How to determine payload type for DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE_ARRAY

Question

I am attempting to use the function DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE_ARRAY in Oracle 10.2.0.4.0. to browse the contents of a queue. Is there a way to determine the type to use for the message array? Is there some "generic" type I could be using? What I'm attempting is as follows:

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE I_NEED_THIS_TYPE AS ????
/

CREATE or REPLACE myFunction
  return pls_integer
IS

dequeue_options     DBMS_AQ.dequeue_options_t;
message_properties  DBMS_AQ.message_properties_t;
msgPropArray   DBMS_AQ.message_properties_array_t;
msgIdArray      DBMS_AQ.msgid_array_t;
msgArray        I_NEED_THIS_TYPE;
cMsgs pls_integer;

BEGIN

msgPropArray  := DBMS_AQ.message_properties_array_t();
msgIdArray     := dbms_aq.msgid_array_t();
msgArray       := I_NEED_THIS_TYPE();


--where SOME_NAME and SOME_QUEUE_TABLE I get from
--select owner,name from user_queues;
dequeue_options.CONSUMER_NAME := 'SOME_NAME.SOME_QUEUE_TABLE';
dequeue_options.DEQUEUE_MODE := DBMS_AQ.BROWSE;
dequeue_options.NAVIGATION := DBMS_AQ.FIRST_MESSAGE;
dequeue_options.VISIBILITY := DBMS_AQ.IMMEDIATE;
dequeue_options.WAIT := DBMS_AQ.NO_WAIT;
dequeue_options.MSGID := null;

   cMsgs := DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE_ARRAY(
      queue_name          =>     'MY_QUEUE_NAME',
      dequeue_options     =>     dequeue_options,
      array_size          =>     30,
      message_properties  =>     msgPropArray,
      payload_array       =>     msgArray,
      msgid_array         =>     msgIdArray);

  return cMsgs;
END;
/

I have tried numerous combinations of

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE I_NEED_THIS_TYPE AS VARRAY(100) of CLOB;
CREATE or REPLACE TYPE I_NEED_THIS_TYPE AS VARRAY(100) of SYS.xmltype;
CREATE or REPLACE TYPE I_NEED_THIS_TYPE AS VARRAY(100) of xmltype;


CREATE or REPLACE TYPE I_NEED_THIS_TYPE AS OBJECT(
id NUMBER,
xmlData CLOB
)


DECLARE
TYPE assoc_array is TABLE OF CLOB index by pls_integer;
myData assoc_array;

I AM able to use the DBMS_AQ.DEQUEUE function as expected, the message parameter for that is SYS.xmltype.

I am unable to use the administrator account, but do have privilieges to create types and functions. If there is no way to determine this information, what type of query should I ask the administrator to run so that I can determine this information?

Thanks!

Answer 1

It's probable your queue was created with a payload type when CREATE_QUEUE_TABLE was run. You can therefore find out the type for the queue by performing this query:

select OBJECT_TYPE
  from DBA_QUEUE_TABLES
 where OWNER = 'SOME_NAME' and QUEUE_TABLE = 'SOME_QUEUE_TABLE';

Then your function can use this:

type I_NEED_THIS_TYPE is varray(100) of <OBJECT_TYPE>;