How to get this function?(p18)

What is the easiest way to retrieve the value of columns from "Lookup"
tables (a table whose primary key is another tables foreign key)?  I
would like to create a function which would accept three parameters:

  - A Table name (i.e. the lookup table - has a primary key which can
span more than one column)
  - Search String
  - Return Column Name (the name of the column that you want the value
of for the searched string)

The function will do a search for Search String on the Primary Key of
the Table.  I know this is just a basic "JOIN" using primary and foreign
keys.  But is there a way that I could write a simple function to do
this?  Is this something that Oracle can do automatically?  It has all
of the necessary information.

Some examples of calls:
LookUp('JOBS','VP','JOBDESC');  --Returns "Vice President"
LookUp('CITIES','CA'+'SF','ZIPCODE')  --Returns ZipCode for S.F. CA
(Note, CITIES primary key is "STATECODE+CITYCODE");


Ans:

Oracle allows you to overload functions and procedures in packages,
you can use that to develop set of functions which share same name but
take different parameters and Oracle will figure out which function to use
based on the parameters you pass to the <PACKAGE>.<FUNCTION_NAME>
 

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