G-7320

🆓

Warning

Avoid using RETURN statements in a PROCEDURE.

Rule Details

Severity Level: Major
Quality Area: Maintainability
Fixing times: 5 mins
Local-medium
Database Support: OracleDB (v7.3.4 +)

Reason

Use of the return statement is legal within a procedure in PL/SQL, but it is very similar to a goto, which means you end up with poorly structured code that is hard to debug and maintain.

A good general rule to follow as you write your PL/SQL programs is "one way in and one way out". In other words, there should be just one way to enter or call a program, and there should be one way out, one exit path from a program (or loop) on successful termination. By following this rule, you end up with code that is much easier to trace, debug, and maintain.

Example

Non-Compliant Example

create or replace package body my_package is
   procedure my_procedure is
      l_idx     simple_integer          := 1;
      co_modulo constant simple_integer := 7;
   begin
      <<mod7_loop>>
      loop
         if mod(l_idx,co_modulo) = 0 then
            return;
         end if;

         l_idx := l_idx + 1;
      end loop mod7_loop;
   end my_procedure;
end my_package;
/

Issues

Line	Column	Message
9	13	RETURN statement in procedure my_procedure.

Compliant Solution - ★★★★★

create or replace package body my_package is
   procedure my_procedure is
      l_idx     simple_integer          := 1;
      co_modulo constant simple_integer := 7;
   begin
      <<mod7_loop>>
      loop
         exit mod7_loop when mod(l_idx,co_modulo) = 0;

         l_idx := l_idx + 1;
      end loop mod7_loop;
   end my_procedure;
end my_package;
/

References

same as Trivadis G-7320
similar to plsql:S3626
The scope of plsql:S3626 is RETURN and CONTINUE statements in general, not just in procedures.
same as plsql:ReturnInProcedureCheck