Comparisons

“You can’t compare apples with oranges.”

Oh, yes you can! The answer is 72,731,533,037,581,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

SQL> 
SQL> create table fruit(v1 varchar2(30));
SQL> 
SQL> insert into fruit values('apples');
SQL> insert into fruit values('oranges');
SQL> commit;
SQL> 
SQL> 
SQL> begin
  2  	     dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(
  3  		     ownname	      => user,
  4  		     tabname	      =>'FRUIT',
  5  		     method_opt       => 'for all columns size 2'
  6  	     );
  7  end;
  8  /
SQL> 
SQL> select
  2  	     endpoint_number,
  3  	     endpoint_value,
  4  	     to_char(endpoint_value,'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx') hex_value
  5  from
  6  	     user_tab_histograms
  7  where
  8  	     table_name = 'FRUIT'
  9  order by
 10  	     endpoint_number
 11  ;

ENDPOINT_NUMBER                                   ENDPOINT_VALUE HEX_VALUE
--------------- ------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------
              1  505,933,332,254,715,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  6170706c65731ad171a7dca6e00000
              2  578,664,865,292,296,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  6f72616e67658acc6c9dcaf5000000
SQL> 
SQL> 
SQL> 
SQL> select
  2  	     max(endpoint_value) - min(endpoint_value) diff
  3  from
  4  	     user_tab_histograms
  5  where
  6  	     table_name = 'FRUIT'
  7  ;

                                            DIFF
------------------------------------------------
  72,731,533,037,581,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
SQL> 
SQL> spool off