Oracle PL/SQL select into variables

Question

I am trying to run the following query in SQL Developer, but I am receiving an error. I am trying to declare two local variables (var_num1 and payDate) and then set the var

Answer 1

You cannot use SELECT without INTO clause in PL/SQL. The output of the SELECT must be stored somewhere. Eg. table or variable or perhaps a record. See example below how to store result of the SELECT statement into record.

DECLARE
  var_num1 number; 
  payDate date;
  v_result Paycode%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN 
  var_num1 := 100; 
  payDate := '10/1/2013';

    SELECT * INTO v_result
    FROM Paycode
    WHERE PaycodeID = var_num1 and PaycodeDate = payDate;

END; 

Answer 2

If you want to get a resultset back in SQL Developer with this code block you will need to open a ref cursor for the query e.g.

DECLARE
  refCur REF CURSOR;
  refc refCur;
  var_num1 number; 
  payDate date;
  v_result Paycode%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN 
  var_num1 := 100; 
  payDate := '10/1/2013';

OPEN refc FOR
    SELECT * 
    FROM Paycode
    WHERE PaycodeID = var_num1 and PaycodeDate = payDate;

END;