How to use an associative array in

In a recent Ask Tom article
(http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/ask/f?p=4950:8:::::F4950_P8_DISPLAYID:2196162600402)

there was an example of how to create custom aggregation functions for use within a SQL select. The example given automagically concatenated a list of strings into one single string.

I'm really keen on this capability, and have several uses in mind for it. But, I'm getting stumped on one extension to the sample code. In my case, I need to use the ODCIAggregateIterate() function to place the various strings into an associative array. Then I would manipulate that array in the ODCIAggregateTerminate() function to return a number based on the values found in that array.

While I've found a couple of different way to declare the array in the type header, I can't figure out how to instantiate it in the ODCIAggregateInitialize() function of the type body.

I'd follow up on this question at Ask Tom, but the site doesn't seem to be accepting new posts at the moment.

Any help / examples greatly appreciated - in particular, an example that successfully created the array and inserted values into it within the ODCIAggregateIterate() function would get me over the hump.

Thanks in advance!

Jay Wheeler Received on Wed Jun 07 2006 - 16:15:48 CDT