@adrian_farrell It seems the LONG is no longer recommended: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3599211/oracle-long-or-clob

I would suggest trying the SQLExecutor

@adrian_farrell Try the JDBC reader in the SQLExecutor. I think this will return the LONG strings.

I have been finding the large number of posts dotted around the net warning that LONG datatype are very antiquated and inflexible (this is another example i guess)

Unfortunately i'm working with a propriety system and therefore cannot change the data structures

Hi Mark

Thanks for the info relating to JDBC however i cannot get it to read Oracle, each time i get the error that there is no suitable driver available. do you happen to know a way around this error please?

Thanks

Hi again

I managed to get it to extract the data (adding the JDBC for Oracle helps!) but it still truncates the output

Adrian

Thanks Mark, turns out the system we are using has implemented a method to self truncate the field and store it in a hidden overflow table in 8135 character segments. It was a red herring the way they represented this in the main table and the fact that they still rely heavily on the LONG data type

The JDBC reader has been a learning curve but one very worth while following, i'll make some good use of that!

Thanks again

Adrian