SELECT Fails for a WITHIN clause if the xml element have a DASH

Question

I am using a context index on a CLOB Column and one of my records is like this.
?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<cid-spf xmlns="java:com.verid.ident">
<tran-id>1020022445889</tran-id>
<tran-time>1187984936000</tran-time>
<mode>3</mode>
<spoofer>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>12106337000</number>
</ph>
</spoofer>
<spfd>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>13173708869</number>
</ph>
</spfd>
<st-time>1187984936000</st-time>
<dest-number>12106878012</dest-number>
</cid-spf>
When I run a query
SELECT * FROM identity_event
WHERE contains (identityeventdata,'1187812924000 WITHIN ST-TIME')>0
All my other xml elements works just fine.
I get this error.
[1]: (Error): ORA-12801: error signaled in parallel query server P003, instance maralpinor03.trogdor.com:maralpin3 (3) ORA-29902: error in executing ODCIIndexStart() routine ORA-20000: Oracle Text error: DRG-50901: text query parser syntax error on line 1, column 24

Answer 1

The dash or hyphen (-) has special meaning to Oracle text. It means MINUS. Any time that you want Oracle Text to treat such a special character as regular text, you need to escape it, either by putting a backslash (\) in front of each special character or by enclosing a whole word or phrase within curly brackets ({}). Please see the demonstration below.
SCOTT@10gXE> CREATE TABLE identity_event
  2    (identityeventdata  CLOB)
  3  /
Table created.
SCOTT@10gXE> INSERT INTO identity_event VALUES
  2  ('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  3  <cid-spf xmlns="java:com.verid.ident">
  4  <tran-id>1020022445889</tran-id>
  5  <tran-time>1187984936000</tran-time>
  6  <mode>3</mode>
  7  <spoofer>
  8  <name/>
  9  <ph>
10  <number>12106337000</number>
11  </ph>
12  </spoofer>
13  <spfd>
14  <name/>
15  <ph>
16  <number>13173708869</number>
17  </ph>
18  </spfd>
19  <st-time>1187984936000</st-time>
20  <dest-number>12106878012</dest-number>
21  </cid-spf>')
22  /
1 row created.
SCOTT@10gXE> CREATE INDEX your_index ON identity_event (identityeventdata)
  2  INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT
  3  PARAMETERS
  4    ('FILTER        CTXSYS.NULL_FILTER
  5        SECTION GROUP CTXSYS.AUTO_SECTION_GROUP')
  6  /
Index created.
SCOTT@10gXE> -- wrong:
SCOTT@10gXE> SELECT * FROM identity_event
  2  WHERE contains (identityeventdata,'1187812924000 WITHIN ST-TIME')>0
  3  /
SELECT * FROM identity_event
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29902: error in executing ODCIIndexStart() routine
ORA-20000: Oracle Text error:
DRG-50901: text query parser syntax error on line 1, column 24
SCOTT@10gXE> -- correct:
SCOTT@10gXE> SELECT * FROM identity_event
  2  WHERE contains (identityeventdata,'1187984936000 WITHIN {ST-TIME}')>0
  3  /
IDENTITYEVENTDATA
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<cid-spf xmlns="java:com.verid.ident">
<tran-id>1020022445889</tran-id>
<tran-time>1187984936000</tran-time>
<mode>3</mode>
<spoofer>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>12106337000</number>
</ph>
</spoofer>
<spfd>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>13173708869</number>
</ph>
</spfd>
<st-time>1187984936000</st-time>
<dest-number>12106878012</dest-number>
</cid-spf>
SCOTT@10gXE> SELECT * FROM identity_event
  2  WHERE contains (identityeventdata,'1187984936000 WITHIN ST\-TIME')>0
  3  /
IDENTITYEVENTDATA
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<cid-spf xmlns="java:com.verid.ident">
<tran-id>1020022445889</tran-id>
<tran-time>1187984936000</tran-time>
<mode>3</mode>
<spoofer>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>12106337000</number>
</ph>
</spoofer>
<spfd>
<name/>
<ph>
<number>13173708869</number>
</ph>
</spfd>
<st-time>1187984936000</st-time>
<dest-number>12106878012</dest-number>
</cid-spf>
SCOTT@10gXE>