Question

I’m using ADO.NET to connect to an Oracle DB through ODBC. Everything is working fine, besides binding parameters with a simple SQL query:

Connection.Open();
IDbCommand command = Connection.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText = "SELECT length FROM activity_type WHERE name = :name_of_activity";
var parameter = command.CreateParameter();
parameter.ParameterName = ":name_of_activity";
parameter.Value = "Short_break";
command.Parameters.Add(parameter);
int result = Convert.ToInt32(command.ExecuteScalar());
Connection.Close();

It always returns 0 results (a null from ExecuteScalar() – the same from a reader). But if I’d put a straightforward SQL query like this: command.CommandText = "SELECT length FROM activity_type WHERE name = 'Short_break'" it would work like a charm. Whats more, I used similar constructions all over the code for INSERT INTO clauses, and they were OK.

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

From the docs for OdbcCommand.Parameters:

When CommandType is set to Text, the .NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC does not support passing named parameters to an SQL statement or to a stored procedure called by an OdbcCommand. In either of these cases, use the question mark (?) placeholder. For example:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = ?

In other words, your code should look like this:

Connection.Open();
IDbCommand command = Connection.CreateCommand();
command.CommandText = "SELECT length FROM activity_type WHERE name = ?";
var parameter = command.CreateParameter();
parameter.Value = "Short_break";
command.Parameters.Add(parameter);
int result = Convert.ToInt32(command.ExecuteScalar());
Connection.Close();

(You should probably be considering using using statements, mind you… otherwise if this throws an exception, you won’t be closing the connection.)