Restrict thousand separator in TO_NUMBER (Oracle) - oracle

I'm trying to parse numbers using the following code
TO_NUMBER('1,234.56', '9999999D99')
For some reason comma is ignored and the value is parsed correctly, despite the format doesn't have it. Is there any way to restrict usage of thousand group separator?
So far I only came up with setting a bogus symbol as a separator with the hope that user will not use it
TO_NUMBER('1,234.56', '9999999D99', 'NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=''.ã''');

This is a very strange request - if Oracle is correctly converting the string to a number then it seems to be doing it's job correctly. However, if you really need to do this for whatever reason then simply remove the format mask.
SQL> select to_number('1,234.56') from dual;
select to_number('1,234.56') from dual
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01722: invalid number
SQL> select to_number('1234.56') from dual;
TO_NUMBER('1234.56')
--------------------
1234.56
SQL>
Though the SQL Language Reference doesn't mention any default values I believe that the default value for the format mask described in the OLAP DML Reference for TO_NUMBER() applies:
The default number format identifies a period (.) as the decimal marker and does not recognize any other symbol.
This, in turn, means that a comma is an invalid value for the conversion and thus the conversion will fail.

Related

Oracle SQL PLSQL large number field strange behavior

Have existing table called temptable, column largenumber is a NUMBER field, with no precision set:
largenumber NUMBER;
Query:
select largenumber from temptable;
It returns:
-51524845525550100000000000000000000
But If I do
column largenumber format 999999999999999999999999999999999999999
And then
select largenumber from temptable;
It returns:
-51524845525550:100000000000000000000
Why is there a colon?
To test, I took the number, remove the colon, and insert it to another table temptable2, and did the same column largenumber format, the select returns the number without the colon:
select largenumber from temptable2;
It returns:
-51524845525550100000000000000000000
So the colon is not present here.
So what could possibly be in the original number field to cause that colon?
In the original row, If I do a select and try to do any TO_CHAR, REPLACE, CAST, or concatenate to text, it would give me number conversion error.
For example, trying to generate a csv:
select '"' || largenumber || '",'
FROM temptable;
would result in:
ORA-01722 ("invalid number") error occurs when an attempt is made to convert a character string into a number, and the string cannot be converted into a valid number
In a comment (in response to a question from me), you shared that dump(largenumber) on the offending value returns
Typ=2 Len=8: 45,50,56,53,52,48,46,48
From the outset, that means that the data stored on disk is invalid (it is not a valid representation of a value of number data type). Typ=2 is correct, that is for data type number. The length (8 bytes) is correct (we can all count to eight to see that).
What is wrong is the bytes themselves. And, we only need to inspect the first and the last byte to see that.
The first byte is 45. It encodes the sign and the exponent of your number. The first bit (1 or 0) represents the sign: 1 for positive, 0 for negative. 45 is less than 128, so the first bit in the first byte is 0; so the number is negative. (So far this matches what you know about the intended value.)
But, for negative numbers, the last byte is always the magic value 102. Always. In another comment under your original question, Connor McDonald asks about your platform - but this is platform-independent, it is how Oracle encodes numbers for permanent storage on any platform. So, we already know that the dump value you got tells us the value is invalid.
In fact, Connor, in the same comment, gave the correct representation of that number (according to Oracle's scheme for internal representation of numbers). Indeed, just the last byte is wrong: your dump shows 48, but it should be 102.
How can you fix this? If it's a one-off, just use an update statement to replace the value with the correct one and move on. If your table has a primary key, let's call it id, then find the id for this row, and then
update {your_table} set largenumber = -50...... where id = {that_id};
Question is, how many such corrupt values might you have in your table? If it's just one, you can shrug it off; but if it's many (or even "a handful") you may want to figure out how they got there in the first place.
In most cases, the database will reject invalid values; you can't simply insert 'abc' in a number column, for example. But there are ways to get bad data in; even intentionally, and in a repeatable way. So, you would have to investigate how the bad values were inserted (what process was used for insertion).
For a trivial way to insert bad data in a number column, in a repeatable manner, you can see this thread on the Oracle developers forum: https://community.oracle.com/tech/developers/discussion/3903746/detecting-invalid-values-in-the-db
Please be advised that I had just started learning Oracle at that time (I was less than two months in), so I may have said some stupid things in that thread; but the method to insert bad data is described there in full detail, and it was tested. That shows just one possible (and plausible!) way to insert invalid stuff in a table; how it happened in your specific case, you will have to investigate yourself.

ORA-00926 Missing Values Keyword

Beginner in SQL i'm currently unable to run this insert basic command.
insert into Project(ProjId,MedicName,Purpose,Start_date,End_date,PI_Id)
insert into Project values('PR003','Medic3','lung','01-Nov-14','31-DEC-20','10101');
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-00926: missing VALUES keyword
Your syntax is wrong. You need to write one statement:
insert into Project(ProjId,MedicName,Purpose,Start_date,End_date,PI_Id)
values('PR003','Medic3','lung','01-Nov-14','31-DEC-20','10101');
Apart from the wrong syntax (you've already been told that), as it appears that certain columns in that table are DATE datatype, I'd suggest you not to enter strings into it, but dates. Becuase, both '01-Nov-14' and '31-DEC-20' are strings.
Don't rely on Oracle's implicit conversion. As long as it might work now, it'll fail sooner or later (when NLS settings change) not necessarily on this database, but on some other. For example, your values wouldn't fit into my database because my format is different, as well as language (we don't use English names). Take control over it.
You could
use date literal (which I used for start_date)
use TO_DATE function with appropriate format mask (end_date below)
Something like this:
INSERT INTO project (projid,
medicname,
purpose,
start_date,
end_date,
pi_id)
VALUES ('PR003',
'Medic3',
'lung',
DATE '2014-11-01', --> this
TO_DATE('31.12.2020', 'dd.mm.yyyy'), --> this
'10101');

Oracle: Why does to_date() accept 2 digit year when I have 4 digits in format string? - and how to enforce 4 digits?

I want to check a date for correctness. (Let's not talk about the fact, that the date is stored in a varchar please ...)
Dates are stored like DDMMYYYY so for instance 24031950 is a correct date. 240319 is not.
So I do this, when the call works, it's a correct date:
select to_date('24031950','DDMMYYYY') from dual;
But unfortunately this also does not return an error:
select to_date('240319','DDMMYYYY') from dual (why?);
But it's interesting, that this one does not work:
select to_date('190324','YYYYMMDD') from dual;
So, how to enforce a check o 4 digit year with the given format mask?
Thanks!
Quoting the docs:
Oracle Database converts strings to dates with some flexibility. [...]
And I believe that flexibility is what you are seeing. You can turn it off with the fx modifier:
FX: Requires exact matching between the character data and the format model
select to_date('240319','fxDDMMYYYY') from dual;
Gives an ORA-01862 error.
Just an additional note to Mat's answer. fx acts like a switch in the string.
For example TO_DATE('2019-11-5','fxYYYY-MM-DD') gives an ORA-01862 error because exact matching applies for the entire string. If you need exact match only for parts of the string, then use for example
TO_DATE('2019-11-5','fxYYYY-MM-fxDD')
In this case YYYY-MM- has to match exactly, whereas DD applies flexible (or lazy) match.
To check whether it is in correct format without exceptions you can also use regex functions.
One possible way would to be check if the string contains 8 digits:
select REGEXP_INSTR ('24031950', '[0-9]{8}') from dual;
1
select REGEXP_INSTR ('240350', '[0-9]{8}') from dual;
0

Different matches when using prepared statements on CHAR(3) column

I had to make a CHAR(1 CHAR) column wider and I forgot to change the column type to VARCHAR2:
DUPLICADO CHAR(3 CHAR)
I noticed the error when my PHP app would no longer find exact matches, e.g.:
SELECT *
FROM NUMEROS
WHERE DUPLICADO = :foo
... with :foo being #4 didn't find the 3-char padded #4 value. However, I initially hit a red herring while debugging the query in SQL Developer because injecting raw values into the query would find matches!
SELECT *
FROM NUMEROS
WHERE DUPLICADO = '#4'
Why do I get matches with the second query? Why do prepared statements make a difference?
To expand a little on my comments, I found a bit in the documentation that explains difference between blankpadded and nonpadded comparison:
http://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQLRF/sql_elements002.htm#BABJBDGB
If both values in your comparison (the two sides of the equal sign) have datatype CHAR or NCHAR or are literal strings, then Oracle chooses blankpadded comparison. That means that if the lengths are different, then it pads the short one with blanks until they are the same length.
With the column DUPLICADO being a CHAR(3), the value '#4' is stored in the column as three characters '#4 ' (note the blank as third character.) When you do DUPLICADO = '#4' the rule states Oracle will use blankpadded comparison and therefore blankpad the literal '#4' until it has the same length as the column. So it actually becomes DUPLICADO = '#4 '.
But when you do DUPLICADO = :foo, it will depend on the datatype of the bind variable. If the datatype is CHAR, it will also perform blankpadded comparison. But if the datatype is VARCHAR2, then Oracle will use non-padded comparison and then it will be up to you to ensure to do blankpadding where necessary.
Depending on client or client language you may be able to specify the datatype of the bind variable and thereby get blankpadded or nonpadded comparison as needed.
SQL Developer may be a special case that might not allow you to specify datatype - it just possibly might default to bind variables always being datatype VARCHAR2. I don't know sufficient about SQL Developer to be certain about that ;-)

ORA-01747: invalid user.table.column, table.column, or column specification

Get the above error when the execute immediate is called in a loop
Update CustomersPriceGroups set 1AO00=:disc Where cuno=:cuno
Parameters: disc=66 cuno=000974
Update CustomersPriceGroups set 1AP00=:disc Where cuno=:cuno
Parameters: disc=70.5 cuno=000974
Update CustomersPriceGroups set 1AQ00=:disc Where cuno=:cuno
Parameters: disc=66 cuno=000974
Update CustomersPriceGroups set 1ZA00=:disc Where cuno=:cuno
Parameters: disc=60 cuno=000974
What does this mean ?
Here is the code fragment
c:=PriceWorx.frcPriceListCustomers('020','221');
LOOP
fetch c into comno,cuno,nama,cpls;
exit when c%notfound;
dbms_output.put_Line(cuno);
g:=priceWorx.frcPriceListItemGroups('020','221');
d:=priceworx.frcCustomerDiscounts('020','221',cuno);
loop
fetch g into comno,cpgs,n;
fetch d into comno,cpls,cuno,cpgs,stdt,tdat,qanp,disc,src;
--dbms_output.put(chr(9)||cpgs);
sQ:='Update saap.CustomersPriceGroups set "'|| trim(cpgs)||'"=:disc '
|| ' Where cuno=:cuno';
execute immediate sQ using disc,cuno;
commit;
dbms_output.put_line( sQ );
dbms_output.put_line( chr(9)||'Parameters: disc='|| disc||' cuno='||cuno);
exit when g%notfound;
end loop;
close g;
close d;
end loop;
check your query for double comma.
insert into TABLE_NAME (COLUMN1, COLUMN2,,COLUMN3) values(1,2,3);
(there is extra comma after COLUMN2).
Update: recently (some people have special talents) i succeed to get same exception with new approach:
update TABLE_NAME set COLUMN1=7, set COLUMN2=8
(second SET is redundant)
Unquoted identifiers must begin with an alphabetic character (see rule 6 here). You're trying to assign a value to a column with a name starting with a number 1AO00, 1AP00 etc.
Without seeing the table definition for CustomersPriceGroups we don't know if it has columns with those names. If it does then they must have been created as quoted identifiers. If so you'll have to refer to them (everywhere) with quotes, which is not ideal - makes the code a bit harder to read, makes it easy to make a mistake like this, and can be hard to spot what's wrong. Even Oracle say, on the same page:
Note: Oracle does not recommend using quoted identifiers for database
object names. These quoted identifiers are accepted by SQL*Plus, but
they may not be valid when using other tools that manage database
objects.
In you code you appear to be using quotes when you assign sQ, but the output you show doesn't; but it doesn't have the saap. schema identifier either. That may be because you're not running the version of the code you think, but might just have been
lost if you retyped the data instead of pasting it - you're not showing the earlier output of c.cuno either. But it's also possible you have, say, the case of the column name wrong.
If the execute is throwing the error, you won't see the command being executed that time around the loop because the debug comes after it - you're seeing the successful values, not the one that's breaking. You need to check all the values being returned by the functions; I suspect that g is returning a value for cpgs that actually isn't a valid column name.
As #ninesided says, showing more information, particularly the full exception message, will help identify what's wrong.
It means that the Oracle parser thinks that one of your columns is not valid. This might be because you've incorrectly referenced a column, the column name is reserved word, or because you have a syntax error in the UPDATE statement that makes Oracle think that something which is not a column, is a column. It would really help to see the full statement that is being executed, the definition of the CustomersPriceGroups table and the full text of the exception being raised, as it will often tell which column is at fault.
if you add a extra "," at the end of the set statement instead of a syntax error, you will get ORA-01747, which is very very odd from Oracle
e.g
update table1
set col1 = 'Y', --this odd 1
where col2 = 123
and col3 = 456
In addition to reasons cited in other answers here, you may also need to check that none of your table column names have a name which is considered a special/reserved word in oracle database.
In my case I had a table column name uid. uid is a reserved word in oracle and therefore I was getting this error.
Luckly, my table was a new table and I had no data in it. I was a able to use oracle DROP table command to delete the table and create a new one with a modified name for the problem column.
I also had trouble with renaming the problem column as oracle wouldn't let me and kept throwing errors.
You used oracle keyword in your SQL statement
And I was writing query like. I had to remove [ and ]
UPDATE SN.TableName
SET [EXPIRY_DATE] = systimestamp + INTERVAL '12' HOUR,
WHERE [USER_ID] ='12345'
We recently moved from SQL Server to Oracle.
The cause may also be when you group by a different set of columns than in select for example:
select tab.a, tab.b, count(*)
from ...
where...
group by tab.a, tab.c;
ORA-01747: invalid user.table.column, table.column, or column
specification
You will get when you miss the column relation when you compare both column id your is will not be the same check both id in your database
Here is the sample Example which I was facing:
UPDATE TABLE_NAME SET APPROVED_BY='1000',CHECK_CONDITION=ID, WHERE CONSUMER_ID='200'
here Issue you will get when 'CHECK_CONDITION' and 'ID' both column id will no same
If both id will same this time your query will execute fine, Check id Id both Column you compare in your code.
For me, the issue was due to use to column name "CLUSTER" which is a reserved word in Oracle. I was trying to insert into the column. Renaming the column fixed my issue.
insert into table (JOB_NAME, VERSION, CLUSTER, REPO, CREATE_TS) VALUES ('abc', 169, 'abc.war', '1.3', 'test.com', 'test', '26-Aug-19 04.27.09.000000949 PM')
Error at Command Line : 1 Column : 83
Error report -
SQL Error: ORA-01747: invalid user.table.column, table.column, or column specification
In my case, I had some.* in count. like count(dr.*)

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