Multidimensional Arrays in PL/SQL

Question

I'm very familiar with single dimensional arrays such as this:
declare
      type year_type is table of number index by binary_integer;
      year_sales year_type;
      tot_sales   number;
begin
      year_sales(1990) := 34000;
      year_sales(1991) := 45000;
      year_sales(1992) := 43000;
      tot_sales := year_sales(1990) + year_sales(1991) +
year_sales(1992);
      dbms_output.put_line('Total sales: ' || tot_sales);
end;but I'd like to get a basic understanding of multi-dimensional arrays. As an example, if I have a "claim number" 123456 and two different "field numbers" 2471 and 2472 for that one claim, that contain values ('value1','value2'), could I store them in a multi-dimensional array? Logically, I would like the values to be store something like the following.
multi_array(123456)(2471) := 'value1';
multi_array(123456(2472) := 'value2'; Could someone point me in the right direction with this one with a simple example?
Thank you.

Answer 1

Simple example of using a collection of a collection to mimic a "multi-dimensional" array:
DECLARE
    TYPE varchar_tbl_t IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(50) INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
    TYPE multi_array_t IS TABLE OF VARCHAR_TBL_T INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
    multi_array MULTI_ARRAY_T;
BEGIN
    multi_array(123456)(2471) := 'value1';
    multi_array(123456)(2472) := 'value2';
    multi_array(123457)(2473) := 'value3';
    multi_array(123458)(2474) := 'value4';
    -- Output Data
    FOR i in multi_array.FIRST .. multi_array.LAST
    LOOP
        FOR j in multi_array(i).FIRST .. multi_array(i).LAST
        LOOP
            dbms_output.put_line('multi_array('||i||')('||j||') = '||multi_array(i)(j));
        END LOOP;
    END LOOP;
END;Edited by: cmartin2 on Oct 28, 2010 9:50 AM