Oracle equivalent of Java's Varargs

you have at least 3 options:

1. (standard) use an associative array as a procedure parameter
2. define a 'sufficient' number of optional formal parameters
3. use a single varchar parameter with a defined separator char

sample code 1.)

TYPE t_map IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(50) INDEX BY VARCHAR2(20);CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE demo_1 ( vararg IN t_map ) ISBEGIN   /* whatever */   NULL;END demo_1;/* ... somewhere else ... */my_var t_map;my_var('first') := 'this';my_var('next')  := ' is a ';my_var('last')  := 'demo';demo_1 ( my_var );/* ... */

sample code 2.) (max. 5 parameters)

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE demo_2 (      vararg1 IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL    , vararg2 IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL    , vararg3 IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL    , vararg4 IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL    , vararg5 IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL) ISBEGIN   /* whatever */   NULL;END demo_2;/* ... somewhere else ... */demo_2 ( 'this', ' is a ', 'demo' );/* ... */

sample code 3.) ( special char being ';' - must not occur inside the payload data )

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE demo_3 (      vararg IN  VARCHAR2) IS   l_arg2 VARCHAR2(50);   l_arg5 VARCHAR2(50);BEGIN   l_arg2 := SUBSTR(REGEXP_SUBSTR(vararg, ';[^;]*', 1, 2), 2);   l_arg5 := SUBSTR(REGEXP_SUBSTR(vararg, ';[^;]*', 1, 5), 2);   /* whatever */END demo_3;/* ... somewhere else ... */demo_3 ( ';this; is a ;demo;;really!;' );/* ... */

create or replace type strings_type as table of varchar2(50);select * from table (strings_type ('DD','CC','EE'));