Passing plsql parm to a sql statement in the procedure database link name

Question

Would like to pass a parm that is the database link name to a stored procedure.  I defined this as below. var1 is the name of the db link that I would like to pass
create or replace procedure   proc1  (var1 in varchar2) as
cursor c1 is
select num,name,city from emp@var1;
However, this is getting a plsql error in the above code   as bad bind variable, db link name expected.
Is there a method to pass a variable within a stored proc into a SQL statement that has a cursor ..
thanks

Answer 1

Hi,
Database links have to be hard-coded.  If you really need to specify the database link at run-time, then you need Dyanmic SQL.
Why do you need to do this?   How many databases are involved?  Do you have new database links all the time?  The more you can say about your business requirements, the more helpful we can be.
Are there only a couple of possible database links?  If so,  you might consider hard-coding each of them, and branching to the appropriate one in your code.
is the real variable here the environment (Development, Test, Production) that you're in?  For example, do you need to use one database link in Development, a different one in Test, and a third in Production, but you don't want to change the code when you move from one environment to another?  If so, you can try conditional comilation.