The benefit of CLOB is you can do a "string search" using SQL's LIKE operator in addition to exact matches. You can not do that on a LONG data type. You can not create an index on either data type. The other factor is you can not use the Microsoft ODBC for Oracle as it has not been updated to handle the newer Oracle data types. You will have to use Oracle's ODBC driver or a 3rd party driver. You can not use NVL, but you can SUBSTR(). Go figure.

>Hi All,
>
>We are in the process of converting our applications from accessing a native VFP database to access an Oracle one. When it came to conversion of the MEMO fields. They were transformed into LONG data types. This was because the only model we'd seen to this point used those field types. Since I am doing all the actual conversions of the querries. I find that the LONG data type fields are a major 'PITA'. I'm unable to do any functions on these fields. SUBSTR, NVL etc... I'd like to be able to treat these fields as I have with VFP.
>
>I just started reading "ORACLE PL/SQL" by S. Feuerstien. He mentions that LONG is obsolete. He says that CLOB is the way to go. So my question is:
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>Are there functions that I've yet to discover that will allow me to manipulate the LONG data type fields? Should I convert them all to CLOB? So that I can use the functions I desire? Or will I be limited in what I can do with these fields as well?
>
>TIA
>Mike
>
>P.S. VFP6 SP5 Oracle 8i