Contoling structure of view.

Question

Hi,
Can we define the column datatype sizes during creation of view.
Let us consider the following view creation script.
create or replace view cmonlftWCr
select custcd,custnm,excldlryn,exdlrfrm,to_char(billdate,'YYYY-MM') Month,
sum(billqty) MthQty,mqtycrt(sum(billqty)) MthQtyCrit
from billdtl1
group by custcd,custnm,excldlryn,exdlrfrm,to_char(billdate,'YYYY-MM')
order by excldlryn,custcd,to_char(billdate,'YYYY-MM')
This creates the required view. but with the following structure.
SQL> desc cmonlftWCr;
Name Null? Type
CUSTCD NOT NULL NUMBER(7)
CUSTNM NOT NULL VARCHAR2(50)
EXCLDLRYN NOT NULL CHAR(1)
EXDLRFRM DATE
MONTH VARCHAR2(7)
MTHQTY NUMBER
MTHQTYCRIT VARCHAR2(4000)
My problem is with column mthqty and mthqtycrit.
I want mthqty should have the datatype number(9,3) and mthqtycrit should have the datatype char(3). The function mqtycrt returns only character string of 3 character long.
Can anybody help me out in this regard...?
Soumen.

Answer 1

Hello
You just need to use the CAST operator:
SQL> create or replace view dt_test_view as
  2  select
  3     '1' as col1,
  4     CAST ('1' as  NUMBER(1)) as col2,
  5     CAST ('1' as  VARCHAR2(10)) as col3,
  6     '01-JAN-05' as col4,
  7     CAST ('01-JAN-05' AS DATE) as col5
  8  from
  9     dual;
View created.
SQL> select * from dt_test_view;
C       COL2 COL3       COL4      COL5
1          1 1          01-JAN-05 01-JAN-05
SQL> desc dt_test_view;
Name                                      Null?    Type
COL1                                               CHAR(1 CHAR)
COL2                                               NUMBER
COL3                                               VARCHAR2(10)
COL4                                               CHAR(9 CHAR)
COL5                                               DATEHTH
David