CREATE FUNCTION Statement

14.7 CREATE FUNCTION Statement

The CREATE FUNCTION statement creates or replaces a standalone function or a call specification.

A standalone function is a function (a subprogram that returns a single value) that is stored in the database.

Note:

A standalone function that you create with the CREATE FUNCTION statement differs from a function that you declare and define in a PL/SQL block or package. For more information, see "Function Declaration and Definition" and CREATE PACKAGE Statement.

A call specification declares a Java method or a C function so that it can be invoked from PL/SQL. You can also use the SQL CALL statement to invoke such a method or subprogram. The call specification tells the database which Java method, or which named function in which shared library, to invoke when an invocation is made. It also tells the database what type conversions to make for the arguments and return value.

Note:

To be callable from SQL statements, a stored function must obey certain rules that control side effects. See "Subprogram Side Effects".

Topics

Prerequisites

To create or replace a standalone function in your schema, you must have the CREATE PROCEDURE system privilege.

To create or replace a standalone function in another user's schema, you must have the CREATE ANY PROCEDURE system privilege.

To invoke a call specification, you may need additional privileges, for example, EXECUTE privileges on a C library for a C call specification.

To embed a CREATE FUNCTION statement inside an Oracle precompiler program, you must terminate the statement with the keyword END-EXEC followed by the embedded SQL statement terminator for the specific language.

See Also:

For more information about such prerequisites:

Syntax

create_function ::=

Description of the illustration create_function.eps

plsql_function_source ::=

Description of the illustration plsql_function_source.eps

( sharing_clause ::= , invoker_rights_clause ::= , accessible_by_clause ::= , default_collation_clause ::= , deterministic_clause ::= , parallel_enable_clause ::= , result_cache_clause ::= , aggregate_clause ::= , pipelined_clause ::= , body ::= , call_spec ::= , datatype ::= , declare_section ::= , parameter_declaration ::= )

Semantics

create_function

OR REPLACE

Re-creates the function if it exists, and recompiles it.

Users who were granted privileges on the function before it was redefined can still access the function without being regranted the privileges.

If any function-based indexes depend on the function, then the database marks the indexes DISABLED.

[ EDITIONABLE | NONEDITIONABLE ]

Specifies whether the function is an editioned or noneditioned object if editioning is enabled for the schema object type FUNCTION in schema. Default: EDITIONABLE. For information about editioned and noneditioned objects, see Oracle Database Development Guide.

plsql_function_source

schema

Name of the schema containing the function. Default: your schema.

function_name

Name of the function to be created.

Note:

If you plan to invoke a stored subprogram using a stub generated by SQL*Module, then the stored subprogram name must also be a legal identifier in the invoking host 3GL language, such as Ada or C.

RETURN datatype

For datatype, specify the data type of the return value of the function. The return value can have any data type supported by PL/SQL.

Note:

Oracle SQL does not support invoking functions with BOOLEAN parameters or returns. Therefore, for SQL statements to invoke your user-defined functions, you must design them to return numbers (0 or 1) or character strings ('TRUE' or 'FALSE').

The data type cannot specify a length, precision, or scale. The database derives the length, precision, or scale of the return value from the environment from which the function is called.

If the return type is ANYDATASET and you intend to use the function in the FROM clause of a query, then you must also specify the PIPELINED clause and define a describe method (ODCITableDescribe) as part of the implementation type of the function.

You cannot constrain this data type (with NOT NULL, for example).

body

The required executable part of the function and, optionally, the exception-handling part of the function.

declare_section

The optional declarative part of the function. Declarations are local to the function, can be referenced in body, and cease to exist when the function completes execution.

Examples

Example 14-14 Creating a Function

This statement creates the function get_bal on the sample table oe.orders.

CREATE FUNCTION get_bal(acc_no IN NUMBER) 
   RETURN NUMBER 
   IS acc_bal NUMBER(11,2);
   BEGIN 
      SELECT order_total 
      INTO acc_bal 
      FROM orders 
      WHERE customer_id = acc_no; 
      RETURN(acc_bal); 
    END;
/

The get_bal function returns the balance of a specified account.

When you invoke the function, you must specify the argument acc_no, the number of the account whose balance is sought. The data type of acc_no is NUMBER.

The function returns the account balance. The RETURN clause of the CREATE FUNCTION statement specifies the data type of the return value to be NUMBER.

The function uses a SELECT statement to select the balance column from the row identified by the argument acc_no in the orders table. The function uses a RETURN statement to return this value to the environment in which the function is called.

The function created in the preceding example can be used in a SQL statement. For example:

SELECT get_bal(165) FROM DUAL; 

GET_BAL(165)
------------
        2519

Example 14-15 Creating Aggregate Functions

The next statement creates an aggregate function called SecondMax to aggregate over number values. It assumes that the ADT SecondMaxImpl subprograms contains the implementations of the ODCIAggregate subprograms:

CREATE FUNCTION SecondMax (input NUMBER) RETURN NUMBER
    PARALLEL_ENABLE AGGREGATE USING SecondMaxImpl;