Oracle / PLSQL: ORA-00971 Error Message

Learn the cause and how to resolve the ORA-00971 error message in Oracle.

Description

When you encounter an ORA-00971 error, the following error message will appear:

• ORA-00971: missing SET keyword

Cause

You tried to execute a UPDATE statement, but you missed the SET keyword.

Resolution

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

Option #1

Re-write your UPDATE statement to include the SET clause.

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

UPDATE suppliers
supplier_id = 1000;

You would receive the following error message:

You could correct this error by including the SET keyword as follows:

UPDATE suppliers
SET supplier_id = 1000;