Confusing error about missing left parenthesis in SQL statement

Question

SQLPLUS says I have missing left parenthesis with this statement in my sql script..

CREATE TABLE people(
    id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR2
)         


        

Answer 1

You need to specify a size for the VARCHAR2 data type.

E.g. VARCHAR2(30)

SQL*Plus is looking for the brackets around the VARCHAR2 size definition.