Parsing BLOB (CSV file with special characters) into table

Question

Hello everyone,
In my application, user uploads a CSV file (it is stored as BLOB), which is later read and parsed into table. The parsing engine is shown bellow...
The problem is, that it won't read national characters as Ö, Ü etc., they simply dissapear.
Is there any CSV parser that supports national characters? Or, said in other words - is it possible to read BLOB by characters (where characters can be Ö, Ü etc.)?
Regards,
Adam
  |
  | helper function for csv parsing
  |
  +-----------------------------------------------*/
  FUNCTION hex_to_decimal(p_hex_str in varchar2) return number
  --this function is based on one by Connor McDonald
    --http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/base_convert.html
   is
    v_dec number;
    v_hex varchar2(16) := '0123456789ABCDEF';
  begin
    v_dec := 0;
    for indx in 1 .. length(p_hex_str) loop
      v_dec := v_dec * 16 + instr(v_hex, upper(substr(p_hex_str, indx, 1))) - 1;
    end loop;
    return v_dec;
  end hex_to_decimal;
  |
  | csv parsing
  |
  +-----------------------------------------------*/
  FUNCTION parse_csv_to_imp_table(in_import_id in number) RETURN boolean IS
    PRAGMA autonomous_transaction;
    v_blob_data   BLOB;
    n_blob_len    NUMBER;
    v_entity_name VARCHAR2(100);
    n_skip_rows   INTEGER;
    n_columns     INTEGER;
    n_col         INTEGER := 0;
    n_position    NUMBER;
    v_raw_chunk   RAW(10000);
    v_char        CHAR(1);
    c_chunk_len   number := 1;
    v_line        VARCHAR2(32767) := NULL;
    n_rows        number := 0;
    n_temp        number;
  BEGIN
    -- shortened
    n_blob_len := dbms_lob.getlength(v_blob_data);
    n_position := 1;
    -- Read and convert binary to char
    WHILE (n_position <= n_blob_len) LOOP
      v_raw_chunk := dbms_lob.substr(v_blob_data, c_chunk_len, n_position);
      v_char      := chr(hex_to_decimal(rawtohex(v_raw_chunk)));
      n_temp      := ascii(v_char);
      n_position  := n_position + c_chunk_len;
      -- When a whole line is retrieved
      IF v_char = CHR(10) THEN
        n_rows := n_rows + 1;
        if n_rows > n_skip_rows then
          -- Shortened
          -- Perform some action with the line (store into table etc.)
        end if;
        -- Clear out
        v_line := NULL;
        n_col := 0;
      ELSIF v_char != chr(10) and v_char != chr(13) THEN
        v_line := v_line || v_char;
        if v_char = ';' then
          n_col := n_col+1;
        end if;
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
    COMMIT;
    return true;
  EXCEPTION
     -- some exception handling
  END;

Answer 1

Uploading CSV files into LOB columns and then reading them in PL/SQL: [It&#146;s|http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3454184&#3454184] Re: Reading a Blob (CSV file) and displaying the contents Re: Associative Array and Blob Number of rows in a clob doncha know.
Anyway, it woudl help if you gave us some basic information: database version and NLS settings would seem particularly relevant here.
Cheers, APC
blog: http://radiofreetooting.blogspot.com