Without loops how can i read data from associative Array??

Question

Hi all,
I am facing scenario like...
i need to read data from associative array  without using loops is it possible,
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY test_pkg IS
    TYPE t1 IS TABLE OF NUMBER INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
   -- in array we can expect more than one row or sometimes no data also.
  FUNCTION test1(vt1 T1 DEFAULT CAST(NULL AS t1)) RETURN NUMBER IS
  BEGIN
    -- basically in array we'll get data of column2
    -- this loop should satisfies table1.colum2 = nvl(NULL, table2.colum2 )if array is null.
    -- if array is not null then only compare with array values
    FOR i IN (SELECT t1.colum1,t1.column2
                     FROM table1 t1, table1 t2
                          WHERE t1.colum1 = t2.column1
                            AND t1.colum2 = nvl(vt1, t2.colum2)
      LOOP
        generateTEXT(i.colum1, i.colum2);
     END LOOP;
  END test1;
END test_pkg;
in table1 we have date like...
colum1          column2
Jan                  1
Feb                  2
Mar                  3
if i call select test_pkg.test1(1) from dual then output should
be Jan..
and
select test_pkg.test1(null) from dual then it should display all elements from table1.
Jan                  1
Feb                  2
Mar                  3,
Thanks for your quick replay..

Answer 1

i need to read data from associative array  without using loops is it possible,
No - you would need to create a SQL type and then use the TABLE operator to unnest the collection.
create or replace TYPE my_nums IS TABLE OF INTEGER;
DECLARE
--  TYPE my_nums IS TABLE OF PLS_INTEGER INDEX BY PLS_INTEGER;
  v_nums my_nums := my_nums(1, 2, 3);
  v_total number;
BEGIN
  select sum(column_value) into v_total from table(v_nums);
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE
    ('Sum of the numbers is ' || TO_CHAR(v_total));
END;
Sum of the numbers is 6