Oracle / PLSQL: ORA-00936 Error Message

Learn the cause and how to resolve the ORA-00936 error message in Oracle.

Description

When you encounter an ORA-00936 error, the following error message will appear:

• ORA-00936: missing expression

Cause

You tried to execute a SQL statement but you omitted a part of the syntax.

Resolution

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

Option #1

This error most commonly occurs when you try to execute a SELECT statement and forget to the list of the columns in the SELECT statement.

For example, you tried to execute the following SELECT statement:

SELECT
FROM suppliers;

You would receive the following error message:

You can correct the SELECT statement by including columns after the SELECT keyword. For example:

SELECT supplier_id, supplier_name
FROM suppliers;