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Oracle/PLSQL: Creating Functions

Oracle allows users to create their own functions with a CREATE FUNCTION statement. Functions can take parameters as input and return a specified data type. There are three types of parameters: IN (value cannot be changed), OUT (value passed back), and IN OUT (value can be passed and changed). The example function FindCourse takes a course name as an IN parameter, searches a courses table to return the course number, and returns a default value if no match is found.

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Rajveer Singh
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24 views

Oracle/PLSQL: Creating Functions

Oracle allows users to create their own functions with a CREATE FUNCTION statement. Functions can take parameters as input and return a specified data type. There are three types of parameters: IN (value cannot be changed), OUT (value passed back), and IN OUT (value can be passed and changed). The example function FindCourse takes a course name as an IN parameter, searches a courses table to return the course number, and returns a default value if no match is found.

Uploaded by

Rajveer Singh
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Oracle/PLSQL: Creating Functions

In Oracle, you can create your own functions. The syntax for a function is: CREATE [OR REPLACE] FUNCTION function_name [ (parameter [,parameter]) ] RETURN return_datatype IS | AS [declaration_section] BEGIN executable_section [EXCEPTION exception_section] END [function_name]; When you create a procedure or function, you may define parameters. There are three types of parameters that can be declared: 1. IN - The parameter can be referenced by the procedure or function. The value of the parameter can not be overwritten by the procedure or function. 2. OUT - The parameter can not be referenced by the procedure or function, but the value of the parameter can be overwritten by the procedure or function. 3. IN OUT - The parameter can be referenced by the procedure or function and the value of the parameter can be overwritten by the procedure or function. The following is a simple example of a function: CREATE OR REPLACE Function FindCourse ( name_in IN varchar2 ) RETURN number IS cnumber number; cursor c1 is select course_number from courses_tbl where course_name = name_in; BEGIN open c1; fetch c1 into cnumber;

if c1%notfound then cnumber := 9999; end if; close c1; RETURN cnumber; EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN raise_application_error(-20001,'An error was encountered - '||SQLCODE||' ERROR- '||SQLERRM); END; This function is called FindCourse. It has one parameter called name_in and it returns a number. The function will return the course number if it finds a match based on course name. Otherwise, it returns a 99999. You could then reference your new function in an SQL statement as follows: select course_name, FindCourse(course_name) as course_id from courses where subject = 'Mathematics';

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