Hi,

You're right. I'm using the Microsoft ODBC Driver for Oracle. It would be difficult to switch to the Oracle ODBC driver since all my client workstations would have to be changed.

I tried the example in the MSKB#Q221189 article you mentioned. I got message 'ORA-20004' from the driver using aerror().

In the Oracle documentation Ora-20004 shows up twice:

"ORA-20004 Syntax error attempting to parse 'X'. "
"ORA-20004 - The object was specified with a syntax error."

My version of the Microsoft ODBC driver for Oracle is 2.573.6526.00.

But, really all I want is a string, like 'Update sucessful'. Is the only way to get this string is for it to be in a resultset??

Thanks for your help,

Paul


>Paul,
>From the error message, it appears you are using the Microsoft ODBC Driver for Oracle. The code in the specified message can only be used with the Oracle ODBC Driver. Can you change drivers in your environment? If not, you can get an example of using the MS driver from MSKB#Q221189.
>
>HTH.
>
>>Hi Mark,
>>
>>I want to return a string, like 'Update successful.' from my Oracle stored procedure. I saw the plsql code in the message #631727.
>>
>>I had a look at the thread you mentioned below. My clients are using the MS Oracle ODBC driver.
>>
>>I tried the ReturnCursor procedure that you and Larry talked about in other messages. I got the following odbc error message:
>>
>>***************************************
>>Connectivity error: [Microsoft][ODBC driver for Oracle][Oracle]ORA-06550: line 1, column 53:
>>PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "OUT" when expecting one of the following:
>>
>> . ( ) , * @ % & | = - + < / > at in mod not range rem => ..
>>
>>*********************************************
>>
>>Am I out of luck??
>>
>>Paul
>>
>>
>>
>>>To return a cursor you need an Oracle package. See:
>>>
>>>Re: Newbie question re: PL/SQL conditional code Thread #625442 Message #631727
>>>