HTMLDB_ITEM.POPUP_FROM_QUERY - character string buffer too small

Question

I am creating a updateable report with a popup_from_query item on a table with a high number of columns (40 columns) where every column should be displayed as a popup_from_query.
I get the following error message when running the page:
report error:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
*** It seems the longer the column list gets, the shorter the p_lov_query parameter could be.
- Region 1: If you use only one column, your lov query fails with a statement that is 807+ characters. (if you use 806 it will work without an error).
- Region 2: If you use only two column, you will fail just with a value of 800.
- Region ?: I have 40 columns, now my query fails of about 30 charachters.
* Region 1:
select
htmldb_item.popup_from_query(5,'x',
'SELECT distinct '||COLUMN_NAME||' d, '||COLUMN_NAME||' r'||
rpad(' ',807,' ')||
' FROM '||TABLE_NAME||' order by 1') xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1
from all_tab_columns
where rownum < 2
* Region 2:
select
HTMLDB_ITEM.POPUP_FROM_QUERY (
44, 'x',
'SELECT distinct '||COLUMN_NAME||' d, '||COLUMN_NAME||' r'||
rpad(' ',800,' ')||
' FROM '||TABLE_NAME||' order by 1',
least(DATA_LENGTH,60),2000
) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1,
HTMLDB_ITEM.POPUP_FROM_QUERY (
44, 'x',
'SELECT distinct '||COLUMN_NAME||' d, '||COLUMN_NAME||' r'||
rpad(' ',800,' ')||
' FROM '||TABLE_NAME||' order by 1',
least(DATA_LENGTH,60),2000
) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx2
from all_tab_columns
where data_type in ('VARCHAR2')
I have set the region to: Use Generic Column Names (parse query at runtime only)
Has anyone some suggestions or workaround for updateable reports with a lot of columns where popup's are needed?
Thx Willi

Answer 1

Hallo,
Thank you a lot for that hint. But if this would be the case, why does Region 2 work then?
Any further comments are welcome.
Thx, Willi
P.S.: I had reached the 2000 items (<input>) limit, but now only display less 2000 items on the page: "Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
mod_plsql: /pls/htmldb/wwv_flow.accept HTTP-400 Too many arguments passed in.
Got 9016 parameters. Upper limit is 2000"