My first procedure.

Question

My first sproc isn't going too well. All I want to do is create something very simple. So I:
create or replace procedure oe.foo
as
begin
select * from oe.myCustomers
end;
and get the message: "Warning: Procedure created with compilation errors."
From Googling I discovered "sho err", and the message produced was "PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "end-of-file" when expecting on e of the following: begin case declare end exception exit for goto if loop mod null pragma raise return select update while with <an identifier> <a double-quoted delimited-identifier> <a bind variable> << close current delete fetch lock insert open rollback savepoint set sql execute commit forall merge pi pe".
According to an example at: http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/statements_6009.htm#SQLRF01309
it seems as though my code should be working. Can someone please assist?
TIA, ChrisR

Answer 1

Hi there,
What you're trying to do doesn't really make sense. Simply put, if you are SELECTing records from a database table, you need somewhere to put them. This means you need a variable in which to store the result (if the query is going to return a single row), or you need to fetch into arrays (if there's going to be more than one row returned), or you need to define your query as an explicit cursor and use PL/SQL's cursor management features.
As a "hello, world" for PL/SQL, try the following:
[email protected](161)> create or replace procedure foo
  2  as
  3  begin
  4     dbms_output.put_line('Hello, world!');
  5  end;
  6  /
Procedure created.
[email protected](161)> exec foo();
Hello, world!
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.As a "hello, world" with a fetch, try the following:
[email protected](161)> create or replace procedure foo
  2  as
  3     l_row dual%rowtype;
  4  begin
  5     -- A query guaranteed to return a single row
  6     select *
  7     into l_row
  8     from dual;
  9 
10     dbms_output.put_line('Dummy: '||l_row.dummy);
11  end;
12  /
Procedure created.
[email protected](161)> exec foo();
Dummy: X
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.To continue learning, I'd recommend the PL/SQL Developer's guide, rather than the SQL Reference. Here's the link:
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/appdev.102/b14261/toc.htm
cheers,
Anthony