How to select into a variable in PL/SQL when the result might be null?

Question

Is there a way in to just run a query once to select into a variable, considering that the query might return nothing, then in that case the variable should be null.

Answer 1

I would recommend using a cursor. A cursor fetch is always a single row (unless you use a bulk collection), and cursors do not automatically throw no_data_found or too_many_rows exceptions; although you may inspect the cursor attribute once opened to determine if you have a row and how many.

declare
v_column my_table.column%type;
l_count pls_integer;
cursor my_cursor is
  select count(*) from my_table where ...;

begin
  open my_cursor;
    fetch my_cursor into l_count;
  close my_cursor;

  if l_count = 1 then
    select whse_code into v_column from my_table where ...;
  else
    v_column := null;
  end if;
end;

Or, even more simple:

    declare
    v_column my_table.column%type;
    cursor my_cursor is
      select column from my_table where ...;

    begin
      open my_cursor;
        fetch my_cursor into v_column;
        -- Optional IF .. THEN based on FOUND or NOTFOUND
        -- Not really needed if v_column is not set
        if my_cursor%notfound then
          v_column := null;
        end if;
      close my_cursor;
    end;