I cannot take the leave.name directly from the table

select e.empnum, e.empname, l.name leave_name
from employees e, 
     leave l
where l.code = e.leave_type

  retval leave.name%type;
begin
  select l.name 
    into retval
    from leave l
    where l.code = :leave_type;   -- :leave_type is a column fetched
                                  --  in the main report query
  return (retval);
end;

create or replace function fun_leave_type (par_leave_type in number)
  return char
is
  retval leave.name%type;
begin
  select l.name 
    into retval
    from leave l
    where l.code = par_leave_type;   -- par_leave_type is argument passed from the report
  return (retval);
end;

select e.empnum, e.empname, fun_leave_type(e.leave_type) leave_name
from employees e

The reason I cant use the leave.name directly is because there is no way to link it to any of the other three tables that i've used in the query for my report

empnum empname absencetype
1      abc     21
2      def     12
3      hij      6

absencetype absencename
21          annual leave
12          sick leave
 6          death leave

• Report displays HRP_PEOPLE.ABSENCE_TYPE value.
  
• Do any of the options described above, doesn't matter which one, but adding the ABSENCE_TYPES_F table into the FROM clause is the easiest:

  select empnum,
         empname,
         f.absence_name                    --> newly added column
  from table_1,
       table_2,
       hrp_people h
       absence_types_f f                   --> newly added table
  where t1.some_column = t2.some_column
    and t2.some_other_column = h.some_column
    and h.absence_type = f.absence_type    --> newly added condition