Cannot executing a SQL query through ODP.NET - invalid character error

Question

I'm trying to execute a SQL query through ODP.NET to create a table, but I always get an ORA-00911 'invalid character' error. The Errors object in the exception always has the text "ORA-00911: invalid character\n", even if there are no linebreaks in the SQL query itself.

The code I'm executing the SQL is this:

using (OracleConnection conn = new OracleConnection(<connection string>) {
using (OracleCommand command = conn.CreateCommand()) {
    conn.Open();
    command.CommandText = queryString;

    command.ExecuteNonQuery();         // exception always gets thrown here
}

queryString contains a single CREATE TABLE statement, which works fine when executed through SQL Developer

EDIT: the SQL I am executing is this:

CREATE TABLE "TESTSYNC"."NEWTABLE" (
  "COL1" NUMBER(*,0) NULL,
  "COL2" NUMBER(*,0) NULL
);

with linebreaks removed

Answer 1

Should you be using single quotes? or in fact any quotes at all?

Answer 2

Your quotes are OK (it just forces Oracle to treat your object names as case sensitive i.e. upper case the way you've written it) but I'm not at all sure you're allowed to define NUMBER that way with a *.

Answer 3

Other people have come across this issue - ODP.NET does not support multiple SQL statements in a text command. The solution is to wrap it in a PL/SQL block with EXECUTE IMMEDIATE around each statement. This lack of support for ; seems incredibly boneheaded to me, and has not improved my opinion of the oracle development team.

Furthermore, this seems to be an issue with oracle itself, as I have the same problems with the MS and ODBC oracle clients.

Answer 4

I wonder if it is the "*" in the sql have you tried the call without an * in the create? I bet it is yet another "feature" of the ODP.Net driver