Passing date format in sys.dbms_xmlgen

Question

hello all,
i am using following query to generate insert SQL statements
SELECT
'insert into ' || table_name || ' (' || (select rtrim(extract(xmlagg(xmlelement(e, t.column_value.getrootelement() || ',')),'//text()'),',') from table(xmlsequence(t.column_value.extract('ROW/*'))) t) || ') values (' ||
(select dbms_xmlgen.convert(rtrim(extract(xmlagg(xmlelement(e, '''' || t.column_value.extract('//text()') || ''',')),'//text()'),','),1) from table(xmlsequence(t.column_value.extract('ROW/*')))t) || ');' ins_stmt
from user_tables,
table(xmlsequence(dbms_xmlgen.getxmltype('select * from ' || a_TblName ||' WHERE MODIFIEDON >'||a_date).extract('ROWSET/ROW'))) t
where table_name in (select table_name from user_tables where table_name =a_TblName);but when i execute the procedure as
sql> exec   Gen_Insert_Statement('11-jun-2009');
ORA-19202: Error occurred in XML processing
ORA-00904: "JUN": invalid identifier
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_XMLGEN", line 288
ORA-06512: at line 1
ORA-06512: at "MRILDATA17TEST.GEN_INSERT_STATEMENT", line 22
ORA-06512: at line 2     and if i do this
SQL> exec Gen_Insert_Statement('11-06-2009');
begin Gen_Insert_Statement('11-06-2009'); end;
ORA-01843: not a valid month
ORA-06512: at line 2is there any format to pass date while using XML packages??? i am also not getting in which this issue is occuring??
any suggestion will be appreciable
thanks and regards
VD
Edited by: dixit on Aug 13, 2009 6:15 AM
Edited by: dixit on Aug 13, 2009 6:21 AM

Answer 1

The date issue is coming from
dbms_xmlgen.getxmltype('select * from ' || a_TblName ||' WHERE MODIFIEDON >'||a_date)It is due to the implicit conversion from the internal Date object type to a String type for display. The format is based off the NLS_DATE_FORMAT so varies from system to system. When dealing with dates, it is always best to use either to_char or to_date to ensure there are no errors in converting from one format to the other. That would include adding to_date with a format mask making it part of your Select SQL statement around a_date, such as to_date(a_date, 'DD-MON-YYYY')
Also, if you have any dates in the tables that are being queried, you will run into a similar implicit conversion issue. Oracle does not format dates in the proper XML format of YYYY-MM-DD when building XML in this manner as it uses the NLS_DATE_FORMAT. So you cannot guarantee the INSERT statement will work on another DB with a different NLS_DATE_FORMAT.
As others have asked, why you are trying to build insert statements this way as there is a lot to take into consideration regarding data formats. It seems this has been discussed on the {forum:id=75} forum but that has been some time ago.