The best way to fill varray in different code blocks pl sql - oracle

Question

Usually I fill arrays like this:
TYPE name_options IS VARRAY(6) OF VARCHAR2(300);
dd_name_options_c name_options;
dd_name_options_c := name_options(string1, string2, string3, string4);
But what if I have two blocks that generate strings and I want to save all the strings to one array:
-- Block 1
....
dd_name_options_c := name_options(string1, string2, string3, string4);
....
-- Block 2
....
dd_name_options_c := name_options(string5, string6);
So, in the end, the array will contain 6 strings:
string1, string2, string3, string4, string5, string6
How can I do this?

Answer 1

you can use extend
declare
TYPE name_options IS VARRAY(6) OF VARCHAR2(300);
dd_name_options_c name_options;
begin
dd_name_options_c := name_options('a', 'b', 'c', 'd');
dd_name_options_c.Extend(2);
dd_name_options_c(5) := 'e';
dd_name_options_c(6) := 'f';
dbms_output.put_line(dd_name_options_c.count());
end;
/

Answer 2

what if I have two blocks that generate strings and I want to save all the strings to one array
If the blocks are separate program units or otherwise disconnected, maybe even can be executed in different orders, you need some logic which can tell whether the target array is already populated. One solution is to use a (private) PL/SQL procedure to manage this.
procedure populate_varray
( p_tgt in out name_options
, p_new in name_options)
is
n pls_integer;
begin
if p_tgt is null
or p_tgt.count() = 0
then
p_tgt := p_new;
elsif p_new is not null
and p_new.count() > 0
then
n := p_tgt.count();
for idx in 1 .. p_new.count() loop
p_tgt.extend();
p_tgt(n + idx) := p_new(idx);
end loop;
end if;
end populate_varray;
Note: untested code, please comment below if there are errors :)
You would call it like this:
-- Block 1
....
populate_varray ( dd_name_options_c
, name_options(string1, string2, string3, string4));
....
-- Block 2
....
populate_varray (dd_name_options_c
, name_options(string5, string6) );