SQL & PL/SQL

Hi guys,

just got asked this question by a delphi programmer - apparently assignments to variables can be made in a similar way to the following:

v_assignee := <boolean statement> : <result if true> : <result if false>

or basically what an nvl would do if it assessed trueness rather than nullness.

I've been using Oracle for quite a while and don't know of any such function (what's wrong with a case or if statement?) but I thought I'd ask the question anyway - does such a thing exist in Oracle?


i.e. :

declare

v_assignee number;

function assess (v_statement in boolean
                ,v_val1      in number
                ,v_val2      in number)
return number
is
begin

  if v_statement then
     return v_val1;
  else
     return v_val2;
  end if;

end;                 

begin

-- v_test := 
v_assignee := assess(1+1=2,10,20);

dbms_output.put_line(v_assignee);


end;