hi,
one of our customers has created an external view (view on external
base tables in a different schema / database type). we do a DESC on a
table or view to find out what the datatype is for a field using the
oracle account for our application.
- if it is a VARCHAR2 we treat it as a string
- if it is a NUMBER(x) we treat it as an integer
- if it is a NUMBER(x,y) we treat it as a float
we have noticed for external views the DESC can say that the field is
an integer but when we do a SELECT it produces float values for the
field. e.g. DESC on EXT_TBL_1 says FIELD01 is VARCHAR(5) but a SELECT
FIELD01 FROM EXT_TBL_1 gives values of 2,4,3.5,2.1.
my questions are:
- is this a bug or expected behaviour?
- is there anyway to 'force' the view to give a particular DESC for
fields at creation time?
thanks,
g
