Re: converting from LONG type?

In article <8hp6f7$msc$1_at_nnrp1.deja.com>,   chad_at_pengar.com wrote:
> Hi. I have been asked to work with some data in an
> Oracle database. For some lame reason the data of
> interest is in a LONG datatyped column but all the
> data is short strings that could fit in a VARCHAR2.
> I need to be able to use this in a WHERE clause and
> all sorts of other things that you cannot do on a
> LONG. Is it possible to create a view or copy into
> another table and convert the data from the LONG to
> a VARCHAR2?
>
> Thanks
> Chad
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
>

if the data would all fit in a varchar2 column, you can:

begin

   for x in ( select * from Table_with_long )    loop

      insert into another_table ( x.c1, x.c2, x.long_column );    end loop;
end;
/

or, you can use the sqlplus copy command -- see http://osi.oracle.com/~tkyte/Misc/MoveLongs.html

for syntax on that.

--
Thomas Kyte (tkyte_at_us.oracle.com) Oracle Service Industries
Howtos and such: http://osi.oracle.com/~tkyte/index.html
Oracle Magazine: http://www.oracle.com/oramag
Opinions are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle Corp


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.