIPE ROW(student_arr1(i));
END;
You'll get the result like below,
FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME STUDENT_NUMBER
COURSES(NAME, START_DATE, INSTRUCTOR)
raja ram 23232
COURSE_ARR(COURSE_OBJ('maths', '08-SEP-06', 'vv2'))
raj raam 223232
COURSE_ARR(COURSE_OBJ('computer', '08-SEP-06', 'vv'))
With regards
Ram