I have a field I want to have a sql statemnet validate the data entered....

Question

What I have is a field that I want 5 acceptable entries, and only those entries able to be submitted. So if the acceptable entry is dog and someone enters cat, I want to force an error.
Anyone want to show me how easy it is?

Answer 1

One way the function could be written is: (this returns a BOOLEAN, so select a function that returns BOOLEAN)...also, there are many other ways to write the same thing, you could use exists or an exception that uses the no_data_found error, too....You can specify your error message in the validation process.
This is one way...using FIELD1 as the field from ITEMS that you are testing against, assuming that you have 5 records in ITEMS, that each are valid for your P1_TEST_ITEM field:
declare
v_cnt number;
begin
select count(rownum) from ITEMS
where FIELD1 in (:P1_TEST_ITEM);
if v_cnt>0 then
return true;
else
return false;
end if;
exception
when others
return false;
end;
Now, if you have a list of 5 items that never change, you could also do it like this:
declare
v_cnt number;
begin
if :P1_TEST_ITEM in ('DOG','ITEM2','ITEM3'...)
then
return true;
else
return false;
end if;
exception
when others
return false;
end;
I guess I am not exactly sure why you don't want to use a LOV, that would be simple if all of your items are in your ITEMS table, then all you would have to do is create the LOV as
select item_no d, item_no r
from ITEMS
order by 1
you could further limit this to 5 items with a where clause ... where item_no in ('DOG','ITEM2'...)
Message was edited by:
DJMiller