8
Reference Information

This chapter contains detailed JDBC reference information, including the following topics:

• Valid SQL-JDBC Datatype Mappings

• Supported SQL and PL/SQL Datatypes

• NLS Character Set Support

• Related Information

Valid SQL-JDBC Datatype Mappings

Table 3-1 and Table 3-2 in Chapter 3 describe the default mappings between Java classes and SQL datatypes that are supported by the Oracle JDBC drivers. Compare the contents of the Standard JDBC Datatypes, Java Native Datatypes and Oracle SQL Datatypes columns in Table 3-1 and Table 3-2 with the contents of Table 8-1 below.

Table 8-1 lists all of the possible Java classes to which a given SQL datatype can be validly mapped. The Oracle JDBC drivers will support these "non-default" mappings. For example, to materialize SQL CHAR data as an oracle.sql.CHAR, use getCHAR(). To materialize it as a java.math.BigDecimal, use getBigDecimal().

Table 8-1 Valid SQL Datatype-Java Class Mappings

This SQL datatype:	Can be materialized as these Java classes:
CHAR, NCHAR,VARCHAR2,	oracle.sql.CHAR
NVARCHAR2, LONG	java.lang.String
	java.sql.Date
	java.sql.Time
	java.sql.Timestamp
	java.lang.Byte
	java.lang.Short
	java.lang.Integer
	java.lang.Long
	java.lang.Float
	java.lang.Double
	java.math.BigDecimal
	byte, short, int, long, float, double
DATE	oracle.sql.DATE
	java.sql.Date
	java.sql.Time
	java.sql.Timestamp
	java.lang.String
NUMBER	oracle.sql.NUMBER
	java.lang.Byte
	java.lang.Short
	java.lang.Integer
	java.lang.Long
	java.lang.Float
	java.lang.Double
	java.math.BigDecimal
	byte, short, int, long, float, double
RAW, LONG RAW	oracle.sql.RAW
	byte[]
ROWID	oracle.sql.CHAR
	oracle.sql.ROWID
	java.lang.String
BFILE	oracle.sql.BFILE
BLOB	oracle.sql.BLOB
	oracle.jdbc2.Blob
CLOB, NCLOB	oracle.sql.CLOB
	oracle.jdbc2.Clob
OBJECT	oracle.sql.STRUCT
	oracle.SqljData
	oracle.jdbc2.Struct
REF	oracle.sql.REF
	oracle.jdbc2.Ref
TABLE (nested), VARRAY	oracle.sql.ARRAY
	oracle.jdbc2.Array
any of the above SQL types	oracle.sql.CustomDatum or oracle.sql.Datum

Notes: The type UROWID is not supported. oracle.sql.Datum is an abstract class. The value passed to a parameter of type oracle.sql.Datum must be of the Java type corresponding to the SQL type. Likewise, the value returned by a method with return type oracle.sql.Datum must be of the Java type corresponding to the SQL type. The mappings to oracle.sql classes are optimal if no conversion from SQL format to Java format is necessary.

Supported SQL and PL/SQL Datatypes

The tables in this section list SQL and PL/SQL datatypes, and whether the Oracle JDBC drivers and SQLJ support them. Table 8-2 describes Oracle JDBC driver and SQLJ support for SQL datatypes.

Table 8-2 Support for SQL Datatypes

SQL Datatype	Supported by JDBC Drivers?	Supported by SQLJ?
BFILE	yes	yes
BLOB	yes	yes
CHAR	yes	yes
CLOB	yes	yes
DATE	yes	yes
NCHAR	no	no
NCHAR VARYING	no	no
NUMBER	yes	yes
NVARCHAR2	no	no
RAW	yes	yes
REF	yes	yes
ROWID	yes	yes
UROWID	no	no
VARCHAR2	yes	yes

Table 8-3 describes Oracle JDBC driver and SQLJ support for the ANSI-supported SQL datatypes.

Table 8-3 Support for ANSI-Supported SQL Datatypes

ANSI-Supported SQL Datatypes	Supported by JDBC Drivers?	Supported by SQLJ?
CHARACTER	yes	yes
DEC	yes	yes
DECIMAL	yes	yes
DOUBLE PRECISION	yes	yes
FLOAT	yes	yes
INT	yes	yes
INTEGER	yes	yes
NATIONAL CHARACTER	no	no
NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING	no	no
NATIONAL CHAR	no	no
NATIONAL CHAR VARYING	no	no
NCHAR	no	no
NCHAR VARYING	no	no
NUMERIC	yes	yes
REAL	yes	yes
SMALLINT	yes	yes
VARCHAR	yes	yes

Table 8-4 describes Oracle JDBC driver and SQLJ support for PL/SQL datatypes. Note that PL/SQL datatypes include these categories:

• scalar types

• scalar character types (includes boolean and date datatypes)

• composite types

• reference types

• LOB types

  Table 8-4 Support for PL/SQL Datatypes

  PL/SQL Datatypes	Supported by JDBC Drivers?	Supported by SQLJ?
  Scalar Types:
  binary integer	yes	yes
  dec	yes	yes
  decimal	yes	yes
  double precision	yes	yes
  float	yes	yes
  int	yes	yes
  integer	yes	yes
  natural	yes	yes
  naturaln	no	no
  number	yes	yes
  numeric	yes	yes
  pls_integer	yes	yes
  positive	yes	yes
  positiven	no	no
  real	yes	yes
  signtype	yes	yes
  smallint	yes	yes
  Scalar Character Types:
  char	yes	yes
  character	yes	yes
  long	yes	yes
  long raw	yes	yes
  nchar	no	no
  nvarchar2	no	no
  raw	yes	yes
  rowid	yes	yes
  string	yes	yes
  urowid	no	no
  varchar	yes	yes
  varchar2	yes	yes
  boolean	yes	yes
  date	yes	yes
  Composite Types:
  record	no	no
  table	no	no
  varray	yes	yes
  Reference Types:
  REF CURSOR	yes	yes
  REF object type	yes	yes
  LOB Types:
  BFILE	yes	yes
  BLOB	yes	yes
  CLOB	yes	yes
  NCLOB	no	no

  Notes: The types natural, naturaln, positive, positiven, and signtype are subtypes of binary integer. The types dec, decimal, double precision, float, int, integer, numeric, real, and smallint, are subtypes of number.

NLS Character Set Support

On the client, the Oracle JDBC OCI and Thin drivers support all Oracle NLS character sets. On the server, the Oracle JDBC Server driver supports only two Oracle NLS character sets: US7ASCII (ASCII 7-bit American) and WE8ISO8859P1 (ISO 8859-1 West European or "ISO-Latin 1").

Related Information

This section lists web sites that contain useful information for JDBC programmers. Many of the sites are referenced in other sections of this manual. In this list you can find references to the Oracle JDBC drivers and SQLJ, Java technology, the Java Developer's Kit APIs (for versions 1.2 and 2.0), and resources to help you write applets.

Oracle JDBC Drivers and SQLJ

Oracle JDBC Driver Home Page (Oracle Corporation)

http://www.oracle.com/st/products/jdbc/

Oracle JDBC Driver Download Page (Oracle Corporation)

http://www.oracle.com/products/free_software/index.html#jdbc8

Oracle SQLJ Home Page (Oracle Corporation)

http://www.oracle.com/st/products/jdbc/sqlj/index.html

Java Technology

Java Technology Home Page (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://www.javasoft.com/

Java Development Kit 1.1 (JDK1.1) (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/

Java Platform JDK1.1 Core API Specification (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://www.javasoft.com/products/jdk/1.1/docs/api/packages.html

Java Development Kit 1.2 (JDK1.2) (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://java.sun.com:80/products/jdk/1.2/index.html

Java Platform JDK1.2 Core API Specification (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://www.javasoft.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/api/index.html

Signed Applets

Introduction to Capabilities Classes (Netscape Communications Corp.):

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/signedobj/capabilities/contents.htm

Object-Signing Resources (Netscape Communications Corp.):

http://developer.netscape.com/software/signedobj/index.html

Signed Applet Example (Sun Microsystems, Inc.):

http://java.sun.com/security/signExample/index.html 

---