What Oracle version? I've seen that last in 8i ( 8.1.7 ). It was caused by special circumstances in an application program ( SQR ) and caused some grief down the road when other programs tried to read the data. Not 100% sure but I think there was also a Oracle bug involved.
At 03:10 PM 7/24/2009, kyle Hailey wrote:
cool - nice observation, close but no cigar, unluckily
SQL> set numformat 999999999999999999.999999
SQL> select * from toto;
NUM
--------------------------
.000000
-.000000
might as well go for it (despite the 18,5 format)
SQL> set numformat 9.999999999999999999999999999999999999
SQL> /
NUM
---------------------------------------
.000000000000000000000000000000000000
-.000000000000000000000000000000000000
SQL> select dump (num) from toto;
DUMP(NUM)
------------------------------------
Typ=2 Len=1: 128
Typ=2 Len=2: 63,102
Best Wishes
Kyle Hailey
<http://oraclemonitor.com>http://oraclemonitor.com
Regards Wolfgang Breitling Centrex Consulting Corporation www.centrexcc.com
