From: mcstockspamplug@spamdamenquery.com   
      
   it is very unclear what you are trying to do, especially since the code you   
   included does not have a valid syntax   
      
   strictly speaking, procedures do not have return values (only functions have   
   return values, but both functions and procedures can have OUT or IN OUT   
   variables, as in your example) -- so you may be using the wrong construct   
      
   the return datatype, or OUT variable datatype, will be whatever you declare   
   it to be -- if the value you assign to it is of a different datatype (not   
   recommended, oracle does implicit datatype conversion (also not recommended   
   in most cased)   
      
   i'm guessing that you might be referring to determining return datatypes for   
   dynamic sql (although that's not apparent from your post), the DBMS_SQL   
   package has procedures for determining the datatypes returned by SELECT   
   statements.   
      
   at any rate, some clarification on what you're trying to accomplish would be   
   helpful   
   --mcs   
      
   "thepercival"  wrote in message   
   news:3571546.1068204791@dbforums.com...   
   >   
   > Hello,   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > I have a stored procedure and the return data type is number(16) as you   
   > can see. but I get it back in the code as a var_numeric and then the   
   > precision depends on the value of the returndata. So 0 fits into a short   
   > so I have to convert to a short, although I say that my stored procedure   
   > has to return a NUMBER(16), thus int. Can anyone tell me how I can   
   > determine my return datatype beforehand?   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > many thanks   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE ish.applsp_IsForeignKeyProtected   
   >   
   > (   
   >   
   > cDbd IN VARCHAR2,   
   >   
   > cTable IN VARCHAR2,   
   >   
   > cFKey IN VARCHAR2,   
   >   
   > rc1 IN OUT refcurpkg.rct1   
   >   
   > ) AS   
   >   
   > IsProtected NUMBER(16);   
   >   
   > BEGIN   
   >   
   > IsProtected := 1;   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > OPEN rc1 FOR   
   >   
   > SELECT IsProtected FROM DUAL;   
   >   
   > END;   
   >   
   >   
   > --   
   > Posted via http://dbforums.com   
      
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