Question

Iam trying to create a string for using in execute_immediate statement for inserting into a table. One of the columns used is a BLOB type. Iam using the ‘||’ operator to append columns and build the sql. BLOB type doest seem to work with ‘||’. See sample code (not original) and error

declare
    FIRST_NAME varchar2(10);
    PICTURE blob; -- blob type
    TEMP_STR varchar2(2000);
begin
    FIRST_NAME := 'Arun';
    -- a blob is created
    DBMS_LOB.CREATETEMPORARY(PICTURE, true); 


-- next line works
insert into BLOB_TEST (PERSON_NAME,PHOTO) values (FIRST_NAME,PICTURE);

-- creating the string
TEMP_STR := 'insert into BLOB_TEST values (''' || first_name||''''||','||PICTURE||')';
-- just to view the string
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TEMP_STR); 

/* code to be done */
-- execute immediate(temp_str); 
end;

ERROR
Error report:

ORA-06550: line 9, column 17:

PLS-00306: wrong number or types of arguments in call to '||'

ORA-06550: line 9, column 5:

PL/SQL: Statement ignored

06550. 00000 -  "line %s, column %s:\n%s"

*Cause:    Usually a PL/SQL compilation error.

*Action:
My table BLOB_TEST is 

create table BLOB_TEST

(

PERSON_NAME varchar2(20),

PHOTO  blob

);


Please help. What i want is an option to execute insert statement dynamically to insert BLOB value to a table.
												

Answer 1

Even with dynamic SQL, you should use bind variables. Problem solved.

SQL> CREATE TABLE blob_test (PERSON_NAME VARCHAR2(10), PHOTO BLOB);

Table created.

SQL> DECLARE
  2     FIRST_NAME VARCHAR2(10);
  3     PICTURE    BLOB; -- blob type
  4     TEMP_STR   VARCHAR2(2000);
  5  BEGIN
  6     FIRST_NAME := 'Arun';
  7     DBMS_LOB.CREATETEMPORARY(PICTURE, TRUE);
  8     INSERT INTO BLOB_TEST (PERSON_NAME, PHOTO) VALUES (FIRST_NAME, PICTURE);
  9     TEMP_STR := 'insert into BLOB_TEST values (:person,:myblob)';
 10     execute immediate(temp_str) using first_name, picture;
 11  END;
 12  /

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

It is exceedingly rare to NOT use bind variables. Using bind variables guarantees that:

1. The optimizer plan can be reused if the query is executed again with another set of parameters
2. Your code can’t be affected by SQL injection