Overriding Oracle Special Characters

[phobos123]

Is there a way to override the ampersand (&) in Oracle, so it is interpreted by the parser as an ampersand, and not a prompt character?

I have the following script. When the parser reaches the ampersand (&) it prompts me for an entry (which I do not want to have happen):

SELECT
STDNTLISTA.FIRST_NAME1 ,
STDNTLISTA.LAST_NAME ,
SPECIAL_REQUEST.DESCRIPTION ,
FROM
M_STDNTLISTA,
SRS.SPECIAL_REQUEST,

WHERE
( SRS.SPECIAL_REQUEST.DESCRIPTION IN ('Alternate Exam', 'Alternate Exams-Media & New Technology'))


Marcus
*****

[jkoopmann]

Two options.
1. you can turn off substitution variables completly by
SET DEFINE OFF

2. you can switch to a different substitution variable by
SET DEFINE ^ (or whatever you wish)