Inserting rows in PL/SQl table

Question

Hi,
I have a PL/SQl table which i populated through bulk collect and now i am trying to loop through the table (actually quite a few nested loops) ... Now inside one of my loops i might need to insert a new row by splitting field in the existing row in the table. Can I insert the row in the pl/sql table within the loop without affecting the 'FOR i IN tab.first..tab.last' loop ??
Also what would be the index of such a row inserted in the table. Can I access it with tab.last+1 (doesnt look like it can be done if i insert in the various levels of loops).
OR
If I insert the rows insde the nested loops , then I can access the new rows once I close all the loops and open a fresh loop ??. Will the new rows be at the last of the table.
Any help will be appreciated ...

Answer 1

user2309906 wrote:
Hi,
I have a PL/SQl table which i populated through bulk collect and now i am trying to loop through the table (actually quite a few nested loops) ... Now inside one of my loops i might need to insert a new row by splitting field in the existing row in the table. Can I insert the row in the pl/sql table within the loop without affecting the 'FOR i IN tab.first..tab.last' loop ??
Also what would be the index of such a row inserted in the table. Can I access it with tab.last+1 (doesnt look like it can be done if i insert in the various levels of loops).
OR
If I insert the rows insde the nested loops , then I can access the new rows once I close all the loops and open a fresh loop ??. Will the new rows be at the last of the table.
Any help will be appreciated ...With an associative array:
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2    type t_arr is table of varchar2(10) index by pls_integer;
  3    v_arr t_arr;
  4    v_cnt number := 0;
  5  begin
  6    -- populate the associative array
  7    for i in (select ename from emp)
  8    loop
  9      v_cnt := v_cnt + 1;
10      dbms_output.put_line('Populating: '||i.ename);
11      v_arr(v_cnt) := i.ename;
12    end loop;
13    -- now process the associative array
14    for i in v_arr.first .. v_arr.last
15    loop
16      dbms_output.put_line('Processing: '||i||':'||v_arr(i));
17      if v_arr(i) IN ('KING','TURNER','JAMES') then
18        v_arr(v_arr.last+1) := v_arr(i)||to_char(i);
19        dbms_output.put_line('Added: '||v_arr.last||':'||v_arr(i));
20      end if;
21    end loop;
22    -- now what's in the associative array?
23    for i in v_arr.first .. v_arr.last
24    loop
25      dbms_output.put_line('Result: '||i||':'||v_arr(i));
26    end loop;
27* end;
SQL> /
Populating: SMITH
Populating: ALLEN
Populating: WARD
Populating: JONES
Populating: MARTIN
Populating: BLAKE
Populating: CLARK
Populating: SCOTT
Populating: KING
Populating: TURNER
Populating: ADAMS
Populating: JAMES
Populating: FORD
Populating: MILLER
Processing: 1:SMITH
Processing: 2:ALLEN
Processing: 3:WARD
Processing: 4:JONES
Processing: 5:MARTIN
Processing: 6:BLAKE
Processing: 7:CLARK
Processing: 8:SCOTT
Processing: 9:KING
Added: 15:KING
Processing: 10:TURNER
Added: 16:TURNER
Processing: 11:ADAMS
Processing: 12:JAMES
Added: 17:JAMES
Processing: 13:FORD
Processing: 14:MILLER
Processing: 15:KING9
Processing: 16:TURNER10
Processing: 17:JAMES12
Result: 1:SMITH
Result: 2:ALLEN
Result: 3:WARD
Result: 4:JONES
Result: 5:MARTIN
Result: 6:BLAKE
Result: 7:CLARK
Result: 8:SCOTT
Result: 9:KING
Result: 10:TURNER
Result: 11:ADAMS
Result: 12:JAMES
Result: 13:FORD
Result: 14:MILLER
Result: 15:KING9
Result: 16:TURNER10
Result: 17:JAMES12
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.With standard array (PL/SQL table):
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2    type t_arr is table of varchar2(10);
  3    v_arr t_arr;
  4    v_cnt number := 0;
  5  begin
  6    -- populate the pl/sql table
  7    select ename bulk collect into v_arr from emp;
  8    -- now process the pl/sql table
  9    for i in v_arr.first .. v_arr.last
10    loop
11      dbms_output.put_line('Processing: '||i||':'||v_arr(i));
12      if v_arr(i) = 'KING' then
13        v_arr.extend;
14        v_arr(v_arr.last) := 'PRESIDENT';
15      end if;
16    end loop;
17    -- now what's in the pl/sql table?
18    for i in v_arr.first .. v_arr.last
19    loop
20      dbms_output.put_line('Result: '||i||':'||v_arr(i));
21    end loop;
22* end;
SQL> /
Processing: 1:SMITH
Processing: 2:ALLEN
Processing: 3:WARD
Processing: 4:JONES
Processing: 5:MARTIN
Processing: 6:BLAKE
Processing: 7:CLARK
Processing: 8:SCOTT
Processing: 9:KING
Processing: 10:TURNER
Processing: 11:ADAMS
Processing: 12:JAMES
Processing: 13:FORD
Processing: 14:MILLER
Processing: 15:PRESIDENT
Result: 1:SMITH
Result: 2:ALLEN
Result: 3:WARD
Result: 4:JONES
Result: 5:MARTIN
Result: 6:BLAKE
Result: 7:CLARK
Result: 8:SCOTT
Result: 9:KING
Result: 10:TURNER
Result: 11:ADAMS
Result: 12:JAMES
Result: 13:FORD
Result: 14:MILLER
Result: 15:PRESIDENT
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>So, in answer to your questions...
Inserting additional rows in the array during the loop will effect the "last" value and alter the array. If you need to avoid this effect, store the "last" value in a variable and loop up to that value of the variable.
New rows will generally be additional rows on the end of the array unless you are using associative arrays which will then depend on how you reference the rows in the array.