Re: 9i R2 database vs. 9i R2 Forms Developer PL/SQL compatibility

Connor McDonald <connor_mcdonald_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<3F44B530.20A8_at_yahoo.com>...
> Sybrand Bakker wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:02:58 GMT, "Maximus" <asdfasdasd_at_eqeqweqwe.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >it compiles and works as documented. However, in Forms Developer I get a
> > >compile error "no function 'VARCHAR2' exists in this scope."
> >
> > The type definition doesn't make sense. Why you would index a table by
> > a varchar2?
> >
> > Sybrand Bakker, Senior Oracle DBA
> >
> > To reply remove -verwijderdit from my e-mail address
>
> For functionality purposes, but also for sparse data it can actually be
> faster to do so than a numeric index.

Connor,

Can you elaborate? Are you aware of any benchmark? Someone once claimed on an Oracle mailing list that comparing varchars (as in where empno =
'1234') is faster than comparing numbers (as in where empno = 1234) if the
datatype is defined as varchar and number, respectively. His reasoning is that numbers are not stored as simple numbers and conversion has to be done. Could that be the same reason?

Yong Huang Received on Thu Aug 21 2003 - 22:57:06 CDT