CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION COUNT_ACGT_BASES (p_sequence IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 AS
	
	i_a binary_integer default 0;
	i_c binary_integer default 0;
	i_g binary_integer default 0;
	i_t binary_integer default 0;
/*
|| This Function returns a varchar2 string of the number of BASES in a sequence. For use by PSP. 
||  Written by: Daniel Coe
||  Date: 13/08/2002
*/	
BEGIN
 BEGIN
   -- Loop around the sequence and set the rows to 50chars.
					 
						for y in 1..length(p_sequence)
						loop
						
						 IF substr (p_sequence, y, 1) = 'A' THEN
						          i_a := i_a + 1;
						 ELSIF substr (p_sequence, y, 1) = 'C' THEN
						          i_c := i_c + 1;
						 ELSIF substr (p_sequence, y, 1) = 'G' THEN
						          i_g := i_g + 1;
						 ELSIF substr (p_sequence, y, 1) = 'T' THEN
						          i_t := i_t + 1;
						 END IF;

					    end loop;
 END;
  return 'A: ' || i_a || '   C: ' || i_c || '   G: ' || i_g || '   T: ' || i_t;
END;
/