Fetch VARCHAR2 from CLOB

Question

Hi,
I have a plsql function which returns CLOB.(xml format)
How do i convert the output CLOB to VARCHAR2 and select the function from a SELECT query.
The returned output CLOB has more than 4000 characters.
Using DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR only first 4000 characters are extracted , if we go for a larger value it gives a error.
SELECT DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR((Getswiftmsgtagsappended_New(10,2,4,'SWIFT','103')),4000,1) FROM dual
How to resolve this.
Thanks.

Answer 1

A-K wrote:
Hi,
Could you please tell as to what 'amount' and 'offset' mean in the following definition of dbms_lob.substr ?
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;
Thanks.amount=> how much
offset=>from what position
Example
SQL> declare
  2          aclob clob;
  3          avc2 varchar2(32767);
  4  begin
  5          aclob:=lpad('X',32767,'X')||lpad('M',32767,'M');
  6          dbms_output.put_line('clob Len:'||dbms_lob.getlength(aclob));
  7          avc2:=dbms_lob.substr(aclob,4000,32767);
  8          dbms_output.put_line('Vc2 Len:'||length(avc2));
  9          dbms_output.put_line('Vc2 disp:'|| substr(avc2,1,50));
10          avc2:=dbms_lob.substr(aclob,20,32767);
11          dbms_output.put_line('Vc2 Len:'||length(avc2));
12          dbms_output.put_line('Vc2 disp:'|| substr(avc2,1,50));
13  end;
14  /
clob Len:65534
Vc2 Len:4000
Vc2 disp:XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Vc2 Len:20
Vc2 disp:XMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.HTH
SS