Genereic reference type in PL/SQL?

From: Thomas Blankschein <thomas_at_blankschein.de>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:01:42 +0200
Message-ID: <452e74f9$0$13099$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net>

Hello,

I work with Oracle 9.2.0.7 Standard.

I know about the REF CURSOR type. But is it possible to create and use references for other types, like pointers in C/C++?

Here is a pseudocode example of what I want to achieve. In this special case I can of course use an array. It's just an example.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION ref_test(p_Index IN NUMBER) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS

  strText1 VARCHAR2(10);
  strText2 VARCHAR2(10);
  strText3 VARCHAR2(10);

  pointer_to_varchar REF VARCHAR2; <--- ???

BEGIN

  strText1 := 'One';
  strText2 := 'Two';
  strText3 := 'Three';

• Set the reference to the right variable, depending on the
• index parameter IF p_Index = 1 THEN pointer_to_varchar := REF(strText1); <--- ??? IF p_Index = 2 THEN pointer_to_varchar := REF(strText2); <--- ??? IF p_Index = 3 THEN pointer_to_varchar := REF(strText3); <--- ???
  • Returning the text RETURN DEREF(pointer_to_varchar); <--- ???

END; Received on Thu Oct 12 2006 - 12:01:42 CDT