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Medium severitysql

Oracle Database Error:
ORA-00900

What does this error mean?

Oracle could not parse the SQL statement because it uses invalid syntax, an unsupported statement type, or a statement that requires privileges not granted to the current session.

Common causes

  • 1SQL generated by an ORM or ETL tool uses non-Oracle syntax (e.g. MySQL-specific statements)
  • 2A stored procedure call is missing the CALL or EXECUTE keyword
  • 3Comment syntax or line endings are malformed
  • 4Using SQL:1999 or T-SQL features not supported in Oracle

How to fix it

  1. 1Step 1: Print the exact SQL being sent to Oracle and test it in SQL*Plus or SQL Developer.
  2. 2Step 2: Check for non-Oracle syntax: LIMIT/OFFSET → `FETCH FIRST N ROWS ONLY`, ISNULL → `NVL`, backticks → double-quotes.
  3. 3Step 3: Wrap procedure calls in `BEGIN ... END;` or use `CALL procedure_name();`.
  4. 4Step 4: Ensure the JDBC or ODBC driver is configured for Oracle dialect.
  5. 5Step 5: Remove any trailing semicolons from single statements passed via JDBC.

Example log output

ORA-00900: invalid SQL statement
Line 1: BEGIN TRUNCATE TABLE staging_orders; END;

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common cause in ADF pipelines?

Using T-SQL syntax in an Oracle-targeted script activity. Check for GO statements, square-bracket identifiers, and TOP N instead of FETCH FIRST N ROWS ONLY.

Source · docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-00900

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