Passing an array of data as an input parameter to an Oracle procedure - oracle

Question

I'm trying to pass an array of (varchar) data into an Oracle procedure. The Oracle procedure would be either called from SQL*Plus or from another PL/SQL procedure like so:
BEGIN
pr_perform_task('1','2','3','4');
END;
pr_perform_task will read each of the input parameters and perform the tasks.
I'm not sure as to how I can achieve this. My first thought was to use an input parameter of type varray but I'm getting Error: PLS-00201: identifier 'VARRAY' must be declared error, when the procedure definiton looks like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE PR_DELETE_RECORD_VARRAY(P_ID VARRAY) IS
To summarize, how can I pass the data as an array, let the SP loop through each of the parameters and perform the task ?
I'm using Oracle 10gR2 as my database.

Answer 1

This is one way to do it:
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE MyType AS VARRAY(200) OF VARCHAR2(50);
2 /
Type created
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE testing (t_in MyType) IS
2 BEGIN
3 FOR i IN 1..t_in.count LOOP
4 dbms_output.put_line(t_in(i));
5 END LOOP;
6 END;
7 /
Procedure created
SQL> DECLARE
2 v_t MyType;
3 BEGIN
4 v_t := MyType();
5 v_t.EXTEND(10);
6 v_t(1) := 'this is a test';
7 v_t(2) := 'A second test line';
8 testing(v_t);
9 END;
10 /
this is a test
A second test line
To expand on my comment to #dcp's answer, here's how you could implement the solution proposed there if you wanted to use an associative array:
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE p IS
2 TYPE p_type IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(50) INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
3
4 PROCEDURE pp (inp p_type);
5 END p;
6 /
Package created
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY p IS
2 PROCEDURE pp (inp p_type) IS
3 BEGIN
4 FOR i IN 1..inp.count LOOP
5 dbms_output.put_line(inp(i));
6 END LOOP;
7 END pp;
8 END p;
9 /
Package body created
SQL> DECLARE
2 v_t p.p_type;
3 BEGIN
4 v_t(1) := 'this is a test of p';
5 v_t(2) := 'A second test line for p';
6 p.pp(v_t);
7 END;
8 /
this is a test of p
A second test line for p
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed
SQL>
This trades creating a standalone Oracle TYPE (which cannot be an associative array) with requiring the definition of a package that can be seen by all in order that the TYPE it defines there can be used by all.

Answer 2

If the types of the parameters are all the same (varchar2 for example), you can have a package like this which will do the following:
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE testuser.test_pkg IS
TYPE assoc_array_varchar2_t IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(4000) INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
PROCEDURE your_proc(p_parm IN assoc_array_varchar2_t);
END test_pkg;
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY testuser.test_pkg IS
PROCEDURE your_proc(p_parm IN assoc_array_varchar2_t) AS
BEGIN
FOR i IN p_parm.first .. p_parm.last
LOOP
dbms_output.put_line(p_parm(i));
END LOOP;
END;
END test_pkg;
Then, to call it you'd need to set up the array and pass it:
DECLARE
l_array testuser.test_pkg.assoc_array_varchar2_t;
BEGIN
l_array(0) := 'hello';
l_array(1) := 'there';
testuser.test_pkg.your_proc(l_array);
END;
/