I posted the following puzzle on Twitter : What change(s) can you make to this code so that "ORA-00001: unique constraint" appears on the screen after execution? Try it yourself before reading the rest of the post! White space so you do not immediately see my answer. :-) Here are the answers from the TwitterSphere: Change line 5's assignment to dbms_sql.number_table(1=>1,2=>1) In other words, try to insert the same value twice. Since there is a unique index on the column, that will cause ORA-00001 to be raised. So that will do it, right? Wrong. Hans and Dirk both point out why that is not enough, and offer the second part of the solution: The value deposited in the error_code field of the SQL%BULK_EXCEPTIONS array is unsigned . In other words, 1 rather than -1 is stored. Unfortunately, the SQLERRM function assumes that the error code you pass it will be signed (negatively). So you must multiply the value in the pseudo-collection by -1. Then...
For the last twenty years, I have managed to transform an obsession with PL/SQL into a paying job. How cool is that?