PL/SQL : Encountered the symbol "END"

Question

I get the following error, even though I have checked the code carefully. I don't know what I'm missing.

LINE/COL ERROR

---

31/1 PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "END" when expecting one of the following:

CODE:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE sp_ssjm_newworkorder
(   workorderno IN NUMBER,
company     IN CHAR,
attention   IN CHAR,
datedue     IN DATE,
loggedby    IN CHAR
)

AS  id     NUMBER;
today         DATE:=SYSDATE;
BEGIN
SELECT  client_id   --grab client_id
INTO id 
FROM    ssjm_client
WHERE ssjm_client.name=company;

IF id IS NULL THEN  --check if client exists by checking if client_id is there
    dbms_output.put_line('Please create client first');
    GOTO the_end;
ELSE
    INSERT INTO ssjm_workorder      VALUES(workorderno,workorderno,company,loggedby,attention,'Received',today,datedue,id);
END IF;

EXCEPTION
    WHEN OTHERS THEN
    raise_application_error(-20999,'An error occured in' ||
        SQLCODE || '-ERROR-' || SQLERRM);

<<the_end>>

END sp_ssjm_newworkorder;

Answer 1

There are several spots in your code needed attention:

1. The reason you've got that error is because label <<the_end>> should be placed before the EXCEPTION section.
2. Operator is required after a label. So if you want to jump to the end of a stored procedure and no other actions required NULL operator should be used.

To that end your code should look like this:

IF id IS NULL THEN  --check if client exists by checking if client_id is there
    dbms_output.put_line('Please create client first');
    GOTO the_end;
ELSE
    INSERT INTO ssjm_workorder
 VALUES(workorderno,workorderno,company,loggedby
       ,attention,'Received',today,datedue,id);
END IF;

<<the_end>>
NULL;

EXCEPTION
    WHEN OTHERS THEN
    raise_application_error(-20999,'An error occured in' ||
        SQLCODE || '-ERROR-' || SQLERRM);
END sp_ssjm_newworkorder;

By all means try to avoid unconditional branching. Using GOTO operator is very, very not good practice. It kills readability, code like that hard to debug. It will cause you and everybody who will look at that code after you a headache. Moreover if the query

SELECT  client_id   --grab client_id
INTO id 
FROM    ssjm_client
WHERE ssjm_client.name=company;

returns no rows the exception NO_DATA_FOUND will be immediately raised and execution of the code halts. So IF id IS NULL THEN condition will never be evaluated. You may rewrite your code by removing that condition and adding NO_DATA_FOUND exception handler in the EXCEPTION section of your code. And of course as @Rob van Wijk correctly pointed out in the comment

but code can be cleaned up further. today variable can be removed and the WHEN OTHERS should definitely be removed. As it is now, it just transforms an error to a longer error message without more detail and most importantly: it disguises the line number where the real error took place.

there is no need of today variable, SYSDATE can be used directly in the values clause of the insert statement, and WHEN OTHERS can be removed as well.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE sp_ssjm_newworkorder
(
workorderno IN NUMBER,
company     IN CHAR,
attention   IN CHAR,
datedue     IN DATE,
loggedby    IN CHAR
)
AS  
  id     NUMBER;
BEGIN
  SELECT client_id   --grab client_id
    INTO id
    FROM ssjm_client
   WHERE ssjm_client.name=company;

    INSERT INTO ssjm_workorder      
      VALUES(workorderno,workorderno,company,loggedby
            ,attention,'Received',SYSDATE,datedue,id);

EXCEPTION
    when NO_DATA_FOUND
    then dbms_output.put_line('Please create client first');
END sp_ssjm_newworkorder;