Strange results from JDBC Query using a VARRAY

Question

Here's one for you experts:
I have a 9i release 2 db set up, to which I connect via the JDBC thin
driver. I have a JavaServer Pages application that needs to read a VARRAY
from a table and then use the contents of the VARRAY. Here's the code in
the JSP that does that:
resultset=db.executeQuery
("SELECT IMAGE_lIST FROM PAGE_IMAGE_ARRAY WHERE PAGENAME = " +
pagename);
oracle.sql.ARRAY array =
((oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleResultSet)resultset).getARRAY(1);
imageList = (String[])array.getArray();
for(int count=0; count<imageList.length; count++)
out.println("<p>The image at position " + count + " in the array is
the image titled: " + imageList[count]);
The JSP compiles and runs fine, but the output is as follows:
The image at position 0 in the array is the image titled: 0x7465737431
The image at position 1 in the array is the image titled: 0x7465737432
The image at position 2 in the array is the image titled: 0x7465737433
The image at position 3 in the array is the image titled: 0x7465737436
A query using SQL*Plus verifies that the actual values of the elements of
the array are 'test1', 'test2', 'test3', 'test6'. Notice that the last
digit in the hex(?) output matches the last digit of the actual string.
What's causing this? It looks like a data type mismatch, but I would have
thought that such an error would have triggered a compile-time error.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Dave Penn

Answer 1

Dave,
The following should help.
  1  select rawtohex('test1') val1,
  2  rawtohex('test2') val2
  3* from dual
SQL> /
VAL1       VAL2
7465737431 7465737432
SQL> select rawtohex('1') val1,
  2  rawtohex('2') val2
  3  from dual;
VA VA
31 32