TEXT datatype in Stored Procedure and concat Carriage returns

Question

Anyone,
I am trying to create a stored procedure that will allow me to grab a bunch of 255 Char records in a cursor and concatenate them together adding a carriage return after each row.
Here is pseudo code would look like:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE myproc IS
   CURSOR c1 IS
      SELECT myVARCHAR_255_col
      From mytable
      where criteria = something
      rec c1%ROWTYPE;
      var_my_new_TEXT TEXT;
BEGIN
   OPEN c1;
   LOOP
      FETCH c1 INTO rec;
      EXIT WHEN c1%NOTFOUND;
        IF rec.myVARCHAR_255_col IS NOT NULL THEN
            var_my_new_TEXT := CONCAT(rec.myVARCHAR255_col, '%char(13)+char(10)%')
        END IF
   END LOOP;
   CLOSE c1;
END;There is a bit more to code then this but most important issue is how to deal with TEXT datatype? Should/can it be RAW instead. And also how do I get a CARRIAGE RETURN into the body of the column of type TEXT.
Thanks in advance,
Miller

Answer 1

Is there a specific reason for concatenating 255 characters at a time and returning it? This example may be of help.
SQL> set long 500
SQL> DESC MYTABLE
Name                                      Null?    Type
COL1                                               NUMBER(2)
COL2                                               LONG
SQL> select * from mytable;
      COL1
COL2
         1
This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text i
s very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long
This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text
is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very lon
g This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long
SQL> select length(col2) from mytable;
select length(col2) from mytable
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got LONG
SQL> select length('This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text i
  2  s very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long
  3   This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text
  4  is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very lon
  5  g This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long') from dual;
LENGTH('THISTEXTISVERYLONGTHISTEXTISVERYLONGTHISTEXTISVERYLONGTHISTEXTISVERYLONG
                                                                             393
SQL> R
  1  DECLARE
  2  V_VARIABLE VARCHAR2(4000);
  3  BEGIN
  4  SELECT COL2 INTO V_VARIABLE FROM MYTABLE;
  5  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(SUBSTR(V_VARIABLE,1,255));
  6  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(SUBSTR(V_VARIABLE,256,138));
  7* END;
This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text
is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very
long This text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This
text is very long Th
is text is very long This text is very long This text is very long This text is
very long This text is very long This text is very long
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> SELECT SUBSTR(COL2,1,255) FROM MYTABLE;
SELECT SUBSTR(COL2,1,255) FROM MYTABLE
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got LONG