Oracle: Select From Record Datatype

Question

I have a function that returns a record datatype (2 fields: ID and Name). How can I get at the data from a select statement?

Specifically, I am trying using an Oracl

Answer 1

A record datatype is a PL/SQL datatype. SQL doesn't know about it. That's probably why you are getting an error. See this example:

SQL> create package mypkg
  2  as
  3    type myrec is record
  4    ( id int
  5    , name varchar2(10)
  6    );
  7    function f return myrec;
  8  end mypkg;
  9  /

Package created.

SQL> create package body mypkg
  2  as
  3    function f return myrec
  4    is
  5      r myrec;
  6    begin
  7      r.id := 1;
  8      r.name := 'test';
  9      return r;
 10    end f;
 11  end mypkg;
 12  /

Package body created.

SQL> desc mypkg
FUNCTION F RETURNS RECORD
   ID                           NUMBER(38)              OUT
   NAME                         VARCHAR2(10)            OUT

SQL> select mypkg.f from dual
  2  /
select mypkg.f from dual
       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00902: invalid datatype

The error in SQL I was referring to. You can call it from PL/SQL though:

SQL> declare
  2    r mypkg.myrec;
  3  begin
  4    r := mypkg.f;
  5    dbms_output.put_line(r.id);
  6    dbms_output.put_line(r.name);
  7  end;
  8  /
1
test

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

If you want to use the function in SQL, then you can create a SQL objecttype. Note that calling your function directly from C# looks way more preferable than insisting on using SQL to do this. But just for the record:

SQL> drop package mypkg
  2  /

Package dropped.

SQL> create type myobj is object
  2  ( id int
  3  , name varchar2(10)
  4  );
  5  /

Type created.

SQL> create package mypkg
  2  as
  3    function f return myobj;
  4  end mypkg;
  5  /

Package created.

SQL> create package body mypkg
  2  as
  3    function f return myobj
  4    is
  5    begin
  6      return myobj(1,'test');
  7    end f;
  8  end mypkg;
  9  /

Package body created.

SQL> select mypkg.f from dual
  2  /

F(ID, NAME)
--------------------------------------------------------------
MYOBJ(1, 'test')

1 row selected.

Regards, Rob.