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	Get COUNT of elements in subset of collection (details)
	Dear Bryn, I love PL/SQL and especially appreciate associative arrays! I make extensive use of them, because I can reference both positive and negative index values, and because they can be sparse. It sure would be nice, though, if I could use the COUNT method and specify the range of values within which I need a count. Thanks so much!

The problem... Currently the COUNT method for collections only returns the total number of elements defined in that collection. I would like to be able to find out how many elements are defined in the positive or negative index ranges, or say from 1000 to 2000.
What would like to see... Enhance COUNT to take arguments as follows: my_collection.COUNT (start_index, end_index) If neither are specified then COUNT works as before. If only start is specified then return the COUNT from that index to the LAST index. If only end is specified then return the COUNT from that index to the FIRST index.
Example of desired code... DECLARE l_collection DBMS_SQL.VARCHAR2A; BEGIN IF l_collection.COUNT (start => 0) IF l_collection.COUNT (end => -1) IF l_collection.COUNT (1000, 1999)

Steven Feuerstein, PL/SQL Evangelist, Quest Software: "Help me help Oracle improve the PL/SQL language!"

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