ORACLE SQL: Looping over table - sql

Question

I have a table that contains a list of table names.
I would like to search each of these tables one by one to see if they contain a particular element (the primary key, specified at the start of the script).
I would like to return a list of all of the tables that this element is present in (ideally distinct).
I'm fairly new to this PL/SQL "not just a query" stuff. so i apologise in advance for the attrocious attempt you are about to see, but hopefully it illustrates what i'm going for:
PROCEDURE CHECK_FOR_ELEMENTS
BEGIN
DECLARE
ELEMENT_KEY varchar(5):=X78ehryfk;
RNUM_MAX int :=167;
----create output table for script
create or replace table ALL_TABLES CONTAINING_&ELEMENT_KEY
(ELEMENT_KEY VARCHAR(255),
TABLE_NAME varchar(255))
/
commit;
---begin loop over rnum;
FOR rnum_counter in 1..&RNUM_MAX
LOOP
--define this statement as variable TABLE_NAME_VAR
select table_name from (select * from (select table_name, rownum as rnum
from all_tables
where owner = 'RMS'
and table_name like 'ABC%'
and table_name not like '%STG'
and table_name not like '%BKP'
and num_rows>0
order by num_rows desc)
where rnum = rnum_counter
)INTO TABLE_NAME_VAR
;
----run below to collect row, if it exists, from table being searched
SQL_STMT:='INSERT INTO ALL_TABLES CONTAINING_&ELEMENT_KEY
SELECT distinct key,'||TABLE_NAME_VAR||' as UMF from
'||TABLE_NAME_VAR||
' where key like 'ELEMENT_KEY-%'
execute immediate SQL_STMT;
commit;
---insert row into table created for output
END LOOP
---loop over all tables
END;
The main error message i get is that TABLE_NAME_VAR is not a valid table name within the dynamic SQL statement. I've googled a bit and i now understand you can't use variables to input table names in this way.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thankyou!

Answer 1

Here, I tried to clean it up for you. Let me know if you still get errors.
create or replace PROCEDURE CHECK_FOR_ELEMENTS is
ELEMENT_KEY varchar2(14):='X78ehryfk';
RNUM_MAX int :=167;
TABLE_NAME_VAR varchar2(30);
SQL_STMT varchar2(4000);
BEGIN
----create output table for script
begin
execute immediate 'drop table ALL_TABLES_WITH_' || element_key;
exception when others then null;
end;
execute immediate 'create table ALL_TABLES_WITH_' || element_key || '
(ELEMENT_KEY VARCHAR2(255), -- does this need to be 255 characters?
TABLE_NAME varchar2(30))';
--- implicit cursor loop
FOR rnum_row in (select table_name, rownum as rnum
from all_tables
where owner = 'RMS'
and table_name like 'ABC%'
and table_name not like '%STG'
and table_name not like '%BKP'
and num_rows>0
order by num_rows desc)
LOOP
if rnum_row.rnum > RNUM_MAX
then exit;
end if;
TABLE_NAME_VAR := rnum_row.table_name;
----run below to collect row, if it exists, from table being searched
SQL_STMT:='INSERT INTO ALL_TABLES_WITH_' || element_key || '
(ELEMENT_KEY, TABLE_NAME)
SELECT distinct key, :1 as UMF from
'||TABLE_NAME_VAR||
' where key like :2';
execute immediate SQL_STMT using TABLE_NAME_VAR, element_key || '-%';
---insert row into table created for output
END LOOP;
commit;
---loop over all tables
END CHECK_FOR_ELEMENTS;
/