I have recently been called in on a project to create a database abstraction layer. Moving all the SQL into packages for the applciation was easy, but now I've come to their hodge-podge of reporting methods. This includes Excel and Access. What I would like to do is move this SQL into packages as well. The problem is how to make these products recognize the resultset returned from a stored procedure without using code. I don't think it can be done, but I've been wrong once or twice before .

So, is there any way in, say, an Access Query (using only the front end - not in code) to create a pass-through query that calls a procedure with a Ref Cursor and have it somehow be recognized as returning a recordset?

This *used* to be possible using Microsoft's ODBC driver for Oracle and a bunch of array parameters, etc. But that was de-supported by MS back in 8i. (and was ugly-as-sin to boot) I need similar magic, but in 9i.

Thanks

- Chris