Problem accessing VARRAY OF VARCHAR in 9i, but working in 8i

Question

The following code (modified sample ArrayExample.java for VARRAY
OF VARCHAR) produces different results on a 8.1.7 and 9.0.1
database. The standard way of accessing the members of an array
of strings in the database:
ARRAY array = ((OracleResultSet)rs).getARRAY (1);
// get Array elements
String[] values = (String[]) array.getArray();
for (int i=0; i<values.length; i++)
System.out.println(">> index "+i+" = "+values);
seems not to work for strings in 9i. Instead it prints the byte
representation of the strings ("0x313233" instead of "123").
Code below shows, that using a workaround it is possible to
access the string itself.
Results of code below (always using the 9i JDBC driver).
8i (correct):
Row 1 :
Array is of type SDMC_FS.STR_VARRAY
Array element is of type code 12
Array is of length 2
index 0 = 123 =?= 123
index 1 = 456 =?= 4569i (incorrect):
Row 1 :
Array is of type SDMC_FS.STR_VARRAY
Array element is of type code 12
Array is of length 2
index 0 = 123 =?= 0x313233
index 1 = 456 =?= 0x343536Whats wrong?
br Thomas Spaarmann
import java.sql.*;
import oracle.sql.*;
import oracle.jdbc.oracore.Util;
import oracle.jdbc.*;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
public class ArrayExample
public static void main (String args[])
throws Exception
// Register the Oracle JDBC driver
DriverManager.registerDriver(new oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver());
// The sample retrieves an varray of type "NUM_VARRAY",
// materializes the object as an object of type ARRAY.
// A new ARRAY is then inserted into the database.
String url = "jdbc:oracle:oci8:@";
try {
String url1 = System.getProperty("JDBC_URL");
if (url1 != null)
url = url1;
} catch (Exception e) {
// If there is any security exception, ignore it
// and use the default
// Connect to the database
Connection conn =
DriverManager.getConnection (url, "scott", "tiger");
// It's faster when auto commit is off
conn.setAutoCommit (false);
// Create a Statement
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement ();
try
stmt.execute ("DROP TABLE varray_table");
stmt.execute ("DROP TYPE str_varray");
catch (SQLException e)
// the above drop statements will throw exceptions
// if the types and tables did not exist before. Just
ingore it.
stmt.execute ("CREATE TYPE str_varray AS VARRAY(10) OF
VARCHAR(256)");
stmt.execute ("CREATE TABLE varray_table (col1 str_varray)");
stmt.execute ("INSERT INTO varray_table VALUES
(str_varray('123', '456'))");
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM
varray_table");
showResultSet (rs);
rs.close();
stmt.close();
conn.close();
public static void showResultSet (ResultSet rs)
throws SQLException
int line = 0;
while (rs.next())
line++;
System.out.println("Row "+line+" : ");
ARRAY array = ((OracleResultSet)rs).getARRAY (1);
System.out.println ("Array is of type
"+array.getSQLTypeName());
System.out.println ("Array element is of type code
"+array.getBaseType());
System.out.println ("Array is of length "+array.length());
// get Array elements
Datum[] values = (Datum[]) array.getOracleArray();
String[] strValues = (String[]) array.getArray();
for (int i=0; i<values.length; i++)
String value = new String( values[i].getBytes());
System.out.println(">> index "+i+" = "+value+" =?=
"+strValues[i]);

Answer 1

Are you including nls_charset11.zip (or nls_charset12.zip) in
your CLASSPATH?
Whenever a conversion into (or out of) a particular character set
fails you may see a hex representation instead. By default the
JDBC driver classes111/12 do not include the conversions
required for the Windows character set.