Sleep function in ORACLE

Question

I need execute an SQL query in ORACLE it takes a certain amount of time. So I wrote this function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION MYSCHEMA.TEST_SLEEP
(
TIME_  IN  NUMBER
)
RETURN INTEGER IS
 BEGIN
   DBMS_LOCK.sleep(seconds => TIME_);
RETURN 1;
 EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS THEN
   RAISE;
   RETURN 1;
END TEST_SLEEP;

and I call in this way

SELECT TEST_SLEEP(10.5) FROM DUAL

but to work I need set grant of DBMS_LOCK to the owner of the procedure.

How I can rewrite this function without using the DBMS_LOCK.sleep function?

Answer 1

Short of granting access to DBMS_LOCK.sleep, this will work but it's a horrible hack:

IN_TIME INT; --num seconds
v_now DATE;

-- 1) Get the date & time 
SELECT SYSDATE 
  INTO v_now
  FROM DUAL;

-- 2) Loop until the original timestamp plus the amount of seconds <= current date
LOOP
  EXIT WHEN v_now + (IN_TIME * (1/86400)) <= SYSDATE;
END LOOP;