Oracle / PLSQL: ORA-01425 Error Message

Learn the cause and how to resolve the ORA-01425 error message in Oracle.

Description

When you encounter an ORA-01425 error, the following error message will appear:

• ORA-01425: escape character must be character string of length 1

Cause

You tried to execute a LIKE condition using an escape character, but you tried to define the escape character as a string longer than 1 character.

Resolution

The option(s) to resolve this Oracle error are:

Option #1

Try modifying your LIKE condition to use an escape character that is one character long.

For example, if you tried to execute the following SQL statement:

SELECT *
FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name LIKE 'H%!!%' ESCAPE '!!';

This example denotes the !! character as the escape character. However, since !! is two characters long, you would receive the following error message:

You could correct this error by using ! as the escape character, instead of !!.

SELECT *
FROM suppliers
WHERE supplier_name LIKE 'H%!%' ESCAPE '!';

This example returns all suppliers whose name starts with H and ends in %. For example, it would return a value such as 'Hello%'.