In the Oracle SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference (11g), in the section documenting the DEFINE command, is the following statement:
"You should avoid defining variables with names that may be identical to values that you will pass to them, as unexpected results can occur. If a value supplied for a defined variable matches a variable name, then the contents of the matching variable are used instead of the supplied value." -- http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e16604/ch_twelve017.htm#i2697507
It would seem to imply that DEFINEs such as:
DEFINE v1 = 'test'
DEFINE v2 = v1
would result in a V2 value of 'test' ("the contents of the matching variable"), but I am not able to replicate this; my V2 value is, as expected, equal to 'v1'. Does anyone know what this documentation actually means, and how it might be demonstrated?
TIA,
Gerard