Learn Oracle with Yasser

Index-By Tables (Associative Arrays)

The first type of collection is known as index-by tables. These behave in the same way as arrays except that have no upper bounds, allowing them to constantly extend. As the name implies, the collection is indexed using BINARY_INTEGER values, which do not need to be consecutive. The collection is extended by assigning values to an element using an index value that does not currently exist.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000
DECLARE
  TYPE table_type IS TABLE OF NUMBER(10)
    INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
  
  v_tab  table_type;
  v_idx  NUMBER;
BEGIN
  -- Initialise the collection.
  << load_loop >>
  FOR i IN 1 .. 5 LOOP
    v_tab(i) := i;
  END LOOP load_loop;
  
  -- Delete the third item of the collection.
  v_tab.DELETE(3);
  
  -- Traverse sparse collection
  v_idx := v_tab.FIRST;
  << display_loop >>
  WHILE v_idx IS NOT NULL LOOP
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The number ' || v_tab(v_idx));
    v_idx := v_tab.NEXT(v_idx);
  END LOOP display_loop;
END;
/

The number 1
The number 2
The number 4
The number 5

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.