Oracle Datatype Restrictions

Replication Server and Replication Agent impose some constraints on the Oracle NUMBER datatype.

See the Replication Server Options Release Bulletin for the latest information on datatype restrictions.

These constraints are:

In the integer representation:
- The corresponding Sybase int datatype has a smaller absolute maximum value.
  
  The Oracle NUMBER absolute maximum value is 38 digits of precision, between 9.9 x 10¹²⁵ and 1 x 10^-130. The Sybase int value is between 2³¹ - 1 and -2³¹ (2,147,483,647 and -2,147,483,648), inclusive.
- Oracle NUMBER values greater than the Sybase int maximum are rejected by Replication Server.
In the floating point representation:
- The precision of the floating point representation has the same range limitation as the integer representation.
- If the floating point value is outside the Sybase range of 2³¹ - 1 and -2³¹ (2,147,483,647 and -2,147,483,648), Replication Agent for Oracle converts the number into exponential format to make it compatible with Replication Server. No loss of precision or scale occurs.

Replication Agent does not support replication of these special values for BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE datatypes:

NaN (not a number)
Inf (positive infinity)
-Inf (negative infinity)

Replication Server and Replication Agent impose these constraints on the Oracle TIMESTAMP WITH [LOCAL] TIME ZONE datatype.

When a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE datatype is replicated, the time zone information is used to resolve the timestamp value to the “local” time zone and then the resolved value is replicated. The time zone information itself is not replicated.

For example, if a TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE datatype is recorded in Oracle as “01-JAN-05 09:00:00.000000 AM -8:00” and the “local” time zone is -6:00, the replicated value is “01-JAN-05 11:00:00.000000”. The timestamp value is adjusted for the difference between the recorded time zone of -8:00 and the local time zone of -6:00, and the adjusted value is replicated.

Oracle ANYDATA Datatype Restrictions
Replication Agent does not support the replication of data stored in ANYDATA columns under some circumstances.
Oracle 10g and 11g XMLTYPE Restrictions
Replication Agent supports the replication of XMLTYPE columns and tables if they are stored as CLOB or XML data. Replication Agent does not support the replication of XMLTYPE data in object-relational XML storage or binary XML storage.
Oracle ROWID Datatype Restrictions
When Replication Agent replicates ROWID data, the value replicated always represents the value stored in the table in the primary database and has no relationship to the ROWID value in the replicate database. There is no attempt to convert or adjust ROWID data to match the data in the replicate database.

Parent topic: Oracle-Specific Considerations