Error in inline not detected

I was stunned this weird phenomena:

SQL> select count(*)
  2 from lova_instanz where inst_id in (   3 select inst_id
  4 from struktur
  5 where sdoku_id= 5418031 and doku_id= 2822511   6 )
  7 ;

  COUNT(*)

         0

Elapsed: 00:00:09.69

From this SQLPLUS output, one would assume that the query itself is valid. But watch the next query (i.e. the inline view in the query above):

SQL> select inst_id
  2 from struktur
  3 where sdoku_id= 5418031 and doku_id= 2822511; select inst_id

       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: invalid column name

So why didn't Oracle recognize the first query as invalid? I tried this on 8.1.7.4 and 9.2.0.4 and the first invalid query was not recognized as such. The result of the query was of course hugely misleading, to say the mildest.

Does someone hava a good explanation? Received on Thu Nov 13 2003 - 10:43:28 CST