title: PL/SQL Raw datatype variable comparison
body: <p>Is it possible to compare variables of raw datatypes?
  I'm working with XMLDOM.DomNodes, which is records with one field by itself:</p>
  
  <pre><code>TYPE DOMNode IS RECORD (id RAW(12));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So I have two nodes, then could I compare them by their id fields? I tried several samples and at first glance it seems to work:</p>
  
  <pre><code>  FUNCTION findParentNode(p_node IN xmldom.domnode) RETURN PLS_INTEGER
    AS
        nRetVal               PLS_INTEGER;
    BEGIN
       FOR i IN ParentNodes.First .. ParentNodes.Last
       LOOP 
           IF ParentNodes(i).id = p_node.id THEN               
              nRetVal := i;
              EXIT;
           END IF;         
       END LOOP;
  
       RETURN nRetVal;
    END;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but one thing in Oracle documentation worries me:
  <a href="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/appdev.102/b14261/datatypes.htm" rel="nofollow">Raw data is like VARCHAR2 data, except that PL/SQL does not interpret raw data</a>
  What does it mean? If pl/sql doesn't interpret raw, then could it compare?</p>