reports and ora-03220

The version info is at the bottom of the post.

I have a function in a package that I pass a string to and it parses the string into a record and returns the record to the caller.

myRcd := package.parse_record( 'a string of about 80 char' ); -- second call from report causes problem

In a report, on the first call all is well, but on the second call I get an ORA-3120: two-task conversion routine: integer overflow.

I also have a procedure version of that function (pass the string and it parses it into the record, but doesn't return anything) and it has no problems on the second call. To use the procedure and get the record I have to call a separate function and guess what, on the second call to that function the report just hangs (net i/o is going full tilt and then nothing and I have to ctl-alt-del).

package.parse_record( 'a string of about 80 char' ); myRcd := package.get_record; -- on second call report bldr hangs

I then tried a similar scenerio under SQLPlus and it works just fine for at least 49 calls.

I have searched the newsgroups, and even though people have asked about this error I haven't seen an answer (well, pointing at the error explanation and saying 'there you go, now you know where to look' didn't seem helpful).

A co-worker has run into a similar problem with another package. He finally wrote an interface package that he calls and it calls the package that he had problems with and all is well (but it seems real silly to have to do this; besides, I need to have the record parsed and returned).

Thank you for your time.

Oracle:
Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.7.4.0 - Production With the Partitioning option
JServer Release 8.1.7.4.0 - Production

Reports:
Report Builder 6.0.8.11.3
ORACLE Server Release 8.0.6.0.0
Oracle Procedure Builder 6.0.8.11.0
Oracle ORACLE PL/SQL V8.0.6.0.0 - Production Oracle CORE Version 4.0.6.0.0 - Production Oracle Tools Integration Services 6.0.8.10.2 Oracle Tools Common Area 6.0.5.32.1
Oracle Toolkit 2 for Windows 32-bit platforms 6.0.5.35.0 Resource Object Store 6.0.5.0.1
Oracle Help 6.0.5.35.0
Oracle Sqlmgr 6.0.8.11.3
Oracle Query Builder 6.0.7.0.0 - Production PL/SQL Editor (c) WinMain Software (www.winmain.com), v1.0 (Production) Oracle ZRC 6.0.8.11.3
Oracle Express 6.0.8.3.5
Oracle XML Parser 1.0.2.1.0 Production
Oracle Virtual Graphics System 6.0.5.35.0 Oracle Image 6.0.5.34.0
Oracle Multimedia Widget 6.0.5.34.0
Oracle Tools GUI Utilities 6.0.5.35.0

SQLPlus:
SQL*Plus: Release 8.0.6.0.0 - Production on Fri May 23 17:36:12 2003

(c) Copyright 1999 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Received on Fri May 23 2003 - 16:55:44 CDT