NEWBIE: declare causes ora-00936

Hi Gurus,
have just upgraded from 817 on HP to 9204
using exp, install new DB and imp.

Now the simple scripts don't start...
eg:

declare
c number;
d number;
sqlstring varchar2(2000);
begin
select date from dual ;
END;
/
exit
--------------------
Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.5.0 - 64bit Production
JServer Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production

sqlstring varchar2(2000);
*
ERROR at line 4:
ORA-06550: line 7, column 8:
PL/SQL: ORA-00936: missing expression
ORA-06550: line 7, column 1:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

I am obviously missing something important.
Maybe also an installation problem.
Application using SQL is fine - only my scripts.

Any ideas ??
Rgds
Nick

Quote:

---

Originally posted by bc99
select date from dual ;

---

You mean sysdate.

Code:

---

SQL> select date from dual ;
select date from dual
      *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00936: missing expression

---

also you need to select into something

or you will get

Code:

---

  1  declare
  2  c number;
  3  d number;
  4  sqlstring varchar2(2000);
  5  begin
  6  select sysdate from dual ;
  7* END;
SQL> /
select sysdate from dual ;
*
ERROR at line 6:
ORA-06550: line 6, column 1:
PLS-00428: an INTO clause is expected in this SELECT statement

---

Many thanks the prompt replies -
I had hastily added the select from date as I needed
someting to follow the list of errors after the DECLARE.
The DECLARE was failing due to incomplete $LIB
parameters.
Once these were completed, the user can DECLARE everything and
doesn't complain anymore...

Thanks again
BC99 logged off