Oracle Error ORA-00933

Error code

ORA-00933

Product

Oracle Database

Versions

Oracle Database 19c, 21c, 23ai and 26ai (wording differs: see below)

Category

SQL Syntax & Query Structure

Last reviewed

24 October 2026

What it means

ORA-00933 means Oracle parsed a complete statement and then found more text it did not expect: a clause Oracle does not support, a clause in the wrong place, or the rest of a string that ended too early. Current releases word it as "unexpected keyword at or near ..."; 19c says "SQL command not properly ended".

The parser reads the statement clause by clause. When it reaches a word that cannot continue the statement at that point, it stops and reports ORA-00933. Current releases name the keyword at or near the problem (shortened if it is long); 19c and 21c only say that the command was not properly ended. Oracle's reference lists the causes: a typo, unsupported syntax for a clause, an unsupported clause, or a string that ended early because of an apostrophe, so that the rest of it is read as keywords.

Most cases come from SQL written for another database. Oracle has no LIMIT clause (use FETCH FIRST n ROWS ONLY or ROWNUM), and UPDATE and DELETE do not take ORDER BY. Oracle's reference adds two less obvious cases for current releases: if the keyword in the message does not appear in your statement and CURSOR_SHARING is set to FORCE, an unexpected bind variable was found; and if a function you call builds and runs its own statement, the problem may be in that generated statement.

Common causes

• A clause from another database, such as LIMIT, or a clause Oracle does not accept in that statement, such as ORDER BY in UPDATE or DELETE.
• A typo or a missing keyword that makes the following words impossible to parse, for example a missing comma or operator.
• An apostrophe inside a string literal ends the string early, so the rest of the text is read as SQL.
• Two statements are sent in one call from application code, or a statement has extra text after its end.
• With CURSOR_SHARING set to FORCE, Oracle's reference says an unexpected bind variable can be found in the statement; the keyword in the message then does not appear in your SQL.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read the data dictionary (USER_, ALL_ and DBA_ views) and dynamic performance views (V$). They do not change data, privileges or settings, so they are safe to run first. DBA_ and V$ views need the matching privileges.

SELECT name, value, isses_modifiable
FROM v$parameter
WHERE name = 'cursor_sharing';

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

SELECT id, customer_id, order_date
FROM shop.orders
ORDER BY order_date DESC
FETCH FIRST 10 ROWS ONLY;

UPDATE shop.orders
SET status = 'ARCHIVED'
WHERE id IN (
    SELECT id FROM (
        SELECT id FROM shop.orders
        WHERE status = 'CLOSED'
        ORDER BY order_date
    )
    WHERE ROWNUM <= 100
);

SELECT id FROM shop.customers WHERE last_name = 'O''Brien';

SELECT id FROM shop.customers WHERE last_name = q'[O'Brien]';

ALTER SESSION SET cursor_sharing = EXACT;

Examples

LIMIT copied from MySQL or PostgreSQL

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. The result follows the current message format in Oracle's error reference, with the word at the error filled in; exactly which word Oracle names is illustrative. Oracle Database 19c prints "ORA-00933: SQL command not properly ended".

SELECT id, customer_id, order_date
FROM orders
ORDER BY order_date DESC LIMIT 10;

ORA-00933: unexpected keyword at or near LIMIT

ORDER BY in an UPDATE

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. The result is shown in the 19c form from Oracle's error reference; current releases word it as "unexpected keyword at or near" followed by the keyword. Oracle's UPDATE syntax has no ORDER BY clause.

UPDATE orders
SET status = 'ARCHIVED'
WHERE status = 'CLOSED'
ORDER BY order_date;

ORA-00933: SQL command not properly ended

How to prevent it

When porting queries from MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server, check each clause against Oracle's syntax: FETCH FIRST instead of LIMIT or TOP, no ORDER BY in UPDATE or DELETE. Test against the oldest Oracle release you support, because newer releases accept syntax older ones reject.

Always use bind variables for values in application code. That removes apostrophe problems entirely and protects against SQL injection at the same time.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• ORDER BY, GROUP BY and HAVING explained
• SQL injection explained

Official documentation

• ORA-00933 (Oracle Database Error Messages)
• SELECT: row_limiting_clause (Oracle SQL Language Reference 19c)
• UPDATE (Oracle SQL Language Reference 19c)
• Literals (Oracle SQL Language Reference 19c)

Last technically reviewed 24 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on Oracle Database Error Messages reference (26ai, 21c and 19c); not run locally. Messages and explanations follow Oracle's Database Error Messages reference; no Oracle Database was available, so the examples were not run locally.