ODP.NET Types Overview

ODP.NET Types Overview

ODP.NET types represent Oracle native data types and PL/SQL data types as a structure or as a class. ODP.NET type structures follow value semantics, while ODP.NET type classes follow reference semantics. ODP.NET types provide safer and more efficient ways of obtaining Oracle native data and PL/SQL data types in a .NET application than .NET types. For example, an OracleDecimal structure holds up to 38 digits of precision, while a .NET Decimal only holds up to 28.

Table 3-9 lists data types supported by ODP.NET and their corresponding ODP.NET types: data types in the first column refer to both Oracle native data types and PL/SQL data types of that name. Those data types that exist only in PL/SQL are indicated by (PL/SQL only) after the data type name. The entries for the PL/SQL data types also represent the subtypes of the data types, if any. The third column lists the .NET Framework data type that corresponds to the Value property of each ODP.NET type.

Table 3-9 Value Property Type of ODP.NET Type

Oracle Native Data Type or PL/SQL Data Type	ODP.NET Type	.NET Framework Data Types
BFILE	OracleBFile class	System.Byte[]
BINARY_DOUBLE	OracleDecimal structure	System.Decimal
BINARY_FLOAT	OracleDecimal structure	System.Decimal
BINARY_INTEGER (PL/SQL only)	OracleDecimal structure	System.Decimal
BLOB	OracleBlob class	System.Byte[]
CHAR	OracleString structure	System.String
CLOB	OracleClob class	System.String
DATE	OracleDate structure	System.DateTime
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND	OracleIntervalDS structure	System.TimeSpan
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH	OracleIntervalYM structure	System.Int64
LONG	OracleString structure	System.String
LONG RAW	OracleBinary structure	System.Byte[]
NCHAR	OracleString structure	System.String
NCLOB	OracleClob class	System.String
NUMBER	OracleDecimal structure	System.Decimal
NVARCHAR2	OracleString structure	System.String
PLS_INTEGER (PL/SQL only)	OracleDecimal Structure	System.Decimal
RAW	OracleBinary structure	System.Byte[]
REF	OracleRef class	System.String
REF CURSOR (PL/SQL only)	OracleRefCursor class	Not Applicable
ROWID	OracleString structure	System.String
TIMESTAMP	OracleTimeStamp structure	System.DateTime
TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE	OracleTimeStampLTZ structure	System.DateTime
TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE	OracleTimeStampTZ structure	System.DateTime
UROWID	OracleString structure	System.String
VARCHAR2	OracleString structure	System.String
XMLType	OracleXmlType class	System.String