1.The RETURNING INTO clause allows us to return column values for rows affected by DML statements. The following test table is used to demonstrate this clause.

DROP TABLE t1;

DROP SEQUENCE t1_seq;

CREATE TABLE t1 (

ID NUMBER(10),

DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(50),

CONSTRAINT t1_pk PRIMARY KEY (id));

CREATE SEQUENCE t1_seq;

INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (t1_seq.nextval, 'ONE');

INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (t1_seq.nextval, 'TWO');

INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (t1_seq.nextval, 'THREE');

COMMIT;

2.When we insert data using a sequence to generate our primary key value, we can return the primary key value as follows.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

DECLARE

v_id t1.id%TYPE;

BEGIN

INSERT INTO t1

VALUES (t1_seq.nextval, 'FOUR')

RETURNING id INTO v_id;

COMMIT;

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('ID=' || v_id);

END;

/

ID=4

3.The syntax is also available for update and delete statements.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

DECLARE

v_id t1.id%TYPE;

BEGIN

UPDATE t1

SET description = description

WHERE description = 'FOUR'

RETURNING id INTO v_id;

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('UPDATE ID=' || v_id);

DELETE FROM t1

WHERE description = 'FOUR'

RETURNING id INTO v_id;

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('DELETE ID=' || v_id);

COMMIT;

END;

/

UPDATE ID=4

DELETE ID=4

4.When DML affects multiple rows we can still use the RETURNING INTO, but now we must return the values into a collection using the BULK COLLECT clause.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

DECLARE

TYPE t_tab IS TABLE OF t1.id%TYPE;

v_tab t_tab;

BEGIN

UPDATE t1

SET description = description

RETURNING id BULK COLLECT INTO v_tab;

FOR i IN v_tab.first .. l_tab.last LOOP

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('UPDATE ID=' || l_tab(i));

END LOOP;

COMMIT;

END;

/

UPDATE ID=1

UPDATE ID=2

UPDATE ID=3

5.We can also use the RETURNING INTO clause in combination with bulk binds.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

DECLARE

TYPE t_desc_tab IS TABLE OF t1.description%TYPE;

TYPE t_tab IS TABLE OF t1%ROWTYPE;

l_desc_tab t_desc_tab := t_desc_tab('FIVE', 'SIX', 'SEVEN');

l_tab t_tab;

BEGIN

FORALL i IN l_desc_tab.first .. l_desc_tab.last

INSERT INTO t1

VALUES (t1_seq.nextval, l_desc_tab(i))

RETURNING id, description BULK COLLECT INTO l_tab;

FOR i IN l_tab.first .. l_tab.last LOOP

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('INSERT ID=' || l_tab(i).id || ' DESC=' || l_tab(i).description);

END LOOP;

COMMIT;

END;

/

INSERT ID=5 DESC=FIVE

INSERT ID=6 DESC=SIX

INSERT ID=7 DESC=SEVEN

6.This functionality is also available from dymanic SQL.

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

DECLARE

TYPE t_tab IS TABLE OF t1.id%TYPE;

l_tab t_tab;

BEGIN

EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'UPDATE t1

SET description = description

RETURNING id INTO :l_tab'

RETURNING BULK COLLECT INTO l_tab;

FOR i IN l_tab.first .. l_tab.last LOOP

DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('UPDATE ID=' || l_tab(i));

END LOOP;

COMMIT;

END;

/

UPDATE ID=1

UPDATE ID=2

UPDATE ID=3