ORA-01489 sys_connect_by_path and previous solution not working

Question

Hi all.
Oracle version:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
"CORE     11.2.0.1.0     Production"
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
I need to get routes in a map and the associated sum of distances from some point to another.
map
--     9
  F ----------E
  | \         |
  |  \2       |6
  |   \   11  |
14|   C-------D
  |  / \10   /
  | /9  \   /15
  |/     \ /
  A-------B
     7I have a query that correctly gets the routes.
WITH distances AS
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'B' n2, 7 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'C' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'F' n2, 14 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'D' n2, 15 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'C' n2, 10 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'D' n2, 11 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'F' n2, 2 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'D' n1, 'E' n2, 6 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'F' n1, 'E' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL
SELECT
     'A'||sys_connect_by_path(n2,'-') path,
     SUBSTR(sys_connect_by_path(d,'+'),2) sum_dist
FROM distances
START WITH n1='A'
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE PRIOR n2=n1;
A-B          7
A-B-C          7+10
A-B-C-D          7+10+11
A-B-C-D-E     7+10+11+6
A-B-C-F          7+10+2
A-B-C-F-E     7+10+2+9
A-B-D          7+15
A-B-D-E          7+15+6
A-C          9
A-C-D          9+11
A-C-D-E          9+11+6
A-C-F          9+2
A-C-F-E          9+2+9
A-F          14
A-F-E          14+9The problem is when there are a lot of nodes, I get an ORA-01489: result of string concatenation is too long.
I followed this link.
sys_connect_by_path & to_CLOB
I built the specified package but apparently is combining elements.
If it's called just one time.
WITH distances AS
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'B' n2, 7 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'C' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'F' n2, 14 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'D' n2, 15 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'C' n2, 10 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'D' n2, 11 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'F' n2, 2 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'D' n1, 'E' n2, 6 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'F' n1, 'E' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL
SELECT
     'A'||'-'||hierarchy.branch(LEVEL,n2,'-') path
FROM distances
START WITH n1='A'
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE PRIOR n2=n1;
A-B
A-B-C
A-B-C-D
A-B-C-D-E
A-B-C-F
A-B-C-F-E
A-B-D
A-B-D-E
A-C
A-C-D
A-C-D-E
A-C-F
A-C-F-E
A-FBut if I call it twice in the same query...
WITH distances AS
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'B' n2, 7 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'C' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'A' n1, 'F' n2, 14 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'D' n2, 15 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'B' n1, 'C' n2, 10 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'D' n2, 11 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'C' n1, 'F' n2, 2 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'D' n1, 'E' n2, 6 d FROM DUAL UNION
     SELECT 'F' n1, 'E' n2, 9 d FROM DUAL
SELECT
     'A'||SUBSTR(hierarchy.branch(LEVEL,n2,'-'),2) path,
     hierarchy.branch(LEVEL,d,'+') sum_dist
FROM distances
START WITH n1='A'
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE PRIOR n2=n1;
A          7
A-C          7+10
A-10-D          7+10+11
A-10-11-E     7+10+11+6
A-10-F          7+10+2
A-10-2-E     7+10+2+9
A-D          7+15
A-15-E          7+15+6
A          9
A-D          9+11
A-11-E          9+11+6
A-F          9+2
A-2-E          9+2+9As you can see, is combining the elements (A-10-11-E) node - distance - distance - node
Do I have to create separate functions in the package, one per column?, or is there another way to solve this problem?, or even better, another way to solve the original problem (ORA-01489)
Thanks a lot.
Regards.
Package code (by Solomon Yakobson):
CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE Hierarchy
    IS
        TYPE BranchTableVarchar2Type IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(4000)
          INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
        BranchTableVarchar2 BranchTableVarchar2Type;
        TYPE BranchTableClobType IS TABLE OF CLOB
          INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
        BranchTableClob BranchTableClobType;
        FUNCTION Branch(
                        p_Level          IN NUMBER,
                        p_Value          IN VARCHAR2,
                        p_Delimiter      IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
          RETURN VARCHAR2;
        PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(Branch,WNDS);
        FUNCTION Branch(
                        p_Level          IN NUMBER,
                        p_Value          IN CLOB,
                        p_Delimiter      IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
          RETURN CLOB;
        PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(Branch,WNDS);
END Hierarchy;
CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE BODY Hierarchy
    IS
        ReturnValueVarchar2 VARCHAR2(4000);
        ReturnValueClob     CLOB;
    FUNCTION Branch(
                    p_Level        IN NUMBER,
                    p_Value        IN VARCHAR2,
                    p_Delimiter    IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
      RETURN VARCHAR2
      IS
      BEGIN
          BranchTableVarchar2(p_Level) := p_Value;
          ReturnValueVarchar2          := p_Value;
          FOR I IN REVERSE 1..p_Level - 1 LOOP
            ReturnValueVarchar2 := BranchTableVarchar2(I)|| p_Delimiter || ReturnValueVarchar2;
          END LOOP;
          RETURN ReturnValueVarchar2;
    END Branch;
    FUNCTION Branch(
                    p_Level        IN NUMBER,
                    p_Value        IN CLOB,
                    p_Delimiter    IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
      RETURN CLOB
      IS
      BEGIN
          BranchTableClob(p_Level) := p_Value;
          ReturnValueClob          := p_Value;
          FOR I IN REVERSE 1..p_Level - 1 LOOP
            ReturnValueClob := BranchTableClob(I)|| p_Delimiter || ReturnValueClob;
          END LOOP;
          RETURN ReturnValueClob;
    END Branch;
END Hierarchy;
/Edited by: sKr on 08-mar-2012 17:29
Package code added

Answer 1

Hi,
sKr wrote:
Hi all.
Oracle version:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
"CORE     11.2.0.1.0     Production"
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production
I need to get routes in a map and the associated sum of distances from some point to another.
map
--     9
F ----------E
| \         |
|  \2       |6
|   \   11  |
14|   C-------D
|  / \10   /
| /9  \   /15
|/     \ /
A-------B
7... I wish we could mark questions as "Helpful" or "Correct". You'd get 10 points for sure.
Do I have to create separate functions in the package, one per column?,You don't need separate functions. One user-defined function should be enough, just like one built-in version of SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH is enough. Whatever it has to store internally, it knows to keep a separate copy for every argument that you call it with. The problem with the package, as originally posted, is that there's only one internal variable BranchTableVarchar2. Instead of one variable, make an array of similar variables, and add an optional argument to the branch funtion to tell it which element in that array to use.
CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE Hierarchy
    IS
        TYPE BranchTableVarchar2Type IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(4000)
          INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
        BranchTableVarchar2 BranchTableVarchar2Type;
     TYPE VList     IS TABLE OF BranchTableVarchar2Type          -- ***  NEW  ***
       INDEX BY     BINARY_INTEGER;                         -- ***  NEW  ***
     vl     VList;                                      -- ***  NEW  ***
        TYPE BranchTableClobType IS TABLE OF CLOB
          INDEX BY BINARY_INTEGER;
        BranchTableClob BranchTableClobType;
        FUNCTION Branch(
                        p_Level          IN NUMBER,
                        p_Value          IN VARCHAR2,
                        p_Delimiter      IN VARCHAR2     DEFAULT CHR(0),
               p_PathNum      IN PLS_INTEGER     DEFAULT     1     -- ***  NEW  ***
          RETURN VARCHAR2;
        PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(Branch,WNDS);
        FUNCTION Branch(
                        p_Level          IN NUMBER,
                        p_Value          IN CLOB,
                        p_Delimiter      IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
          RETURN CLOB;
        PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(Branch,WNDS);
END Hierarchy;
SHOW ERRORS
PROMPT     ==========  FK BODY  ==========
CREATE OR REPLACE
  PACKAGE BODY Hierarchy
    IS
        ReturnValueVarchar2 VARCHAR2(4000);
        ReturnValueClob     CLOB;
    FUNCTION Branch(
                    p_Level        IN NUMBER,
                    p_Value        IN VARCHAR2,
                    p_Delimiter    IN VARCHAR2       DEFAULT CHR(0),
              p_PathNum        IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT 1     -- ***  NEW  ***
      RETURN VARCHAR2
      IS
      BEGIN
          vl (p_PathNum) (p_Level) := p_Value;               -- ***  CHANGED  ***
          ReturnValueVarchar2          := p_Value;
          FOR I IN REVERSE 1..p_Level - 1 LOOP
            ReturnValueVarchar2 := vl (p_PathNum) (I)          -- ***  CHANGED  ***
                         || p_Delimiter
                     || ReturnValueVarchar2;
          END LOOP;
          RETURN ReturnValueVarchar2;
    END Branch;
    FUNCTION Branch(
                    p_Level        IN NUMBER,
                    p_Value        IN CLOB,
                    p_Delimiter    IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT CHR(0)
      RETURN CLOB
      IS
      BEGIN
          BranchTableClob(p_Level) := p_Value;
          ReturnValueClob          := p_Value;
          FOR I IN REVERSE 1..p_Level - 1 LOOP
            ReturnValueClob := BranchTableClob(I)|| p_Delimiter || ReturnValueClob;
          END LOOP;
          RETURN ReturnValueClob;
    END Branch;
END Hierarchy;
SHOW ERRORSAs you can see, I only changed the VARCHAR2 version. I'll leave changing the CLOB version as an exercise for you.
When you call branch, pass a unique number for each column of output. If you don't explicitly give a number, it will default to 0.
Here's your query modified to call it:
SELECT  'A' || SUBSTR ( hierarchy.branch ( LEVEL
                                       , n2
                , 2
                )          AS path
,     hierarchy.branch ( LEVEL
                , d
                , '+'
                , 12
                )     AS sum_dist
FROM    distances
START WITH          n1 = 'A'
CONNECT BY NOCYCLE      PRIOR n2     = n1
;For path, I called branch with only 3 arguments, so it's using vl (0) for internal storage for path.
For sum_dist, I had to use a different integer. I couldn't decide if I should use 1 or 2, so I compromised and used 12. I could have used any integer, except 0.
Output:
PATH                           SUM_DIST
A                              7
A-C                            7+10
A-C-D                          7+10+11
A-C-D-E                        7+10+11+6
A-C-F                          7+10+2
A-C-F-E                        7+10+2+9
A-D                            7+15
A-D-E                          7+15+6
A                              9
A-D                            9+11
A-D-E                          9+11+6
A-F                            9+2
A-F-E                          9+2+9
A                              14
A-E                            14+9
or is there another way to solve this problem?, or even better, another way to solve the original problem (ORA-01489)Since you're calling a user-defined package, you might want to add other features to the package.
For starters, in addition to a function that returns a string like '7+10+11', it might be handy to have a string that keeps those numbers internally, but returns the actual value 7 + 10 + 11 = 28.
If you're using this for problems where you want to find the path with the least total d (or the greatest total d, for that matter, but for now let's say you're only interested in the minimum), you might want a function that keeps track of the minimum total d encountered so far for each node. Every time you find a different path to a node, the function could check to see if the total d is better than the previous best. If not, it could return a flag (sort of like CONNECT_BY_ISCYCLE) that tells you not to bother with that path any more.