If it's less than 32,000 characters, you can stick it in a VARCHAR2 as well.
May be less with 'old' versions of Oracle (pre 8i)
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
How do I handle Long datatypes in PL/SQL?
I am trying to pull back data from an oracle database using PL/SQL however one of the columns is a long datatype! When I export the data that column just comes out as <LONG>, Is there anyway I can convert this column so that the true contents of the field are exported??
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
Ben's suggestion looks good to me.
One other approach I used in the past for a one-time conversion was SQL*Plus and the "spool" command to put the primary key and the long_column (which for me was all ASCII data and less than 4,000 bytes long) into an ASCII file that I could then load back into a varchar2 column in a table via SQL*Loader or PL\SQL with utl_file.
It depends on what you wish to do with the LONG column.
The to_lob function can be used in very limited circumstances.
Here's what the fine manual says about to_lob:
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.
Before using this function, you must create a LOB column to receive the converted LONG values. To convert LONGs, create a CLOB column. To convert LONG RAWs, create a BLOB column.
You can use the to_lob function to insert the LONG into a global temporary table, where you can then do a number of other operations that aren't allowed on longs.
Here's an example of converting LONG -> LOB
drop table gt;
drop table t1;
drop table t2;
create table t1 (
id number not null
, data long not null
)
/
create table t2 (
id number not null
, data clob not null
)
/
create global temporary table gt (
id number not null
, data clob not null
) on commit delete rows
/
insert into t1 values(1,'this is long test data');
insert into t1 values(2,'more long test data');
insert into t1 values(3,'really, not so long test data');
commit;
declare
v_sql varchar2(1000);
v_clob clob;
type r_clob_type is record (
id number
, src_clob clob
);
r_clob r_clob_type;
begin
for lrec in (select rowid from t1)
loop
v_sql := ' insert into gt (id,data) '
|| 'select id, to_lob(data) '
|| 'from t1 '
|| 'where rowid = ' || '''' || lrec.rowid || '''';
execute immediate v_sql;
insert into t2 (id, data)
select id,data
from gt;
commit;
end loop;
end;
/
select * from t2;
No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.
I will leave a recommendation in the Cleanup topic area that this question is:
accept benpung's comment as an answer
Please leave any comments here within the next seven days.
PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!
patelgokul
EE Cleanup Volunteer
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: benpungPosted on 2003-01-16 at 12:43:00ID: 7743734
i'm not sure about the export, but i know when i am using pl/sql procedures and i need to work with a long or long raw, i have to select them into a clob or blob variable. long and long raw are going away. lobs are the way of the future in oracle. they are better to work with b/c of the dbms_lob package and can hold more data. so, i guess my answer is to look into using a lob datatype somehow, maybe creating a staging table where the current long column is a clob, then loading that table with a pl/sql procudure using a clob variable and a cursor. that would be one way. if this won't work if you could be more specific with the question on exactly you are trying to do i will try to help.
ben