How to Escape Ampersand in Toad

How to escape ampersand in TOAD?

Try putting set define off at the beginning of your script. It should work with F5:

set define off;
insert into x values('hello & world'); 
set define on;

Oracle SQL - Escape ampersand in field name

The substitution is related to tool you are using and has nothing to do with column alias.

db<>fiddle demo

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Depending on the tool you could disable it like "set define off".

Related: Set define off not working in Oracle SQL Developer & How to escape ampersand in TOAD?

Oracle SQL escape character (for a '&')

the & is the default value for DEFINE, which allows you to use substitution variables. I like to turn it off using

SET DEFINE OFF

then you won't have to worry about escaping or CHR(38).

TOAD thinks &String as bind variable

1) start your script with set define off; (and run whole script with F5 key)

or

2) use 'DEV&'||'PROD' instead of 'DEV&PROD'
or

3) set another prefix symbol for variables

set define ~;
select 'drag&drop', ~column_name from ~table_name;

(you will be prompted for column_name and table_name, but not for 'drop')

How do I ignore ampersands in a SQL script running from SQL Plus?

This may work for you:

set define off

Otherwise the ampersand needs to be at the end of a string,

'StackOverflow &' || ' you'

EDIT: I was click-happy when saving... This was referenced from a blog.

Escaping ampersands in JSON for Oracle

Update

OP is using TOAD and not SQL*Plus.

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TOAD

In TOAD, there are three ways to execute statements without substituting a value for the ampersand(&):

• Menu Level

View -> TOAD Options: go to the "execute/compile" node/item and
uncheck the "Prompt for substitution variables" option.

• Editor Level

Right click in the editor and uncheck the "Prompt for substitution
variables" option.

• Execute as script using set define off

Most of the GUI based tools like SQL Developer, TOAD etc. now support a lot of SQL*Plus commands and executing as script seems quite similar to that in SQL*Plus. However, it is very much possible that older versions of the GUI tool might not support the SQL*Plus commands.

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SQL*Plus

The use of ampersand as a substitution variable is an Oracle SQL*Plus client feature.

In SQL*Plus you could do

• SET DEFINE OFF

For example,

SQL> SET DEFINE OFF
SQL> SELECT '{"this is the JSON && it contains an ampersand"}' str FROM dual;

STR
------------------------------------------------
{"this is the JSON && it contains an ampersand"}

Or,

• SET SCAN OFF

For example,

SQL> SET SCAN OFF
SQL> SELECT '{"this is the JSON && it contains an ampersand"}' str FROM dual;

STR
------------------------------------------------
{"this is the JSON && it contains an ampersand"}

SQL>

Or,

• Alternatively, you could use CHR(38) for the ampersand.

For example,

SQL> SELECT '{"this is the JSON '|| chr(38)||chr(38) ||' it contains an ampersand"}' str FROM dual;

STR
------------------------------------------------
{"this is the JSON && it contains an ampersand"}

SQL>

Query Help - String in where clause has & character

In TOAD, you can disable the prompt for substitution variables from the options dialog:

You need to uncheck:
View –> Toad Options –> Execute/Compile –> Prompt for Substitution variables.

How to enter special characters like & in oracle database?

If you are in SQL*Plus or SQL Developer, you want to run

SQL> set define off;

before executing the SQL statement. That turns off the checking for substitution variables.

SET directives like this are instructions for the client tool (SQL*Plus or SQL Developer). They have session scope, so you would have to issue the directive every time you connect (you can put the directive in your client machine's glogin.sql if you want to change the default to have DEFINE set to OFF). There is no risk that you would impact any other user or session in the database.

How to handle/use special characters like percent (%) and ampersand (&) in Oracle SQL queries

If you want to match Field_Name values that contain 'bla%bla&2', then you need to write this:

set define off
Select * From Some_Table Where Field_Name Like '%bla\%bla&2%' escape '\';

You get to specify which character you want to use to escape a following character (thanks should go to mathguy, not me). You also have to set define off to prevent sqlplus from trying to substitute values in a string.

If, however, you want to match Field_Name values that exactly equal the given string, then you do this instead:

set define off
Select * From Some_Table Where Field_Name = 'bla%bla&2';

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