Introduction to Any Type and Data Interfaces

This chapter describes the OCI Any Type and Data functions in detail.

The Function Syntax

The entries for each function contain the following information:

Purpose

A brief statement of the purpose of the function.

Syntax

The function declaration.

Parameters

A description of each of the function's parameters. This includes the parameter's mode. The mode of a parameter has three possible values, as described next:

Table 20-1 Mode of a Parameter  

Mode	Description
IN	A parameter that passes data to the OCI
OUT	A parameter that receives data from the OCI on this call
IN/OUT	A parameter that passes data on the call and receives data on the return from this or a subsequent call.

Comments

Detailed information about the function if available. This may include restrictions on the use of the function, or other information that might be useful when using the function in an application. An optional section.

All the functions in this chapter are related to each other.

Function Return Values

The OCI Any Type and Data functions typically return one of the following values:

Table 20-2 Function Return Values

Return Value	Meaning
OCI_SUCCESS	The operation succeeded
OCI_ERROR	The operation failed. The specific error can be retrieved by calling OCIErrorGet() on the error handle passed to the function.
OCI_INVALID_HANDLE	The OCI handle passed to the function is invalid.