FAQ #3: How do I call an Oracle Stored Procedure
by Surya Rao

Folks, contrary to popular belief there are many ways to call stored procedures from an ASP page. I've tried
it with Oracle (the only REAL RDBMS ;-) and it works.

Assume you have a procedure like this one below, and that it has been already created on the
Oracle database. This procedure doesn't return anything, but that doesn't change anything!

STEP #1:

/******STORED PROCEDURE ON ORACLE DATABASE************/
/*====================================================*/
create or replace procedure test_me 
is
        w_count         integer;
begin
        insert into TEST values ('Surya was here');
        --commit it
        commit;
end;
/*****END OF STORED PROCEDURE****/

STEP # 2:
+++++++++
I assume you have tested it from sql*plus by running the
following statements:

/************TEST THE STORED PROCEDURE FROM SQL*PLUS******/
SQL> execute test_me

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

 SQL> 
/***************END OF TESTING THE STORED PROC************/

STEP# 3:
++++++++
/*****CALLING A STORED PROCEDURE FROM ASP******************/

1. USING THE CONNECTION OBJECT

You can execute stored procedures which perform Oracle Server side tasks and return you a recordset. You can only use this method if
your stored procedure doesn't return any OUTPUT values. 

<%    Set Conn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
 

      Conn.execute "test_me",-1,4
%>
   Note that -1 means no count of total number of records is
    required. If you want to get the count, substitute count
   with some integer variable

   Note that 4 means it is a stored procedure. By using the
   actual number -1 and 4, you don't need the server side
   include ADOVBS.INC  ;-)

   The above would do the job on the database and return
   back to you without returning any recordsets.

   Alternatively, you could:

<%   Set rs = conn.execute("test_me",w_count,4)   %>

   W_count is the number of records affected. If your stored
   procedure were to return a query result, it is returned
   within your recordset (rs). This method is useful with Stored procs
   which return results of an SQL query

2. USING THE COMMAND OBJECT

<%
    Set Conn = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
    Set Comm = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command")

    Set comm.ActiveConnection = conn
    comm.commandtype=4   

     '(or use adCmdStoredProc instead of 4, but then you would have to
     'include the ADOVBS.INC. Its upto you

    comm.commandtext = "test_me"

    comm.execute
     'or
    Set rs = comm.execute()
%>

STEP# 4
+++++++++
/************PASSING INPUT/OUTPUT PARAMETERS**************************/
<%
    'If your stored procedure accepts IN parameters and returns OUT parameters
    'here's how to go about it

    set param = comm.Parameters
     param.append comm.createparameter("Input",3,1)
    param.append comm.createparameter("Output",3,2)
    'Note that 3 = adInteger for the datatype
    'Note that 1=adParamInput and 2=adParamOutput for parameter direction
    'Pass the input value
    comm("Input") = "...."

    OR

    set param = comm.createparameter("InPut",3,1)
    set param = comm.createparameter("OutPut",3,2)
    comm.parameters.append param
    'Pass the input value
    comm("Input") = "...."

    'Execute after setting the parameters
    comm.execute()

    'If your stored procedure returns OUT parameters, here's how to get it

    
    Out_1 = comm("Output")
    'and so on...

%>

Thats it!

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