Argument must be single variable or literal

[barry.marcus]

Why doesn't this work:

<$tabName="PATN_TEST">
<$Query="SELECT DISTINCT PATN_ISD FROM $tabName WHERE PATN_ISD > '20051231' ORDER BY PATN_ISD">

I get the error message "Argument must be single variable or literal"

Thanks.

[jason112]

you need to double escape dollar signs to get them in string constants.

<$Query="SELECT DISTINCT PATN_ISD FROM $$tabName WHERE PATN_ISD > '20051231' ORDER BY PATN_ISD">

This will put "FROM $tabName WHERE" in Query, which <SQL> will correctly parameterize.

[barry.marcus]

But that makes the query "SELECT DISTINCT PATN_ISD FROM $tabName WHERE PATN_ISD > '20051231' ORDER BY PATN_ISD" when it is sent to texis. I want it to be:

SELECT DISTINCT PATN_ISD FROM PATN_TEST WHERE PATN_ISD > '20051231' ORDER BY PATN_ISD

[barry.marcus]

Sorry. I see what you mean. Thanks, I think that worked.

[jason112]

Yeah I didn't notice $tabName is the name of the table (you'd think the variable name would've tipped me off X-| )

For that strfmt will insert the actual value:

<strfmt "SELECT DISTINCT PATN_ISD FROM %s WHERE PATN_ISD > '20051231' ORDER BY PATN_ISD" $tabName><$Query=$ret>

[mark]

SQL INJECTION WARNING!

Make sure "tabName" is not coming from the user via form input or similar. If it is they can change it to something that will change the meaning of your SQL. If it's based on user input (even if it's "hidden" on the form) it should be sanitized before use in SQL.