LIKE operator causes server crash

From: Dan Halbert <halbert_at_bbn.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 17:10:00 GMT
Message-ID: <halbert.918147802@franklin>

(Using Oracle 8.0.5.0.0 on Solaris 2.6.)

We're having a problem with a particular SQL query using the LIKE operator sometimes causing the Oracle server to crash, giving ORA-03113 (of course) to the remote client.

The query in question is of this form:

    select count (distinct substr(Column1, 1,

				  instr(Column1 || '.', 
                                  '.', 
                                   nvl(length(arg1), 0)+ 2) - 1)) 

    into num
    from T
    where T.Column1 in (select ColumnA from U

                        where ColumnB = i) 

    and T.Column1 like arg1 || '_%';

It seems to cause a crash only when arg1 = '', and even that is intermittent.

I can code around this problem without using LIKE, so I'm not stuck. But Oracle World Support is stymied, and I'd appreciate hearing from anyone else who has seen similar problems, since that would help Oracle to declare it a bug. I have already been corresponding with someone in Singapore who had similar problems in Oracle7.2, fixed by upgrading to 7.3.

Thanks very much,
Dan Halbert Received on Thu Feb 04 1999 - 11:10:00 CST