Check a record IS NOT NULL in plsql

Question

I have a function which would return a record with type my_table%ROWTYPE, and in the caller, I could check if the returned record is null, but PL/SQL complains

Answer 1

As far as I know, it's not possible. Checking the PRIMARY KEY or a NOT NULL column should be sufficient though.

---

You can check for v_record.row_id IS NULL.

Your function would throw a NO_DATA_FOUND exception though, when no record is found.

Answer 2

You can't test for the non-existence of this variable so there are two ways to go about it. Check for the existence of a single element. I don't like this as it means if anything changes your code no longer works. Instead why not just raise an exception when there's no data there:

I realise that the others in the exception is highly naughty but it'll only really catch my table disappearing when it shouldn't and nothing else.

v_record my_table%ROWTYPE;
v_row_id my_table.row_id%TYPE := 123456;

begin
    v_record := myfunction(v_row_id)
exception when others then
        -- do something
end;

function myfunction(p_row_id in my_table.row_id%TYPE) return my_table%ROWTYPE is
    v_record_out my_table%ROWTYPE := null;

cursor c_record_out(c_row_id char) is
 select * 
   from my_table
  where row_id = p_row_id;

begin
   open c_record_out(p_row_id);
   fetch c_record_out into v_record_out;

   if c_record_out%NOTFOUND then
      raise_application_error(-20001,'no data);
   end if;
   close c_record_out;
return v_record_out;
end myfunction;