I''''d like to know whether ORACLE supports procedures (functions) which
returns result sets.
The answer is most definitely yes. In short, it''''ll look like this:
create or replace function sp_ListEmp return types.cursortype
as l_cursor types.cursorType; begin open l_cursor for select ename, empno from emp order by ename; return l_cursor; end; /
With 7.2 on up of the database you have cursor variables. Cursor variables are cursors opened by a pl/sql routine and fetched from by another application or pl/sql routine (in 7.3 pl/sql routines can fetch from cursor variables as well as open them). The cursor variables are opened with the privelegs of the owner of the procedure and behave just like they were completely contained within the pl/sql routine. It uses the inputs to decide what database it will run a query on.
Here is an example:
create or replace package types
as type cursorType is ref cursor; end; /
create or replace function sp_ListEmp return types.cursortype
as l_cursor types.cursorType; begin open l_cursor for select ename, empno from emp order by ename;
return l_cursor;
end; /
examples for SQLPlus, Pro*C, Java/JDBC, ODBC, ADO/ASP, DBI Perl and OCI follow:
REM SQL*Plus commands to use a cursor variable
variable c refcursor
exec :c := sp_ListEmp print c
and the Pro*C to use this would look like:
static void process()
{ EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION; SQL_CURSOR my_cursor; VARCHAR ename[40]; int empno; EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
EXEC SQL WHENEVER SQLERROR DO sqlerror_hard();
EXEC SQL ALLOCATE :my_cursor;
EXEC SQL EXECUTE BEGIN
:my_cursor := sp_listEmp; END; END-EXEC;
for( ;; )
{ EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOTFOUND DO break; EXEC SQL FETCH :my_cursor INTO :ename, empno;