syntax question

END LOOP;

RETURN total.tot;

I have a function that returns a total from a dynamic query I use to generate the total query

I've tried to modify it as a loop to get a single row value is unnecessary but I'm failing on my syntax

I've tried

select into total subquery

-but it wont work(when I attempt this I remove the select from the beginning of my sub query)

can someone show me the syntax to execute a select into with a string that contains a query in it?