Question

I’m attempting to create a table with an automatic column, the value of which is computed using a function I’ve defined. However, when I try to create the table I keep getting ora-00907: Missing right parenthesis. Can anyone help?

Here is the CREATE code:

CREATE TABLE NEW_EMP2 (
SSN CHAR(9), 
EMP_NUM2 CHAR(5) automatic as newemp2id(SSN), 
Fname VARCHAR2(15), 
Lname VARCHAR2(15), 
Bdate DATE
)

Here is the code for the function newemp2id:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION newemp2id (i_ssn NCHAR) RETURN NCHAR
IS
BEGIN
RETURN 'E'||(1000+SUBSTR(i_ssn,6,4));
END

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

UPDATE: I’m using Oracle Express Edition on a Windows Vista machine, in case that makes any difference.

Answer 1

I hadn’t heard of the syntax prior to this, but all I could find is this PDF for Oracle RDB. RDB was/is a separate product for Oracle databases… Confirmed – not supported on 10g

Use a BEFORE INSERT trigger instead, because I don’t believe the syntax you’re using is valid for Oracle Express (10g effectively) – there’s no mention in the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE documentation.

I’m not fond of using triggers, I’d prefer to have a single stored procedure for inserting into given table(s) & only allow anyone to use the procedure rather than direct table access…

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER newemp2_before_insert
BEFORE INSERT
    ON new_mep2
    FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN

    -- Update created_by field to the username of the person performing the INSERT
    :new.emp_num2 := newemp2id(new.ssn)
END;

Though frankly, this is overcomplicated when it could be handled in a view:

CREATE VIEW vw_emp AS
  SELECT t.ssn,
         'E'||(1000+SUBSTR(i_ssn,6,4)) AS emp_num2
    FROM NEW_EMP2 t