Precision of Number is 0?

Question

I used the sample from from http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/tech/java/codesnippet/jdbc/OracleResultSetMetaData.html) to fetch metadata of a table, and the result is:
Number of Columns in the table : 2
Column Name :SysIterID
Column Type :NUMBER
Column Scale :0
Column Precision :19
NULLABLE
Column Name :a
Column Type :NUMBER
Column Scale :0
Column Precision :0 (In SQL Developer it's NUMBER(10,0).)
NOT NULL
From docs, precision of NUMBER should be in range [1,38].
Is it normal to get a 0 precision?
On what condition a 0 presicion is expected?

Answer 1

How to produce the issue.
Db: XE 11g
(1) create table test (a number(19), b number primary key)
(2) Run the following sample(from http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/tech/java/codesnippet/jdbc/OracleResultSetMetaData.html):
package test.sql;
import java.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.OracleResultSetMetaData;
public class TableMeta {
static final String dbURI = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:xe";
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
// Connection reference
Connection conn = null;
try {
// Load database driver
DriverManager.registerDriver (new oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver());
// Make connection
conn = DriverManager.getConnection(dbURI,"test","test");
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * from test where rownum <= 0");
// Get the ResultSet meta data
OracleResultSetMetaData rmd = (OracleResultSetMetaData)rs.getMetaData();
if (rmd == null) {
System.out.println("ResultSet meta data not available");
} else {
int columnCount = rmd.getColumnCount();
// Display number of Columns in the ResultSet
System.out.println("Number of Columns in the table : " + columnCount);
for(int i=1; i<=columnCount; i++) {
// Display number of Column name
System.out.println("Column Name :" + rmd.getColumnName(i));
// Display number of Column Type
System.out.println("Column Type :" + rmd.getColumnTypeName(i));
// Display number of Column Scale
System.out.println("Column Scale :" + rmd.getScale(i));
// Display number of Column Precision
System.out.println("Column Precision :" + rmd.getPrecision(i));
// Display if Column can be NOT NULL
switch (rmd.isNullable(i)) {
case OracleResultSetMetaData.columnNoNulls :
System.out.println("NOT NULL");
break;
case OracleResultSetMetaData.columnNullable :
System.out.println("NULLABLE");
break;
case OracleResultSetMetaData.columnNullableUnknown :
System.out.println("NULLABLE Unkown");
System.out.println();
} finally {
// Close connection
if (conn != null) {
try {
conn.close();
} catch (SQLException ex) {
System.out.println("Error in closing Conection");
(3) Result:
Number of Columns in the table : 2
Column Name :A
Column Type :NUMBER
Column Scale : 0
Column Precision :19
NULLABLE
Column Name :B
Column Type :NUMBER
Column Scale : 0
Column Precision : 0
NOT NULL
Edited by: Leon Zeng on Sep 28, 2008 4:58 PM