ORA-6502 - Help!

Question

I keep receiving this error:
ORA-6502 - PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer is too small
Listed below is the code:
Error lines are Line 1 and 12.
create or replace function overpunch (ora_val in varchar2) return varchar2
is
result_hold varchar2(12);
rightmost_digit varchar2(1);
overpunch_char varchar2(1);
begin
Result_hold := to_char( to_number( abs( nvl(ora_val,0) ) ), '000000000009');
rightmost_digit := substr(result_hold, -1);
result_hold := substr(result_hold, 1, length(result_hold)-1);
if ora_val < 0 then
if rightmost_digit = 0 then
overpunch_char := '}';
else
overpunch_char := chr(ascii(rightmost_digit)+25);
end if;
else
if rightmost_digit = 0 then
overpunch_char := '{';
else
overpunch_char := chr(ascii(rightmost_digit)+16);
end if;
end if;
return result_hold||overpunch_char;
end;
This is how it is executed:
select overpunch(14), overpunch(-14) from dual;
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

SQL> create or replace function overpunch (ora_val in varchar2) return varchar2
  2  is
  3  result_hold varchar2(12);
  4  rightmost_digit varchar2(1);
  5  overpunch_char varchar2(1);
  6  begin
  7  Result_hold := to_char( to_number( abs( nvl(ora_val,0) ) ), 'FM000000000009');
  8  rightmost_digit := substr(result_hold, -1);
  9  result_hold := substr(result_hold, 1, length(result_hold)-1);
10
11  if ora_val < 0 then
12  if rightmost_digit = 0 then
13  overpunch_char := '}';
14  else
15  overpunch_char := chr(ascii(rightmost_digit)+25);
16  end if;
17  else
18  if rightmost_digit = 0 then
19  overpunch_char := '{';
20  else
21  overpunch_char := chr(ascii(rightmost_digit)+16);
22  end if;
23  end if;
24
25  return result_hold||overpunch_char;
26  end;
27  /
Function created.
SQL> select overpunch(14), overpunch(-14) from dual;
OVERPUNCH(14)
OVERPUNCH(-14)
00000000001D
00000000001M