ORA-00936 missing expression

ORA-00936 missing expression

Cause: A required part of a clause or expression has been omitted. For example, a SELECT statement may have been entered without a list of columns or expressions or with an incomplete expression. This message is also issued in cases where a reserved word is misused, as in SELECT TABLE.

Action: Check the statement syntax and specify the missing component.

Reference: Oracle Documentation

ORA-00936 exception most commonly occurs when you try to execute SQL SELECT statement with one of the following syntax problems:

1. forget to list the columns in select statement

select from scott.emp
SQL> select from scott.emp;
select from scott.emp
       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00936: missing expression

2. use distinct after some column name

SQL> select ename, distinct sal from scott.emp;
select ename, distinct sal from scott.emp
              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00936: missing expression

3. add a extra comma in list of columns

SQL> select empno, ename, ,sal from scott.emp;
select empno, ename, ,sal from scott.emp
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00936: missing expression

4. execute select statement with into clause in SQL

SQL> select max(sal) into msal from scott.emp;
select max(sal) into msal from scott.emp
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00905: missing keyword

5. when we add a special character by mistake

SQL> select deptno, count(1) / from emp group by deptno;
select deptno, count(1) / from emp group by deptno
                          *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00936: missing expression

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