Problem using CASE within SELECT in a standard REPORT region

Question

I'm trying to do a CASE-oriented SELECT within a standard REPORT region and the parser is rejecting the SQL statement.
The code I'm using is the following:
SELECT
CASE
WHEN INSTR(citation, '@') > 0 THEN
SUBSTR(citation, 1, INSTR(citation, '@')-1)
|| ':'
|| SUBSTR(citation, INSTR(citation, '@')+1,
LENGTH(citation) - INSTR(citation, '@'))
ELSE citation
END
FROM citation
WHERE obj_table_cd = 'FI'
AND obj_id = :P41_FIND_ID
ORDER BY CITATION
The parser says the (case .... ) is invalid, use column alias. The query works correctly when using SQL_Developer and SQL*PLUS.
My intention is to replace an '@' with ':' within the citation text. The standard citation format should have a colon, but this causes problems with AppExpress, hence the substitution situation.
Any insights on this or on another way to achieve the purpose?
Thanks,
George

Answer 1

George,
You should give a column alias after the END of the case statement:
SELECT
CASE
WHEN INSTR(citation, '@') > 0 THEN
SUBSTR(citation, 1, INSTR(citation, '@')-1)
|| ':'
|| SUBSTR(citation, INSTR(citation, '@')+1,
LENGTH(citation) - INSTR(citation, '@'))
ELSE citation
END citation_col
FROM citation
WHERE obj_table_cd = 'FI'
AND obj_id = :P41_FIND_ID
ORDER BY CITATIONSam