Getting ORA-00932 with any object table

Question

Hi, I'm new to Oracle and it's enormous community so I apologize in advance for posting
in the wrong place or for giving not enough information.
As I just said, I'm new to Oracle therefore I'm following the [introductory guide|http://www.mcs.csueastbay.edu/support/oracle/doc/10.2/appdev.102/b14260/adobjint.htm#sthref102] and trying the examples it gives one-by-one.
I used to use MySql in the past but now I need to use a more stable and scalable database that allows
the storage of objects.
I'm using Oracle 10.g XE on a GNU/Linux computer (Ubuntu 8.10)
Let's start with the question:
in the Example 1-6 the following code is given:
CREATE TYPE emp_person_typ AS OBJECT (
  name     VARCHAR2(30),
  manager  REF emp_person_typ );
Type created.
CREATE TABLE emp_person_obj_table OF emp_person_typ;
Table created.
INSERT INTO emp_person_obj_table
  SELECT emp_person_typ ('Bob Jones', REF(e))
    FROM emp_person_obj_table e
    WHERE e.name = 'John Smith';
1 row(s) inserted.Executing these queries return successfull messages.
But when I try to retrieve the records by using this query:
select * from emp_person_obj_table;or when accessing the "Data" tab of that table in the Object Browser"
I get this error:
(error report:)
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got REF RESMAN.EMP_PERSON_TYPAll queries are executed in the Application Express (2.1.0.00.39) query runner.
I think I did everything in the right manner, although the code is just copy-pasted from the guide, so I can't realize
why this annoying error is still appearing when accessing that table.
I noticed that executing the same selection query as above in the SQL*Plus CLI works as expected
and returns a resultset.
Thanks in advance for any reply.

Answer 1

Since the query works in SQL*Plus, I would tend to assume that this is a limitation of the APEX query runner. If you post over in the APEX forum, someone may be able to confirm that or suggest a way of working around it.
Do you need to use the APEX query runner? Could you use SQL*Plus or SQL Developer instead?
Justin