30 SQL Developer Tips in 30 Days, Day 20: See, Click, Goto Error Messages

This question comes up very frequently:

Why can’t I see my compilation errors when I’m working with PL/SQL?

Because you are either:

using the wrong editor, or
not asking to see the errors

SQL Developer is the PL/SQL IDE for the database. So we obviously need to have those ‘fancy’ IDE features like a debugger, compilation message support, profiling, bookmarks, etc.

We provide this with the Procedure Editor.

Click on the error message, we'll move the cursor to the appropriate line number and cursor position. — Click on the error message, we’ll move the cursor to the appropriate line number and cursor position.

You invoke a procedure editor whenever you ask to create a new PL/SQL object, open an existing PL/SQL object from the connection tree, or open a file type associated with the procedure editor (pls, pks, pkb.)

If you insist on using the SQL Worksheet – think of it as a free-form scratchpad that you can send anything you want to Oracle…then you can still see your errors. You just have to ask for them.