passing associative array of type Timestamp to oracle stored procedure

Question

We're running into a strange error using Oracle Odp.Net (connecting to Oracle 9). The problem is illustrated by the code snippet below.

This is the error we're experiencing:

ORA-00600: internal error code, arguments: [15419], [severe error during PL/SQL execution], [], [], [], [], [], []

ORA-06544: PL/SQL: internal error, arguments: [78502], [], [], [], [], [], [], []

ORA-06553: PLS-801: internal error [78502]

Googling around makes us suspect (though we're not entirely sure) that passing an array of Timestamps is not supported by Odp.Net.

So the question is 2-fold:

• is it possible to pass an array of timestamp to a pl/sql procedure using odp.net?
• if not, is there a good workaround available?

C# console program illustrating the problem:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Data;
using Oracle.DataAccess.Client;

class Program 
{
private const string _db = "<db>";
private const string _username = "<user>";
private const string _password = "<password>";
private const string _storedProcedureName = "<sproc>";

static void Main(string[] args)
{
  var connectionString = string.Format(
                              "data source={0};user id={1};password={2}", 
                              _db, _username, _password);

  var connection = new OracleConnection(connectionString);

  try
  {

    connection.Open();


    var timeStamps = new[] { DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now };

    var parameter = new OracleParameter("inTimeStamps", OracleDbType.TimeStamp)
      {
        Direction = ParameterDirection.Input,
        CollectionType = OracleCollectionType.PLSQLAssociativeArray,
        Size = timeStamps.Length,
        Value = timeStamps
      };

    var command = connection.CreateCommand();
    command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
    command.CommandText = _storedProcedureName;
    command.Parameters.Add(parameter);

    command.ExecuteReader();

  }
  finally
  {
    connection.Close();
  }
}
}

The code is calling the following PL/SQL stored procedure

  TYPE ArrayOfTimestamps is table of timestamp index by binary_integer;

  PROCEDURE TestOdpTimeStamp (inTimeStamps in ArrayOfTimestamps)
  IS
  test number;
  BEGIN
     select 1 into test from dual;
  END;

Answer 1

You can pass a nested table of timestamps instead of an associative array to a PL/SQL procedure.

You need odp.net 11.1.0.6.20 or higher, you can connect with odp.net 11.1.0.6.20 to an Oracle 9 server.

Execute as Oracle user testts:

create or replace type MyTimeStamp as object 
(
  my timestamp
)
/

create or replace type mytimestamp_table as table of MyTimeStamp 
/

create table testinserttimestamp 
( my timestamp);

create or replace procedure test_timestamp_table (p_in in mytimestamp_table)
is
begin
  for i in p_in.first..p_in.last loop
    insert into testinserttimestamp values (p_in(i).my);
 end loop;
 commit;
end;

In C#, create a form with a button called button1, and do...

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Oracle.DataAccess.Client;
using Oracle.DataAccess.Types;

namespace TestTimeStamp
{
  public partial class Form1 : Form
  {
    public Form1()
    {
      InitializeComponent();
    }


    public class MyUdtTimeStamp : INullable, IOracleCustomType
    {

      [OracleObjectMappingAttribute("MY")]
      public OracleTimeStamp My { get; set; }

      public bool IsNull
      {
        get { return false;}
      }

      public void FromCustomObject(OracleConnection con, IntPtr pUdt)
      {
        OracleUdt.SetValue(con, pUdt, "MY", My);
      }

      public void ToCustomObject(OracleConnection con, IntPtr pUdt)
      {
        My = (OracleTimeStamp)OracleUdt.GetValue(con, pUdt, "MY");
      }
    }

    [OracleCustomTypeMappingAttribute("TESTTS.MYTIMESTAMP")]
    public class StudentFactory : IOracleCustomTypeFactory
    {
      public IOracleCustomType CreateObject()
      {
        return new MyUdtTimeStamp();
      }
    }

    [OracleCustomTypeMappingAttribute("TESTTS.MYTIMESTAMP_TABLE")]
    public class PersonArrayFactory : IOracleArrayTypeFactory
    {
      public Array CreateArray(int numElems)
      {
        return new MyUdtTimeStamp[numElems];
      }

      public Array CreateStatusArray(int numElems)
      {
        return null;
      }
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      OracleConnectionStringBuilder b = new OracleConnectionStringBuilder();
      b.UserID = "testts";
      b.Password = "ts";
      b.DataSource = "ora11";
      using (OracleConnection conn = new OracleConnection(b.ToString())) {
        conn.Open();
        using (OracleCommand comm = conn.CreateCommand())
        {
          comm.CommandText = "begin test_timestamp_table(:1); end;";
          OracleParameter p = new OracleParameter();
          p.OracleDbType = OracleDbType.Array;
          p.Direction = ParameterDirection.Input;

          p.UdtTypeName = "TESTTS.MYTIMESTAMP_TABLE";
          MyUdtTimeStamp[] times = new MyUdtTimeStamp[2];
          MyUdtTimeStamp m1 = new MyUdtTimeStamp();
          m1.My = new OracleTimeStamp(DateTime.Now);
          MyUdtTimeStamp m2 = new MyUdtTimeStamp();
          m2.My = new OracleTimeStamp(DateTime.Now);
          times[0] = m1;
          times[1] = m2;
          p.Value = times;

          comm.Parameters.Add(p);

          comm.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }

        conn.Close();
      }
    }
  }
}

Do in Oracle...

SQL> select * from testinserttimestamp;

MY
-------------------------------------------------
12-10-09 21:13:54,328125
12-10-09 21:13:55,171875

Answer 2

There is a Metalink note (788282.1) that states that this is an error possible from passing an unsupported datatype. TIMESTAMP is not supported. You can get around it by constructing an anonymous PL/SQL block in your C# code and calling the problematic stored procedure from within that block.

EDIT:

I can't post the code from Metalink for obvious reasons.

The workaround is problematic if your array contains a lot of values, since the anonymous PL/SQL block will have to contain code to explicitly assign each entry in the array a value via a bind variable. It's clunky. This illustrates the idea:

comm.CommandText = "declare "+
                   "theTS mytimestamp_table;"+
                   "begin"+
                   "  theTS(1):= :1;"+
                   "  theTS(2):= :2;"+
                   "  test_timestamp_table(theTS);"+
                   "  end;"; 

You would then have to construct your parameter list to provide values for each of the bind variables.

Answer 3

I recently hit this problem too, but I overcome in a different way by using strings and to_timestamp, I hope this helps anyone who further down the line hits this problem: http://timscyclingblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/oracle-plsqlassociativearray-timestamp-workaround/