How to use a variable in a LIKE clause in PL/SQL - oracle

Question

I am new to Oracle and learning; I am simply trying to run this T-SQL query
DECLARE #SearchObj varchar(100);
SET #SearchObj='%aldbrough%';
SELECT
obj_id,
name,
description
FROM
agnis.t_object
WHERE
lower(name) = ObjToSearch ;
I am using SQL Developer Oracle tool which also have a "Scratch Editor" to help with translation from T-SQL. When i run the tool it gave me this code
DECLARE
v_SearchObj VARCHAR2(100);
BEGIN
v_SearchObj := '%aldbrough%' ;
SELECT obj_id ,
NAME ,
DESCRIPTION
FROM agnis.t_object
WHERE LOWER(NAME) = ObjToSearch;
END;
but the same tool give me this error
Error report -
ORA-06550: line 10, column 26:
PL/SQL: ORA-00904: "OBJTOSEARCH": invalid identifier
ORA-06550: line 6, column 4:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored
06550. 00000 - "line %s, column %s:\n%s"
*Cause: Usually a PL/SQL compilation error.
so what is the correct syntax to use a variable into a LIKE clause that returns multiple rows?
I hope I do not have to use cursors etc for such of a simple statement as suggested in this question

Answer 1

Well, yes - those "translators" don't always do what they are supposed to.
This is how your code should look like:
use like, not = in the where clause
in PL/SQL, you have to put the result of the select statement into something - for example, locally declared variables (as my example shows).
So:
DECLARE
v_SearchObj VARCHAR2 (100) := '%aldbrough%';
--
v_obj_id t_object.obj_id%TYPE;
v_name t_object.name%TYPE;
v_description t_object.description%TYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT obj_id, NAME, DESCRIPTION
INTO v_obj_id, v_name, v_description
FROM agnis.t_object
WHERE LOWER (NAME) LIKE v_searchobj;
END;
If such a code returns an error - too_many_rows (and yes, it does), then one option is to loop through rows and do something (such as display those values):
DECLARE
v_SearchObj VARCHAR2 (100) := '%aldbrough%';
BEGIN
FOR cur_r IN (SELECT obj_id, NAME, DESCRIPTION
FROM agnis.t_object
WHERE LOWER (NAME) LIKE v_searchobj)
LOOP
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line (
'Name = ' || cur_r.name || ', description = ' || cur_r.description);
END LOOP;
END;

Answer 2

Since this is tagged SQL Developer, use a bind variable:
SELECT obj_id,
name,
description
FROM agnis.t_object
WHERE lower(name) = :ObjToSearch;
and SQL developer will pop up a dialog box where you can set the value of the ObjToSearch variable.
If you want to specify the bind variable in code then:
VARIABLE objtosearch VARCHAR2(50)
BEGIN
:objtosearch := '%aldbrough%';
END;
/
SELECT obj_id,
name,
description
FROM agnis.t_object
WHERE lower(name) = :ObjToSearch;
And run the statements as a script using F5 rather than as individual statements.