ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got CLOB

Question

Considering that TEST_SCRIPT is a CLOB why when I run this simple query from SQL*PLUS on Oracle, I get the error:

ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got CLOB

I have been reading a lot of questions about the same error but none of those is running a direct query from SQLPLUS

    UPDATE IMS_TEST 
       SET TEST_Category  = 'just testing'  
     WHERE TEST_SCRIPT    = 'something'
       AND ID             = '10000239' 

Full example:

SQL> create table ims_test(
  2  test_category varchar2(30),
  3  test_script clob,
  4  id varchar2(30)
  5  );

Table created.

SQL> insert into ims_test values ('test1','something','10000239');

1 row created.

SQL> UPDATE IMS_TEST
  2  SET TEST_Category  = 'just testing'
  3  WHERE TEST_SCRIPT    = 'something'
  4  AND ID             = '10000239';
WHERE TEST_SCRIPT    = 'something'
      *
ERROR at line 3:
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got CLOB

Answer 1

You can't put a CLOB in the WHERE clause. From the documentation:

Large objects (LOBs) are not supported in comparison conditions. However, you can use PL/SQL programs for comparisons on CLOB data.

If your values are always less than 4k, you can use:

UPDATE IMS_TEST 
   SET TEST_Category           = 'just testing'  
 WHERE to_char(TEST_SCRIPT)    = 'something'
   AND ID                      = '10000239';

It is strange to search by a CLOB anyways.. could you not just search by the ID column?

Answer 2

The same error occurs also when doing SELECT DISTINCT ..., <CLOB_column>, ....

If this CLOB column contains values shorter than limit for VARCHAR2 in all the applicable rows you may use to_char(<CLOB_column>) or concatenate results of multiple calls to DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(<CLOB_column>, ...).

Answer 3

Take a substr of the CLOB and then convert it to a char:

UPDATE IMS_TEST 
  SET TEST_Category           = 'just testing' 
WHERE to_char(substr(TEST_SCRIPT, 1, 9))    = 'something'
  AND ID                      = '10000239';

Answer 4

I just ran over this one and I found by accident that CLOBs can be used in a like query:

   UPDATE IMS_TEST 
   SET TEST_Category  = 'just testing'  
 WHERE TEST_SCRIPT    LIKE '%something%'
   AND ID             = '10000239' 

This worked also for CLOBs greater than 4K

The Performance won't be great but that was no problem in my case.

Answer 5

The problem may lie in selected null values ​​in combination with a CLOB-type column.

select valueVarchar c1 ,
       valueClob c2 ,
       valueVarchar c3 ,
       valueVvarchar c4
of Table_1
union
select valueVarchar c1 ,
       valueClob c2 ,
       valueVarchar c3 ,
       null c4
of table_2

I reworked the cursor. The first cursor is composed of four non-null columns. The second cursor selects three non-null columns. The null values ​​were injected into the cursorForLoop .

Answer 6

I found that selecting a clob column in CTE caused this explosion. ie

with cte as (
    select
        mytable1.myIntCol,
        mytable2.myClobCol
    from mytable1
    join mytable2 on ...
)
select myIntCol, myClobCol
from cte
where ...

presumably because oracle can't handle a clob in a temporary table.

Because my values were longer than 4K, I couldn't use to_char().
My work around was to select it from the final select, ie

with cte as (
    select
        mytable1.myIntCol
    from mytable1
)
select myIntCol, myClobCol
from cte
join mytable2 on ...
where ...

Too bad if this causes a performance problem.

Answer 7

In my case I was using EntityFramework and the column I was trying to use was called value - i.e. a reserved keyword by oracle.