ORA-12899

This was tested on Oracle 11.2. If you try to update a column with a value which is too long, you will get an ORA-12899:

 

SQL> conn andrew/reid

Connected.

SQL> create table tab1 (first_name varchar2(10))

  2  /

 

Table created.

 

SQL> insert into tab1 values ('Christopher')

  2  /

insert into tab1 values ('Christopher')

                         *

ERROR at line 1:

ORA-12899: value too large for column

"ANDREW"."TAB1"."FIRST_NAME" (actual: 11, maximum: 10)

 

SQL>

 

If this happens, you can either use a shorter value:

 

SQL> insert into tab1 values ('Colin')

  2  /

 

1 row created.

 

SQL>

 

…or make the column longer:

 

SQL> alter table tab1 modify first_name varchar2(15)

 2  /

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> insert into tab1 values ('Christopher')

  2  /

 

1 row created.

 

SQL>