Error message for ORA-904 incomplete in german locale [1.1.0.22.71]

Question

Hello Forum,
when I enter an SQL which generates an ORA-904, the error message looks somewhat weird with german locale:
-- First with AMERICAN setting:
alter session set nls_language='AMERICAN';
select a from dual;
alter session set succeeded.
Error starting at line 2 in command:
select a from dual
Error at Command Line:2 Column:7
Error report:
SQL Error: ORA-00904: "A": invalid identifier
00904. 00000 - "%s: invalid identifier"
*Cause:   
*Action:
-- And now with GERMAN setting:
alter session set nls_language='GERMAN';
select a from dual;
alter session set succeeded.
Error starting at line 4 in command:
select a from dual
Error at Command Line:4 Column:7
Error report:
SQL Error: ORA-00904: Ungültiger Spaltenname
00904. 00000 - "%s: invalid identifier"
*Cause:   
*Action:
As you can see, the name of the invalid column is not displayed when nls_language="GERMAN".
Maybe the second line '00904. 00000 - "%s: invalid identifier"' results from having a german Windows XP.
I don't know how it looks on english Windows or how it should look like. :-)
I run SQLDeveloper on XP Pro and Oracle 9.2 (on W2k).
Regards,
dhalek

Answer 1

dhalek,
If you take a closer look, the 00904. 00000 - "%s: invalid identifier" line is present in both languages - it's something that gets always appended.
As for the German message SQL Error: ORA-00904: Ungültiger Spaltenname, you see it's lacking any reference to the column. The German translator apparently let that slip out. If the substitution parameter was there, but unsubstituted for some reason, it would look like SQL Error: ORA-00904: "": Ungültiger Spaltenname.
You can contact Oracle through Metalink if you want this to get sorted out...
K.