Cursor parameters - problems with 'FROM [inTablename]' statement

[Sugus]

I'd like to declare a cursor, which accepts parameters also for the
"FROM" tablename-clause, like:

CURSOR cFielddef(pfromTable IN ?????, pTableName IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT column_name, data_type, data_length, nullable FROM pfromTable
WHERE table_name = UPPER(pTableName);

Is it possible at all, and what type do I have to decalre in place of
the questionsmarks? Any other solution?

Thanks für your help,

Sugus

[Jim Kennedy]

"Sugus" <kr**@europ.de> wrote in message
news:76**************************@posting.google.c om...

I'd like to declare a cursor, which accepts parameters also for the
"FROM" tablename-clause, like:

CURSOR cFielddef(pfromTable IN ?????, pTableName IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT column_name, data_type, data_length, nullable FROM pfromTable
WHERE table_name = UPPER(pTableName);

Is it possible at all, and what type do I have to decalre in place of
the questionsmarks? Any other solution?

Thanks für your help,

Sugus

What do you want the query to do? You can't do it that way because Oracle
is trying to compile it and make sure the columns exist etc. If it does not
know the tablename then how could it? You would have to use dynamic sql
which may cause scalability problems.
Jim

[Alan Mills]

"Sugus" <kr**@europ.de> wrote in message
news:76**************************@posting.google.c om...

I'd like to declare a cursor, which accepts parameters also for the
"FROM" tablename-clause, like:

CURSOR cFielddef(pfromTable IN ?????, pTableName IN VARCHAR2) IS
SELECT column_name, data_type, data_length, nullable FROM pfromTable
WHERE table_name = UPPER(pTableName);

Is it possible at all, and what type do I have to decalre in place of
the questionsmarks? Any other solution?

Thanks für your help,

Sugus

you would have to use dynamic SQL for this. The parameter would then simply
be a VARCHAR2 type, i.e., string.