Oracle - ORA-01489: result of string concatenation is too long

Question

Created one view within which one field(of 6) is a concatenation of two fields from the source table. Created a second view that uses listagg to potentially combine the results of the concatenation. Using this two step operation correctly returns the listagg concatenation of the two fields from the source table.

When I try to create one view that will both produce the concatenation and the listagg, I get the oracle error ora-01489 Result of string concatenation is too long.

As a test, I selected max(length(concatenated field) and that returned 837. So the stated error is in error, it seems.

So it must be in the syntax. I have tried rtrim, trim and even substr, but cannot get the view statement to both compile listagg(concatenation) and return data.

That I am able to develop the two views that correctly return the data suggests I have the basic syntax down, but the task of combining the concatenation with the listagg function I have not been able to figure out.

In a separate situation, I have been able to combine the concatenation with the listagg function in one statement:

    LISTAGG (STATEMENTS || ' - ' || BIRTH_DATE, ';  ')
                   WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY STATEMENTS || ' - ' || BIRTH_DATE)
                   AS GROWING_UP

This syntax correctly returns the desired data.........

But in the situation described above, similar syntax creates the Ora-01489 error.

Knowing that at times Oracle errors can be misleading, I am wondering if any onboard experts might know of any reason other than that stated that Oracle might throw this error?

LISTAGG ((NUMBER || '-' || text), ',') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY (NUMBER || '-' || text))
AS
  restrictions FROM source

returns the error

Answer 1

You are exceeding the SQL limit of 4000 bytes which applies to LISTAGG as well.

SQL> SELECT listagg(text, ',') WITHIN GROUP (
  2  ORDER BY NULL)
  3  FROM
  4    (SELECT to_char(to_date(level,'j'), 'jsp') text FROM dual CONNECT BY LEVEL < 250
  5    )
  6  /
SELECT listagg(text, ',') WITHIN GROUP (
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01489: result of string concatenation is too long

As a workaround, you could use XMLAGG.

For example,

SQL> SET LONG 2000000
SQL> SET pagesize 50000
SQL> SELECT rtrim(xmlagg(XMLELEMENT(e,text,',').EXTRACT('//text()')
  2                     ).GetClobVal(),',') very_long_text
  3  FROM
  4    (SELECT to_char(to_date(level,'j'), 'jsp') text FROM dual CONNECT BY LEVEL < 250
  5    )
  6  /

VERY_LONG_TEXT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten,eleven,twelve,thirteen,fourteen
,fifteen,sixteen,seventeen,eighteen,nineteen,twenty,twenty-one,twenty-two,twenty
-three,twenty-four,twenty-five,twenty-six,twenty-seven,twenty-eight,twenty-nine,
thirty,thirty-one,thirty-two,thirty-three,thirty-four,thirty-five,thirty-six,thi
rty-seven,thirty-eight,thirty-nine,forty,forty-one,forty-two,forty-three,forty-f
our,forty-five,forty-six,forty-seven,forty-eight,forty-nine,fifty,fifty-one,fift
y-two,fifty-three,fifty-four,fifty-five,fifty-six,fifty-seven,fifty-eight,fifty-
nine,sixty,sixty-one,sixty-two,sixty-three,sixty-four,sixty-five,sixty-six,sixty
-seven,sixty-eight,sixty-nine,seventy,seventy-one,seventy-two,seventy-three,seve
nty-four,seventy-five,seventy-six,seventy-seven,seventy-eight,seventy-nine,eight
y,eighty-one,eighty-two,eighty-three,eighty-four,eighty-five,eighty-six,eighty-s
even,eighty-eight,eighty-nine,ninety,ninety-one,ninety-two,ninety-three,ninety-f
our,ninety-five,ninety-six,ninety-seven,ninety-eight,ninety-nine,one hundred,one
 hundred one,one hundred two,one hundred three,one hundred four,one hundred five
,one hundred six,one hundred seven,one hundred eight,one hundred nine,one hundre
d ten,one hundred eleven,one hundred twelve,one hundred thirteen,one hundred fou
rteen,one hundred fifteen,one hundred sixteen,one hundred seventeen,one hundred
eighteen,one hundred nineteen,one hundred twenty,one hundred twenty-one,one hund
red twenty-two,one hundred twenty-three,one hundred twenty-four,one hundred twen
ty-five,one hundred twenty-six,one hundred twenty-seven,one hundred twenty-eight
,one hundred twenty-nine,one hundred thirty,one hundred thirty-one,one hundred t
hirty-two,one hundred thirty-three,one hundred thirty-four,one hundred thirty-fi
ve,one hundred thirty-six,one hundred thirty-seven,one hundred thirty-eight,one
hundred thirty-nine,one hundred forty,one hundred forty-one,one hundred forty-tw
o,one hundred forty-three,one hundred forty-four,one hundred forty-five,one hund
red forty-six,one hundred forty-seven,one hundred forty-eight,one hundred forty-
nine,one hundred fifty,one hundred fifty-one,one hundred fifty-two,one hundred f
ifty-three,one hundred fifty-four,one hundred fifty-five,one hundred fifty-six,o
ne hundred fifty-seven,one hundred fifty-eight,one hundred fifty-nine,one hundre
d sixty,one hundred sixty-one,one hundred sixty-two,one hundred sixty-three,one
hundred sixty-four,one hundred sixty-five,one hundred sixty-six,one hundred sixt
y-seven,one hundred sixty-eight,one hundred sixty-nine,one hundred seventy,one h
undred seventy-one,one hundred seventy-two,one hundred seventy-three,one hundred
 seventy-four,one hundred seventy-five,one hundred seventy-six,one hundred seven
ty-seven,one hundred seventy-eight,one hundred seventy-nine,one hundred eighty,o
ne hundred eighty-one,one hundred eighty-two,one hundred eighty-three,one hundre
d eighty-four,one hundred eighty-five,one hundred eighty-six,one hundred eighty-
seven,one hundred eighty-eight,one hundred eighty-nine,one hundred ninety,one hu
ndred ninety-one,one hundred ninety-two,one hundred ninety-three,one hundred nin
ety-four,one hundred ninety-five,one hundred ninety-six,one hundred ninety-seven
,one hundred ninety-eight,one hundred ninety-nine,two hundred,two hundred one,tw
o hundred two,two hundred three,two hundred four,two hundred five,two hundred si
x,two hundred seven,two hundred eight,two hundred nine,two hundred ten,two hundr
ed eleven,two hundred twelve,two hundred thirteen,two hundred fourteen,two hundr
ed fifteen,two hundred sixteen,two hundred seventeen,two hundred eighteen,two hu
ndred nineteen,two hundred twenty,two hundred twenty-one,two hundred twenty-two,
two hundred twenty-three,two hundred twenty-four,two hundred twenty-five,two hun
dred twenty-six,two hundred twenty-seven,two hundred twenty-eight,two hundred tw
enty-nine,two hundred thirty,two hundred thirty-one,two hundred thirty-two,two h
undred thirty-three,two hundred thirty-four,two hundred thirty-five,two hundred
thirty-six,two hundred thirty-seven,two hundred thirty-eight,two hundred thirty-
nine,two hundred forty,two hundred forty-one,two hundred forty-two,two hundred f
orty-three,two hundred forty-four,two hundred forty-five,two hundred forty-six,t
wo hundred forty-seven,two hundred forty-eight,two hundred forty-nine

---

If you want to concatenate multiple columns which itself have 4000 bytes, then you can concatenate the XMLAGG output of each column to avoid the SQL limit of 4000 bytes.

For example,

WITH DATA AS
  ( SELECT 1 id, rpad('a1',4000,'*') col1, rpad('b1',4000,'*') col2 FROM dual
  UNION
  SELECT 2 id, rpad('a2',4000,'*') col1, rpad('b2',4000,'*') col2 FROM dual
  )
SELECT ID,
       rtrim(xmlagg(XMLELEMENT(e,col1,',').EXTRACT('//text()') ).GetClobVal(), ',')
       || 
       rtrim(xmlagg(XMLELEMENT(e,col2,',').EXTRACT('//text()') ).GetClobVal(), ',') 
       AS very_long_text
FROM DATA
GROUP BY ID
ORDER BY ID;