Sequence number in Trigger

Question

I'm trying to create an insert trigger that will do the following:
1.) Grab the next sequence number from a sequence and use it as the value for the id_number column.
2.) Grab the SYSDATE and use it as the value for the create_date column.
I'm using Oracle 8.1.6 on HP-UX. Here's my syntax, so far:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER tI_GRANT_TEST_CHILD before INSERT on GRANT_TEST_CHILD for each row
declare curDate DATE;
declare idNumber NUMBER;
begin
     SELECT SYSDATE into curDate FROM DUAL;
     SELECT GRANT_TEST_SEQ.NEXTVAL into idNumber FROM DUAL;
     :new.CREATE_DATE := curDate;
     :new.ID_NUMBER := idNumber;
end;
I'm pretty new to Oracle, so I've probably got a syntax error. The trigger worked fine when I just had the create date functionality; but, I can't get the sequence stuff to work.
Also, anyone know any good links for Oracle syntax standards?
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

I don't see anything wrong with the syntax in your example, but the trigger can be simplified to:
create or replace trigger ti_grant_test_child
before insert on grant_test_child
for each row
begin
  select grant_test_seq.nextval
    into :new.id_number
    from dual;
  :new.create_date := sysdate;
end;
/You can type SHOW ERRORS after compiling in SQL*Plus to see the actual errors.