solution for ORA-00933 - sql

Question

I'm tring to use join but facing this issue. I've pasted my query
select count(*) from table_a inner
join table_b on table_a.number = table_b.number
left outer join table_c on table_a.id = table_c.id
and table_a.number = table_c.number
order by number;
pls let me know what is wrong in the query...
-Vinod

Answer 1

Are you executing this query as part of an INSERT or DELETE?
If so, remove the ORDER BY. It's not needed anyway.
Error: ORA-00933: SQL command not
properly ended
Cause: You tried to
execute an SQL statement with an
inappropriate clause.
Action: The
options to resolve this Oracle error
are:
You may have executed an INSERT
statement with an ORDER BY Clause. To
resolve this, remove the ORDER BY
clause and re-execute the INSERT
statement. For example, you tried to
execute the following INSERT
statement:
INSERT INTO supplier (supplier_id,
supplier_name) VALUES (24553, 'IBM')
ORDER BY supplier_id;
You can correct the INSERT statement
by removing the ORDER BY clause as
follows:
INSERT INTO supplier (supplier_id,
supplier_name) VALUES (24553, 'IBM');
You may have tried to execute a DELETE
statement with an ORDER BY Clause. To
resolve this, remove the ORDER BY
clause and re-execute the DELETE
statement. For example, you tried to
execute the following DELETE
statement:
DELETE FROM supplier WHERE
supplier_name = 'IBM' ORDER BY
supplier_id;
You can correct the DELETE statement
by removing the ORDER BY clause as
follows:
DELETE FROM supplier WHERE
supplier_name = 'IBM';

Answer 2

How did you execute this query?
In Oracle SQL, there's no such thing as a statement separator like ";". That one is only used in PL/SQL and some tools allow you to put more than one statement in a file/editor, when you separate them with ";". Only so that they can execute them separately.
Long story short: remove the ";" and try again.
Oh and next time, tell us how you ran the query. We have to check our crystal balls to guess what your problem is.

Answer 3

You cannot order by a value which cannot be included in the result set. your result set aggregates multiple rows, each with its own value of NUMBER, into a single row. therefore the order by does not make logical sense. In this case your query only returns one row so ORDER BY is irrelevant.

Answer 4

When you transcribed your query to the anodyne test case you present here you inadvertently corrected it. Well, you introduced an ORA-00918 bug but once that is fixed the code runs fine...
SQL> create table table_a (col_1 number, id number)
2 /
Table created.
SQL> create table table_b (col_1 number)
2 /
Table created.
SQL> create table table_c (col_1 number, id number)
2 /
Table created.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> select count(*) from
2 table_a inner join table_b on table_a.col_1 = table_b.col_1
3 left outer join table_c on table_a.id = table_c.id
4 and table_a.col_1 = table_c.col_1
5 order by col_1
6 /
order by col_1
*
ERROR at line 5:
ORA-00918: column ambiguously defined
SQL> select count(*) from
2 table_a inner join table_b on table_a.col_1 = table_b.col_1
3 left outer join table_c on table_a.id = table_c.id
4 and table_a.col_1 = table_c.col_1
5 order by table_a.col_1
6 /
COUNT(*)
----------
0
SQL>
Note: I have subsituted COL_1 for NUMBER as a column name. I don't think that's your problem, because using NUMBER unescaped in the query would hurl ORA-1747 not ORA-00933.
So, let's rule out the obvious: are you running on an ancient version of Oracle which doesn't support the ANSI join syntax, that is 8i or older?