Oracle PL/SQL Tutorial/Miscellaneous Functions/Introduction

Miscellaneous functions.

Name Function BFILENAME Similar to C language. Returns a pointer, which is referred to as a locator in Oracle, to the associated physical LOB binary file where the file is stored. DECODE Acts like nested IF...THEN...ELSE statement from a list of values. DUMP Provides a dump of values in a string VARCHAR2 to see the representation in many different formats. EMPTY_BLOB Used to initialize a BLOB variable or column that will contain no data. EMPTY_CLOB Used to initialize a CLOB variable or column that will contain no data. GREATEST Takes a list of values or expressions and returns the largest evaluated value. GREATEST_LB Takes a list of MLSLABELS and returns the greatest lower bound. LEAST Takes a list of values or expressions and returns the smallest evaluated value. LEAST_LB Takes a list of MLSLABELS and returns the least lower bound. NLS_CHARSET_ID Returns the NLS character set ID number associated with the NLS character set name. NLS_CHARSET_NAME Returns the NLS character set name associated with the ID passed to the function. NVL Selects the first non-null value from a list of values or expressions. SQLCODE Returns an error code based upon the current error. SQLERRM Returns the error message associated with the Oracle error code. UID Returns the USER ID assigned to the user in Oracle. USER Returns the name of the current user in a VARCHAR2 string. USERENV Returns information about your current working environment. VSIZE Returns the number of bytes in some value.