Varchar(32767)

Question

Dear Friends,
I have a function as below (converted to anonymous block for posting here):
DECLARE
    CURSOR notes IS
    SELECT description
    FROM notesx
    WHERE notesx.id = 500000;
    v_return VARCHAR2(32767) := '';
    v_len NUMBER;
BEGIN
     FOR rec_values IN notes
     LOOP
          v_return := v_return||'  -  '||rec_values.description;
     END LOOP;
     v_return := LTRIM(v_return, '  -  ' );
     v_len := length(v_return);
     dbms_output.put_line (v_len);
END;The function is failing with an error:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character buffer string too small ORA-06512
The fnction returns vc_return.
I tried to put the length function additionally and found the length to be 4894 (which is much lesser than 32767).
Also when I run the function as anonymous block it works fine but when run as part of the compelte job it fails with above said error !
any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
Edited by: Caitanya on Mar 4, 2009 2:44 AM

Answer 1

SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> create or replace
  2  function ftest
  3    return varchar2
  4  is
  5    retval varchar2(32767);
  6  begin
  7    retval := rpad ('x', 32767, 'x');
  8    return retval;
  9  end;
10  /
Function created.
SQL>
SQL> declare
  2     v varchar2(32767);
  3  begin
  4     v := ftest;
  5     dbms_output.put_line (length (v));
  6  end;
  7  /
32767
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL> select ftest
  2    from dual
  3  /
select ftest
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at "___.FTEST", line 7and
SQL> create or replace
  2  function ftest
  3    return varchar2
  4  is
  5    retval varchar2(4000);
  6  begin
  7    retval := rpad ('x', 4000, 'x');
  8    return retval;
  9  end;
10  /
Function created.
SQL>
SQL> declare
  2     v varchar2(32767);
  3  begin
  4     v := ftest;
  5     dbms_output.put_line (length (v));
  6  end;
  7  /
4000
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL>
SQL> select ftest
  2    from dual
  3  /
FTEST
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