Confusing error about missing left parenthesis in SQL statement

Question

SQLPLUS says I have missing left parenthesis with this statement in my sql script..

CREATE TABLE people(
    id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR2
)         


        

Answer 1

You are getting this error because you didn't specify the character with datatype varchar2. Try something like this:

CREATE TABLE people(
id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR2(20) );

Answer 2

You need to specify the size of Varchar2.

For example:- Name Varchar2(50)

Note:- The maximum size of the Varchar2 is 4000.

Answer 3

VARCHAR2 is a type that needs a maximum size/length. Try something like...

varchar2(50)

Your missing left parenthesis is the parenthesis that surrounds the size.

CREATE TABLE people(
    id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR2(50) 
);

Answer 4

You need to specify a size for the VARCHAR2 data type.

E.g. VARCHAR2(30)

SQL*Plus is looking for the brackets around the VARCHAR2 size definition.