Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference- P22: This pocket guide features quick-reference information to help you use Oracle's PL/SQL language. It includes coverage of PL/SQL features in the newest version of Oracle, Oracle8i. It is a companion to Steven Feuerstein and Bill Pribyl's bestselling Oracle PL/SQL Programming. Updated for Oracle8, that large volume (nearly 1,000 pages) fills a huge gap in the Oracle market, providing developers with a single, comprehensive guide to building applications with PL/SQL and building them the right way. . | FUNCTION LAST RETURN BINARY_INTEGER Example IF THEN my_list 42 ELSE my_list 42 END IF Returns FIRST returns the lowest index in use in the collection LAST returns the highest. Applies to Nested tables index-by tables VARRAYs. Boundary considerations FIRST and LAST return NULL when applied to initialized collections which have no elements. For VARRAYs which have at least one element FIRST is always 1 and LAST is always equal to COUNT. Exceptions possible If applied to an uninitialized nested table or a VARRAY raises COLLECTION_IS_NULL predefined exception. LIMIT Specification FUNCTION LIMIT RETURN BINARY_INTEGER Example IF THEN END IF Returns Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on to remove this watermark. The maximum number of elements that is possible for a given VARRAY. Applies to VARRAYs only. Returns NULL if applied to nested tables or index-by tables. Boundary considerations None Exceptions possible If applied to an uninitialized nested table or a VARRAY raises COLLECTION_IS_NULL predefined exception. PRIOR i NEXT i Specification FUNCTION PRIOR i BINARY_INTEGER RETURN BINARY_INTEGER FUNCTION NEXT i BINARY_INTEGER RETURN BINARY_INTEGER Example This function returns the sum of elements in a List_t collection of numbers CREATE FUNCTION compute_sum the_list IN List_t RETURN NUMBER AS elt BINARY_INTEGER total NUMBER 0 BEGIN LOOP EXIT WHEN elt IS NULL total total the_list elt elt elt END LOOP RETURN total END Returns PRIOR returns the next lower index in use relative to i NEXT returns the next higher. Applies to Nested tables index-by tables VARRAYs. Boundary considerations Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on to remove this watermark. If applied to initialized collections which have no elements returns NULL. If i is greater than or equal to COUNT NEXT returns NULL if i is less than or
