Term: DUMP

Definition:
The DUMP function returns a VARCHAR2 value that contains the datatype code, the length in bytes, and the internal representation of a value.

Example Syntax:
DUMP( expression, [return_format], [start_position], [length] )

Valid values for the return_format are 8,10,16,17,1008,1010,1016 and 1017. These values are assigned the following meanings:

8 - octal notation
10 - decimal notation
16 - hexadecimal notation
17 - single characters
1008 - octal notation with the character set name
1010 - decimal notation with the character set name
1016 - hexadecimal notation with the character set name
1017 - single characters with the character set name

'start_position' and 'length' determine which portion of the internal representation to display and are an optional parameters.

If these optional parameters are omitted, the DUMP function will display the entire internal representation in decimal notation.

• Oracle Numeric Functions: DUMP

• Date Functions: DUMP - DUMP returns a VARCHAR2 value containing the datatype code, length in bytes...
• TIMESTAMP: DUMP - Returns the number of bytes and datatype of a value (in this case the SYSTIMESTAMP).
• INDEXES: Block Dump - It can be useful to see internal structure of Oracle datablocks that belong ...