Use PL/SQL as query

I am looking for an way to use PL/SQL Functions as query. The idea is to use an function returning a cursor, which may be evaluated. In normal cases a SELECT statement would be used, for example

    SELECT * FROM accounts

Instead of this I want to use an PL/SQL Function. The Function is located in a package and looks like following:

    FUNCTION foo RETURN TABLE OF VARCHAR(128);

When using the OCI i want to call the function as "CALL foo" and expect and result cursor. But it seems not to work, oracle is unable to find the function. I used the schema and package as prefix, but it never works.

My requirement is to implement a function deleting records, any deleted record (or its id) should be returned in a set of rows (like select). Can anyone tell me how to to this?
The main problem is to use the oci interface and the possibly use of input host variables. Variables out of the statement are not allowed.
(this is currently a restriction of my self implemented database layer)

Is there any way the solve this problem with the given restrictions?
(yes, i thought about a temporary table, but that's not good)

regards markus Received on Mon Dec 15 2003 - 15:53:43 CST