Querying multiple rows from Oracle table using package - sql

Question

I wrote a package to query rows from a table. This select query will call other functions and returns all the rows from table. But when i write a package with all functions and sprocs , my sproc with select statement gives me an error saying i cannot execute without into statement. But if i use into then it will return only one row. How can i retrieve all rows using oracle sp?
Procedure GetData As
BEGIN
Select Jobid, JobName, JobLocation, JobCompany, X(jobid) FROM jobsTable; END GetData;
END;
I had to change it to following make the error go away:
Procedure GetData As
r_Jobid jobsTable.jobid%type;
r_JobName jobsTable.jobName%type;
r_JobLocation jobsTable.jobLocation%type;
r_temp varhar2(10);
BEGIN
Select Jobid, JobName, JobLocation, JobCompany, X(jobid)
INTO r_jobid, r_jobName, r_jobLocation, r_temp
FROM jobsTable;
END GetData;
END;

Answer 1

This is a better approach to returning multiple rows from a function:
FUNCTION GET_DATA()
RETURN SYS_REFCURSOR IS
results_cursor SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
OPEN results_cursor FOR
SELECT t.jobid,
t.jobName,
t.joblocation,
t.jobcompany,
X(t.jobid)
FROM JOBSTABLE t;
RETURN results_cursor;
END;
I agree with afk though that this doesn't appear to be what you really need to be using. Here's my recommendation for using a cursor:
CURSOR jobs IS
SELECT t.jobid,
t.jobName,
t.joblocation,
t.jobcompany,
X(t.jobid)
FROM JOBSTABLE t;
v_row jobs%ROWTYPE; --has to be declared AFTER the cursor to be able to reference the row type
BEGIN
OPEN jobs;
FETCH jobs INTO v_row;
IF jobs%FOUND THEN
--do stuff here, per row basis
--access columns in the row using: v_row.jobid/etc
END IF;
CLOSE jobs;
END;
Are you aware that this:
Procedure GetData As
r_Jobid jobsTable.jobid%type;
r_JobName jobsTable.jobName%type;
r_JobLocation jobsTable.jobLocation%type;
r_temp varhar2(10);
...means you defined local variables? You won't be able to get information out of the procedure. If you do, you'd need parameters, like this:
Procedure GetData(IO_R_JOBID IN OUT JOBSTABLE.JOBID%TYPE,
IO_R_JOBNAME IN OUT JOBSTABLE.JOBNAME%TYPE,
IO_R_JOBLOCATION IN OUT JOBSTABLE.JOBLOCATION%TYPE,
IO_R_TEMP IN OUT VARCHAR2(10)) AS
I use the IO_ to note which parameters are IN/OUT. I'd use IN_ or OUT_ where applicable. But the key here is to define OUT if you want to get a parameter back out.
Also - packages are just logical grouping of procedures & functions, with the ability to define constants scoped to the package. The package itself doesn't execute any SQL - it's still a function or procedure that is executing. God how I wish SQL Server had packages...

Answer 2

You could use a pipelined function. For this example I'm only fetching the ID columns, but you just need to add the others.
CREATE PACKAGE jobsPkg AS
TYPE jobsDataRec IS RECORD ( jobid jobsTable.jobid%type );
TYPE jobsDataTab IS TABLE OF jobsDataRec;
FUNCTION getJobsData RETURN jobsDataTab PIPELINED;
END jobsPkg;
/
CREATE PACKAGE BODY jobsPkg AS
FUNCTION getJobsData RETURN jobsDataTab PIPELINED
IS
output_record jobsDataRec;
BEGIN
FOR input_record IN ( SELECT jobid FROM jobsTable ) LOOP
output_record.jobid := input_record.jobid;
PIPE ROW (output_record);
END LOOP;
END getJobsData;
END jobsPkg;
/
This function can then be used as a row source:
SELECT * FROM TABLE( jobsPkg.getJobsData );

Answer 3

You need to use a Cursor for multiple return results. Take a look at this article on using Cursors for some details.
You could do something like:
DECLARE
CURSOR myCur IS
SELECT Jobid, JobName, JobLocation, JobCompany, X(jobid)
FROM jobsTable;
BEGIN
FOR resultRow in myCur
LOOP
--do your stuff here
END LOOP;
END;