Comments on: Adapter or not adapter that’s the question

By: How to wrap a system reference cursor and return a collection | MacLochlainns Weblog

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:15:01 +0000

This applies the Adapter pattern in a bit of a twist, more like a force fit. It shows you how to wrap a system reference cursor return data type and convert it to a PL/SQL table of records.

By: maclochlainn

maclochlainn — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:32:45 +0000

Hey Steven, You make a great point! I've updated the reference to: Pipelined table function. That's definitely more consistent with Chapter 12 of the PL/SQL Language Reference. I tried to make that point about where they're most useful in an earlier post but clarification is always welcome. Thanks!

By: Steven Feuerstein

Steven Feuerstein — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:15:59 +0000

Hello Michael,

Lots of interesting material in your blog! Thanks for sharing…

One thing. You write “You can assign a PL/SQL record structure through a PIPELINED function to an aggregate table, which can be read by SQL.”

I believe you mean “through a table function”. A pipelined table function is a specialized sort of table function, which is very helpful for parallelizing execution of queries that call a table function, and for reducing pereceived elapsed time of data retrieval.

It does not, however, provide a benefit over “regular” table functions except in those circumstances. And pipelined functions can ONLY be called from within queries.

Regards, Steven Feuerstein