Syntax

Purpose

COLLECT is an aggregate function that takes as its argument a column of any type and creates a nested table of the input type out of the rows selected. To get accurate results from this function you must use it within a CAST function.

If column is itself a collection, then the output of COLLECT is a nested table of collections. If column is of a user-defined type, then column must have a MAP or ORDER method defined on it in order for you to use the optional DISTINCT, UNIQUE, and ORDER BY clauses.

Examples

The following example creates a nested table from the varray column of phone numbers in the sample table oe.customers. The nested table includes only the phone numbers of customers with an income level of L: 300,000 and above.

CREATE TYPE phone_book_t AS TABLE OF phone_list_typ;
/

SELECT CAST(COLLECT(phone_numbers) AS phone_book_t) "Income Level L Phone Book"
  FROM customers
  WHERE income_level = 'L: 300,000 and above';

Income Level L Phone Book
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHONE_BOOK_T(PHONE_LIST_TYP('+1 414 123 4307'), PHONE_LIST_TYP('+1 608 123 4344'
), PHONE_LIST_TYP('+1 814 123 4696'), PHONE_LIST_TYP('+1 215 123 4721'), PHONE_L
IST_TYP('+1 814 123 4755'), PHONE_LIST_TYP('+91 11 012 4817', '+91 11 083 4817')
, PHONE_LIST_TYP('+91 172 012 4837'), PHONE_LIST_TYP('+41 31 012 3569', '+41 31
083 3569'))

The following example creates a nested table from the column of warehouse names in the sample table oe.warehouses. It uses ORDER BY to order the warehouse names.

CREATE TYPE warehouse_name_t AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(35);
/

SELECT CAST(COLLECT(warehouse_name ORDER BY warehouse_name)
       AS warehouse_name_t) "Warehouses"
   FROM warehouses;

Warehouses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAREHOUSE_NAME_TYP('Beijing', 'Bombay', 'Mexico City', 'New Jersey', 'San Franci
sco', 'Seattle, Washington', 'Southlake, Texas', 'Sydney', 'Toronto')