Problems with LONG datatypes

I'm trying to import some values into LONG columns, and the values are longer than the 2000-character limit on quoted strings. So I thought I'd break the value into 2000-character blocks, insert the first block, and iterate through the remaining blocks using a procedure to append them to the current value. Only problem is I can't figure out how to append them. I tried writing a procedure like this:

  create procedure appendValue
    (appendID in number, appendText in long) is   begin
    update my_table
      set text = text||appendText where id = appendID;   end;

but when I ran it I got "Inconsistent dataypes." And then when I started looking into that you can't use the || operator with LONGs.

Any suggestions? Surely there must be a way to get long data into the system, or they wouldn't provide a LONG datatype.

David Moles              Fort Point Partners, Inc.
(415)537-7027                   dmoles_at_ftpoint.com


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