PL/SQL: Populating Cursor with List then do IF EXISTS against Table

Question

Here is my issue. The DB I work with is an Event Database (Network Events). I have a task to take a list of 2600 nodes and see if these nodes exist with in a set of events which would be found with a certain WHERE clause. On my first pass, I did the WHERE clause AND NODE in (List of 2600 nodes). Well you can only put 1000 items in an in list so I split it up into 3 reports and then did a UNION all between them. This used 15% of db resources and ran for hours and the dba group would like me to find a better way. They would prefer that I use PL/SQL.
I'm new to pl/sql (but not to programming nor sql). So the first thing I did is just figure out how to get my list into an Varray, which I then switched to a table because I could not find any examples, after hours and hours of searching the web,
of referencing a Varray with SQL syntax.
******** BEGIN CODE Sample 1 ***********
DECLARE
DECLARE
TYPE NodeList IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(255);
Nodes NodeList := NodeList('node1', node2', [......list of 2597 nodes..], 'node2600')
BEGIN
dbms_output.enable(1000000);
FOR i IN Nodes.FIRST .. Nodes.LAST
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Relevant Items: ' || Nodes(i));
END LOOP;
END
******** END CODE Sample 1 ***********
The pseudocode I'm envisioning goes something like this:
IF any of these nodes (2600 node list) ,
exist in the nodes for this WHERE clause (which is pulling from the db event table),
then print out the records (of the events in the db event table) that contain those nodes (i.e the nodes from the list).
I think I found an example of doing this with 2 cursors but I cant find that example again. And, anyway, I cant figure out how to get my list into a cursor. I have many examples of how to fill a cursor via a select against a db.
I tried this but it did not work:
******** BEGIN CODE Sample 2 ***********
DECLARE
DECLARE
TYPE NodeList IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(255);
Nodes NodeList := NodeList('node1', node2', [......list of 2597 nodes..], 'node2600')
CURSOR MOM_OVO_NODES IS
SELECT Node
FROM NodeList
ORDER BY Node;
BEGIN
dbms_output.enable(1000000);
FOR nodelist_rec IN MOM_OVO_NODES
LOOP
dbms_output.put_line('Relevant Nodes: '||nodelist_rec.node);
END LOOP;
END
******** END CODE Sample 2 ***********
Is there a way to get this list into a cursor? Or am I thinking about the whole thing incorrectly?
brad

Answer 1

Every time I come to OTN thinking I finally have a reason to use PL/SQL, I find that I really only need SQL! I'm never going to get to learn PL/SQL! :)
Thanks for the link. The information is well written.
Unfortunately, I dont have the rights to create a GTT table. I get ORA-01031.
I work for a very large organization where even the DBA's are so task individualized that many of them can only do very specific tasks. So I dont see myself getting rights to create even temporary tables. That would probably take and act of God.
So, accepting that pl/sql is NOT the best practices solution here. I'd still like to , as an exercise for the student, understand how I can populate a cursor with a list. Why wont my example work? Since I could ONLY find examples of using SELECT to populate a cursor, I turned my VARRAY into a table. Then I learned that I could initialize the table in the DECLARE section. Then I put my cursor declaration after the table initialization. Still no luck. Then I saw casting as TABLE mentioned but got nowhere with that. IS there a way to get that list into a cursor? Its really bothering me.
Also, since its a table, and, as far as I know, in referring to a table, one needs to reference a column, what is the syntax for naming the single column in my table?
I AM reading the pl/sql books on Safari, and I do have the 10lb tome from Steven Feuerstein sitting next to me. <-- I'd page through it more often if I could find a reason to use PL/SQL. Actually, the DBA group has mandated that I write everything in PL/SQL for "performance" reasons. I dont actually adhere to that but there it is.
Also, whats the protocol for giving credit for answers on threads like this where several people give relatively the same answer? Do I just give the earliest time stamp full credit or give them all a "helpful"?
brad