Does the Number type in Oracle always map to the Java BigDecimal object

Question

We have noticed that whenever we create a column in a table of type smallint, integer, real, etc. that the type in sqlplus always shows up as number(x). Our problem is that this type always seems to map to java.math.BigDecimal through JDBC. Is this a bug in the JDBC drivers???
Put another way when I create a column of type smallint I expect that after performing a query I should be able to call the getShort method on the result set in order to get the value from the afore mentioned column. But instead I get a ClassCastException because the Java type for the column is actually a java.math.BigDecimal.
Thanks,
Keith
[email protected]

Answer 1

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Keith Nielsen:
We have noticed that whenever we create a column in a table of type smallint, integer, real, etc. that the type in sqlplus always shows up as number(x). Our problem is that this type always seems to map to java.math.BigDecimal through JDBC. Is this a bug in the JDBC drivers???
Put another way when I create a column of type smallint I expect that after performing a query I should be able to call the getShort method on the result set in order to get the value from the afore mentioned column. But instead I get a ClassCastException because the Java type for the column is actually a java.math.BigDecimal.
Thanks,
Keith
[email protected]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
~~~
The possible Java types to which SQL NUMBER type can be materialized to include
oracle.sql.NUMBER
java.lang.Byte
java.lang.Short
java.lang.Integer
java.lang.Long
java.lang.Float
java.lang.Double
java.math.BigDecimal
byte,short, int, long, float, double
For a complete listing for all datatypes mappings refer the Oracle8i JDBC Developer's guide and reference.