Passing DataTable as parameter - help :(

Question

Hi all:
I'm really struggling here. I've been given the task of interfacing with an Oracle stored procedure through my ASP.NET application. The issue is that the stored proc takes a cursor as a parameter.
That wouldn't be so bad, but the issue is that I don't pull the data that would populate the cursor from a database table. It's built programmatically from the variables passed to the function.
So I figured I'd build a datatable and try passing that along as the cursor parameter.
OracleParameter p_input = cmd.Parameters.Add(
"p_input",
OracleDbType.Object,
my_data_table,
ParameterDirection.Input);
As the type, I've tried Object, Array (IE, turned my datatable into an array like so:
ArrayList l = new ArrayList(t.Rows.Count);
int count = 0;
foreach (DataRow r in my_data_table.Rows) {
l.Add(my_data_table.Rows[count]);
count ++;
and also RefCursor.
All of the types I try just give me:
ERROR: Exception: System.ArgumentException: Invalid parameter binding
I'm very frustrated and not sure where to go next..
Any advice?
Edited by: user9354881 on Mar 19, 2010 8:39 AM

Answer 1

Hi,
I'm not clear as to what you're trying to do. You're trying to pass a .NET DataTable IN to a plsql stored procedure? Or you're trying to populate a DataTable via a refcursor?
You cant pass a datatable in to a stored procedure; you'd need to pass an Oracle type, and you certainly cant pass in a cursor unless you got the cursor from the database.
If you want to pass in a structure similar to a datatable, you could pass a TABLE OF OBJECT parameter if you're using 11.1.0.6.20 or higher ODP.
If you want to populate a datatable from a refcursor, see the sample4.cs example on your hard drive in the %ORACLEHOME%\ODP.NET\samples\2.x\RefCursor folder.
Cheers,
Greg