18
OCI Datatype Mapping and Manipulation Functions

This chapter describes the OCI datatype mapping and manipulation functions, which is Oracle's external C Language interface to Oracle predefined types.

See Also: For code examples, see the demonstration programs included with your Oracle installation. For additional information, refer to Appendix B, "OCI Demonstration Programs".

The following sections are included in this chapter:

• Introduction to Datatype Mapping and Manipulation Functions
• OCI Collection and Iterator Functions
• OCI Date, Datetime, and Interval Functions
• OCI Number Functions
• OCI Raw Functions
• OCI Ref Functions
• OCI String Functions
• OCI Table Functions

Introduction to Datatype Mapping and Manipulation Functions

This chapter describes the OCI datatype mapping and manipulation functions in detail.

See Also: For more information about the functions listed in this chapter, refer to Chapter 11, "Object-Relational Datatypes"

The Function Syntax

The entries for each function contain the following information:

Purpose

A brief statement of the purpose of the function.

Syntax

The function declaration.

Comments

Detailed information about the function if available. This may include restrictions on the use of the function, or other information that might be useful when using the function in an application.

Parameters

A description of each of the function's parameters. This includes the parameter's mode. The mode of a parameter has three possible values, as described below:

Mode	Description
IN	A parameter that passes data to Oracle
OUT	A parameter that receives data from Oracle on this or a subsequent call
IN/OUT	A parameter that passes data on the call and receives data on the return from this or a subsequent call.

Returns

A description of what value is returned by the function if the function returns something other than the standard return codes listed in Table 18-1, "Function Return Values".

Related Functions

A list of related functions.

Datatype Mapping and Manipulation Function Return Values

The OCI datatype mapping and manipulation functions typically return one of the following values:

Table 18-1 Function Return Values

Return Value	Meaning
OCI_SUCCESS	The operation succeeded
OCI_ERROR	The operation failed. The specific error can be retrieved by calling OCIErrorGet() on the error handle passed to the function.
OCI_INVALID_HANDLE	The OCI handle passed to the function is invalid.

Function-specific return information follows the description of each function in this chapter.

See Also: For more information about return codes and error handling, see the section "Error Handling"

Functions Returning Other Values

Some functions return values other than those listed in Table 18-1. When using these function be sure to take into account that they return a value directly from the function call, rather than through an OUT parameter.

• OCICollMax()
• OCIRawPtr()
• OCIRawSize()
• OCIRefHexSize()
• OCIRefIsEqual()
• OCIRefIsNull()
• OCIStringPtr()
• OCIStringSize()

Server Round-trips for Datatype Mapping and Manipulation Functions

For a table showing the number of server round-trips required for individual OCI datatype mapping and manipulation functions, refer to Appendix C, "OCI Function Server Round-trips".

Examples

For more information about these functions, including some code examples, refer to Chapter 11, "Object-Relational Datatypes".

OCI Collection and Iterator Functions

This section describes the Collection and Iterator functions.

Table 18-2 Collection and Iterator Functions  

Function/Page	Purpose
OCICollAppend()	Collection appends element
OCICollAssign()	Assigns collection
OCICollAssignElem()	Collection assigns element
OCICollGetElem()	Gets pointer to an element
OCICollIsLocator()	Indicates whether a collection is locator-based or not
OCICollMax()	Returns maximum number of elements in collection
OCICollSize()	Gets current size of collection (in number of elements)
OCICollTrim()	Trims elements from the collection
OCIIterCreate()	Creates iterator to scan the varray elements
OCIIterDelete()	Deletes iterator
OCIIterGetCurrent()	Gets current collection element
OCIIterInit()	Initializes iterator to scan the given collection
OCIIterNext()	Gets next collection element
OCIIterPrev()	Gets previous collection element,