How to enter binds for a multi-valued parameter in SQL Developer

Question

I have a lot of SQL with named parameters that I need to be able to execute in SQL Developer. For SQL where the parameters are scalar values it\'s easy to paste the SQL into

Answer 1

This isn't a SQL Developer restriction, it's just how bind variables work. You're effectively doing:

select count(*) from foo 
where foo.id in ('1,2,3')

... which is really in (to_number('1,2,3')), hence the error. It'll work for a single value, give odd results for two values if your decimal separator is a comma, and fail for anything more.

You can't enter multiple values at a bind prompt, or supply multiple values to an in() with a single bind. You can cheat be a bit inventive though. The xmltable function will convert the comma-separated string into rows with one value in each:

var ids varchar2(50);
exec :ids := '1,2,3';
select * from xmltable(:ids);

COLUMN_VALUE
------------
1            
2            
3            

You can then use that as a look-up table:

select count(*)
from xmltable(:ids) x
join foo f on f.id = to_number(x.column_value);

  COUNT(*)
----------
         3