Oracle Varray Collections

Varray Collections

A VARRAY is similar to a nested table except you must specifiy an upper bound in the declaration. Like nested tables they can be stored in the database, but unlike nested tables individual elements cannot be deleted so they remain dense.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000
DECLARE
  TYPE table_type IS VARRAY(5) OF NUMBER(10);
  v_tab  table_type;
  v_idx  NUMBER;
BEGIN
  -- Initialise the collection with two values.
  v_tab := table_type(1, 2);

  -- Extend the collection with extra values.
  << load_loop >>
  FOR i IN 3 .. 5 LOOP
    v_tab.extend;
    v_tab(v_tab.last) := i;
  END LOOP load_loop;
  
  -- Can't delete from a VARRAY.
  -- v_tab.DELETE(3);

  -- Traverse 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 3
The number 4
The number 5

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.