User-defined record as an OUT parameter - oracle

Question

This is my current code. My error is that COUNTRY_REC must be declared. I understand all of that I just can't find anything online that talks about records as out parameters. This is a requirement of the problem. I have to be very close to the solution but I just don't understand.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE find_region_and_currency_sp(
p_country_name IN COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME%TYPE,
p_country_rec OUT country_rec)
IS
TYPE country_rec IS RECORD(
country_name COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME%TYPE,
region COUNTRIES.REGION_ID%TYPE,
currency COUNTRIES.CURRENCY_CODE%TYPE);
country_record country_rec;
BEGIN
SELECT COUNTRY_NAME, REGION_ID, CURRENCY_CODE INTO country_rec
FROM COUNTRIES
where COUNTRY_NAME = p_country_name;
END;
Any help would be greatly appreciated...

Answer 1

Your record TYPE COUNTRY_REC is defined inside procedure which is not accessible within scope of procedure parameters.
You have the following options.
Create and store a TYPE OBJECT COUNTRY_REC with same structure as that of the query result and compatible datatypes.
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE country_rec AS OBJECT (
country_name VARCHAR2(10),
region VARCHAR2(10),
currency VARCHAR2(5)
);
You then don't need another local record variable.But, you need to initialize using NEW keyword as shown. You can then simply fetch the values into corresponding record elements.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE find_region_and_currency_sp (
p_country_name IN countries.country_name%TYPE,
p_country_rec OUT country_rec
)
IS
BEGIN
p_country_rec := NEW country_rec(NULL,NULL,NULL); --Initialization
SELECT
country_name,
region_id,
currency_code
INTO
p_country_rec.country_name,p_country_rec.region,p_country_rec.currency
FROM
countries
WHERE
country_name = p_country_name;
END;
The other Option is to define the record in the package scope in the package specification.
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE pkg_country_op
AS
TYPE country_rec IS RECORD(
country_name COUNTRIES.COUNTRY_NAME%TYPE,
region COUNTRIES.REGION_ID%TYPE,
currency COUNTRIES.CURRENCY_CODE%TYPE);
PROCEDURE find_region_and_currency_sp (
p_country_name IN COUNTRIES.country_name%TYPE,
p_country_rec OUT country_rec
);
END;
/
And then include the same procedure inside the PACKAGE BODY.
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY pkg_country_op..
..
..
PROCEDURE find_region_and_currency_sp (
p_country_name IN countries.country_name%TYPE,
p_country_rec OUT country_rec
)
IS
..
Calling the procedure. You can call the procedure as follows.
Case 1:
DECLARE
v_country_rec country_rec; --Global Scope
BEGIN
find_region_and_currency_sp('India',v_country_rec);
END;
/
Case 2:
DECLARE
v_country_rec pkg_country_op.country_rec; --Package Global variable
BEGIN
pkg_country_op.find_region_and_currency_sp('India',v_country_rec);
END;
/