Dear John,
As seen in this thread, often people need to leave out one of the parameters, or to query with different parameters or to retrieve just a subset of the fields, in which case SPT is ever-more attractive. I especially like the TEXTMERGE approach offered by Mark M - simple, elegant and smart.
If you are correct that people find building functions into SQL to be chore, some might advocate creating a stable of (read-only) Oracle views defining the fields available to different classes of user while still allowing bespoke queries as required in many/most data applications.
Regards
j.R
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
