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Table based record variable: it stored one record. (Like one row of table.

Record is
collection of values)
Cursor based record variable: we stored one record into variable from cursor.
User defined record type variable: it will store one record from user defined record
structure.

In all above record variable cases, the different datatype of values stored under one variable.
Example number, varchar, date stored in one variable. Hence this type of variable is called as
composite datatype variable.

Oracle server supports fallowing types


1. Table record OR cursor record type: This record type is also one of the collection
datatype. We can maintain the multiple column datatype from multiple tables.
2. Index-by tables or Associative array or PL/SQL Table
3. Nested tables
4. Varray or Variable-size array
5. Ref cursors

Yes, it is possible to return multiple value from a function also.

Normally when we came across the difference between function and procedure, we say that function
always returns value(e.g single) where as procedure may or may not. But we can use OUT parameter to
return multiple value from a procedure. Similarly we can also return multiple value from a function by
using TABLE type object.

TABLE type objects are defined from a user defined collection/object type. We can also say that
collection type object can be made as TABLE type object in oracle plsql.

Here we are going to returns two columns value from our function. So it is necessary to define our user
type collection object having two data types.

STEP 1 Create Object Type (e.g COLLECTION)/Defining Object Type:

An object type is a kind of data type. It can be used like our standard data type such as
NUMBER,VARCHAR. You can also specify an object type as a column type of the database table.

Here we are considering the EMP table for our below example process.

Create or Replace type emp_type_o as Object

ename varchar2(15), //You may define other name rather than ename/job but the data type

job varchar2(12) should be same as the existing EMP tables ename/job column.

Once it is executed, emp_type_o type is created as a collection type object having two parameter.
Then we have to define a table type of the same object type Bcoz function can return multiple value
with the help of table type object.

STEP 2 Create Type as TABLE:

Create type emp_type_t is table of emp_type_o ;

It shows that emp_type_t is a table type object of emp_type_o object.

STEP 3 Create Function to Return the Type as table:


Create or Replace function get_emp_list (id number) return emp_type_t

as

v_ename emp_type_t; // Define a variable of the same table object type

begin

select emp_type_o(ename,job) bulk collect

into v_ename from emp

where deptno= id;

return v_ename; // Returned the table type object variable.

end;

The above function takes id as a parameter. Bcoz it fetches the related employees ename and job
based on that id(e.g deptno). The variable v_ename is a variable of that table type object and it is used
in the sql query to keep all the returned o/p value sets. The object emp_type_o in the select query
helps only to fetch the name and job column values from the emp table into the table type variable [e.g
v_ename]. To returned a bulk/mass data from database table we normally use the BULK COLLECT
concept. It is a technique that reduces the multiple Context Switches. So less Context Switch occurs in
the plsql program, the execution is more faster.

What is Context Switch:

When the PL/SQL runtime engine processes a block of code, it executes the procedural statements
within its own engine, but passes the SQL statements on to the SQL engine. The SQL layer executes the
SQL statements and then returns information to the PL/SQL engine, if necessary.

This transfer of control between the PL/SQL and SQL engines is called a context switch. Each time a
switch occurs, there is additional overhead. There are a number of scenarios in which many switches
occur and performance degrades.

STEP 4 Call Function which Returns Data Set:

select * from table ( get_emp_list (20));

This SQL query is used to fetch the exact data set. But to do this, it must use the oracle inbuilt table
function. This function takes our above defined function [e.g get_emp_list] as a parameter. So from this
example itll show all employees ename and job for department no 20.

Enjoy Coding

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