The NO_DATA_FOUND exception is raised under three different circumstances:
An implicit query returns no data.
You attempt to reference a row in a PL/SQL table which has not been defined. (PL/SQL tables are covered in Chapter 10, PL/SQL Tables .)
You attempt to read past the end of an operating system file (using TEXT_IO in the Oracle Developer 2000 environment or UTL_FILE in PL/SQL Release 2.3).
This overlapping use of the same exception could cause some confusion and difficulty in your program. Suppose that in a single PL/SQL block I query from an implicit cursor and also make references to a PL/SQL table's rows. The NO_DATA_FOUND exception could be raised from either source, but the actual problem that caused the exception would be very different: bad data in the database (raised by the implicit cursor) versus an illegal memory reference (raised by the table access).
I want to be able to distinguish between the two situations. I can accomplish this by nesting the SELECT statement (the implicit cursor) inside its own PL/SQL block and thus trapping the NO_DATA_FOUND exception distinct from the PL/SQL table exception.
In the version of company_name shown in the following example, I have added a parameter to specify two types of access: from database (access type = DBMS) or from a PL/SQL table (access type = MEMORY). I want to check for NO_DATA_FOUND for each particular instance:
FUNCTION company_name (id_in IN NUMBER, access_type_in IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS /* Return value of the function */ return_value VARCHAR2 (60); /* My own exception - used to represent bad data NO_DATA_FOUND. */ bad_data_in_select EXCEPTION; BEGIN /* Retrieve company name from the database */ IF access_type_in = 'DBMS' THEN /* Place the SELECT inside its own BEGIN-END. */ BEGIN SELECT name INTO return_value FROM company WHERE company_id = id_in; RETURN return_value; /* Now it can have its OWN exception section too ! */ EXCEPTION /* This NO_DATA_FOUND is only from the SELECT. */ WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN /* || Raise my exception to propagate to || the main body of the function. */ RAISE bad_data_in_select; END; /* Retrieve company name from an in-memory PL/SQL table */ ELSIF access_type_in = 'MEMORY' THEN /* || Direct access from table. If this ID is not defined || then the NO_DATA_FOUND exception is raised. */ RETURN company_name_table (id_in); END IF; EXCEPTION /* || This exception occurs only when NO_DATA_FOUND was raised by || the implicit cursor inside its own BEGIN-END. */ WHEN bad_data_in_select THEN DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (' Unable to locate company in database!'); /* || This exception occurs only when I have not previously placed || the company name for company id id_in in the table. */ WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (' Unable to locate company in memorized table!'); END;
You can see how the scoping rules for exceptions provide a great deal of flexibility in managing the impact of exceptions. Whenever you want to isolate the effect of a raised exception, just nest the statements inside their own BEGIN-END, give them their own exception section, and then decide what you want to do when the problem occurs. You are guaranteed to trap it there first.
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