Failure of EXECUTE IMMEDIATE when in a stored procedure

Question

Hello,
this concerns behaviour observed in Oracle 10g on Windows.
As user "system", I execute from the command line the following:
SQL> select COUNT(1) from sys.dba_sequences;
COUNT(1)
645
Again I try the same thing from the command line:
SQL> declare
2 CNT INTEGER:=0;
3 STMT VARCHAR2(300);
4 BEGIN
5 STMT:='select COUNT(1) from SYS.DBA_SEQUENCES';
6 EXECUTE IMMEDIATE STMT INTO CNT;
7 dbms_output.put_line('CNT='||CNT);
8 end;
9 /
CNT=645
So far so good, clearly this table exists and I have sufficient privileges to access SYS.DBA_SEQUENCES as user system.
However, if I put this in a stored procedure in a script TEST_SEQ.sql and then execute, I get ORA-00942:
1. Create or replace Procedure TEST_A1
2. IS
3. CNT INTEGER:=0;
4. STMT VARCHAR2(300);
5.
6. BEGIN
7. STMT:='select COUNT(1) from SYS.DBA_SEQUENCES';
8.     EXECUTE IMMEDIATE STMT INTO CNT;
9.     dbms_output.put_line('CNT='||CNT);
10. END;
SQL> @ TEST_SEQ.sql
SQL> exec TEST_A1;
ORA-00942: Table or view does not exist
ORA-06512: At "SYSTEM.TEST_A1", line 8
ORA-06512: At line 1
Why now does this table not seem to exist when accessed from a stored procedure?

Answer 1

http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&q=ora-0942+procedure
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA
Experts: those who do read documentation.