How to declare variable and use it in the same Oracle SQL script?

Question

There are a several ways of declaring variables in SQL*Plus scripts.

The first is to use VAR, to declare a bind variable. The mechanism for assigning values to a VAR is with an EXEC call:

SQL> var name varchar2(20)
SQL> exec :name := 'SALES'

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select * from dept
  2  where dname = :name
  3  /

    DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
        30 SALES          CHICAGO

SQL>

A VAR is particularly useful when we want to call a stored procedure which has OUT parameters or a function.

Alternatively we can use substitution variables. These are good for interactive mode:

SQL> accept p_dno prompt "Please enter Department number: " default 10
Please enter Department number: 20
SQL> select ename, sal
  2  from emp
  3  where deptno = &p_dno
  4  /
old   3: where deptno = &p_dno
new   3: where deptno = 20

ENAME             SAL
---------- ----------
CLARKE            800
ROBERTSON        2975
RIGBY            3000
KULASH           1100
GASPAROTTO       3000

SQL>

When we're writing a script which calls other scripts it can be useful to DEFine the variables upfront. This snippet runs without prompting me to enter a value:

SQL> def p_dno = 40
SQL> select ename, sal
  2  from emp
  3  where deptno = &p_dno
  4  /
old   3: where deptno = &p_dno
new   3: where deptno = 40

no rows selected

SQL>

Finally there's the anonymous PL/SQL block. As you see, we can still assign values to declared variables interactively:

SQL> set serveroutput on size unlimited
SQL> declare
  2      n pls_integer;
  3      l_sal number := 3500;
  4      l_dno number := &dno;
  5  begin
  6      select count(*)
  7      into n
  8      from emp
  9      where sal > l_sal
 10      and deptno = l_dno;
 11      dbms_output.put_line('top earners = '||to_char(n));
 12  end;
 13  /
Enter value for dno: 10
old   4:     l_dno number := &dno;
new   4:     l_dno number := 10;
top earners = 1

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>

Try using double quotes if it's a char variable:

DEFINE stupidvar = "'stupidvarcontent'";

or

DEFINE stupidvar = 'stupidvarcontent';

SELECT stupiddata  
FROM stupidtable  
WHERE stupidcolumn = '&stupidvar'

upd:

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Aug 25 17:13:26 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

SQL> conn od/od@etalon
Connected.
SQL> define var = "'FL-208'";
SQL> select code from product where code = &var;
old   1: select code from product where code = &var
new   1: select code from product where code = 'FL-208'

CODE
---------------
FL-208

SQL> define var = 'FL-208';
SQL> select code from product where code = &var;
old   1: select code from product where code = &var
new   1: select code from product where code = FL-208
select code from product where code = FL-208
                                      *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06553: PLS-221: 'FL' is not a procedure or is undefined

In PL/SQL v.10

keyword declare is used to declare variable

DECLARE stupidvar varchar(20);

to assign a value you can set it when you declare

DECLARE stupidvar varchar(20) := '12345678';

or to select something into that variable you use INTO statement, however you need to wrap statement in BEGIN and END, also you need to make sure that only single value is returned, and don't forget semicolons.

so the full statement would come out following:

DECLARE stupidvar varchar(20);
BEGIN
    SELECT stupid into stupidvar FROM stupiddata CC 
    WHERE stupidid = 2;
END;

Your variable is only usable within BEGIN and END so if you want to use more than one you will have to do multiple BEGIN END wrappings

DECLARE stupidvar varchar(20);
BEGIN
    SELECT stupid into stupidvar FROM stupiddata CC 
    WHERE stupidid = 2;

    DECLARE evenmorestupidvar varchar(20);
    BEGIN
        SELECT evenmorestupid into evenmorestupidvar FROM evenmorestupiddata CCC 
        WHERE evenmorestupidid = 42;

        INSERT INTO newstupiddata (newstupidcolumn, newevenmorestupidstupidcolumn)
        SELECT stupidvar, evenmorestupidvar 
        FROM dual

    END;
END;

Hope this saves you some time

If you want to declare date and then use it in SQL Developer.

DEFINE PROPp_START_DT = TO_DATE('01-SEP-1999')

SELECT * 
FROM proposal 
WHERE prop_start_dt = &PROPp_START_DT

The question is about to use a variable in a script means to me it will be used in SQL*Plus.

The problem is you missed the quotes and Oracle can not parse the value to number.

SQL> DEFINE num = 2018
SQL> SELECT &num AS your_num FROM dual;
old   1: SELECT &num AS your_num FROM dual
new   1: SELECT 2018 AS your_num FROM dual

  YOUR_NUM
----------
      2018

Elapsed: 00:00:00.01

This sample is works fine because of automatic type conversion (or whatever it is called).

If you check by typing DEFINE in SQL*Plus, it will shows that num variable is CHAR.

SQL>define
DEFINE NUM             = "2018" (CHAR)

It is not a problem in this case, because Oracle can deal with parsing string to number if it would be a valid number.

When the string can not parse to number, than Oracle can not deal with it.

SQL> DEFINE num = 'Doh'
SQL> SELECT &num AS your_num FROM dual;
old   1: SELECT &num AS your_num FROM dual
new   1: SELECT Doh AS your_num FROM dual
SELECT Doh AS your_num FROM dual
       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "DOH": invalid identifier

With a quote, so do not force Oracle to parse to number, will be fine:

17:31:00 SQL> SELECT '&num' AS your_num FROM dual;
old   1: SELECT '&num' AS your_num FROM dual
new   1: SELECT 'Doh' AS your_num FROM dual

YOU
---
Doh

So, to answer the original question, it should be do like this sample:

SQL> DEFINE stupidvar = 'X'
SQL>
SQL> SELECT 'print stupidvar:' || '&stupidvar'
  2  FROM dual
  3  WHERE dummy = '&stupidvar';
old   1: SELECT 'print stupidvar:' || '&stupidvar'
new   1: SELECT 'print stupidvar:' || 'X'
old   3: WHERE dummy = '&stupidvar'
new   3: WHERE dummy = 'X'

'PRINTSTUPIDVAR:'
-----------------
print stupidvar:X

Elapsed: 00:00:00.00

There is an other way to store variable in SQL*Plus by using Query Column Value.

The COL[UMN] has new_value option to store value from query by field name.

SQL> COLUMN stupid_column_name new_value stupid_var noprint
SQL> SELECT dummy || '.log' AS stupid_column_name
  2  FROM dual;

Elapsed: 00:00:00.00
SQL> SPOOL &stupid_var.
SQL> SELECT '&stupid_var' FROM DUAL;
old   1: SELECT '&stupid_var' FROM DUAL
new   1: SELECT 'X.log' FROM DUAL

X.LOG
-----
X.log

Elapsed: 00:00:00.00
SQL>SPOOL OFF;

As you can see, X.log value was set into the stupid_var variable, so we can find a X.log file in the current directory has some log in it.