Question

I am having a problem with an Output parameter in C#/Oracle. I have isolated the code that I need to get working.

This is part of a much larger SQL statement, so do not worry too much if it doesn’t make sense. In short I need to copy a row, give it a new ID and return that new ID. I tried using “RETURNING” which did not work. I see no reason why the code below should not work, but I’m getting an “ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number” error. Can anyone see what I’m doing wrong?

using (OracleConnection conn = new OracleConnection(connString))
{
    // Open connection and create command.
    conn.Open();
    using (OracleCommand cmd = new OracleCommand())
    {
        cmd.Connection = conn;
        cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
        cmd.Parameters.Add("outValue", OracleType.Int32).Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
        cmd.CommandText = "SELECT seq.nextval INTO :outValue FROM dual";
         try
         {
             cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
         }
         catch (Exception e)
         {
             // This is just to see the exception when it fails.
         }
     }
 }

Answer 1

The name of the parameter doesn’t match.

cmd.Parameters.Add(":outValue", OracleType.Int32).Direction.......;
                    ^

I have also seen this variation on the query syntax

"BEGIN SELECT seq.nextval INTO :outValue FROM dual END;"