title: Variables for Read-Only Oracle SQL Queries
body: <p>I am a read only user for a database and I have a task of adding some data into the system and need to verify my progress at every step. Adding and modifying the data is a task done in a portal and is not done directly from my SQL file.</p>
  
  <p>I have one SQL file with several, non-trivial SELECT statements, each of which I have to edit one or two values every time I go through this process. The values are the same between each of the statements. Each of these statements is run independently at different points of the process and combining the statements would make verification difficult and confusing. </p>
  
  <p>To simply an example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT *
  FROM cats
  WHERE name = 'pepper';
  
  SELECT *
  FROM dogs
  WHERE name = 'pepper';
  
  SELECT *
  FROM birds
  WHERE name = 'pepper';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the statements above, the name of all the pets is 'pepper', but I load data to these tables one table at a time and I cannot load dogs until I verify cats were loaded correctly. </p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to declare the name I'm searching for at the beginning of the file that will propagate into each of the SELECT statements, similar to declaring a variable in virtually every other language? It needs to have at least the scope of one file but does not need (not should it) have any larger scope.</p>