PRB: Numeric Value Out of Range Error with MS Oracle ODBC Driver Version 2.5 or Higher

CAUSE

The earlier versions of the driver return hard-coded values for precision and scale when the Oracle database does not return these values. In the Oracle ODBC driver version 2.5, these values are set to zero in such cases according to the ODBC specifications.

In such cases, some applications that depend on these values usually bind the columns in the resultset to the lowest possible datatype (integer) for numeric datatypes. When the values go out of range for these data columns, the Oracle driver throws the error message.

For example, do the following:

1. Create a sequence generator using the following code:

   Create SEQUENCE test_seq
   INCREMENT BY 10
   START WITH 32766
   					

2. From Microsoft Access (do a pass-through query):

   SELECT test_seq.NEXTVAL FROM SYS.DUAL

RESULTS: An "ODBC Call failed" is returned and the error above because the next value 32776 is out of range with respect to the integer datatype.