RE: Can't code for s.... peanuts

[John Lewis]

I'm no fucntion guru - BUT - I don't think they are stand-alone. You need to use them in a sql statement. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 11:27 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Subject: Can't code for s.... peanuts Hi again everybody,   I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, sorry if I leave anything important out.   I have the following function which I'm compiling using PL/SQL Developer (tnx Djordje). CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION check_for_name ( p_name_to_check VARCHAR) RETURN BOOLEAN IS CURSOR c_namestbl IS SELECT lname FROM names WHERE lname = p_name_to_check; v_return_value BOOLEAN; BEGIN OPEN c_namestbl; IF c_namestbl%NOTFOUND THEN v_return_value := FALSE; ELSIF C_namestbl%FOUND THEN v_return_value := TRUE; END IF; RETURN v_return_value; CLOSE c_namestbl; END check_for_name; It compiles without errors (now). The table 'names' is built like this : SVRMGR> DESCRIBE names; Column Name                    Null?    Type ------------------------------ -------- ---- FNAME                                   VARCHAR2(20) LNAME                                   VARCHAR2(20) SVRMGR> With data like this : SVRMGR> SELECT * FROM names; FNAME                LNAME -------------------- -------------------- Bruce                Willis Salma                Hayek Tom                  Cruise Elle                 McPherson 4 rows selected. But, whenever I try to do this : EXECUTE check_for_name('Cruise'); so I can run the function from PL/SQL Developer I get the following error : "ORA 0900 - Invalid SQL Statment" However, If I execute the same statement from SQL*Plus or svrmgrl I get a differant error : SVRMGR> EXECUTE check_for_name('Cruise');  check_for_name('Cruise');  * ORA-06550: line 2, column 2: PLS-00221: 'CHECK_FOR_NAME' is not a procedure or is undefined ORA-06550: line 2, column 2: PL/SQL: Statement ignored I'm running Oracle Enterprise Edition 8.1.5.0.0 on Windows 2000. If that's not enough info, please let me know and I will supply whatever I can. Thanks for reading this far :) Michael.