Cannot use ORDER BY in cursors - why not?

Question

When defining af cursor in a stored procedure, Oracle 8.1.7 wont let me add an ORDER BY clause. I have tried on two installations with the same result. I then asked a peer why, but he demonstrated that it was perfectly alright on his installation of 8.1.7.
So what may be wrong in my (two) configurations?
Best regards
Poul-Jorgen

Answer 1

Just in case you are not convinced, here is a test that duplicates the error with the cursor that has parentheses and no error with the cursor that does not have parentheses. It also demonstrates the type of cut and paste of complete code that is most helpful, that includes the SQL*Plus version, the Oracle version, the code tested, and the error message. In the example below, I saved everything to a file called test.sql, set echo on, then started the file. I added the minimum requirements, such as create or replace and null in order to complete the codes.
SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on Thu Oct 24 16:49:38 2002
(c) Copyright 2000 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production
With the Partitioning option
JServer Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production
SQL> SET ECHO ON
SQL> @ TEST
SQL> -- table for testing
SQL> CREATE TABLE anytable
  2    (anycolumn NUMBER)
  3  /
Table created.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> -- test of what you posted with parentheses:
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2  PROCEDURE myProcedure IS
  3  CURSOR myCursor IS (SELECT * FROM anyTable ORDER BY anyColumn);
  4  BEGIN
  5  --further procedure logic
  6    NULL;
  7  END myProcedure;
  8  /
Warning: Procedure created with compilation errors.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
Errors for PROCEDURE MYPROCEDURE:
LINE/COL ERROR
2/44     PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "ORDER" when expecting one of
         the following:
         . ) , @ <an identifier>
         <a double-quoted delimited-identifier> group having intersect
         minus partition start subpartition union where connect
         SAMPLE_
         The symbol "group was inserted before "ORDER" to continue.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> -- test of what I posted without parentheses:
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE myProcedure IS
  2    CURSOR myCursor IS SELECT * FROM anyTable ORDER BY anyColumn;
  3  BEGIN
  4    --further procedure logic
  5    NULL;
  6  END myProcedure;
  7  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.