Oracle Error ORA-00932

Error code

ORA-00932

Product

Oracle Database

Versions

Oracle Database 19c, 21c, 23ai and 26ai (wording differs: see below)

Category

Data Types & Conversion

Last reviewed

24 October 2026

What it means

ORA-00932 means an operation received a value of one data type where it needs another, and Oracle has no implicit conversion between the two, for example a NUMBER compared with a DATE or CASE branches that return text and numbers.

Oracle converts some data types implicitly: a string that looks like a number can be compared with a NUMBER, for instance. The SQL Language Reference lists which implicit conversions exist; where there is none, such as NUMBER to DATE, the statement fails with ORA-00932. The current message names the expression, its data type and the type that was expected. 19c and 21c print the short form inconsistent datatypes: expected X got Y.

In the 19c form, read the two type names carefully: "expected" is the type the operation needed and "got" is the type it received, so the expression with the "got" type is the one to convert or rewrite. The 19c reference also lists two rarer causes: operations on LONG columns (functions and concatenation cannot be used with LONG), and querying database objects that are not intended for normal use.

Common causes

• A DATE column is compared with a number such as 20261024; there is no implicit conversion from NUMBER to DATE.
• A CASE or DECODE returns a string in one branch and a number or date in another; the SQL Language Reference requires all CASE return expressions to have the same data type (or all be numeric).
• The two branches of a UNION or UNION ALL put different data types in the same column position.
• A LONG column is passed to a function or concatenated with ||, which Oracle does not allow for LONG data.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read the data dictionary (USER_, ALL_ and DBA_ views) and dynamic performance views (V$). They do not change data, privileges or settings, so they are safe to run first. DBA_ and V$ views need the matching privileges.

SELECT column_name, data_type, data_length, data_precision, data_scale
FROM all_tab_columns
WHERE owner = 'SHOP'
  AND table_name = 'ORDERS'
ORDER BY column_id;

SELECT DUMP(order_date)  AS order_date_type,
       DUMP(discount)    AS discount_type,
       DUMP('none')      AS literal_type
FROM shop.orders
FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY;

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

SELECT order_id, amount
FROM shop.orders
WHERE order_date >= DATE '2026-10-24'
  AND order_date <  DATE '2026-10-25';

SELECT order_id,
       CASE WHEN discount IS NULL THEN 'none'
            ELSE TO_CHAR(discount)
       END AS discount_label
FROM shop.orders;

SELECT order_id, order_date FROM shop.orders
UNION ALL
SELECT return_id, CAST(NULL AS DATE) FROM shop.returns;

ALTER TABLE shop.legacy_notes MODIFY (note_text CLOB);

Examples

A DATE column compared with a number

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. The result follows the message format in Oracle's current error reference; how the failing expression is printed is illustrative. Oracle Database 19c and 21c print "ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected DATE got NUMBER".

SELECT order_id, amount
FROM orders
WHERE order_date = 20261024;

ORA-00932: expression 20261024 is of data type NUMBER, which is incompatible with expected data type DATE

CASE branches that return text and a number

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. This shows the 19c and 21c message format from Oracle's error reference; current releases use the longer "expression ... is of data type NUMBER, which is incompatible with expected data type ..." form, with the expression and type names filled in by the database. The rule that CASE return expressions must share a data type is in the SQL Language Reference.

SELECT order_id,
       CASE WHEN discount IS NULL THEN 'none' ELSE discount END AS discount_label
FROM orders;

ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected CHAR got NUMBER

How to prevent it

Use explicit conversion functions (TO_DATE, TO_NUMBER, TO_CHAR, CAST) instead of relying on implicit conversion; Oracle's SQL Language Reference recommends this and notes that implicit conversion algorithms can change between releases. Write date constants as DATE 'YYYY-MM-DD' literals.

When a CASE, DECODE or UNION returns a column, decide its data type first and make every branch return it. Keep dates in DATE or TIMESTAMP columns rather than numbers or strings. See SQL data types explained.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• SQL data types explained
• CAST function
• CASE expression

Official documentation

• ORA-00932 (Oracle Database Error Messages)
• Data Type Comparison Rules and implicit conversion (Oracle SQL Language Reference 19c)
• CASE Expressions (Oracle SQL Language Reference 19c)

Last technically reviewed 24 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on Oracle Database Error Messages reference (26ai, 21c and 19c); not run locally. Messages and explanations follow Oracle's Database Error Messages reference; no Oracle Database was available, so the examples were not run locally.