232 UTL_RAW

Using UTL_RAW

• Overview

• Operational Notes

---

Overview

This package is necessary because normal SQL functions do not operate on RAWs, and PL/SQL does not allow overloading between a RAW and a CHAR datatype. UTL_RAW also includes subprograms that convert various COBOL number formats to, and from, RAWs.

UTL_RAW is not specific to the database environment, and it may actually be used in other environments. For this reason, the prefix UTL has been given to the package, instead of DBMS.

---

Operational Notes

UTL_RAW allows a RAW "record" to be composed of many elements. By using the RAW datatype, character set conversion will not be performed, keeping the RAW in its original format when being transferred through remote procedure calls.

With the RAW functions, you can manipulate binary data that was previously limited to the hextoraw and rawtohex functions.

Summary of UTL_RAW Subprograms

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BIT_AND Function

This function performs bitwise logical "and" of the values in RAW r1 with RAW r2 and returns the "anded" result RAW.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.BIT_AND (
   r1 IN RAW,
   r2 IN RAW) 
RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(bit_and, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

If r1 and r2 differ in length, the and operation is terminated after the last byte of the shorter of the two RAWs, and the unprocessed portion of the longer RAW is appended to the partial result. The result length equals the longer of the two input RAWs.

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BIT_COMPLEMENT Function

This function performs bitwise logical "complement" of the values in RAW r and returns the complement'ed result RAW. The result length equals the input RAW r length.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.BIT_COMPLEMENT (
   r IN RAW) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(bit_complement, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

BIT_OR Function

This function performs bitwise logical "or" of the values in RAW r1 with RAW r2 and returns the or'd result RAW.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.BIT_OR (
   r1 IN RAW,
   r2 IN RAW) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(bit_or, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

If r1 and r2 differ in length, then the "or" operation is terminated after the last byte of the shorter of the two RAWs, and the unprocessed portion of the longer RAW is appended to the partial result. The result length equals the longer of the two input RAWs.

---

BIT_XOR Function

This function performs bitwise logical "exclusive or" of the values in RAW r1 with RAW r2 and returns the xor'd result RAW.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.BIT_XOR (
   r1 IN RAW,
   r2 IN RAW) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(bit_xor, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

If r1 and r2 differ in length, then the "xor" operation is terminated after the last byte of the shorter of the two RAWs, and the unprocessed portion of the longer RAW is appended to the partial result. The result length equals the longer of the two input RAWs.

---

CAST_FROM_BINARY_DOUBLE Function

This function returns the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_DOUBLE value.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_FROM_BINARY_DOUBLE(
   n          IN BINARY_DOUBLE,
   endianess IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT 1) 
RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_from_binary_double, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The binary representation of the BINARY_DOUBLE value, or NULL if the input is NULL.

Usage Notes

• An 8-byte binary_double value maps to the IEEE 754 double-precision format as follows:

  byte 0: bit 63 ~ bit 56
  byte 1: bit 55 ~ bit 48
  byte 2: bit 47 ~ bit 40
  byte 3: bit 39 ~ bit 32
  byte 4: bit 31 ~ bit 24
  byte 5: bit 23 ~ bit 16
  byte 6: bit 15 ~ bit  8
  byte 7: bit  7 ~ bit  0
  

• The parameter endianess describes how the bytes of BINARY_DOUBLE are mapped to the bytes of RAW. In the following matrix, rb0 ~ rb7 refer to the bytes in raw and db0 ~ db7 refer to the bytes in BINARY_DOUBLE.

  	rb0	rb1	rb2	rb3	rb4	rb5	rb6	rb7
  big_endian	db0	db1	db2	db3	db4	db5	db6	db7
  little_endian	db7	db6	db5	db4	db3	db2	db1	db0

  
  

• In case of machine-endian, the 8 bytes of the BINARY_DOUBLE argument are copied straight across into the RAW return value. The effect is the same if the user has passed big_endian on a big-endian machine, or little_endian on a little-endian machine.

---

CAST_FROM_BINARY_FLOAT Function

This function returns the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_FLOAT value.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_FROM_BINARY_FLOAT(
   n          IN BINARY_FLOAT,
   endianess IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT 1) 
RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_from_binary_float, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The binary representation (RAW) of the BINARY_FLOAT value, or NULL if the input is NULL.

Usage Notes

• A 4-byte binary_float value maps to the IEEE 754 single-precision format as follows:

  byte 0: bit 31 ~ bit 24
  byte 1: bit 23 ~ bit 16
  byte 2: bit 15 ~ bit  8
  byte 3: bit 7 ~  bit  0
  

• The parameter endianess describes how the bytes of BINARY_FLOAT are mapped to the bytes of RAW. In the following matrix, rb0 ~ rb3 refer to the bytes in RAW and fb0 ~ fb3 refer to the bytes in BINARY_FLOAT.

  	rb0	rb1	rb2	rb3
  big_endian	fbo	fb1	fb2	fb3
  little_endian	fb3	fb2	fb1	fb0

  
  

• In case of machine-endian, the 4 bytes of the BINARY_FLOAT argument are copied straight across into the RAW return value. The effect is the same if the user has passed big_endian on a big-endian machine, or little_endian on a little-endian machine.

---

CAST_FROM_BINARY_INTEGER Function

This function returns the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_INTEGER value.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_FROM_BINARY_INTEGER (
   n          IN BINARY_INTEGER
   endianess  IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT BIG_ENDIAN) 
RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_from_binary_integer, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The binary representation of the BINARY_INTEGER value.

---

CAST_FROM_NUMBER Function

This function returns the RAW binary representation of a NUMBER value.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_FROM_NUMBER (
   n  IN NUMBER)
 RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_from_number, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The binary representation of the NUMBER value.

---

CAST_TO_BINARY_DOUBLE Function

This function casts the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_DOUBLE into a BINARY_DOUBLE.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_BINARY_DOUBLE (
   r          IN RAW
   endianess  IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT 1) 
RETURN BINARY_DOUBLE;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_binary_double, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The BINARY_DOUBLE value.

Usage Notes

• If the RAW argument is more than 8 bytes, only the first 8 bytes are used and the rest of the bytes are ignored. If the result is -0, +0 is returned. If the result is NaN, the value BINARY_DOUBLE_NAN is returned.

• If the RAW argument is less than 8 bytes, a VALUE_ERROR exception is raised.

• An 8-byte binary_double value maps to the IEEE 754 double-precision format as follows:

  byte 0: bit 63 ~ bit 56
  byte 1: bit 55 ~ bit 48
  byte 2: bit 47 ~ bit 40
  byte 3: bit 39 ~ bit 32
  byte 4: bit 31 ~ bit 24
  byte 5: bit 23 ~ bit 16
  byte 6: bit 15 ~ bit  8
  byte 7: bit  7 ~ bit  0
  

• The parameter endianess describes how the bytes of BINARY_DOUBLE are mapped to the bytes of RAW. In the following matrix, rb0 ~ rb7 refer to the bytes in raw and db0 ~ db7 refer to the bytes in BINARY_DOUBLE.

  	rb0	rb1	rb2	rb3	rb4	rb5	rb6	rb7
  big_endian	db0	db1	db2	db3	db4	db5	db6	db7
  little_endian	db7	db6	db5	db4	db3	db2	db1	db0

  
  

• In case of machine-endian, the 8 bytes of the RAW argument are copied straight across into the BINARY_DOUBLE return value. The effect is the same if the user has passed big_endian on a big-endian machine, or little_endian on a little-endian machine.

---

CAST_TO_BINARY_FLOAT Function

This function casts the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_FLOAT into a BINARY_FLOAT.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_BINARY_FLOAT (
   r          IN RAW
   endianess  IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT 1) 
RETURN BINARY_FLOAT;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_binary_float, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The BINARY_FLOAT value.

Usage Notes

• If the RAW argument is more than 4 bytes, only the first 4 bytes are used and the rest of the bytes are ignored. If the result is -0, +0 is returned. If the result is NaN, the value BINARY_FLOAT_NAN is returned.

• If the RAW argument is less than 4 bytes, a VALUE_ERROR exception is raised.

• A 4-byte binary_float value maps to the IEEE 754 single-precision format as follows:

  byte 0: bit 31 ~ bit 24
  byte 1: bit 23 ~ bit 16
  byte 2: bit 15 ~ bit  8
  byte 3: bit 7 ~  bit  0
  

• The parameter endianess describes how the bytes of BINARY_FLOAT are mapped to the bytes of RAW. In the following matrix, rb0 ~ rb3 refer to the bytes in RAW and fb0 ~ fb3 refer to the bytes in BINARY_FLOAT.

  	rb0	rb1	rb2	rb3
  big_endian	fbo	fb1	fb2	fb3
  little_endian	fb3	fb2	fb1	fb0

  
  

• In case of machine-endian, the 4 bytes of the RAW argument are copied straight across into the BINARY_FLOAT return value. The effect is the same if the user has passed big_endian on a big-endian machine, or little_endian on a little-endian machine.

---

CAST_TO_BINARY_INTEGER Function

This function casts the RAW binary representation of a BINARY_INTEGER into a BINARY_INTEGER.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_BINARY_INTEGER (
   r          IN RAW
   endianess  IN PLS_INTEGER DEFAULT BIG_ENDIAN) 
RETURN BINARY_INTEGER;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_binary_integer, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The BINARY_INTEGER value

---

CAST_TO_NUMBER Function

This function casts the RAW binary representation of a NUMBER into a NUMBER.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_NUMBER (
   r  IN RAW) 
 RETURN NUMBER;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_number, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);

Parameters

Return Values

The NUMBER value.

---

CAST_TO_NVARCHAR2 Function

This function converts a RAW value represented using some number of data bytes into an NVARCHAR2 value with that number of data bytes.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_NVARCHAR2 (
   r IN RAW) 
RETURN NVARCHAR2;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_NVARCHAR2, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

CAST_TO_RAW Function

This function converts a VARCHAR2 value represented using some number of data bytes into a RAW value with that number of data bytes. The data itself is not modified in any way, but its data type is recast to a RAW data type.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_RAW (
   c  IN VARCHAR2) 
RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_raw, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

CAST_TO_VARCHAR2 Function

This function converts a RAW value represented using some number of data bytes into a VARCHAR2 value with that number of data bytes.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2 (
   r IN RAW) 
RETURN VARCHAR2;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(cast_to_VARCHAR2, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

COMPARE Function

This function compares two RAW values. If they differ in length, then the shorter is extended on the right according to the optional pad parameter.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.COMPARE (
   r1  IN RAW,
   r2  IN RAW,
   pad IN RAW DEFAULT NULL) 
  RETURN NUMBER;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(compare, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

CONCAT Function

This function concatenates up to 12 RAWs into a single RAW. If the concatenated size exceeds 32K, then an error is returned

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CONCAT (  
   r1  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r2  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r3  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r4  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r5  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r6  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r7  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r8  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r9  IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r10 IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r11 IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   r12 IN RAW DEFAULT NULL) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(concat, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

r1....r12 are the RAW items to concatenate.

Return Values

Exceptions

There is an error if the sum of the lengths of the inputs exceeds the maximum allowable length for a RAW, which is 32767 bytes.

---

CONVERT Function

This function converts RAW r from character set from_charset to character set to_charset and returns the resulting RAW.

Both from_charset and to_charset must be supported character sets defined to the Oracle server.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.CONVERT (
   r            IN RAW,
   to_charset   IN VARCHAR2,
   from_charset IN VARCHAR2) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(convert, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS);  

Parameters

Return Values

Exceptions

---

COPIES Function

This function returns n copies of r concatenated together.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.COPIES (
   r IN RAW,
   n IN NUMBER) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(copies, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

This returns the RAW copied n times.

Exceptions

---

LENGTH Function

This function returns the length in bytes of a RAW r.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.LENGTH (
   r  IN RAW) 
RETURN NUMBER;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(length, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

---

OVERLAY Function

This function overlays the specified portion of target RAW with overlay_str RAW, starting from byte position pos of target and proceeding for len bytes.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.OVERLAY (
   overlay_str IN RAW,
   target      IN RAW,
   pos         IN BINARY_INTEGER DEFAULT 1,
   len         IN BINARY_INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
   pad         IN RAW            DEFAULT NULL) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(overlay, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Defaults and Optional Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

If overlay_str has less than len bytes, then it is extended to len bytes using the pad byte. If overlay_str exceeds len bytes, then the extra bytes in overlay_str are ignored. If len bytes beginning at position pos of target exceeds the length of target, then target is extended to contain the entire length of overlay_str.

If len is specified, it must be greater than or equal to 0. If pos is specified, it must be greater than or equal to 1. If pos exceeds the length of target, then target is padded with pad bytes to position pos, and target is further extended with overlay_str bytes.

Exceptions

---

REVERSE Function

This function reverses a byte sequence in RAW r from end to end. For example, x'0102F3' would be reversed to x'F30201', and 'xyz' would be reversed to 'zyx'.The result length is the same as the input RAW length.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.REVERSE (
   r IN RAW) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(reverse, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

Exceptions

---

SUBSTR Function

This function returns len bytes, starting at pos from RAW r.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.SUBSTR (
   r   IN RAW,
   pos IN BINARY_INTEGER,
   len IN BINARY_INTEGER DEFAULT NULL) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(substr, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Defaults and Optional Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

If pos is positive, then SUBSTR counts from the beginning of r to find the first byte. If pos is negative, then SUBSTR counts backward from the end of the r. The value pos cannot be 0.

If len is omitted, then SUBSTR returns all bytes to the end of r. The value len cannot be less than 1.

Exceptions

---

TRANSLATE Function

This function translates the bytes in the input RAW r according to the bytes in the translation RAWs from_set and to_set. If a byte in r has a matching byte in from_set, then it is replaced by the byte in the corresponding position in to_set, or deleted.

Bytes in r, but undefined in from_set, are copied to the result. Only the first (leftmost) occurrence of a byte in from_set is used. Subsequent duplicates are not scanned and are ignored.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.TRANSLATE (
   r        IN RAW,
   from_set IN RAW,
   to_set   IN RAW) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(translate, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

• If to_set is shorter than from_set, the extra from_set bytes have no corresponding translation bytes. Bytes from the input RAW that match any such from_set bytes are not translated or included in the result. They are effectively translated to NULL.

• If to_set is longer than from_set, the extra to_set bytes are ignored.

• If a byte value is repeated in from_set, the repeated occurrence is ignored.

Exceptions

---

TRANSLITERATE Function

This function converts the bytes in the input RAW r according to the bytes in the transliteration RAWs from_set and to_set. Successive bytes in r are looked up in the from_set, and, if not found, copied unaltered to the result RAW. If found, then they are replaced in the result RAW by either corresponding bytes in the to_set, or the pad byte when no correspondence exists.

Bytes in r, but undefined in from_set, are copied to the result. Only the first (leftmost) occurrence of a byte in from_set is used. Subsequent duplicates are not scanned and are ignored. The result RAW is always the same length as r.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.TRANSLITERATE (
   r        IN RAW,
   to_set   IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   from_set IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   pad      IN RAW DEFAULT NULL)
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(transliterate, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Defaults and Optional Parameters

Return Values

Usage Notes

• If to_set is shorter than from_set, the extra from_set bytes have no corresponding conversion bytes. Bytes from the input RAW that match any such from_set bytes are converted in the result to the pad byte instead.

• If to_set is longer than from_set, the extra to_set bytes are ignored.

• If a byte value is repeated in from_set, the repeated occurrence is ignored.

Exceptions

---

XRANGE Function

This function returns a RAW value containing the succession of one-byte encodings beginning and ending with the specified byte-codes. The specified byte-codes must be single-byte RAW values. If the start_byte value is greater than the end_byte value, then the succession of resulting bytes begins with start_byte, wraps through x'FF' back to x'00', then ends at end_byte.

Syntax

UTL_RAW.XRANGE (
   start_byte IN RAW DEFAULT NULL,
   end_byte   IN RAW DEFAULT NULL) 
  RETURN RAW;

Pragmas

pragma restrict_references(xrange, WNDS, RNDS, WNPS, RNPS); 

Parameters

Return Values