When I try to execute this statement in Oracle SQL Developer 2.1 a dialog box "Enter Substitution Variable" pops up asking for a replacement value for TOBAGO,
update t set country = 'Trinidad and Tobago' where country = 'trinidad & tobago';
How can I avoid this without resorting to chr(38) or u'trinidad \0026 tobago' which both obscure the purpose of the statement?
Call this before the query:
set define off
Alternatively, hacky:
update t set country = 'Trinidad and Tobago' where country = 'trinidad &' || ' tobago';
From Tuning SQL*Plus:
SET DEFINE OFF disables the parsing of commands to replace substitution variables with their values.
In SQL*Plus putting SET DEFINE ? at the top of the script will normally solve this. Might work for Oracle SQL Developer as well.
Invalid "set define" commandthis will work as you asked without CHAR(38):
update t set country = 'Trinidad and Tobago' where country = 'trinidad & '|| 'tobago';
create table table99(col1 varchar(40));
insert into table99 values('Trinidad &' || ' Tobago');
insert into table99 values('Trinidad &' || ' Tobago');
insert into table99 values('Trinidad &' || ' Tobago');
insert into table99 values('Trinidad &' || ' Tobago');
SELECT * FROM table99;
update table99 set col1 = 'Trinidad and Tobago' where col1 = 'Trinidad &'||' Tobago';
chr(38).
If you use liquibase to run sql file, it will not give error. But for sql developer use this set define off; before ur sql sode
While set define off works, you run into the problem of not being able to use Substitution Variables in the same query as an Ampersand. A clearer way would be to turn on the Escape character and then escape the Ampersand.
e.g.,
set escape \
update t
set country = 'Trinidad and Tobago'
where country = 'trinidad \& tobago';
The backslash (\) is the default escape character, but it seems to be turned off by default as well.
set scan off; Above command also works.
