ODP.NET

Hello,

I am writing an app in ASP.NET and C# using ODP.NET and the converting back and forth of data types is driving me mad.

The first question I have is do people know of any really good treatment of this subject specifically for the ODP.NET/ASP.NET&C# ?

Documentation like this:
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/html/B10961_01/features.htm#1025224
... would have you believe that when you pass a number back from a stored proc, and you do:
using Oracle.DataAccess.Client;
etc...
OracleParameter outputParam = command.Parameters.Add("thisVal", OracleDbType.Int16);

... that documentation .NET has a matching Int16 datatype. Not so. You have to do .NET type of "short". You can sort of get this if you go crawling through the .NET documentation and borrow from their oracle provider.

To make matters more confusing, it isn't consistent. At times I have been able to use OracleDbType.Int32 only by typing it with decimal:
return (decimal)outputParam.Value;

Now I am doing another proc and returning a varchar2:
OracleParameter outputParam = command.Parameters.Add("loginId", OracleDbType.Varchar2, 30);

... in Toad the proc runs fine and returns in this case a string like TGH2345G. When I go to output in asp.net/c#:
return (string)outputParam.Value;
.... it a get this error:
"Specified cast is not valid."

I don't mind following rules, but I can't find any place to get the hard and fast "real" rules on this stuff.

Help!!

Thank you,

Kyle