Dynamic SQL - PREPARE

Hi, anybody like to help a struggling Oracler?. One of our tables has a column listing the other tables to be accessed. I want to read a table name into a variable and then query that table for some  more data, therefore I have to use Dynamic SQL, but I cannot seem to get past  the PREPARE stage.

The statement: EXEC SQL PREPARE subcat_stmt FROM :select_stmt;

gives the error: ORA-00911: invalid character

select_stmt is created as follows..

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
        VARCHAR select_stmt[200];
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION; sprintf(select_stmt.arr,"SELECT song FROM rush WHERE album = 'Presto'");

I have tried all sorts of combinations of VARCHARs and char's as well as using  variables for column names but the same error always results. Any pointers as to why this is happening would be greatly appreciated.

Niall Fallon
fallon_at_mee.tcd.ie Received on Wed Nov 11 1992 - 20:16:51 CET