Looping on values, creating dynamic query and adding to result set - sql

Question

I have the following problem. I am an experienced Java programmer but am a bit of a n00b at SQL and PL/SQL.
I need to do the following.
1 Pass in a few arrays and some other variables into a procedure
2 Loop on the values in the arrays (they all have the same number of items) and dynamically create an SQL statement
3 Run this statement and add it to the result set (which is an OUT parameter of the procedure)
I already have experience of creating an SQL query on the fly, running it and adding the result to a result set (which is a REF CURSOR) but I'm not sure how I'd loop and add the results of each call to the query to the same result set. I'm not even sure if this is possible.
Here's what I have so far (code edited for simplicity). I know it's wrong because I'm just replacing the contents of the RESULT_SET with the most recent query result (and this is being confirmed in the Java which is calling this procedure).
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
TYPE REF_CURSOR IS REF CURSOR;
PROCEDURE GET_DATA_FASTER(in_seq_numbers IN seq_numbers_array, in_values IN text_array, in_items IN text_array, list IN VARCHAR2, RESULT_SET OUT REF_CURSOR) AS
query_str VARCHAR2(4000);
seq_number NUMBER;
the_value VARCHAR2(10);
the_item VARCHAR2(10);
BEGIN
FOR i IN 1..in_seq_numbers.COUNT
LOOP
seq_number := in_seq_numbers(i);
the_value := trim(in_values(i));
the_item := trim(in_items(i));
query_str := 'SELECT distinct '||seq_number||' as seq, value, item
FROM my_table ai';
query_str := query_str || '
WHERE ai.value = '''||the_value||''' AND ai.item = '''||the_item||'''
AND ai.param = ''BOOK''
AND ai.prod in (' || list || ');
OPEN RESULT_SET FOR query_str;
END LOOP;
EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN
RAISE;
END GET_DATA_FASTER;

Answer 1

A pipelined table function seems a better fit for what you want, especially if all you're doing is retrieving data. See http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/pipelined-table-functions.php
What you do is create a type for your output row. So in your case you would create an object such as
CREATE TYPE get_data_faster_row AS OBJECT(
seq NUMBER(15,2),
value VARCHAR2(10),
item VARCHAR2(10)
);
Then create a table type which is a table made up of your row type above
CREATE TYPE get_data_faster_data IS TABLE OF get_data_faster_row;
Then create your table function that returns the data in a pipelined manner. Pipelined in Oracle is a bit like a yield return in .net (not sure if you're familiar with that). You find all of the rows that you want and "pipe" them out one at a time in a loop. When your function completes the table that's returned consists of all the rows you piped out.
CREATE FUNCTION Get_Data_Faster(params) RETURN get_data_faster_data PIPELINED AS
BEGIN
-- Iterate through your parameters
--Iterate through the results of the select using
-- the current parameters. You'll probably need a
-- cursor for this
PIPE ROW(get_data_faster_row(seq, value, item));
LOOP;
LOOP;
END;
EDIT: Following Alex's comment below, you need something like this. I haven't been able to test this but it should get you started:
CREATE FUNCTION Get_Data_Faster(in_seq_numbers IN seq_numbers_array, in_values IN text_array, in_items IN text_array, list IN VARCHAR2) RETURN get_data_faster_data PIPELINED AS
TYPE r_cursor IS REF CURSOR;
query_results r_cursor;
results_out get_data_faster_row := get_data_faster_row(NULL, NULL, NULL);
query_str VARCHAR2(4000);
seq_number NUMBER;
the_value VARCHAR2(10);
the_item VARCHAR2(10);
BEGIN
FOR i IN 1..in_seq_number.COUNT
LOOP
seq_number := in_seq_numbers(i);
the_value := trim(in_values(i));
the_item := trim(in_items(i));
query_str := 'SELECT distinct '||seq_number||' as seq, value, item
FROM my_table ai';
query_str := query_str || '
WHERE ai.value = '''||the_value||''' AND ai.item = '''||the_item||'''
AND ai.param = ''BOOK''
AND ai.prod in (' || list || ');
OPEN query_results FOR query_str;
LOOP
FETCH query_results INTO
results_out.seq,
results_out.value,
results_out.item;
EXIT WHEN query_results%NOTFOUND;
PIPE ROW(results_out);
END LOOP;
CLOSE query_results;
END LOOP;
END;
Extra info from Alex's comment below useful for the answer:
you can have multiple loops from different sources, and as long as the
data from each be put into the same object type, you can just keep
pumping them out with pipe row statements anywhere in the function.
The caller sees them as a table with the rows in the order you pipe
them. Rather than call a procedure and get a result set as an output
parameter, you can query as select seq, value, item from
table(package.get_data_faster(a, b, c, d)), and of course you can
still have an order by clause if the order they're piped isn't what
you want.