Error while executing sql script!

I am defining a variable in "userdata.sql",its contents are

SET DEFINE ON;
DEFINE name = Gaurav
DEFINE today =10/10/2011 --variable that contain date value.

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I am creating another file called xyz.s开发者_如何学Cql

@userdata.sql
DECLARE 
v_date DATE;
v_name varchar2(10);
BEGIN
v_date:='&today';
v_name:='&name';
dbms_output.put_line('name is '||v_name);
dbms_output.put_line('date is '||v_date);
end;

On execution of xyz.sql its throwing an error ora-01840 input value not long enough for date format. Please suggest the solution to it. The RDBMS i am using is ORACLE

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Change this line:

v_date:='&today';

to:

v_date:=to_date('&today','DD/MM/YYYY');

i.e. specify the date format (it could be 'MM/DD/YYYY' instead).