ORA-12899

If you try to update a column with a value which is too big, you get an ORA-12899. If this happens in a PL/SQL block, all the updates done in that block will be rolled back, not just the one which failed. You can see what I mean in the example below, which I ran on an Oracle 11.2 database:

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

  2  /

Table created. 

SQL> insert into tab1 values ('Brian')

  2  /

1 row created.

SQL> insert into tab1 values ('Colin')

  2  /

1 row created.

SQL> begin

  2   update tab1

  3    set first_name = 'Boris'

  4     where first_name = 'Brian';

  5   update tab1

  6    set first_name = 'Christopher'

  7     where first_name = 'Colin';

  8  end;

  9  /

begin

*

ERROR at line 1:

ORA-12899: value too large for column

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

ORA-06512: at line 5

SQL> select * from tab1

  2  /

FIRST_NAME

----------

Brian

Colin

SQL>