Oracle Error ORA-20000

Error code

ORA-20000

Product

Oracle Database

Versions

Oracle Database 19c, 21c, 23ai and 26ai (the text is written by the application)

Category

PL/SQL & Triggers

Last reviewed

24 October 2026

What it means

ORA-20000 (and every code up to ORA-20999) is an error raised on purpose by PL/SQL code with RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR; the message text was written by that code's author, so it describes an application rule, not an Oracle failure.

Oracle reserves the range -20000 to -20999 for application errors. A stored procedure, function, trigger or package calls RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(error_code, message) with a number in that range and a message of up to 2048 bytes, and the caller receives it like any other Oracle error. Oracle's reference says only that RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR was called, and its action is to correct the problem the message describes, or ask the application administrator or DBA.

That means the meaning is in the text after the number, and the person who can explain it is whoever wrote that code. The ORA-06512 lines under it show which unit and line raised it. Oracle's own supplied packages use the range too: for example the DBMS_UTILITY documentation lists ORA-20000 for COMPILE_SCHEMA when there are "insufficient privileges for some object in this schema".

The optional third argument decides what happens to errors that were already on the stack: TRUE puts the new error on top of them, while the default FALSE replaces the stack with the new error. With FALSE, an error raised in an exception handler hides the original cause, so the stack shows only the application message.

Common causes

• A business rule in the application rejected the operation: a check in a procedure, package or trigger found invalid input or a disallowed state, and raised an error with a message for the user.
• A trigger enforces a rule that a constraint cannot express (for example no changes to dispatched orders) and refused the DML.
• An exception handler caught a lower-level error such as NO_DATA_FOUND and converted it into an application error with RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR.
• An Oracle-supplied package (owned by SYS) raised an error in this range, as some document in their exception lists.

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 owner, name, type, line, text
FROM all_source
WHERE UPPER(text) LIKE '%RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR%'
  AND text LIKE '%-20000%'
ORDER BY owner, name, line;

SELECT owner, name, type, line, text
FROM all_source
WHERE owner = 'SHOP'
  AND UPPER(text) LIKE UPPER('%cannot be cancelled%')
ORDER BY name, line;

SELECT owner, object_name, object_type
FROM all_objects
WHERE object_name = 'CANCEL_ORDER'   -- the unit named in the first ORA-06512 line
ORDER BY owner;

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.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE shop.try_cancel (p_order_id IN NUMBER, p_result OUT VARCHAR2)
IS
  already_dispatched EXCEPTION;
  PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (already_dispatched, -20000);
BEGIN
  shop.cancel_order(p_order_id);
  p_result := 'CANCELLED';
EXCEPTION
  WHEN already_dispatched THEN
    p_result := 'TOO_LATE';   -- SQLERRM holds the full message if you need it
END;
/

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE shop.cancel_order (p_order_id IN NUMBER)
IS
  v_status shop.orders.status%TYPE;
BEGIN
  SELECT status INTO v_status FROM shop.orders WHERE id = p_order_id;
  IF v_status = 'DISPATCHED' THEN
    RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20000,
      'Order ' || p_order_id || ' cannot be cancelled: it has already been dispatched');
  END IF;
  UPDATE shop.orders SET status = 'CANCELLED' WHERE id = p_order_id;
EXCEPTION
  WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
    RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20001, 'Order ' || p_order_id || ' does not exist', TRUE);
END;
/

Examples

An unhandled application error from a procedure

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. The procedure and message come from the RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR example in Oracle's PL/SQL Language Reference; the ORA-06512 lines follow Oracle's documented stack layout, and the schema and line numbers are illustrative.

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE account_status (due_date DATE, today DATE) IS
BEGIN
  IF due_date < today THEN
    RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20000, 'Account past due.');
  END IF;
END;
/

BEGIN
  account_status(DATE '2026-07-01', DATE '2026-07-09');
END;
/

ORA-20000: Account past due.
ORA-06512: at "SHOP.ACCOUNT_STATUS", line 4
ORA-06512: at line 2

Handling it by name with EXCEPTION_INIT

Not reproduced here: no Oracle Database is installed for this site. This is the documented example from Oracle's PL/SQL Language Reference, whose result is the line shown (printed by DBMS_OUTPUT, not raised as an error): the block handled the exception, so the caller sees no error.

DECLARE
  past_due EXCEPTION;
  PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (past_due, -20000);
BEGIN
  account_status(DATE '2026-07-01', DATE '2026-07-09');
EXCEPTION
  WHEN past_due THEN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(SQLERRM(-20000)));
END;
/

ORA-20000: Account past due.

How to prevent it

For application developers: keep a documented list of your -20xxx numbers and their meanings, write messages that say what was wrong and what to do, and include the key values (order id, customer id). Pass TRUE when converting another error so the cause is not lost.

For callers: handle the specific numbers you expect with EXCEPTION_INIT, show the message to the user where it is meant for them, and log the full stack for anything else.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• Exception handling in SQL
• Advanced stored procedures

Official documentation

• ORA-20000 (Oracle Database Error Messages)
• Raising exceptions explicitly, RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (Oracle PL/SQL Language Reference 19c)
• EXCEPTION_INIT pragma (Oracle PL/SQL Language Reference 19c)
• Retrieving error code and error message (Oracle PL/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.