&& Substitution Variable in Package Body using SQL Developer

Question

Hi Folks,
I've moved over to working to in SQL Developer (its a very early version - 1.0.0) from a combination of SQL*Plus command line and a text editor. I'm trying to get this upgrgraded, but I think the question will be the same with a newer version anyway.
I am creating a package, and in the package body I have some &&my_var substitutions that I was previoulsy prompted for when calling the .sql from the command line SQL*Plus. I need this as the variable needs to be different for the development and live environment.
When working in SQL Developer, I can load the package body from Connection->Packages->My Package->My Package Body, and click the edit button to edit the code, however, when I click the Compile button in the top of the window my code error's because of the substituion variablle. An example is:
CREATE OR REPLACE
PACKAGE BODY MY_PACKAGE AS
PROCEDURE MY_PROCEDURE
BEGIN
my_variable := &&my_function_from_live_or_dev_database
END MY_PROCEDURE
Can anyone tell me if there is a way of defining a compiler variable within the IDE widow while editing a package body stored in the database, without manually copying the code into the Worksheet and running it as a script?
Thanks,
AM

Answer 1

953104 wrote:
Thanks for the reply, the code was just quickly typed to show the sort of thing I am doing, it wasn't actual code form my project.
I've come from a C background so what I would have done would be create a #define and changed to when on live or development - or passed the variable to the build environment from the IDE or makefiles and the change would have reflected through my whole project.
What I want to be able to do is alter a definition of some sort that will reflect throughout my whole project, so I can change it in one location to minimize code changes before going live. I don't really want to be prompted at all. On one system it needs to be DEV_10 and on the other it needs to be LIVE_10.Is there a possibility to elimiante this difference at all?
For example if DEV_10 is the oracle schemauser on the development database and LIVE_10 would be the one on the production system. THen you could just remove all references to the schema from your code.
IF you are already connected to this schema, then you don't need to specify the schema name anymore.
example
instead of
create or replace package dev_10.myPackage
...you can simply use
create or replace package myPackage
...If needed you can alter the cuurently connected user just before you run the script.
alter session set current_schema = LIVE10;
create or replace package myPackage
...This would be a different working window in the developer (script worksheet, instead of direct pl/sql editor).
Substitution variables are allowed there.