How to reference a user parameter in program unit

Question

I tried to define a user parameter in Oracle Report 6i and I could reference it (&p_where_clause) in the main query but I failed to reference it in one of the program units. Here is the logic:
function CF_OTHER_COURSESFormula return Char is
cnt           number;
priority     number;
class_code     varchar2(8);
oc           varchar2(100) := null;
cursor oc_cur is
select class_code, branch_priority
from nominations n, employments e
where n.hkic_no = e.hkic_no
and e.staff_status_code = 'EMP'
and &p_where_clause --> contain "n.course_code in ('A','B','C')"
and n.hkic_no = :hkic_no
and n.class_code != :class_code;
begin
cnt := 1;
open oc_cur;
loop
fetch oc_cur into class_code, priority;
if oc_cur%notfound then
     exit;
end if;
if cnt = 1 then
oc := oc||class_code||'('||priority||')';
else
oc := oc||', '||class_code||'('||priority||')';
end if;
cnt := cnt + 1;
end loop;
close oc_cur;
return oc;
exception
when no_data_found then      
return '';
end;
Does anyone tell me how to reference it in program unit? Does Oracle Reports 6i support this operation?

Answer 1

There hasn't been any changes to the way lexicals and bind variables work in Reports between 2.5 and 6i. There are different versions of PL/SQL and you might be hitting some problem here.
In your case, you shouldn't be using the query lexical "&p_where_clause" just the PL/SQL bind variable syntax ":p_where_clause". Since you're creating a PL/SQL cursor, you should probably use dynamic sql creation with a concatenation of the where clause to build up the SQL for the cursor. Check out the PL/SQL documentation for this.