Returning a collection of data

Question

Hi all,
Took me ages to finally post this cause the forum server seems to be having problems.
I want to do a query in a function then return a series of results back to the calling process. Can someone tell me what is the best method of doing this?
Nested table? Table of Records? VArray (even though I don't think I could use it due to its inability to dynamically increase in capacity).
Can someone also suggest which method is best for returning a one column series of data and more than one column?
And finally, does such a thing as a Table of Records actually exist as a storage method thats passable by functions/paramaters?
Many many thanks!

Answer 1

I'll answer your original question.
If your return type is know beforehand then you can create a type for each row and for a table of that row.
(Declare these in your package spec so that the calling PL/SQL can reference the types!)
E.g.:
type ty_person is record
( person_id pls_integer
, first_name varchar2(100)
, last_name varchar2(100)
, date_of_birth date
Then create a table type
type ty_person_t is table of ty_person index by binary_integer;
Then you can reference this in your procedure
function f_get_people_older_than(X_age in pls_integer) return ty_person_t;
The calling proc would then be:
declare
X_people mods_people_package.ty_person_t;
begin
X_people := mods_people_package.f_get_people_older_than(30);
end;
Hope this helps..
Chris