Oracle PL/SQL string compare issue

Question

I have the following Oracle PL/SQL codes that may be rusty from you guys perspective:

 DECLARE
 str1  varchar2(4000);
 str2  varchar2(4000);
 BEGIN
   str1:         


        

Answer 1

I've created a stored function for this text comparison purpose:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION TextCompare(vOperand1 IN VARCHAR2, vOperator IN VARCHAR2, vOperand2 IN VARCHAR2) RETURN NUMBER DETERMINISTIC AS
BEGIN
  IF vOperator = '=' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 = vOperand2 OR vOperand1 IS NULL AND vOperand2 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = '<>' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 <> vOperand2 OR (vOperand1 IS NULL) <> (vOperand2 IS NULL) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = '<=' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 <= vOperand2 OR vOperand1 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = '>=' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 >= vOperand2 OR vOperand2 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = '<' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 < vOperand2 OR vOperand1 IS NULL AND vOperand2 IS NOT NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = '>' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 > vOperand2 OR vOperand1 IS NOT NULL AND vOperand2 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = 'LIKE' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 LIKE vOperand2 OR vOperand1 IS NULL AND vOperand2 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSIF vOperator = 'NOT LIKE' THEN
    RETURN CASE WHEN vOperand1 NOT LIKE vOperand2 OR (vOperand1 IS NULL) <> (vOperand2 IS NULL) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
  ELSE
    RAISE VALUE_ERROR;
  END IF;
END;

In example:

SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE TextCompare(MyTable.a, '>=', MyTable.b) = 1;