Overview of pipelined table functions

A pipelined table function is a function that returns a collection of rows (which can be a nested table or an array). You can query a pipelined table function as you would a physical table or assign the result to a collection variable.

You can call a pipelined table function in the TABLE clause of a SELECT statement. Here is an example:

SELECT * FROM TABLE(table_function_name(parameter_list))

The PIPELINED keyword identifies a pipelined table function. The return value of a pipelined table function must be a collection. The PIPE ROW statement is used to return a single element of the collection, and the function ends with an empty RETURN statement to indicate that it has completed execution.