How to fix "ORA-01401: inserted value too large for column" while inserting in multilevel nested table

Question

Below is the Table/Object type Creation Query. Tables are created successfully

CREATE TYPE ft_obj AS OBJECT (
    ftid         NUMBER(5),
    ftlocation   VARCHAR(30),
    country      VARCHAR(10)
);
/

CREATE TABLE ft_table OF ft_obj (
    ftid PRIMARY KEY
) OBJECT IDENTIFIER IS PRIMARY KEY;
/

CREATE TYPE frod_obj AS OBJECT (
    prodid           NUMBER(6),
    ft_ref           ft_obj,
    proddesc         VARCHAR(50),
    costperitem      DECIMAL,
    labcostperitem   DECIMAL
);
/

CREATE TABLE frod_table OF frod_obj (
    prodid PRIMARY KEY
) OBJECT IDENTIFIER IS PRIMARY KEY;

CREATE TYPE wf_obj AS OBJECT (
    wfid           NUMBER,
    ft_ref         ft_obj,
    wfname         VARCHAR(30),
    taxcode        INT,
    yearlyincome   DECIMAL,
    yearlytax      DECIMAL
);
/

CREATE TABLE wf_table OF wf_obj (
    wfid PRIMARY KEY
) OBJECT IDENTIFIER IS PRIMARY KEY;
/

CREATE TYPE wfusage_obj AS OBJECT (
    jobdate         DATE,
    jobhours        INT,
    jobhourlyrate   DECIMAL,
    jobposted       CHAR,
    wfid_ref        REF wf_obj
);
/

CREATE TYPE wfusage_nesttabtyp AS
    TABLE OF wfusage_obj;
/

CREATE TABLE wfusage_objtab OF wfusage_obj;
/

CREATE TYPE odetails_obj AS OBJECT (
    mfid           NUMBER,
    prodid_ref     REF frod_obj,
    quantity       INT,
    itemprice      DECIMAL,
    wfusage_ntab   wfusage_nesttabtyp
);
/

CREATE TYPE odetails_nesttabtyp AS
    TABLE OF odetails_obj;
/

CREATE TYPE prod_obj AS OBJECT (
    prodoid          NUMBER,
    odate            DATE,
    promisedate      DATE,
    completiondate   DATE,
    shipmentdate     DATE,
    status           VARCHAR(20),
    odetails_ntab    odetails_nesttabtyp
);
/

CREATE TABLE prod_objtab OF prod_obj (
    PRIMARY KEY ( prodoid )
) OBJECT IDENTIFIER IS PRIMARY KEY
NESTED TABLE odetails_ntab STORE AS oprod_ntab ( (
    PRIMARY KEY ( nested_table_id,
                  mfid )
)
ORGANIZATION INDEX
COMPRESS 
NESTED TABLE wfusage_ntab STORE AS wforder_ntab
)
RETURN AS LOCATOR
/

ALTER TABLE oprod_ntab ADD (
    SCOPE FOR ( prodid_ref ) IS frod_table
);
/

While inserting Data in the nested table getting the Error ORA-01401: inserted value too large for column. Below is the insert Query

INSERT INTO prod_objtab VALUES (
 46000,
 '25-April-2019',
 '12-May-2019',
 '13-May-2019',
  '13-May-2019',
  'COMPLETED',
  odetails_nesttabtyp(
      odetails_obj(46001
                    ,(SELECT REF(pt) 
                          FROM frod_table pt
                          WHERE pt.prodid = 10002)
                    ,100
                    ,400
                   ,wfusage_nesttabtyp(
                     wfusage_obj('25-April-2019'
                              ,60
                              ,100
                              ,'AME',
                             (SELECT REF(wf) 
                              FROM wf_table wf
                              WHERE wf.wfid = 252)
                    )
                )
              ) 
            )
          )

getting the error in line 9

ORA-01401: inserted value too large for column

Answer 1

Having spent over an hour debugging this I feel at liberty to say, what a horrible data model. Nested objects like this exemplify the inherent problems of OO as a method for managing data.

Anyway, the problem is this (inevitably the last thing I looked at):

  wfusage_obj('25-April-2019'
                          ,60
                          ,100
                          ,'AME', <------------ culprit
                         (SELECT REF(wf) 
                          FROM wf_table wf
                          WHERE wf.wfid = 252)
                )

'AME' is three characters long. This is populating wfusage_obj.jobposted, which you have defined as CHAR. Legitimate syntax but if we don't specify the data length it defaults to CHAR(1). Obviously this is two characters short for 'AME'. It needs to be (at least) CHAR(3).

Once you've fixed this you will trip over

ORA-22979: cannot INSERT object view REF or user-defined REF

This is because you have defined your tables with OBJECT IDENTIFIER IS PRIMARY KEY. Consequently you can't use a REF on those tables. So, you need to remove that from the table definitions to make your code work.

I have posted a demo on db<>fiddle