ORA-22804: Remote Operations Not Permitted on Object Tables or User-Defined Type Columns

Expert Oracle Database Tips by Donald BurlesonFebruary 1, 2015

Question: I am running a query and I get this ORA-22804 error:

ORA-22804 remote operations not permitted on object tables or user-defined type columns

How do I find out the cause of this ORA-22804 error?

Answer: To diagnose any error, you start by using the oerr utility to display the ORA-22804 error:

ORA-22804 remote operations not permitted on object tables or user-defined type columns

Cause: An attempt was made to perform queries or DML operations on remote object tables or on remote table columns whose type is one of object, REF, nested table or VARRAY.

Action: None.

This issue is addressed in more detail in Metalink note 136352. Essentially, the documentation says that while attempting to SELECT, INSERT or UPDATE a remote table containing an object type, it has failed with one of the following errors:

ORA-22804 remote operations not permitted on object tables or user defined type columns

PLS-453 remote operations not permitted on object tables or user defined type columns.

One suggested workaround involves logging into the remote database and creating a procedure or function that will accept pieces of the object table. This requires the object type to be broken down into its componenets. The DML operation is then performed. The last step is to log into the local database and perform the DML operation using a remote procedure call to the newly created function or preocedure.

Sometimes the message can be misleading. In some cases, the remote table is not a user-defined object and does not have user-defined columns. If the local DML statements were based on xml_type data, PL/SQL can classify that complex data type as a "user_defined" type, resulting in the misleading message. In this case, it's possible to create a local staging table with the same structure as the remote table. The data is then loaded into the local table and sent from there to the remote target. Now, there is no resulting ORA-28804 error.

Sometimes nested tables can cause this issue. Read HERE for more on nested tables and how to work with them.

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