Return a RecordSet from a Package?

I am fairly new to Oracle and need some help in designing a system. I want to limit access to the database in a somewhat unconventional way that requires a pre-processing step before I allow access to the database - the details are not important. Packages appear to be a good construct for accomplishing what I hope to do. My plan is to use packages to encapsulate all of my calls into the database. This way I can perform my pre-processing in an explicit method of the package and simply check a Boolean variable before accessing the database to insure that the pre-processing has taken place.

My question is, can I return a recordset from a call to a package? Or, in other words, how can I move my existing views into the new packages that I am creating? If I am to be successful in encapsulating ALL access to the database, then I need to wrap my views as well. The documentation that I have found only talks about defining procedures and functions in a package. As I understand it, neither of these code modules allow me to return a recordset as a return value. Can anyone explain to me how to return an entire SELECT through a package method?

Thanks. Received on Wed Dec 02 1998 - 08:39:03 CST