Problem in executing the stored procedure

Question

I am trying to execute the following procedure which is used to capture data from 4 different tables:
The table structure is as follows with the sample data:
AREA
======
area_id area_type preferred_name
A1 Country India
A2 State AP
A3 Country Finland
A4 State Finland's State
A5 Country USA
T_CREATE_STAGE
=============
we_name we_num country_nm state_nm operator
B1 C1 A1 A2 O1
B1 C2 A3 A4 O1
ASSOCIATE
==========
ba_name busi_associate
ABC O1
XYZ O2
The IN-Paremeters of the procedure takes the Country name & State name (Prefered Name in table AREA) Operator Name (ba_name in table ASSOCIATE), at a time at least one parameter would come as Input and that could also be a Wild Card search.
The problem is that in the following procedure the query is taking the first match and returning it infinite times. Please suggest a suitable way to run the query in the procedure so that it returns the appropriate result.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE proc_new_search (
p_recordset OUT sys_refcursor,
countryName VARCHAR2 ,
stateName VARCHAR2 ,
opName VARCHAR2 ,
fieldName VARCHAR2
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE
BEGIN
OPEN p_recordset FOR 'select b.preferred_name,d.preferred_name,a.we_name,a.we_num,c.ba_name,'
|| 'a.fluid_type,e.preferred_name FROM T_CREATE_STAGE a, AREA b,AREA d,AREA e,ASSOCIATE c '
|| 'where (upper('''||countryName||''') IS NULL or instr(b.preferred_name, upper('''||countryName||''') ) > 0) AND a.country_nm = b.area_id AND b.area_type=''COUNTRY'' AND b.active_ind=''Y'''
||' AND (upper('''||opName||''') IS NULL or instr(c.ba_name,upper('''|| opName||''') ) > 0) AND a.operator = c.busi_associate'
||' AND (upper('''||stateName||''') IS NULL or instr(d.preferred_name,upper('''|| stateName ||''') ) > 0) AND a.province_state = d.area_id AND d.area_type=''STATE_PROVINCE'' AND d.active_ind=''Y'''
|| ' AND (upper('''||fieldName||''') IS NULL or instr(a.field, upper('''||fieldName||''' )) > 0) ';
END;
Thanks in advance,
Regards,
Priya

Answer 1

OK, I have extracted the SQL from the code you posted. I notice that there are FIVE tables in the FROM clause of the SQL:
FROM T_CREATE_STAGE a,
       AREA b,
       AREA d,
       AREA e,
       ASSOCIATE cwhereas there are only THREE join-conditions joining FOUR tables [5th table AREA e has not been joined with any of the tables]:
/* other conditions in the WHERE clause are filters, not table joins */
       AND a.country_nm = b.area_id
       AND a.operator = c.busi_associate
       AND a.province_state = d.area_idIn order to get valid expected result from a query involving FIVE tables, at least FOUR joins are required. *[ in a query involving N tables, at least N-1 joins are required ]*. Otherwise, the result will have duplication and hence will not be valid/as-expected.
So add a join involving AREA e table with other(s) and see if this improves the result.
HTH