Re: Indirection in PL/SQL???

From: Sybrand Bakker <postbus_at_sybrandb.demon.nl>
Date: 2000/07/12
Message-ID: <963433665.26851.1.pluto.d4ee154e@news.demon.nl>#1/1

"please help" <slow_at_cable.com> wrote in message news:ra4b5.3170$qx4.4380_at_newsfeed.slurp.net...
> Hello,
>
> Does anyone know if it is possible to use indirection in PL/SQL? By
> indirection, I'm referring to assigning a variable's name to another
> variable and then using the assignment variable to get to the assigned
> variable's value.
>
> For example:
> A = 5
> B = A
> is it possible to get from B to the 5?
>
> If this can be done, I'm not sure what I want to attempt to do is
 possible.
> I'm writing a procedure that needs to be able to accept a variable number
 of
> variable names for parameters. To do this, I'd like to somehow pass the
> variable names into the procedure as one variable with the names space
> delimited.
>
> The call would look something like this:
> convert("VAR1 VAR2 VAR3 VAR4");
>
> The procedure would look like this:
> Procedure convert(varnames IN LONG);
>
> Once inside of the procedure, I would parse out the variable names one at
 a
> time and use them.
>
> I kind of doubt this is possible without the passed in variables being
> global, which I don't want to do. However, I'd like to hear anyones ideas
> on how to do something similar to this.
>
> Thanks,
> Ron Watson
> rwatson_at_kemron-lab<takemeout>.com
>
>
>
>

It doesn't exist and you don't need it, because as long as you provide defaults for your paramaters you can leave them out Example
create or replace procedure foo(a in number, b in number, c in number default 0, d in varchar2 default 'scott')

can be called as

foo(a,b, c,d)
foo(a,b,c)
foo(a,b)

but *not* foo(a), as there is no default

Hth,

Sybrand Bakker, Oracle DBA Received on Wed Jul 12 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT