How to initialize 2D Oracle tables without having to use a constructor

The following code works but it seems that I have to initialize a 2D table (arr2D) using a constructor. In this case I'm passing 2 arr1D objects to the constructor but what if I don't know the exact number of items ahead of time. The types should be defined at a schema level ( I need to work with sql rather than plsql types)

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE tt_v2_255_arr IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(255);

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE tt_v2_255_arr_arr IS TABLE OF tt_v2_255_arr;

declare

arr2d tt_v2_255_arr_arr;
arr1d tt_v2_255_arr  := tt_v2_255_arr();

begin

arr1d.extend(2);

arr2d :=  tt_v2_255_arr_arr( arr1d, arr1d );

arr2d(1)(1) := 'A';
arr2d(1)(2) := 'B';
arr2d(2)(1) := '1';
arr2d(2)(2) := '2';
dbms_output.put_line( arr2d(1)(2) );
exception when others then

 dbms_output.put_line( sqlerrm );

end;
/

So, how to initialize arr2D with an arbitrary numbers of objects?

For example, INIT function is supposed to create NUM_TIMES instances of arr1D and initialize arr2D with it.

arr2d :=  tt_v2_255_arr_arr( INIT(arr1d, NUM_TIMES ));

Solution

Create a function that creates the array-of-arrays, extends it to the correct length and then loops to create the sub-arrays at each index and copies the contents of the input array to the new location:

DECLARE
  arr2d tt_v2_255_arr_arr;
  arr1d tt_v2_255_arr  := tt_v2_255_arr('A', 'B');

  FUNCTION INIT(
    value     tt_v2_255_arr,
    NUM_TIMES PLS_INTEGER
  ) RETURN tt_v2_255_arr_arr
  IS
    v_arr tt_v2_255_arr_arr := tt_v2_255_arr_arr();
  BEGIN
    v_arr.EXTEND(num_times);
    FOR i IN 1 .. NUM_TIMES LOOP
      v_arr(i) := tt_v2_255_arr();
      v_arr(i).EXTEND(value.COUNT);
      FOR j IN 1 .. value.COUNT LOOP
        v_arr(i)(j) := value(j);
      END LOOP;
    END LOOP;
    RETURN v_arr;
  END;
BEGIN
  arr2d :=  INIT(arr1d, 2);

  FOR i IN 1..2 LOOP
    FOR j IN 1..2 LOOP
      dbms_output.put_line(arr2d(i)(j));
    END LOOP;
  END LOOP;
END;
/

Which outputs:

A
B
A
B

fiddle