Question

Possible Duplicate:
What does the colon sign “:” do in a SQL query?

Simple SQL question:
What does : stand for?

For example:

SELECT * FROM myTable
WHERE Employee_column = :P_EmplId;

The : isn’t exactly easy to google when you don’t know what this is called. Even searching here didn’t help. I’m using Oracle 11g if that makes any difference.

Answer 1

It is a bind variable:

A placeholder in a SQL statement that must be replaced with a valid
value or value address for the statement to execute successfully. By
using bind variables, you can write a SQL statement that accepts
inputs or parameters at run time. The following example shows a query
that uses v_empid as a bind variable: