Encoding and decoding functions

The following table describes the supported encoding and decoding functions.

Function	Description
DECODE	Compares expr to each search value sequentially. If a match is found, Oracle returns the corresponding result; otherwise, it returns the default value, or null if default is omitted.
DUMP	Returns a VARCHAR2 value with the data type code, byte length, and internal representation of expr, always in the database character set.
ORA_HASH	Computes a hash value for a given expression, useful for data analysis and generating random samples.
STANDARD_HASH	Computes a hash value for a given expression using standardized hash algorithms, useful for authentication and maintaining data integrity in security applications like digital signatures and checksums.
VSIZE	Returns the number of bytes in the internal representation of expr. Returns null if expr is null.