Running a script with comments in it

Question

Hello everybody.
I have a script file that has multi-line comments embraced within /* and */.
When I fetch it into the sql-buffer using the GET command and run it, it is giving me an error.
I'm providing the details of my query.
This is my script file:
     Whenever we use an UNION in a query, ORDER BY clause
     can appear only once and that too in the sub-query
     that follows the UNION keyword.
     The query takes the column names of the first sub-query.
     Hence the ORDER BY clause should contain the column names
     of the first sub-query.
     In the query that follows
     ORDER BY 1 and
     ORDER BY last_name
     produces the same result, while
     ORDER BY first_name
     results in an error saying that it is an unidentified column.
SELECT last_name, hire_date
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 90
UNION
SELECT first_name, hire_date
FROM employees
WHERE first_name LIKE 'K%'
ORDER BY 1
This is my SQL session:
SQL> GET order_by_union_rule.sql
1 REM
2 /*
3 Whenever we use an UNION in a query, ORDER BY clause
4 can appear only once and that too in the sub-query
5 that follows the UNION keyword.
6 The query takes the column names of the first sub-query.
7 Hence the ORDER BY clause should contain the column names
8 of the first sub-query.
9 In the query that follows
10 ORDER BY 1 and
11 ORDER BY last_name
12 produces the same result, while
13 ORDER BY first_name
14 results in an error saying that it is an unidentified column.
15 */
16 SELECT last_name, hire_date
17 FROM employees
18 WHERE department_id = 90
19 UNION
20 SELECT first_name, hire_date
21 FROM employees
22 WHERE first_name LIKE 'K%'
23* ORDER BY 1
24
SQL> /
REM
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00900: invalid SQL statement
Should I remove the comments before running the sql query?
Or is there any wrong with my query?
Please help me out.
HAVE A NICE DAY!

Answer 1

Hi,
Try this out.I hope it 'll work fine.
--REM
Whenever we use an UNION in a query, ORDER BY clause
can appear only once and that too in the sub-query
that follows the UNION keyword.
The query takes the column names of the first sub-query.
Hence the ORDER BY clause should contain the column names
of the first sub-query.
In the query that follows
ORDER BY 1 and
ORDER BY last_name
produces the same result, while
ORDER BY first_name
results in an error saying that it is an unidentified column.
SELECT last_name, hire_date
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 90
UNION
SELECT first_name, hire_date
FROM employees
WHERE first_name LIKE 'K%'
ORDER BY 1