RESTRICT_REFERENCES and DBMS_SQL Catch 22?

Could someone tell me which one I'm mistaken about, or if there is a workaround:

1. When creating a PLSQL function, you need to add a RESTRICT_REFERENCES pragma to the package to enforce read-only rights to the function. Otherwise the block won't run (error of "No guarantee it won't write" or something along those lines).
2. When using RESTRICT_REFERENCES, you can't use DBMS_SQL for inserting variables into SQL statements, as this violates the purity of RESTRICT_REFERENCES. The SQL statement is not known at compile-time, so it won't allow the block to be used.
3. The only way to create a SQL statement dynamically, which is necessary in my case because the table name is unknown until it's run, is to use DBMS_SQL.

Catch 22.

So my initially simplistic function in which I would pass in the name of a table and return a single value from that table is turning into a ridiculously confusing project, unless someone here can tell me where I'm going wrong.

Oracle 7.33/DEC OSF1 V4

mk

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Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Received on Fri Jun 11 1999 - 13:00:19 CDT