SQL Oracle, returning a table from a Function - sql

Question

I was trying create a function (maybe procedure will be better?) which return a table. Presently I have this:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rowx AS OBJECT
(
nam1 VARCHAR2 (100),
nam2 VARCHAR2 (100)
);
/
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE tablex
IS TABLE OF rowx;
/
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION example(FS varchar2)
RETURN tablex
IS
tab tablex;
BEGIN
select y.ident as PARENT, x.ident as CHILD into tab
from relation2 rt
inner join plate x on rt.child = x.id
inner join plate y on rt.parent =y.id
where x.ident like 'string1' or y.ident like 'string2';
RETURN tab;
END;
After compilation above function I recive ORA-00947. Any tips?

Answer 1

Your query is selecting two scalar values, and trying to put them into a table of an object type. That type has two fields, but there is no automatic comversion. So you need to build the object explicitly, which you can do as part of the query.
You should also use a bulk query to populate your collection:
select rowx(y.ident, x.ident)
bulk collect into tab
from relation2 rt
...

Answer 2

Have a look at this example; does it help?
My TEST table represents your tables. This function returns a collection, which is then used in SELECT statement along with the TABLE operator.
SQL> create table test (nam1 varchar2(10), nam2 varchar2(10));
Table created.
SQL> insert into test values ('Little', 'Foot');
1 row created.
SQL> insert into test values ('Stack', 'Overflow');
1 row created.
SQL> create or replace type t_tf_row as object (nam1 varchar2(10), nam2 varchar2(10));
2 /
Type created.
SQL> create or replace type t_tf_tab is table of t_tf_row;
2 /
Type created.
SQL>
SQL> create or replace function get_tab_tf return t_tf_tab as
2 l_tab t_tf_tab := t_tf_tab();
3 begin
4 for cur_r in (select nam1, nam2 from test) loop
5 l_tab.extend;
6 l_tab(l_tab.last) := t_tf_row(cur_r.nam1, cur_r.nam2);
7 end loop;
8 return l_tab;
9 end;
10 /
Function created.
SQL>
SQL> select * From table(get_Tab_tf);
NAM1 NAM2
--------------------
Little Foot
Stack Overflow
SQL>