Selecting with a special character

Question

Hi,
I have a table in which an user can query via a sql prompt (accept) for a text he wants to search for. This search string can contain special characters like @,$,& etc but nog on a specific position. Sometimes they search for bbbb.hhhh_23, the next time the search for pppp & xxxx. I already thought that (double) quoting would help, tried escaping (\) also but still got errors with my procedure. So, how can I search those tables with the special chars and display the text the user is searching for?
Thanks!
Paul

Answer 1

Hi,
Please see the forum FAQ {message:id=9360002}
What exactly is the problem you're having?
What input are you giving, and what output are you expecting? Remember, you need to post something that the poeple who want to help you can run to re-create the problem and test their ideas. In this case, you need to post something like this:
"I'm running this in schema ATL5_TEST, which includes this table: CREATE TABLE TABLE_X ... with these rows: INSERT INTO table_x ....
When I run the script and set &search to 'A_B', I'm expecting these results ... because ... but instead, I'm getting these results ... As you can see, the results are missing ....
When I run the script and set &search to 'C%D', I'm expecting ... because ... but instead, I get this error message: ..."
Simplify the script as much as possible. For example, if the problem involves how to accept a certain character into a substitution variable, then you don't need to post 60 lines of PL/SQL code, even if your goal is to use that substitution vaiable in that PL/SQL code. Just post the ACCEPT statement, maybe a very simple "SELECT ... FROM dual;" query to get some results, a couple of inputs, and the expected outputs/
Never write, let alone post, unformatted code. Indent the code to show the scope of BEGIN, IF, LOOP, and so on.
When posting any formatted text (including, but not limited to, code) on this site, type these 6 characters:
\(all small letters, inside curly brackets) before and after each section of formatted text, to preserve spacing.
The EXCEPTION section you're using is only hiding details about the error.  Get rid of it.
Whenever you write dynamic SQL, start by displaying the SQL string *instead of* executing it.  for exampledbms_output.put_line (v_sql || ' = v_sql before EXECUTE IMMEDIATE');
-- execute immediate v_sql
-- into v_match_count;
When you get this much running, and the output is what you expect, then you can uncomment the EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statement.  Later, you'll want to comment out the call to put_line.