I need to query an Oracle database table and check the datatype of a column. I got as far as the below script but TYPE_NAME is not recognised. I can check the contents of the column but I need to check the actual type of the table.

Anyone know how I can do that?

set pagesize 1000;
variable errorCode number;

DECLARE
    cursor c1 is
        select theColumn from myDatabaseTable;
    colRec c1%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
    :errorCode := 0;
    OPEN c1;

    FETCH c1 INTO colRec;
    IF colRec.TYPE_NAME <> 'CHAR' THEN
        :errorCode := 1;
    END IF;


    CLOSE c1;
END;
/
exit :errorCode;