Question

I’m attempting to run this Oracle query…

  SELECT COUNT(*) as total, 
         q1 
    FROM exit_responses 
   WHERE sdate BETWEEN '03-Aug-10 12:00:00 AM' AND '03-Nov-10 12:00:00 AM' 
GROUP BY q1;

…but I keep getting this error…

Error starting at line 3 in command:
SELECT COUNT(*) as total, q1 FROM exit_responses WHERE sdate BETWEEN '03-Aug-10 12:00:00 AM' AND '03-Nov-10 12:00:00 AM' GROUP BY q1 
Error at Command Line:3 Column:130
Error report:
SQL Error: ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got CLOB
00932. 00000 -  "inconsistent datatypes: expected %s got %s"
*Cause:    
*Action:

Anyone have any ideas? Says it’s an inconsistent data type… but I guess I’m not understanding completely.

Thanks

Btw, here’s the DESC of my exit_responses table:

DESC exit_responses
Name                           Null     Type                                                                                                                                                                                          
------------------------------ -------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
SDATE                                   DATE                                                                                                                                                                                          
F_NAME                                  VARCHAR2(255 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                            
L_NAME                                  VARCHAR2(255 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                            
TITLE                                   VARCHAR2(255 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                            
DEPARTMENT                              VARCHAR2(255 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                            
EMP_TYPE                                VARCHAR2(11 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                             
LENGTH_OF_SERVICE                       VARCHAR2(255 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                            
Q1                                      CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q2                                      CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q2_OTHER                                CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_PAY                                  NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_HOLIDAYS                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_VACATION                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_SICK                                 NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_INSURANCE                            NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_RETIREMENT                           NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q3_FSA                                  NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q4_AVAILABILITY                         NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q4_QUALITY                              NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q4_SATISFACTION                         NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q4_COMMENTS                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q5_ORIENTATION                          NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q5_POLICIES                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q5_PROMOTIONAL                          NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_JOBDUTIES                            NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_RELATIONSHIPS                        NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_COOPERATION                          NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_EQUIPMENT                            NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_CONDITIONS                           NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q6_SAFETY                               NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q7                                      NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_KNOWLEDGE                            NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_DELEGATION                           NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_OBSERVANCE                           NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_FEEDBACK                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_CONTRIBUTIONS                        NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_LISTENED                             NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q8_COMPLAINTS                           NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q9                                      VARCHAR2(3 CHAR)                                                                                                                                                                              
Q9_DESCRIBE                             CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q10                                     CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q11                                     NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q11_COMMENTS                            CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q12                                     NUMBER                                                                                                                                                                                        
Q12_DESCRIBE                            CLOB()                                                                                                                                                                                        
ADDITIONAL_COMMENTS                     CLOB() 

Answer 1

What is the data type of the SDATE column? Assuming it is a DATE, you almost certainly want to use explicit TO_DATE calls to convert your strings to dates, i.e.

WHERE sdate BETWEEN to_date('03-Aug-2010', 'DD-MON-YYYY') 
                AND to_date( '03-Nov-2010', 'DD-MON-YYYY' )

Since midnight is the default time when none is specified, you don’t necessarily need the 12:00:00 AM bit. If you want to include that

WHERE sdate BETWEEN to_date('03-Aug-2010 12:00:00 AM', 'DD-MON-YYYY HH:MI:SS AM') 
                AND to_date( '03-Nov-2010 12:00:00 AM', 'DD-MON-YYYY HH:MI:SS AM' )

If SDATE is a DATE and you want the BETWEEN to take two different Unix epochs (milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970) rather than strings, you would want something like

WHERE sdate BETWEEN date '1970-01-01' + :1/86400000  
                AND date '1970-01-01' + :2/86400000 

where :1 and :2 are the two bind variables. If your epochs are seconds since Jan 1, 1970

WHERE sdate BETWEEN date '1970-01-01' + :1/86400  
                AND date '1970-01-01' + :2/86400