Understanding mysterious Oracle JDBC errors - ORA-00911: invalid character

Question

I am making Java 1.6-JDBC-Oracle 11 code. I created a table called employee with id,name and age. I am getting the error - ORA-00911: invalid character. How can I fix this ?

Here is my code-

import java.sql.*;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.FileInputStream;

public class HelloOracle {

    static String query =
        "SELECT emp_id, emp_name, emp_age " +
        "FROM employee;";

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String username = "";
        String password = "";
        Properties prop = new Properties();
        try {
            FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("Login.properties");
            prop.load(fis);
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }

        username = prop.getProperty("username").trim();
        password = prop.getProperty("password").trim();

        try {
            Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521/xe", username, password);

            Statement stmt = con.createStatement();

            ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(query);

            while (rs.next()) {
                System.out.print(rs.getString("emp_id"));
                System.out.print("  ,  ");
                System.out.print(rs.getString("emp_name"));
                System.out.print("  ,  ");
                System.out.print(rs.getString("emp_age"));
                System.out.println();
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            System.out.println("Exception: " + e);
        }

    }

}

Unfortunately, oracle error messages are not as informative as mysql or mssql and I am not able to trouble shoot them easily. I am also not able to see which line of code caused the exception.

score 52 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '12 at 23:58

52

Try removing the semi colon from the end of your SQL statement.

ie

static String query = "SELECT emp_id, emp_name, emp_age " +
    "FROM employee"; // no trailing ";" in the SQL

answered Aug 07 '12 at 23:58

Bohemian

412,405
93
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722

Yes, it works now. Sometimes i use ; and it does not complain. For example, at the end of create table statements. – sweet dreams Aug 08 '12 at 00:56
4

I've noticed that `executeQuery` doesn't like the trailing semicolon, but `execute` doesn't mind. – Justin Skiles Jan 29 '13 at 21:28
2

Wow! I can't believe that people actually pay money for Oracle DB. – isapir Jan 24 '18 at 23:27

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '16 at 23:32

1

remove the ; from inside the query

answered Sep 10 '16 at 23:32

Mehdi

1,340
15
23

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - [From Review](/review/low-quality-posts/13636895) – xenteros Sep 11 '16 at 10:16
It does provide a clear and simple answer to the question. – Mehdi Sep 11 '16 at 21:35

duffymo · Answer 3 · 2012-08-08T00:46:37.263

0

Bohemian is exactly right. I don't see why this was so hard. If you pop the message into Google, you'll get this:

http://www.dba-oracle.com/sf_ora_00911_invalid_character.htm

The semi-colon is the first problem noted.

Another recommendation: Don't do this.

catch(SQLException e){System.out.println("Exception: " + e);}

Do this instead:

catch(SQLException e){
    e.printStackTrace(); // better yet, log it.
}

It'll give you lots more information.

edited Aug 08 '12 at 00:46

answered Aug 08 '12 at 00:00

duffymo

305,152
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369
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Please upvote the question from -1 to 0. The ; works for create table statement too. I thought that its better to use it for select also. – sweet dreams Aug 08 '12 at 06:57
I down voted the question because cutting & pasting the error message into a search engine brought an answer back. It's your lack of initiative that I find worthy of the down vote, not the use of the semi-colon. – duffymo Aug 08 '12 at 09:21
1

I upvoted the question because `ORA-00911: invalid character jdbc` in Google returns this question as the first link. – Justin Skiles Jan 29 '13 at 21:29
Says less about the question's value and more about Page Rank and SEO. – duffymo Jan 29 '13 at 23:56
Can't imagine why this was voted down four years after the fact. True then; true today. – duffymo May 26 '16 at 19:33

Understanding mysterious Oracle JDBC errors - ORA-00911: invalid character

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