From: Malcolm Dew-Jones on
Mark D Powell (Mark.Powell2(a)hp.com) wrote:
: On Dec 23, 10:10=A0am, Jeremy <jeremy0...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
: > In article <79bb2ee5-f28a-43b9-af1e-4597012495f0
: > @a32g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, Mark.Powe...(a)hp.com says...
: >
: >
: >
: > > Cate, why not test for a NULL value being returned and if so the RAISE
: > > NO_DATA_FOUND?
: >
: > What's the opinion of this ng's contributors on the advisability of
: > raising "standard" error conditions when the underlying reasons for
: > raising that error are different?
: >
: > To me it seems like a practice not to be recommended - potential for
: > misleading people unfamiliar with the code later on in maintenance mode.
: >
: > --
: > jeremy


: You have a point. I normally use the 20xxx error codes Oracle
: reserved by Oracle for customer application error codes but my post
: just adresses one way to do what the OP asked.

: HTH -- Mark D Powell --

I can't check this at the moment, (pl/sql of course)

select min(datex) into the_min
from tablex where x = 1
and min(datex) is not null;

If that is not allowed then use "group by x" and "having" to do the same
thing. The point of course is to raise no_data_found when that is
desired, and avoid discussions (hence issues) with opinions about what
errors you're allowed to raise.

I think that you should sometimes raise standard Oracle errors, especially
because the caller understands them - but being careful to ensure that the
logic makes sense. Also consider, from the perspective of the caller
there may be no reason to expect a value must be derived as opposed to
being simply looked up - so why would the statement not raise
no_data_found if there is no value?

$0.10