can i write a loop inside a function that has if then else if conditions?

Question

content : i am writing a function to return a value based on 3 conditions, but i need to write a loop inside it so it can check the conditions for each id passed. can i write t

Answer 1

The way I see it, nothing of what you want will happen. Bad news, eh?

Code you wrote is wrong - not because of obvious mistakes, but - cursor's SELECT statement contains 3 columns which you're fetching into a 1 varchar2 variable. 3 can't fit into 1; not that way, that is.

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Moreover, what would you do with a loop within the function? It can be done, of course, for example (switching to cursor FOR loop for simplicity), but - depending on where you put RETURN, you'll either return the first O_RESULT value or the last (see comments within the code):

for cur_r in (select sprhold_hldd_code, ...
              from sprhold ...
              where --> ID condition missing here; ID you're passing, allegedly
             )
loop
  if cur_r.sprhold_hldd_code in ('TL', 'TY', ...) then ...
     -- in a number of IFs, you find what O_RESULT variable is
  end if;

  -- if you put RETURN here, only one loop iteration will execute

end loop;

-- if you put RETURN here, only the last O_RESULT value will be returned

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It means that you'd actually want to put a loop OUTSIDE of the function, i.e. call the function in a loop for all those IDs you're about to pass to the function. Something like this:

function f_result (par_id in number) return varchar2 is
  o_result varchar2(20);
begin
  select sprhold_hldd_code
    into l_sprhold_hldd_code
    from sprhold ...
    where some_id = par_id;

  if l_sprhold_hldd_code in ...
     -- find O_RESULT in a number of IFs
  end if;

  return o_result;
end;

Now call it in a loop

begin
  for cur_r in (select id from some_table where some_condition) loop
    dbms_output.put_line('For ID = ' || cur_r.id || ', function returned ' || f_result(cur_r.id));
  end loop;
end;

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If none of above helps, try to rephrase the question.