First off, my background is in SQL Server. Using CTEs (Common Table Expressions) is a breeze and converting it to a stored procedure with variables doesn't require any changes to the structure of the SQL other than replacing entered values with variable names.
In Oracle PL/SQL however, it is a completely different matter. My CTEs work fine as straight SQL, but once I try to wrap them as PL/SQL I run into a host of issues. From my understanding, a SELECT now needs an INTO which will only hold the results of a single record. However, I am wanting the entire recordset of multiple values.
My apologies if I am missing the obvious here. I'm thinking that 99% of my problem is the paradigm shift I need to make.
Given the following example:
NOTE: I am greatly over simplifying the SQL here. I do know the below example can be done in a single SQL statement. The actual SQL is much more complex. It's the fundamentals I am looking for here.
WITH A as (SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE DEPARTMENT = 200),
B as (SELECT * FROM A WHERE EMPLOYEE_START_DATE > date '2014-02-01'),
C as (SELECT * FROM B WHERE EMPLOYEE_TYPE = 'SALARY')
SELECT 'COUNTS' as Total,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM A) as 'DEPT_TOTAL',
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM B) as 'NEW_EMPLOYEES',
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM C) as 'NEW_SALARIED'
FROM A
WHERE rowcount = 1;
Now if I want to make this into PL/SQL with variables that are passed in or predefined at the top, it's not a simple matter of declaring the variables, popping values into them, and changing my hard-coded values into variables and running it. NOTE: I do know that I can simply change the hard-coded values to variables like :Department, :StartDate, and :Type, but again, I am oversimplifying the example.
There are three issues I am facing here that I am trying to wrap my head around:
1) What would be the best way to rewrite this using PL/SQL with declared variables? The CTEs now have to go INTO something. But then I am dealing with one row at a time as opposed to the entire table. So CTE 'A' is a single row at a time, and CTE B will only see the single row as opposed to all of the data results of A, etc. I do know that I will most likely have to use CURSORS to traverse the records, which somehow seems to over complicate this.
2) The output now has to use DBMS_OUTPUT. For multiple records, I will have to use a CURSOR with FETCH (or a FOR...LOOP). Yes?
3) Is there going to a big performance issue with this vs. straight SQL in regards to speed and resources used?
Thanks in advance and again, my apologies if I am missing something really obvious here!
First, this has nothing to do with CTEs. This behavior would be the same with a simple select * from table query. The difference is that with T-SQL, the query goes into an implicit cursor which is returned to the caller. When executing the SP from Management Studio this is convenient. The result set appears in the data window as if we had executed the query directly. But this is actually non-standard behavior. Oracle has the more standard behavior which might be stated as "the result set of any query that isn't directed into a cursor must be directed to variables." When directed into variables, then the query must return only one row.
To duplicate the behavior of T-SQL, you just have to explicitly declare and return the cursor. Then the calling code fetches from the cursor the entire result set but one row at a time. You don't get the convenience of Sql Developer or PL/SQL Developer diverting the result set to the data display window, but you can't have everything.
However, as we don't generally write SPs just to be called from the IDE, it is easier to work with Oracle's explicit cursors than SQL Server's implicit ones. Just google "oracle return ref cursor to caller" to get a whole lot of good material.