[OT] User-Defined string Functions Oracle PL/SQL

Question

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to offer the following string functions Oracle PL/SQL:
GETALLWORDS(): Inserts the words from a string into the table.
GETWORDCOUNT(): Counts the words in a string.
GETWORDNUM(): Returns a specified word from a string.
OCCURS(): Returns the number of times a character expression occurs within another character expression (including overlaps).
OCCURS2(): Returns the number of times a character expression occurs within another character expression (excluding overlaps).
PADC(): Returns a string from an expression, padded with spaces or characters to a specified length on the both sides.
STRTRAN(): Searches a character expression for occurrences of a second character expression, and then replaces each occurrence with a third character expression. Unlike a built-in function Replace, STRTRAN has three additional parameters.
STRFILTER(): Removes all characters from a string except those specified.
RAT(): Returns the numeric position of the last (rightmost) occurrence of a character string within another character string (including overlaps). The search performed by RAT() is case-sensitive. RAT similar to the PL/SQL function INSTR.
ATC(): Returns the beginning numeric position of the first occurrence of a character expression within another character expression, counting from the leftmost character (including overlaps). The search performed by ATC() is case-insensitive. ATC similar to the PL/SQL function INSTR.
RATC(): Returns the numeric position of the last (rightmost) occurrence of a character string within another character string (including overlaps). The search performed by RATC() is case-insensitive. RATC similar to the PL/SQL function INSTR.
AT2(): Returns the beginning numeric position of the first occurrence of a character expression within another character expression, counting from the leftmost character (excluding overlaps). The search performed by AT2() is case-sensitive. AT2 similar to the PL/SQL function INSTR.
REPLICATE(): Returns a character string that contains a specified character expression repeated a specified number of times.
ROMANTOARAB(): Returns the number equivalent of a specified character Roman numeral expression (from I to MMMCMXCIX).
Plus, there are versions for MS SQL SERVER, SYBASE ASA, DB2, MS SQL SERVER 2005 SQLCLR.
More than 8000 people have already downloaded my functions. I hope you will find them useful as well.
For more information about string UDFs Oracle PL/SQL please visit the
http://www.universalthread.com/wconnect/wc.dll?LevelExtreme~2,54,33,29233
Please, download the file
http://www.universalthread.com/wconnect/wc.dll?LevelExtreme~2,2,29233
With the best regards.

Answer 1

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I am using the Oracle Data Provider in vs2012. I am having trouble calling a function that returns an object type defined.
>
Returning a collection like that is a bad idea to begin with. That isn't scaleable and wastes memory.
Either return a REF CURSOR and let the client FETCH the rows or use a PIPELINED function and let the client query it like they would a table.
Here is an example similar to yours that uses a PIPELINED function.
create or replace
    package pkg2
      as
        CURSOR emp_cur is (SELECT empno, ename, job, mgr, deptno FROM emp);
        type pkg_emp_table_type is table of emp_cur%rowtype;
        function get_emp(
                         p_deptno number
          return pkg_emp_table_type
          pipelined;
  end;
create or replace
    package body pkg2
      as
        function get_emp(
                         p_deptno number
          return pkg_emp_table_type
          pipelined
          is
          begin
              for v_emp_rec in (SELECT empno, ename, job, mgr, deptno
                                FROM emp where deptno = p_deptno) loop
                pipe row(v_emp_rec);
              end loop;
          end;
  end;
select * from table(pkg2.get_emp(20));
       EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR     DEPTNO
        7369 DALLAS     CLERK2          7902         20
        7566 DALLAS     MANAGER         7839         20
        7788 DALLAS     ANALYST         7566         20
        7876 DALLAS     CLERK           7788         20
        7902 DALLAS     ANALYST         7566         20