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PL/SQL Overloading

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So, I wrote an updated example of my grandma and tweetie_bird for my students. It demonstrates overloading with the smallest parameter lists possible across a transaction of two tables. It also shows how one version of the procedure can call another version of the procedure.

The tables are created with the following:

/* Conditionally drop grandma table and grandma_s sequence. */
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (SELECT object_name
            ,      object_type
            FROM   user_objects
            WHERE  object_name IN ('GRANDMA','GRANDMA_SEQ')) LOOP
    IF i.object_type = 'TABLE' THEN
      /* Use the cascade constraints to drop the dependent constraint. */
      EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE '||i.object_name||' CASCADE CONSTRAINTS';
    ELSE
      EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SEQUENCE '||i.object_name;
    END IF;
  END LOOP;
END;
/
 
/* Create the table. */
CREATE TABLE GRANDMA
( grandma_id     NUMBER       CONSTRAINT grandma_nn1 NOT NULL
, grandma_house  VARCHAR2(30) CONSTRAINT grandma_nn2 NOT NULL
, created_by     NUMBER       CONSTRAINT grandma_nn3 NOT NULL
, CONSTRAINT grandma_pk       PRIMARY KEY (grandma_id)
);
 
/* Create the sequence. */
CREATE SEQUENCE grandma_seq;
 
/* Conditionally drop a table and sequence. */
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (SELECT object_name
            ,      object_type
            FROM   user_objects
            WHERE  object_name IN ('TWEETIE_BIRD','TWEETIE_BIRD_SEQ')) LOOP
    IF i.object_type = 'TABLE' THEN
      EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE '||i.object_name||' CASCADE CONSTRAINTS';
    ELSE
      EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SEQUENCE '||i.object_name;
    END IF;
  END LOOP;
END;
/
 
/* Create the table with primary and foreign key out-of-line constraints. */
CREATE TABLE TWEETIE_BIRD
( tweetie_bird_id     NUMBER        CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_nn1 NOT NULL
, tweetie_bird_house  VARCHAR2(30)  CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_nn2 NOT NULL
, grandma_id          NUMBER        CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_nn3 NOT NULL
, created_by          NUMBER        CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_nn4 NOT NULL
, CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_pk        PRIMARY KEY (tweetie_bird_id)
, CONSTRAINT tweetie_bird_fk        FOREIGN KEY (grandma_id)
  REFERENCES GRANDMA (GRANDMA_ID)
);
 
/* Create sequence. */
CREATE SEQUENCE tweetie_bird_seq;

The sylvester package specification holds the two overloaded procedures, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE sylvester IS
 
  /* Three variable length strings. */
  PROCEDURE warner_brother
  ( pv_grandma_house       VARCHAR2
  , pv_tweetie_bird_house  VARCHAR2
  , pv_system_user_name    VARCHAR2  );
 
  /* Two variable length strings and a number. */  
  PROCEDURE warner_brother
  ( pv_grandma_house       VARCHAR2
  , pv_tweetie_bird_house  VARCHAR2
  , pv_system_user_id      NUMBER   );
 
END sylvester;
/

The sylvester package implements two warner_brother procedures. One takes the system user’s ID and the other takes the system user’s name. The procedure that accepts the system user name queries the system_user table with the system_user_name to get the system_user_id column and then calls the other version of itself. This demonstrates how you only write logic once when overloading and let one version call the other with the added information.

Here’s the sylvester package body code:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE BODY sylvester IS
 
  /* Procedure warner_brother with user name. */
  PROCEDURE warner_brother
  ( pv_grandma_house       VARCHAR2
  , pv_tweetie_bird_house  VARCHAR2
  , pv_system_user_id      NUMBER  ) IS
 
    /* Declare a local variable for an existing grandma_id. */
    lv_grandma_id   NUMBER;
 
    FUNCTION get_grandma_id
    ( pv_grandma_house  VARCHAR2 ) RETURN NUMBER IS
 
      /* Initialized local return variable. */
      lv_retval  NUMBER := 0;  -- Default value is 0.
 
      /* A cursor that lookups up a grandma's ID by their name. */
      CURSOR find_grandma_id
      ( cv_grandma_house  VARCHAR2 ) IS
        SELECT grandma_id
        FROM   grandma
        WHERE  grandma_house = cv_grandma_house;
 
    BEGIN   
      /* Assign a grandma_id as the return value when a row exists. */
      FOR i IN find_grandma_id(pv_grandma_house) LOOP
        lv_retval := i.grandma_id;
      END LOOP;
 
      /* Return 0 when no row found and the grandma_id when a row is found. */
      RETURN lv_retval;
    END get_grandma_id;
 
  BEGIN
    /* Set the savepoint. */
    SAVEPOINT starting;
 
    /*
     *  Identify whether a member account exists and assign it's value
     *  to a local variable.
     */
    lv_grandma_id := get_grandma_id(pv_grandma_house);
 
    /*
     *  Conditionally insert a new member account into the member table
     *  only when a member account does not exist.
     */
    IF lv_grandma_id = 0 THEN
 
      /* Insert grandma. */
      INSERT INTO grandma
      ( grandma_id
      , grandma_house
      , created_by )
      VALUES
      ( grandma_seq.NEXTVAL
      , pv_grandma_house
      , pv_system_user_id  );
 
      /* Assign grandma_seq.currval to local variable. */
      lv_grandma_id := grandma_seq.CURRVAL;
 
    END IF;
 
    /* Insert tweetie bird. */
    INSERT INTO tweetie_bird
    ( tweetie_bird_id
    , tweetie_bird_house 
    , grandma_id
    , created_by )
    VALUES
    ( tweetie_bird_seq.NEXTVAL
    , pv_tweetie_bird_house
    , lv_grandma_id
    , pv_system_user_id );
 
    /* If the program gets here, both insert statements work. Commit it. */
    COMMIT;
 
  EXCEPTION
    /* When anything is broken do this. */
    WHEN OTHERS THEN
      /* Until any partial results. */
      ROLLBACK TO starting;
  END;
 
  PROCEDURE warner_brother
  ( pv_grandma_house       VARCHAR2
  , pv_tweetie_bird_house  VARCHAR2
  , pv_system_user_name    VARCHAR2  ) IS
 
    /* Define a local variable. */
	lv_system_user_id  NUMBER := 0;
 
    FUNCTION get_system_user_id
    ( pv_system_user_name  VARCHAR2 ) RETURN NUMBER IS
 
      /* Initialized local return variable. */
      lv_retval  NUMBER := 0;  -- Default value is 0.
 
      /* A cursor that lookups up a grandma's ID by their name. */
      CURSOR find_system_user_id
      ( cv_system_user_id  VARCHAR2 ) IS
        SELECT system_user_id
        FROM   system_user
        WHERE  system_user_name = pv_system_user_name;
 
    BEGIN   
      /* Assign a grandma_id as the return value when a row exists. */
      FOR i IN find_system_user_id(pv_system_user_name) LOOP
        lv_retval := i.system_user_id;
      END LOOP;
 
      /* Return 0 when no row found and the grandma_id when a row is found. */
      RETURN lv_retval;
    END get_system_user_id;
 
  BEGIN
 
    /* Convert a system_user_name to system_user_id. */
	lv_system_user_id := get_system_user_id(pv_system_user_name);
 
	/* Call the warner_brother procedure. */
	warner_brother
    ( pv_grandma_house      => pv_grandma_house
    , pv_tweetie_bird_house => pv_tweetie_bird_house
    , pv_system_user_id     => lv_system_user_id  );
 
  EXCEPTION
    /* When anything is broken do this. */
    WHEN OTHERS THEN
      /* Until any partial results. */
      ROLLBACK TO starting;
  END;  
 
END sylvester;
/

The following anonymous block test case works with the code:

BEGIN
  sylvester.warner_brother( pv_grandma_house      => 'Blue House'
                          , pv_tweetie_bird_house => 'Cage'
				          , pv_system_user_name   => 'DBA 3' );
  sylvester.warner_brother( pv_grandma_house      => 'Blue House'
                          , pv_tweetie_bird_house => 'Tree House'
				          , pv_system_user_id     =>  4 );
END;
/

You can now query the results with this SQL*PLus formatting and query:

/* Query results from warner_brother procedure. */
COL grandma_id          FORMAT 9999999  HEADING "Grandma|ID #"
COL grandma_house       FORMAT A14      HEADING "Grandma House"
COL created_by          FORMAT 9999999  HEADING "Created|By"
COL tweetie_bird_id     FORMAT 9999999  HEADING "Tweetie|Bird ID"
COL tweetie_bird_house  FORMAT A18      HEADING "Tweetie Bird House"
SELECT *
FROM   grandma g INNER JOIN tweetie_bird tb
ON     g.grandma_id = tb.grandma_id;

You should see the following data:

 Grandma                 Created  Tweetie                     Grandma  Created
    ID # Grandma House        By  Bird ID Tweetie Bird House     ID #       By
-------- -------------- -------- -------- ------------------ -------- --------
       1 Blue House            3        1 Cage                      1        3
       1 Blue House            3        2 Tree House                1        4

As always, I hope complete code samples help solve real problems.

Written by maclochlainn

September 29th, 2022 at 9:24 pm