ORA-00918: column ambiguously defined: how to find the column

Question

I'm getting the classic error:

ORA-00918: column ambiguously defined

Usually, I know how to solve it but my problem now is that I'm working with a 700 row query.

Is there a way to identify the column?

Answer 1

Have you tried to do a binary search?

e.g.

If your original query looks like

Select  col1 
       ,col2
       ,col3
       ,col4
from MyTable

1. you can start with commenting the 2nd half

Select  col1
       ,col2
       /*,col3
       ,col4 */
from MyTable

2. If you still get the error, run the query again commenting some column from the other half:

Select col1
       /*,col2 */
      ,col3
      ,col4
from MyTable

If you still get an error then your problem is with col1, otherwise you need to change col2.