A New Features

This appendix looks at the improvements and new features offered by the Oracle Precompilers Release 1.8. Designed to meet the practical needs of professional software developers, these features will help you build effective, reliable applications.

A.1 Fetching NULLs without Using Indicator Variables

With releases 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 of the Oracle Precompilers, source files that FETCH data into host variables without associated indicator variables return an ORA-01405 message at runtime if a NULL is returned to the host variable. With release 1.8, when you specify MODE=ORACLE and DBMS=V7, you can disable the ORA-01405 message by also specifying UNSAFE_NULL=YES.

When developing applications for the Oracle database version 7 Server, the preferred practice is to include indicator variables for any host variable that might have a NULL returned to it. When migrating applications from Oracle Version 6 to Oracle database version 7, however, the UNSAFE_NULL option can significantly ease the process.

For more information, see "UNSAFE_NULL" and "Using Indicator Variables".

A.1.1 Using DBMS=V6

Applications precompiled with DBMS=V6 maintain full compatibility with Oracle Version 6. When upgrading to Oracle database version 7, if you precompile with DBMS=V6 specified, your applications will be unaffected by the ORA-01405 messages.

A.1.2 Using DBMS=V7 and MODE=ORACLE

Applications precompiled with MODE=ORACLE and DBMS=V7 return the ORA-01405 error at runtime if a NULL is returned to a host variable when there is no associated indicator variable. When upgrading to Oracle database version 7 with these options specified, you will need to migrate your applications in one of two ways:

Modify your source code to include the necessary indicator variables
Specify UNSAFE_NULL=YES on the command line

If you are upgrading to Oracle database version 7 and use DBMS=V7 when precompiling, or if you intend to use new Oracle database version 7 features that are different from Oracle Version 6, in most instances, the change requires minimal modification to your source files. However, if your application may FETCH null values into host variables without associated indicator variables, specify UNSAFE_NULL=YES to disable the ORA-01405 message and avoid adding the relevant indicator variables to your source files.

A.1.3 Related Error Messages

For information about precompile time messages associated with the UNSAFE_NULL option, see Oracle Database Error Messages.