How to hold result of query with too many characters into a cursor?

Question

Hi, guys:
Could anyone help me on this issue? I encounter such a error: ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small. The reason is because the returning result is too big to hold in a cursor. I know I should use clob, how can I return result of a query into a clob?
Here is my code of procedure
function Find_Near_Offenders(P_f_Resident_Latitude in float, P_f_Resident_Longitude in float, P_n_Radius in number, P_s_User_Group in varchar2, P_b_Found out boolean) return rcur_Offender AS
    rcur_Offender_address rcur_Offender;
  begin
    if P_s_User_Group='Public' then
        open rcur_Offender_address for
          select distinct  so.offender_id as "Offender_ID",  so.first_name||' '|| so.middle_name||' '||so.last_name as "Offender_Name",
          replace(replace(nvl2(sl.address1, sl.address1||' '||sl.address2 ||' '||sl.city ||' '||sl.county||' '||(select sc3.description from sor_code sc3 where sc3.code_id=sl.state)||' '||sl.zip, 'No Known Address'),'#') ,',') as "Address",
          replace(replace(nvl2(sl.physical_address1,sl.physical_address1||' '||sl.physical_city ||' '||sl.physical_county||' '||(select sc4.description from sor_code sc4 where sc4.code_id=sl.physical_state)||' '||sl.physical_zip, 'No Known Address'),'#') ,',')  as "Physical_Address",
          nvl2(sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE, to_char(sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE)||','||to_char(sl.address_longitude),'') as "Address_Geocoding",
          nvl2(sl.physical_address_latitude,to_char(sl.physical_address_latitude) ||','||to_char(sl.physical_address_Longitude),'') as "Physical_Geocoding"
          from sor_location sl, sor_offender so, sor_offense sof, registration_offender_xref rox, sor_last_locn_v sllv
          where rox.offender_id=so.offender_id
          and sllv.offender_id(+)=so.offender_id
          and sl.location_id(+)=sllv.location_id
          and sof.offender_id=so.offender_id
          and rox.status not in ('Merged')
          and rox.reg_type_id=1
          and upper(rox.status)='ACTIVE'
          and nvl(rox.admin_validated, to_date(1,'J'))>=nvl(rox.entry_date, to_date(1,'J'))
          --and sl.physical_address_latitude is null
          and sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE <=to_number(P_f_Resident_Latitude)+0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius) and sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE>= to_number(P_f_Resident_Latitude)-0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius)
          and sl.address_longitude >=to_number(P_f_Resident_Longitude)-0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius) and  sl.address_longitude<=to_number(P_f_Resident_Longitude)+0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius)
          and sor_google_map_service.Calculate_Distance(P_f_Resident_Latitude, P_f_Resident_Longitude, sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE, sl.address_longitude)<=P_n_Radius
          union
          select distinct  so.offender_id as "Offender_ID",  so.first_name||' '|| so.middle_name||' '||so.last_name as "Offender_Name",
          replace(replace(nvl2(sl.address1, sl.address1||' '||sl.address2 ||' '||sl.city ||' '||sl.county||' '||(select sc3.description from sor_code sc3 where sc3.code_id=sl.state)||' '||sl.zip, 'No Known Address'),'#') ,',') as "Address",
          replace(replace(nvl2(sl.physical_address1,sl.physical_address1||' '||sl.physical_city ||' '||sl.physical_county||' '||(select sc4.description from sor_code sc4 where sc4.code_id=sl.physical_state)||' '||sl.physical_zip, 'No Known Address'),'#') ,',')  as "Physical_Address",
          nvl2(sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE, to_char(sl.ADDRESS_LATITUDE)||','||to_char(sl.address_longitude),'') as "Address_Geocoding",
          nvl2(sl.physical_address_latitude,to_char(sl.physical_address_latitude) ||','||to_char(sl.physical_address_Longitude),'') as "Physical_Geocoding"
          from sor_location sl, sor_offender so, sor_offense sof, registration_offender_xref rox, sor_last_locn_v sllv
          where rox.offender_id=so.offender_id
          and sllv.offender_id(+)=so.offender_id
          and sl.location_id(+)=sllv.location_id
          and sof.offender_id=so.offender_id
          and rox.status not in ('Merged')
          and rox.reg_type_id=1
          and upper(rox.status)='ACTIVE'
          and nvl(rox.admin_validated, to_date(1,'J'))>=nvl(rox.entry_date, to_date(1,'J'))
          and sl.physical_address_latitude <=to_number(P_f_Resident_Latitude)+0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius) and sl.physical_address_latitude>= to_number(P_f_Resident_Latitude)-0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius)
          and sl.physical_address_Longitude >=to_number(P_f_Resident_Longitude)-0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius) and  sl.physical_address_Longitude<=to_number(P_f_Resident_Longitude)+0.02*to_number(P_n_Radius)
          and sor_google_map_service.Calculate_Distance(P_f_Resident_Latitude, P_f_Resident_Longitude, sl.physical_address_latitude, sl.physical_address_Longitude)<=P_n_Radius;
        return rcur_Offender_address;
      end if;
  end;and my anonymous block is:
declare
  query_result json_list;
  --list_string varchar2(32000);
  list_string clob;
  l_cursor sor_google_map_service.rcur_Offender;
  b_found boolean;
begin
    l_cursor:=sor_google_map_service.find_near_offenders(35.5113030,-97.5543081, 3, 'Public', b_found);
    query_result:=json_util_pkg.ref_cursor_to_json(l_cursor);
    list_string:='{"Offenders": '||json_printer.pretty_print_list(query_result)||'}';
    dbms_output.put_line(list_string);
end;

Answer 1

lxiscas wrote:
I checked the PL_JSON, and I found it uses sys_refcursor, which is limited to 32K around. That doesn't make sense. A SYS_REFCURSOR has no 32k limit-- the limits are related to the data types that the SQL statement that the SYS_REFCURSOR points to uses. If that SQL statement has a CLOB column, there is effectively no limit. If that SQL statement has a VARCHAR2 column, you've got the 4000 byte limit.
and I was using varchar2 variable in anonymous block. However, my cursor result is too big to hold in a 32K space. Again, this doesn't seem to make sense. There is no such thing as a result that is too big for a cursor
Do you think I need to change PL_JSON API myself to ensure it uses CLOB? or there is anyway that I can avoid update PL_JSON package internally?If the PL_JSON package is trying to write more than 32k of data into a VARCHAR2, your options are
- Modify the package to use a CLOB
- Find some other package that implements whatever functionality you need
- Limit the data to 32k
Justin