In an old application (no source code available) long texts with over 40.000 characters are stored in an Oracle database in a table column of type LONG RAW. We now want to transfer the texts into another Oracle database and want to display their content. Somehow the old application was capable to do so. However, we always run into a 4000 byte limit...
How can we export/import and display the content in a human readable VARCHAR2 (or multiple ones).
All convert functions we tried seam not to work. For example TO_LOB or TO_CLOB.
ORA-00932: Inconsistent datentype: - expected, LONG BINARY found
ORA-00932: Inconsistent datentype: CHAR expected, LONG BINARY found
From the documentation:
TO_LOB converts LONG or LONG RAW values in the column long_column to LOB values. You can apply this function only to a LONG or LONG RAW column, and only in the select list of a subquery in an INSERT statement.
So you can't do:
select to_lob(old_column) from old_table;
ORA-00932: Inconsistent datentype: - expected, LONG BINARY found
But you can move the data into a BLOB column in another table:
insert into new_table(new_column)
select to_lob(old_column) from old_table;
db<>fiddle
Once you have the data as a BLOB you can manage it as a binary value, or if it represents text then you can convert it to a CLOB - using the appropriate character set - with the dbms_lob package.
Related
I want to view the "QUERY" column of the DBA_MVIEWS table as a simple TEXT.
If I execute the following statement:
select to_lob(query) from dba_mviews;
I have the error:
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got LONG
I have no errors with this instead:
select query from dba_mviews;
But I obtain a CLOB result in DBVisualizer.
I'm using:
Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
Product: DbVisualizer Pro 10.0.15 [Build #2861]
OS: Mac OS X
OS Version: 10.14.1
OS Arch: x86_64
Java Version: 1.8.0_172
What's going on?
From the Oracle documentation (emphasis added):
TO_LOB converts LONG or LONG RAW values in the column long_column to LOB values. You can apply this function only to a LONG or LONG RAW column, and only in the select list of a subquery in an INSERT statement.
So you can't use it in a simple query, as you are trying to do. And creating a table to insert the query strings into probably isn't very helpful or practical for you.
Handling long values is generally a bit of a pain. You can convert them to CLOBs in a PL/SQL block, e.g.:
declare
l_long long;
l_clob clob;
begin
select query into l_long from dba_mviews;
l_clob := to_clob(l_long);
-- do something with l_clob
end;
/
... but that also probably isn't very useful here, even if you make a function that returns a pipelined CLOB.
The DBVisualizer docs say:
Due to the nature of binary/BLOB and CLOB data, cells of these types can only be fully modified and viewed in the Cell Editor. (There is partial support in the Form Editor to view image data and to load from file).
In the grid, Binary/BLOB and CLOB data is by default presented by an icon and the size of the value. You can select another presentation format in the Tools Properties dialog, in the Grid / Binary/BLOB and CLOB Data category under the General tab. Selecting By Value results in performance penalties and the memory consumption increases dramatically.
This isn't a tool I've used, but it sounds like it's treating and displaying the long value as it would a CLOB already, so hopefully this still applies.
I'm new to Oracle. I want to get size of binary data store in LONG RAW column, I execute this query
SELECT LENGTH(BINARY_DATA) FROM MY_DATATABLE WHERE ID = 58;
But I get error
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got LONG BINARY
What wrong with my Query?
Thanks.
The LENGTHB function is supported for single-byte LOBs only. It cannot be used with CLOB and NCLOB data in a multibyte character set.
LENGTH() expects CHAR as it's parameter.
Documentation:LENGTH
Good time of a day to everyone.
I face with a huge problem during my work on previous week.
Here ia the deal:
I need to download exel file (blob) from ORACLE database through SAS.
I am using:
First step i need to get data from oracle. I used the construction (blob file is nearly 100kb):
proc sql;
connect to oracle;
create table SASTBL as
select * from connection to oracle (
select dbms_lob.substr(myblobfield,1,32767) as blob_1,
dbms_lob.substr(myblobfield,32768,32767) as blob_2,
dbms_lob.substr(myblobfield,65535,32767) as blob_3,
dbms_lob.substr(myblobfield,97302,32767) as blob_4
from my_tbl;
);
quit;
And the result is:
blob_1 = 70020202020202...02
blob_2 = 02020202020...02
blob_3 = 02020202...02
I do not understand why the field consists from "02"(the whole file)
And the length of any variable in sas is 1024 (instead of 37767) $HEX2024 format.
If I ll take:
dbms_lob.substr(my_blob_field,2000,900) from the same object the result will mush more similar to the truth:
blob = "A234ABC4536AE7...."
The question is: 1. how can i get binary data from blob field correctly trough SAS? What is my mistake?
Thank you.
EDIT 1:
I get the information but max string is 2000 kb.
Use the DBMAX_TEXT option on the CONNECT statement (or a LIBNAME statement) to get up to 32,767 characters. The default is probably 1024.
PROC SQL uses SQL to interact with SAS datasets (create tables, query tables, aggregate data, connect externally, etc.). The procedure mostly follows the ANSI standard with a few SAS specific extensions. Each RDMS extends ANSI including Oracle with its XML handling such as saving content in a blob column. Possibly, SAS cannot properly read the Oracle-specific (non-ANSI) binary large object type. Typically SAS processes string, numeric, datetime, and few other types.
As an alternative, consider saving XML content from Oracle externally as an .xml file and use SAS's XML engine to read content into SAS dataset:
** STORING XML CONTENT;
libname tempdata xml 'C:\Path\To\XML\File.xml';
** APPEND CONTENT TO SAS DATASET;
data Work.XMLData;
set tempdata.NodeName; /* CHANGE TO REPEAT PARENT NODE OF XML. */
run;
Adding as another answer as I can't comment yet... the issue you experienced is that the return of dbms_lob.substr is actually a varchar so SAS limits it to 2,000. To avoid this, you could wrap it in to_clob( ... ) AND set the DBMAX_TEXT option as previously answered.
Another alternative is below...
The code below is an effective method for retrieving a single record with a large CLOB. Instead of calculating how many fields to split the clob into resulting in a very wide record, it instead splits it into multiple rows. See expected output at bottom.
Disclaimer: Although effective it may not be efficient ie may not scale well to multiple rows, the generally accepted approach then is row pipelining PLSQL. That being said, the below got me out of a pinch if you can't make a procedure...
PROC SQL;
connect to oracle (authdomain=YOUR_Auth path=devdb DBMAX_TEXT=32767 );
create table clob_chunks (compress=yes) as
select *
from connection to Oracle (
SELECT id
, key
, level clob_order
, regexp_substr(clob_value, '.{1,32767}', 1, level, 'n') clob_chunk
FROM (
SELECT id, key, clob_value
FROM schema.table
WHERE id = 123
)
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= regexp_count(clob_value, '.{1,32767}',1,'n')
)
order by id, key, clob_order;
disconnect from oracle;
QUIT;
Expected output:
ID KEY CHUNK CLOB
1 1 1 short_clob
2 2 1 long clob chunk1of3
2 2 2 long clob chunk2of3
2 2 3 long clob chunk3of3
3 3 1 another_short_one
Explanation:
DBMAX_TEXT tells SAS to adjust the default of 1024 for a clob field.
The regex .{1,32767} tells Oracle to match at least once but no more than 32767 times. This splits the input and captures the last chunk which is likely to be under 32767 in length.
The regexp_substr is pulling a chunk from the clob (param1) starting from the start of the clob (param2), skipping to the 'level'th occurance (param3) and treating the clob as one large string (param4 'n').
The connect by re-runs the regex to count the chunks to stop the level incrementing beyond end of the clob.
References:
SAS KB article for DBMAX_TEXT
Oracle docs for REGEXP_COUNT
Oracle docs for REGEXP_SUBSTR
Oracle regex syntax
Stackoverflow example of regex splitting
I have a table which has 3 columns. I have a NUMBER column, CLOB column, and BLOB column. how can i use some sort of SELECT * statement in order to display what I have entered into this table, not just a partial piece of the long character strings i have in there. The only way I know of displaying a long string form a CLOB would be using the DBMS_LOB.substr technique. My BLOB column is currently all NULL so not too worried about displaying that section, Just the number column with its associated CLOB. Thanks!
See here How to query a CLOB column in Oracle
When getting the substring of a CLOB column and using a query tool that has size/buffer restrictions
sometimes you would need to set the BUFFER to a larger size.
For example while using SQL Plus use the SET BUFFER 10000 to set it to 10000 as the default is 4000.
Running the DMBS_LOB.substr command you can also specify the amount of characters you want to return and the offset from which.
So using DMBS_LOB.substr(column, 3000) might restrict it to a small enough amount for the buffer.
See oracle documentation for more info on the substr command
DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR (
lob_loc IN CLOB CHARACTER SET ANY_CS,
amount IN INTEGER := 32767,
offset IN INTEGER := 1)
RETURN VARCHAR2 CHARACTER SET lob_loc%CHARSET;
I have a long raw column in an Oracle table. Insert with select is not working because of the long raw column which is part of my select statement as well. Basically I am trying to insert to insert history row with couple of parameters changed. Hence I was thinking of using PL/SQL in Oracle. I have no experience in PL/SQL neither I got anything after googling for couple of days. Can anyone help me with a sample PL/ SQL for my problem ? Thanks in advance !!!
LONG and LONG RAW datatypes are deprecated, and have been for many years now. You really are much better off getting away from them.
Having said that, if you're using PL/SQL, you will be limited to 32,760 bytes of data, which is the max that the LONG RAW PL/SQL datatype will hold. However, the LONG RAW database datatype, can hold up to 2GB of data. So, if any rows in your table contain data longer than 32,760 bytes, you will not be able to retrieve it using PL/SQL. This is a fundamental limitation of LONG and LONG RAW datatypes, and one of the reasons Oracle has deprecated their use.
In that case, the only options are Pro*C or OCI.
More information can be found here:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/appdev.102/b14261/datatypes.htm#CJAEGDEB
Hope that helps.
You can work with a LONG RAW column directly in PL/SQL if your data is limited to 32kB:
FOR cc IN (SELECT col1, col2... col_raw FROM your_table) LOOP
INSERT INTO your_other_table (col1, col2... col_raw)
VALUES (cc.col1, cc.col2... cc.col_raw);
END LOOP;
This will fail if any LONG RAW is larger than 32k.
In that case you will have to use another language. You could use java since it is included in the DB. I already answered a couple of questions on SO with LONG RAW and java:
Copying data from LOB Column to Long Raw Column (will work with LONG RAW to LONG RAW too, just replace the UPDATE with an INSERT)
Get the LENGTH of a LONG RAW
In any case as you have noticed it is a pain to work with this data type. If converting to LOB is not possible you will have to use a workaround.