Well, firstly I'll point you at this community document: PL/SQL 101 : Substitution vs. Bind Variables   which may help to answer your question.

Nextly, I'll point out that you're asking a product question in the Getting Started space.  Whilst this space is great for introducing yourself and getting to know how to use the community, you should really post product questions in the product related spaces, so you can get the question in front of the experts for those products.

In this case, I'll move your question over to the SQL and PL/SQL space.

what tool are you using to execute SQL you are talking about?

SQL*Plus (12.1)

SQL> var a number
SQL> var b number
SQL> var c number
SQL> select :a, :b, :c from dual;


        :A         :B         :C
---------- ---------- ----------




SQL>

SQL Developer (17.4)

Using SQL Developer it seems bind variables are listed in alphabetic order.

Sapienti sat.

Regards

Etbin

Could you post examples of the bind variable prompting along with why the order is an issue.

Have you tried pre-prompting for the values e.g.

accept bind_value1 prompt "Enter value for bind_value1 : "

select '&bind_value1' from dual;

EDIT: Looking back at Etbin's post, maybe I've misunderstood the issue

Hmm, do they maybe appear in the following order?

Reference order within where clause, then reference order within select clause?

I'm sure there's a logical methodology behind the order Oracle prompts for the values, just maybe not one mere mortals can identify

Notorious wrote:

 

Hi Jarkko. I am using SQL Developer 3.2.10.09.

Okay, why you care about order?

Notorious wrote:

 

That's my take. I just wish I knew what it was so that maybe I could manipulate the naming or use of my variables in such a way that they would appear in the order that makes the most sense. It can get a little more chaotic as the number of variables increases.

Bind variables are not intended for user interaction. Don't try to force them to serve as user interaction. Substitute variables in Sql*plus got accept and prompt for user interaction.

https://docs.oracle.com/database/121/SQPUG/ch_twelve005.htm#SQPUG026

ACCEPT

Syntax

ACC[EPT] variable [NUM[BER] | CHAR | DATE | BINARY_FLOAT | BINARY_DOUBLE] [FOR[MAT] format] [DEF[AULT] default] [PROMPT text|NOPR[OMPT]] [HIDE]

Reads a line of input and stores it in a given substitution variable.

...

PROMPT text

Displays text on-screen before accepting the value of variable from the user.

PROMPT

Syntax

PRO[MPT] [text]

where text represents the text of the message you want to display.

Sends the specified message or a blank line to the user's screen. If you omit text, PROMPT displays a blank line on the user's screen.