How to insert a String type parameter while it should be Integer?

[Guest_imported]

I've two simple tables:

create table table1(
name VARCHAR2(10),
ID INTEGER,
unique(name),
primary key(ID));

create table table2(
name VARCHAR2(10),
table1ID INTEGER,
primary key(name),
foreign key(table1ID) references table1);

In short, table2 has a foreign key referencing table1, very straight forward.

Let's say table1 has a record:

name id
---- --
abc 1

I'm writing JDBC methods for accessing these tables. The defined interface for inserting a new table2 value is:
AddTable2( String name, String table1ID);

In order to insert a new record into table2 referencing this record, I should write:-
insert into table2 (name, table1ID) ('whatever', 1);
and I can easily map 'abc' and the value 1 using a simple query.

However, the requirement states that in order to avoid unneccessary JDBC overhead, triggers are asked to do the mapping task.
So I tried writing a BEFORE INSERT trigger so that the sql statement
insert into table2 (name,table1ID) ('whatever', 'abc');
would still work. But before the trigger is invoked the statement is rejected by the dataype checking, cos I placed a string to a place where an integer should be.

Does anyone know if there's a work around for it? Or am I misreading the requirements?
I've been stuck on this for a long time, so I really appreciate any input.

Thanx again.

Andrew

 

[BobLoblaws]

Why don't you convert the string to an integer?