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Overview

FF_EXEC is the core execution engine for Oracle Fast Formula, the interpretive language used throughout Oracle E-Business Suite to express calculation, validation, and derivation rules for payroll, benefits, compensation, accruals, and human resources business processes. The package is owned by APPS and classified as OTHER in the ETRM metadata. It is declared with AUTHID CURRENT_USER, meaning that unqualified object references resolve against the schema of the calling session rather than the APPS schema. This version of the engine depends on PL/SQL release 2.3 or later because it uses PL/SQL tables of records, and a separate family of library routines exists to allow formulas to be invoked directly from Oracle Forms. The package is one of the most heavily reused components in the E-Business Suite: the metadata records 158 other packages referencing it, confirming its role as the shared foundation on which higher-level Fast Formula APIs are constructed.

Key Procedures and Functions

The ETRM metadata documents three entry points, though the package header exposes several internal constants and a shared record type used by callers.

• INIT_FORMULA — Prepares a formula for execution. It instantiates the inputs_r record structure, which carries the name, datatype ('DATE', 'NUMBER', or 'TEXT'), class ('CONTEXT' or 'INPUT'), and value members. Because datatype and class are populated internally, callers must not set them. Dates must be supplied in the Oracle Applications canonical format, and the value member is bound to the FF_BIND_LEN constant of 255 characters, so inputs and return values are limited to that length.
• RUN_FORMULA — Executes the compiled formula previously established by INIT_FORMULA, applying the supplied context and input values and returning the computed result.
• RESET_CACHES — Clears the internal caches maintained by the engine, principally the formula compilation cache and related metadata caches. This procedure is the object most directly relevant to the user's "reset_caches" search. Invoking it forces the engine to discard memoized compilation and lookup data so that subsequent executions reload current definitions.

The header also defines debug level constants — FF_DBG, FF_CACHE_DBG, DBI_CACHE_DBG, MRU_DBG, and IO_TABLE_DBG — used with a set_debug procedure to control diagnostic output.

Tables Accessed

The package reads and writes the Fast Formula repository and its compiled artefacts.

• FF_FORMULAS_F — the base table holding formula header definitions.
• FF_COMPILED_INFO_F — stores the compiled representation of formulas consumed at runtime.
• FF_DATABASE_ITEMS — identifies database items available to formulas.
• FF_FDI_USAGES_F — tracks formula database item usage.
• FF_ROUTES, FF_ROUTE_CONTEXT_USAGES, and FF_USER_ENTITIES — govern routing logic and the context usages and user entities associated with formula execution.
• PLITBLM — the standard PL/SQL table support object used by the engine.

These objects are referenced through APPS synonyms under AUTHID CURRENT_USER semantics.

Usage Notes

FF_EXEC is normally invoked indirectly. Oracle Forms in Payroll, Benefits, and related modules call the dedicated Forms-facing library routines rather than the package directly; concurrent programs such as formula compilation and payroll run processes rely on it through higher-level APIs; and approximately 158 dependent packages reference it in their own logic. Custom code should follow the same pattern — INIT_FORMULA, then RUN_FORMULA — and should call RESET_CACHES whenever formula definitions have been modified and stale cached compilations or lookups must be discarded, such as after a formula is recompiled or a database item is changed. Diagnostic output can be enabled via the debug constants and set_debug. Because the package operates with AUTHID CURRENT_USER and the inputs_r structure fixes values at 255 characters, callers must ensure the invoking schema can resolve the Fast Formula synonyms and that all input and return values fall within the bind length limit.