Variable number of parameters to procedure

Question

I have a requirement to pass variable number of parameters for an attribute, to a stored procedure.
example:
procedure getSum(country_code IN varchar2, sum OUT number)
Inside the procedure, I am currently
writing SQL as
where eligible_code in (country_code).
This is ok when I pass just one code.
However I need to deal with n number of
country codes at a given time.
i.e. if I want to pass 3 country codes
as a concatinated string say "A-B-C"
where A, B, C are 3 different codes,
how do I decode them into a
meaning full
where eligible_code in ('A', 'B', 'C')
Or is there any other way of dealing
with this kind of situation.
The bottom line is I must have a stored
procedure, that takes parameter(s).
Any input/suggestion is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Please try the following, substituting the appropriate table name for your_table and the appropriate column name for eligible_code, then see if you can incorporate some of it into your procedure. Please let me know if it works for you or not.
SQL> EDIT getsum
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE getsum
(country_code IN VARCHAR2,
p_sum OUT NUMBER)
AS
v_country_codes VARCHAR2 (300);
v_sum NUMBER := 0;
v_sql_statement VARCHAR2 (3000);
v_sql_syntax VARCHAR2 (30000);
cursor_name INTEGER;
ignore INTEGER;
BEGIN
v_country_codes := REPLACE (country_code, '-', ''',''');
v_sql_statement := ' SELECT COUNT (*)
INTO :v_sum
FROM your_table
WHERE eligible_code IN (''' | | v_country_codes | | ''');';
v_sql_syntax := 'BEGIN '| | v_sql_statement | |' END;';
cursor_name := DBMS_SQL.OPEN_CURSOR;
DBMS_SQL.PARSE (cursor_name, v_sql_syntax, DBMS_SQL.NATIVE);
DBMS_SQL.BIND_VARIABLE (cursor_name, ':v_sum', v_sum);
ignore := DBMS_SQL.EXECUTE (cursor_name);
DBMS_SQL.VARIABLE_VALUE (cursor_name, ':v_sum', v_sum);
DBMS_SQL.CLOSE_CURSOR (cursor_name);
p_sum := v_sum;
END getsum;
Save the file.
SQL> START getsum
Procedure created.
SQL> VARIABLE g_sum NUMBER
SQL> EXEC getsum ('A-B-C', :g_sum)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_sum
G_SUM
3
null