Syntax error but I'm too blind to see...

Question

Using the below SQL from my usrStartFrm.ASP page to ORA 8i I have set a page variable = a session variable
+++++++++++++++++++++++
dim usrLoginID
SUB usrStartFrm_onenter()
     usrLoginID = Session("LoginID")
End SUB
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
But I cannot return records using the following syntax.
SELECT DISTINCT
L.LOGINID,
B.BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME
FROM SODA.ASSIGNMENTS_TB A,
SODA.LOGINS_TB L,
SODA.BUSSEGMENT_TB B
WHERE A.FK_LOGIN_NO = L.LOGIN_NO
AND
A.FK_BUSSEGID = B.BUSSEGID AND
(L.LOGINID = '" & usrLoginID &" ')
ORDER BY B.BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME
NOR DOES THIS
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(L.LOGINID = '" & Session("LoginID") &" ')
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BUT if I change the sytax to a hard code
(L.LOGINID = 'ajgrasso')
The query works.
I know the page creates the variable because I print it out to the p;age as it loads..
SO I figure it must be the bugaboo string single double qutes issue.
Any Ideas.
Thanks beforehand
AJ

Answer 1

It does help somewhat to see the complete code. I can now see and understand how you are building your select statement including your variable and storing the select statement to another variable to be executed. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about ASP and javascript and so forth to be certain of the correct code. However, I can see a lot of similarities between what you are doing and how we build a select statement in PL/SQL and store it to a variable for dynamic execution. There are various ways of including variables within that select statement. About the best I can do is offer various legitimate syntaxes in PL/SQL and hope that you can see the similarities and will be able to adapt one or more of them. In each of the examples below, which demonstrate slightly different methods, I have used current_user for the Oracle user, but you can substitute os_user for current_user in any of them if you want the operating system user. However, note that it will include the domain, like your_domain\ajgrasso so you may need to do some parsing for proper comparison. If you don't get any errors, but it also doesn't return any rows, it might be due to something like that. Notice that, when building a select statement and storing it to a variable, all single quotes within the string must be doubled. That is, replace each single quote with two single quotes (not double quotes) within the string. Also, in Oracle, || is the concatenation symbol, not &. However, because you are using ASP and javascript, if they require double quotes and &, then you may have to experiment with such substitutions. Please see what you can derive from the following and let us know. Also, if it doesn't work for you, please be specific as to whether it returns an error message or if it just doesn't return any rows. A cut and paste of the run, as I have done below, would help.
SQL> -- test tables and data:
SQL> SELECT * FROM scott.assignments_tb
  2  /
FK_LOGIN_NO FK_BUSSEGID                                                        
          1           1                                                        
SQL> SELECT * FROM scott.logins_tb
  2  /
  LOGIN_NO LOGINID                                                             
         1 SCOTT                                                               
SQL> SELECT * FROM scott.bussegment_tb
  2  /
  BUSSEGID BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                                                 
         1 SCOTT bussegname                                                    
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> -- code samples using scott schema
SQL> -- instead of soda schema:
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE types_pkg
  2  AS
  3    TYPE weak_ref_cursor_type IS REF CURSOR;
  4  END types_pkg;
  5  /
Package created.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_procedure
  2    (p_weak_ref_cursor OUT types_pkg.weak_ref_cursor_type)
  3  AS
  4    CommandText VARCHAR2 (4000);
  5  BEGIN
  6    CommandText :=
  7    'SELECT      DISTINCT
  8             l.loginid,
  9             b.businesssegmentname
10       FROM      scott.assignments_tb a,
11             scott.logins_tb      l,
12             scott.bussegment_tb  b
13       WHERE      a.fk_login_no = l.login_no
14       AND      a.fk_bussegid = b.bussegid
15       AND      (l.loginid = SYS_CONTEXT (''USERENV'', ''CURRENT_USER''))
16       ORDER BY b.businesssegmentname';
17 
18    OPEN p_weak_ref_cursor FOR CommandText;
19  END test_procedure;
20  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.
SQL> VARIABLE g_ref REFCURSOR
SQL> EXECUTE test_procedure (:g_ref)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_ref
LOGINID                        BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                             
SCOTT                          SCOTT bussegname                                
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_procedure
  2    (p_weak_ref_cursor OUT types_pkg.weak_ref_cursor_type)
  3  AS
  4    CommandText VARCHAR2 (4000);
  5  BEGIN
  6    CommandText :=
  7    'SELECT      DISTINCT
  8             l.loginid,
  9             b.businesssegmentname
10       FROM      scott.assignments_tb a,
11             scott.logins_tb      l,
12             scott.bussegment_tb  b
13       WHERE      a.fk_login_no = l.login_no
14       AND      a.fk_bussegid = b.bussegid
15       AND      (l.loginid = ' || 'SYS_CONTEXT (''USERENV'', ''CURRENT_USER'')' || ')
16       ORDER BY b.businesssegmentname';
17 
18    OPEN p_weak_ref_cursor FOR CommandText;
19  END test_procedure;
20  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.
SQL> VARIABLE g_ref REFCURSOR
SQL> EXECUTE test_procedure (:g_ref)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_ref
LOGINID                        BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                             
SCOTT                          SCOTT bussegname                                
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_procedure
  2    (p_weak_ref_cursor OUT types_pkg.weak_ref_cursor_type)
  3  AS
  4    usrLoginID  VARCHAR2 (30);
  5    CommandText VARCHAR2 (4000);
  6  BEGIN
  7    usrLoginID := SYS_CONTEXT ('USERENV', 'CURRENT_USER');
  8 
  9    CommandText :=
10    'SELECT      DISTINCT
11             l.loginid,
12             b.businesssegmentname
13       FROM      scott.assignments_tb a,
14             scott.logins_tb      l,
15             scott.bussegment_tb  b
16       WHERE      a.fk_login_no = l.login_no
17       AND      a.fk_bussegid = b.bussegid
18       AND      (l.loginid = ''' || usrLoginID || ''')
19       ORDER BY b.businesssegmentname';
20 
21    OPEN p_weak_ref_cursor FOR CommandText;
22  END test_procedure;
23  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.
SQL> VARIABLE g_ref REFCURSOR
SQL> EXECUTE test_procedure (:g_ref)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_ref
LOGINID                        BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                             
SCOTT                          SCOTT bussegname                                
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_procedure
  2    (p_weak_ref_cursor OUT types_pkg.weak_ref_cursor_type)
  3  AS
  4    usrLoginID  VARCHAR2 (30);
  5    CommandText VARCHAR2 (4000);
  6  BEGIN
  7    usrLoginID := SYS_CONTEXT ('USERENV', 'CURRENT_USER');
  8 
  9    CommandText :=
10    'SELECT      DISTINCT
11             l.loginid,
12             b.businesssegmentname
13       FROM      scott.assignments_tb a,
14             scott.logins_tb      l,
15             scott.bussegment_tb  b
16       WHERE      a.fk_login_no = l.login_no
17       AND      a.fk_bussegid = b.bussegid
18       AND      (l.loginid = :usrLoginID)
19       ORDER BY b.businesssegmentname';
20 
21    OPEN p_weak_ref_cursor FOR CommandText USING usrLoginID;
22  END test_procedure;
23  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.
SQL> VARIABLE g_ref REFCURSOR
SQL> EXECUTE test_procedure (:g_ref)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_ref
LOGINID                        BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                             
SCOTT                          SCOTT bussegname                                
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_procedure
  2    (p_weak_ref_cursor OUT types_pkg.weak_ref_cursor_type,
  3       usrLoginID       IN  VARCHAR2)
  4  AS
  5    CommandText VARCHAR2 (4000);
  6  BEGIN
  7    CommandText :=
  8    'SELECT      DISTINCT
  9             l.loginid,
10             b.businesssegmentname
11       FROM      scott.assignments_tb a,
12             scott.logins_tb      l,
13             scott.bussegment_tb  b
14       WHERE      a.fk_login_no = l.login_no
15       AND      a.fk_bussegid = b.bussegid
16       AND      (l.loginid = :usrLoginID)
17       ORDER BY b.businesssegmentname';
18 
19    OPEN p_weak_ref_cursor FOR CommandText USING usrLoginID;
20  END test_procedure;
21  /
Procedure created.
SQL> SHOW ERRORS
No errors.
SQL> VARIABLE g_ref REFCURSOR
SQL> VARIABLE usrLoginID VARCHAR2(30)
SQL> EXECUTE :usrLoginID := SYS_CONTEXT ('USERENV', 'CURRENT_USER')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> EXECUTE test_procedure (:g_ref, :usrLoginID)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> PRINT g_ref
LOGINID                        BUSINESSSEGMENTNAME                             
SCOTT                          SCOTT bussegname