RE: & symbol in PL/SQL

Why complain about something that has always been this way? Just set define off, run your code, and turn define back on.

UT1 > set define off
UT1 > select '&one' from dual;

'&ON

UT1 > set define &
UT1 > /
Enter value for one: 1
old 1: select '&one' from dual
new 1: select '1' from dual

'
-
1

HTH -- Mark D Powell --

-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On Behalf Of Hand, Michael T Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 1:01 PM To: Oracle List (E-mail 2)
Subject: & symbol in PL/SQL

I don't write much PL/SQL as so it took many years before I ran into this one. Pardon me is this is well known. Tested in 7.3.4 \& 9iR2

SQL> show define
define "&" (hex 26)

SQL> -- Comment line with & symbol in it

SQL> declare
  2 c varchar2(1);
  3 begin
  4 select 'R' into c from dual;
  5 -- comment line with a & symbol in it   6 -- comment line with a \& symbol escaped   7 dbms_output.put_line(c);
  8 end;
  9 /
Enter value for symbol: e
old 5: -- comment line with a & symbol in it new 5: -- comment line with a e in it
R

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Why does the PL/SQL parser interpret the define symbol before comment delimeters? So one can't comment out a line of PL/SQL code containing a & without also using the escape? And worst of all, I can't use the
& as shorthand for AND in my embedded comments. Open a TAR. Call out
the National Guard.

Mike Hand
Polaroid Corp.

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