How to fix the Oracle error ORA-26045: REF column string expects string arguments; found string.?

In this post, you’ll learn more about the Oracle ErrorORA-26045: REF column string expects string arguments; found string. with the details on why you receive this error and the possible solution to fix it.

Oracle Error Description

ORA-26045: REF column string expects string arguments; found string.

Reason for the Error ORA-26045: REF column string expects string arguments; found string.

The number of arguments for the REF column is incorrect.

How to fix the Error ORA-26045: REF column string expects string arguments; found string. ?

You can fix this error in Oracle by following the below steps

Specify the correct number of input arguments for REFs.

1. Unscoped system-generated REFs can have exactly 1 or 2 input arguments. a) It has exactly 1 input argument (one for the OID value) if a fixed table name was specified through OCI_DIRPATH_EXPR_REF_TBLNAME. b) It has exactly 2 input arguments (one for the table name and one for the OID value) if a fixed table name was not specified through OCI_DIRPATH_EXPR_REF_TBLNAME.

2. Scoped system-generated REFs can have 1 or 2 input arguments. Because a table name argument is not needed for a scoped ref, only 1 argument (OID value) is expected. But if the table name argument is given, it’s still accepted.

3. Scoped primary-key REFs with N columns in its primary-key OID can have N or N+1 input arguments. Because a table name argument is not needed for a scoped ref, only N arguments (making up the OID value) is expected. But if the table name argument is given, it’s still accepted.