Is there a way to dynamically calculate values for the IN operator?

Question

I am looking to see if there is a way to dynamically calculate the criteria to include inside an IN operator in the WHERE clause. For example when I try to run the following I get an Oracle error message 'OR!-01722: invalid number'. The script below is just an example to help illistrate the problem, I do not want to hardcode the values assigned to v_test directly within the IN operator becasue the values in v_test will change from user to user.
DECLARE
v_test VARCHAR2(10) := '1,15,25,55';
v_tmp VARCHAR2(50) := NULL;
BEGIN
SELECT d.metric_title INTO v_tmp FROM tbl_health_metric_definition d
WHERE d.metric_status = 'Active' AND d.metric_id IN (v_test);
END;

Answer 1

Hi Jason,
When ever you use IN operator your values should be either seperated by a comma. If the column is of type number then your values should not enclosed in single quotes.
Eg: Wrong - '1,2,3,4,5'
Correct - 1,2,3,4,5
If your column is of type varchar then your values should be seperated by a comma and each value should be enclosed in single quotes.
Eg : Wrong - '1,2,3,4,5'
Correct - '1','2','3','4','5'
Correct - 'sam','boy','girl'
So correct you query so that the values in the IN operator are with out single quotes.
DONOT USE IN OPERATOR IN PL/SQL BLOCK WITH OUT A CURSOR._
If you use IN Operator and fire a query with out a cursor, it throws an error multiple rows returned. If at all you want to use in operator then use cursor.
Regards,
Rajesh
Edited by: Rajesh Gudipati on Jun 23, 2009 9:49 PM