Storing large text in the variable

Question

Dear Friends,
I am trying to create a dynamic "SELECT" statement, which I would like to store in a variable that can store large text. The "AND" Condition of the "SELECT" statement is being generated by a cursor. Since the size of the text is completely dynamic depending on the cursor records so it can exceeds 32k limit.
We are using 8.1.7.4 enterprise edition.
I need guidence in this regard that how can this problem could be resolved using best practices.
Best Regards,
Shah

Answer 1

It depends on what you are trying to do with the
SELECT statement that is built.
If you need to store it in a PL/SQL variable all at
once, a CLOB is not the answer, as it (like
VARCHAR2's) have a limit of 32767 characters...
Since when?
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2    v_clob clob;
  3  begin
  4    v_clob := rpad('piece of query',32767,',');
  5    v_clob := v_clob||rpad('piece of query',32767,',');
  6    v_clob := v_clob||rpad('piece of query',32767,',');
  7    v_clob := v_clob||rpad('piece of query',32767,',');
  8    v_clob := v_clob||rpad('piece of query',32767,',');
  9    dbms_output.put_line(dbms_lob.getlength(v_clob));
10* end;
SQL> /
163835
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>I think the maximum size for a CLOB in version 9 and below is 4Gb and from 10g onwards it's something stupid like 128 Terrabytes depending on your database configuration (block sizes etc).
If CLOB had the same limit as VARCHAR2 then there would be no point in having it.
Please don't misinform people.