Passing value in procedure with single quotes intact

Question

HI,
I have the following procedure.
create or replace procedure p1( a varchar2) is
begin
execute immediate ' update emp set sal = 20*Sal + sal
where ename like ' || a;
end;
when I try to run this and pass a value to a. the single quotes
r removed and the entire string becomes.
'update emp set sal = 20*sal + sal where ename like scott'
hence the error.
now my problem is how can i make sure the scott goes like 'scott'
i.e the single quotes are intact. or otherwise 'scott%'
thanx in advance
Sreekant Vadlamani

Answer 1

You can also use triple quotes to do this. the effects of
multiple quotes can be seen below. The same stuff works in
procedures
Connected to:
Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.5.0.0 - Production
With the Partitioning and Java options
PL/SQL Release 8.1.5.0.0 - Production
SQL> select 'hello' from dual;
'HELL
hello
SQL> select ''hello'' from dual;
select ''hello'' from dual
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected
SQL> select '''hello''' from dual;
'''HELL
'hello'
SQL> select ''''hello'''' from dual;
select ''''hello'''' from dual
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected
SQL> select '''''hello''''' from dual;
'''''HELL
''hello''
SQL>