Get the LENGTH of a LONG RAW

Question

I have a table with a column of data type LONG RAW. How do I determine the size (in bytes) of the data in this column?

If I call the LENGTH function on it, it raises ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected NUMBER got LONG BINARY.

Just in case you think it: UTL_RAW.LENGTH raises ORA-00997: illegal use of LONG datatype :)

(Yes, I know LONG RAW is deprecated - the question came up due to some old software that might require it)

Answer 1

I don't think it's possible to manipulate LONG RAWs longer than 32k in PLSQL. Here is a java procedure that returns the length of a LONG RAW.

First, the setup:

SQL> CREATE TABLE my_table (ID NUMBER, my_long_raw_column LONG RAW);

Table created

SQL> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (1, utl_raw.cast_to_raw('123456789'));

1 row inserted

The java class (my java is a bit rusty):

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE AND COMPILE JAVA SOURCE NAMED "Raw" AS
  2  import java.io.*;
  3  import java.sql.*;
  4  import oracle.jdbc.driver.*;
  5  
  6  public class Raw {
  7  
  8     public static int getLength(int pk) throws SQLException,IOException {
  9  
 10        Connection conn = new OracleDriver().defaultConnection();
 11  
 12        PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement
 13           ( "SELECT my_long_raw_column FROM my_table WHERE id = ?" );
 14        ps.setInt( 1, pk);
 15        ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();
 16  
 17        int len = 0;
 18        if (rs.next()) {
 19           InputStream is = rs.getBinaryStream(1);
 20           int nb = is.read(new byte[1024]);
 21           while (nb>0) {
 22              len += nb;
 23              nb = is.read(new byte[1024]);
 24           }
 25        } else
 26           len = -1;
 27  
 28        rs.close();
 29        ps.close();
 30
 31        return len;
 32     }
 33  }
 34  /

Java created

Let's call it:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2  FUNCTION get_lr_length(p_id NUMBER) RETURN NUMBER
  3  AS LANGUAGE JAVA
  4  NAME 'Raw.getLength(int) return int';
  5  /

Function created

SQL> select get_lr_length(id) from my_table;

GET_LR_LENGTH(ID)
-----------------
                9

I've tested the function with larger than 32k fields and it seems to work.

Answer 2

As long as the data in the column does not exceed 16,383 bytes, you can solve this with a PL/SQL function, e.g.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_lr_length (id IN NUMBER)
  RETURN NUMBER IS
  raw_data LONG RAW;
  hex_data VARCHAR2(32767);
  len      NUMBER;
BEGIN
  SELECT my_long_raw_column INTO raw_data
  FROM my_table
  WHERE my_table.id = get_lr_length.id;
  hex_data := RAWTOHEX(raw_data);
  len := LENGTH(hex_data) / 2;
  RETURN len;
END get_lr_length;

Unfortunately, a LONG RAW can hold up to 2GB...

Answer 3

One dirty trick, which might help if you're playing with a small test database: copy all data in a table with a BLOB instead of a LONG RAW.

create table START(ID int not null, VAL long raw);
... inserts
create table START_BLOB(ID int not null, VAL blob);
insert into START_BLOB(ID,VAL) select ID,to_lob(VAL) from STAR;
select ID,length(VAL) from START_BLOB;