Oracle Forms Developer – Form Builder Reference, Volume 1

FORMS_DDL built-in
Description
Issues dynamic SQL statements at runtime, including server-side PL/SQL and DDL.
Note: All DDL operations issue an implicit COMMIT and will end the current transaction without
allowing Form Builder to process any pending changes.
Syntax
FUNCTION FORMS_DDL
(statement VARCHAR2);
Built-in Type unrestricted function
Enter Query Mode yes
Parameters
statement Any string expression up to 32K:
a literal
an expression or a variable representing the text of a block of
dynamically created PL/SQL code
a DML statement or
a DDL statement
Usage Notes
Commit (or roll back) all pending changes before you issue the FORMS_DDL command. All DDL
operations issue an implicit COMMIT and will end the current transaction without allowing Form
Builder to process any pending changes, as well as losing any locks Form Builder may have acquired.
Some supplied stored procedures issue COMMIT or ROLLBACK commands as part of their logic.
Make sure all pending changes in the form are committed or rolled back before you call those built-ins.
Use the SYSTEM.FORM_STATUS variable to check whether there are pending changes in the current
form before you issue the FORMS_DDL command. (See Example 4.)
If you use FORMS_DDL to execute a valid PL/SQL block:
• Use semicolons where appropriate.
• Enclose the PL/SQL block in a valid BEGIN/END block structure.
• Do not end the PL/SQL block with a slash.
• Line breaks, while permitted, are not required.
If you use FORMS_DDL to execute a single DML or DDL statement:
• Omit the trailing semicolon to avoid an invalid character error.
To check whether the statement issued using FORMS_DDL executed correctly, use the
FORM_SUCCESS or FORM_FAILURE Boolean functions. If the statement did not execute correctly,
check the error code and error text using DBMS_ERROR_CODE and DBMS_ERROR_TEXT. Note
that the values of DBMS_ERROR_CODE and DBMS_ERROR_TEXT are not automatically reset
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