Question

This is the error message: PLS-00428: an INTO clause is expected in this SELECT statement. Meanwhile, this is the procedure for testing displaying the system date:

CREATE OR REPLACE 
PROCEDURE "TEST_PROCEDURE"
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL;
END;

In the first place I don’t need to use that INTO Oracle is insisting for me to do. Is there other way around beside using a cursor (I’ve seen it here https://stackoverflow.com/a/6029963/1983024)? I think it should not be like that, this does run normally just like in MS SQL without using INTO or cursor.

Answer 1

Finally found a solution to the output I want (based on your responses) 😀

CREATE OR REPLACE 
PROCEDURE "TEST_PROCEDURE"
RET_DATE CHAR(10);
BEGIN
    SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MM/DD/YYYY') INTO RET_DATE FROM DUAL;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(RET_DATE);
END;

This displays the SYSDATE with format of MM/DD/YYYY. Still, thanks for the replies and ideas (mostly @Jeffrey Kemp). Oracle just lengthens what MS SQL can normally do in one line 😀