How to display the highest amount in PL/SQL along with ($) symbol? - sql

Question

Below is my current code in which I have to display on two populated tables called department and employee.
Employee Name: Johnshon
Job: Service Writer
Total Pay: $56,000
========================================
Department Name: Service
Highest Total Pay: $4,500.00
I am having problems getting the highest total pay to get displayed. I think my problem may be where I declared another variable name v_dpay. I'm not sure if I need that or not. I am pretty sure I should use MAX to get the highest total paid in the department. I am also having some problems implementing the ($) and (,) in my output to two decimal places.
ACCEPT p_1 PROMPT 'Please enter the Employee ID:'
DECLARE
v_eid employee.employee_id%TYPE := &p_1;
v_count NUMBER;
v_name employee.employee_name%TYPE;
v_job employee.job%TYPE;
v_pay employee.salary%TYPE;
v_did department.department_id%TYPE;
v_dname department.department_name%TYPE;
v_dpay ?????????????????????????????????
BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*)
INTO v_count
FROM employee
WHERE employee_id = v_eid;
IF v_count = 0 THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_eid || ' is not in the employee table.');
ELSE
select employee_name, job, salary + NVL(commission, 0), department_id
into v_name, v_job, v_pay, v_did
from employee
where employee_id = v_eid;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Employee Name: ' || v_name);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Job: ' || v_job);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Total Pay: ' || v_pay);
if v_did is not null then
select department_name, MAX(v_dpay)
into v_dname, v_dpay
from department, employee
where department_id = v_did;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Department Name: ' || v_dname);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Highest Total Pay: ' || v_dpay);
else
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('N/A');
end if;
END IF;
END;

Answer 1

Taking the maximum value of v_dpay is just going to give you...the value of v_dpay. I suspect this is not what you wanted. Perhaps the following might help:
SELECT d.DEPARTMENT_NAME, MAX(e.SALARY + NVL(e.COMMISSION, 0))
INTO v_dname, v_dpay
FROM DEPARTMENT d
INNER JOIN EMPLOYEE e
ON (e.DEPARTMENT_ID = d.DEPARTMENT_ID)
WHERE d.DEPARTMENT_ID = v_did;
Based on the posted code this SELECT should get you what you're looking for - and if it doesn't a little tweaking ought to do it.
Share and enjoy.

Answer 2

Bob's covered where you're going wrong with the max calculation; the v_dpay variable cold be declared as employee.salary%TYPE to maych v_pay, or as NUMBER, or another numeric data type. You could re-use v_pay but it's clearer if it has its own variable I think.
For the display, you need the TO_CHAR(number) function:
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Highest Total Pay: ' || TO_CHAR(v_dpay, 'C999G999G999D99'));
The format model uses C to represent the currency, which will give you $ if your NLS settings are for the US (or other countries that use that symbol!); G for the group separator which will give you , and D for the decimal separator which will give you ., again based on your NLS settings.
A less portable equivalent would be '$999,999,999.99', but using the generic versions isn't a bad habit to get into.