CREATE TABLE dm_date_mask (date_mask VARCHAR2(30), date_mask_seq NUMBER(5,2)); create or replace FUNCTION dm_convert (value_in IN VARCHAR2) RETURN DATE /* I will only comment the new sections in the function */ IS value_int CHAR(100) := UPPER (value_in); return_value DATE := NULL; today DATE := SYSDATE; /* Now set up a cursor to go through the table of formats */ CURSOR mask_cur IS SELECT date_mask FROM dm_date_mask ORDER BY date_mask_seq; mask_rec mask_cur%ROWTYPE; BEGIN /* Convert short-cut entry. Same as before. */ IF value_int = 'EW' THEN return_value := NEXT_DAY (today, 'FRIDAY'); ELSIF value_int = 'BW' THEN return_value := TRUNC (today, 'MONDAY'); ELSIF value_int = 'BM' THEN return_value := TRUNC (today, 'MONTH'); ELSIF value_int = 'EM' THEN return_value := LAST_DAY (today); ELSIF value_int IS NOT NULL THEN /* || Open the cursor and loop through the date masks until one || of them is used successfully in a TO_DATE conversion. */ OPEN mask_cur; LOOP /* Fetch a record. Exit loop if there aren't any more masks */ FETCH mask_cur INTO mask_rec; EXIT WHEN mask_cur%NOTFOUND; /* || Still need separate PL/SQL block in the function to trap || a conversion failure, but I only need ONE! */ BEGIN /* Try to convert the date */ return_value := TO_DATE (value_int, mask_rec.date_mask); /* || If I made it this far, I have converted the string, so || EXIT the loop. */ EXIT; EXCEPTION /* || Conversion failure. Reset value to make sure it is still || NULL and then keep going -- back to the loop! */ WHEN OTHERS THEN return_value := NULL; END; END LOOP; CLOSE mask_cur; END IF; /* Return the converted date */ RETURN return_value; END; /