I tried the following code different ways, like by taking out the while or the if, but when I put both together (if and while), I always get the error at the end...
undefine numero
set serveroutput on
accept numero prompt 'Type # between 100 and 999: '
declare
i number:=1;
a char(25);
b char(1);
c varchar2(10);
d number;
begin
c := №
d := length(c);
b := substr(c, i, 1);
while i <= d loop
if b = '1' then
a:= a||'one ';
end if;
i := i+1;
end loop;
dbms_output.put_line('The number is '||a);
end;
/
ERROR:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
ORA-06512: at line 13
06502. 00000 - "PL/SQL: numeric or value error%s"
FIXED by changing how I declared the variable "a" to:
a varchar2(2000);
*Notice that here, the significant change is to use VARCHAR2 instead of CHAR (not the bigger length). According to @user272735 's answer, that's the key.
3 Answers
PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
is due to the fact that you declare a string to be of a fixed length (say 20), and at some point in your code you assign it a value whose length exceeds what you declared.
for example:
myString VARCHAR2(20);
myString :='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'; --length 26
will fire such an error
CHAR is a fixed-length data type that uses as much space as possible. So a:= a||'one '; will require more space than is available. Your problem can be reduced to the following example:
declare
v_foo char(50);
begin
v_foo := 'A';
dbms_output.put_line('length of v_foo(A) = ' || length(v_foo));
-- next line will raise:
-- ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error: character string buffer too small
v_foo := v_foo || 'B';
dbms_output.put_line('length of v_foo(AB) = ' || length(v_foo));
end;
/
Never use char. For rationale check the following question (read also the links):
This may also happen if you have a faulty or accidental equation in your csv file. i.e - One of the cells in your csv file starts with an equals sign (=) (An excel equation) which will, in turn throw an error. If you fix, or remove this equation by getting rid of the equals sign, it should solve the ORA-06502 error.
