Using DD to Read Data from Oracle Datafiles

Hi,
I am using dd to read data out of oracle datafiles from an oracle 9i database on solaris. I am using the following command:

dd if=/location_to_oracle_datafile_and_file_name.DBF bs=8192 skip=11764 count=8 | strings

I have a table called DEPT, querying dba_extents, I see that its block_id is 11764. It also have 8 blocks assigned to it. Now using the above, I get the following output:

OPERATIONS
BOSTON,
SALES
CHICAGO,
RESEARCH
DALLAS,
ACCOUNTING
NEW YORK

Whats missing from here is numeric values. Since I am piping the output to strings , strings will not print out numerics. Does anyone know how i can use the method above to successfully read an entire table and print out all its comments.
Thanks.




		
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