Contents

List of Examples

List of Tables

Title and Copyright Information

Preface

Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Related Documents

Conventions

What's New in SQL*Plus?

New Features in SQL*Plus Release 11.2

SQL*Plus Quick Start

SQL*Plus Resources

SQL*Plus Overview

SQL*Plus Prerequisites

Starting SQL*Plus Command-line

Starting SQL*Plus Instant Client

Connecting to a Different Database

Sample Schemas and SQL*Plus

Running your first Query

Exiting SQL*Plus

Part I SQL*Plus Getting Started

1 SQL*Plus User Interface

The Command-line Screen

Changing the Command-line Font and Font Size

2 Configuring SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus Environment Variables

SQLPATH Registry Entry

SQL*Plus Configuration

Site Profile

User Profile

Storing and Restoring SQL*Plus System Variables

Installing Command-line Help

Configuring Oracle Net Services

3 Starting SQL*Plus

Login Username and Password

Secure External Password Store

Expired Password

Changing your Password

Connecting to a Database

Net Service Name

Full Connection Identifier

Easy Connection Identifier

Connectionless Session with /NOLOG

Starting SQL*Plus

Starting Command-line SQL*Plus

Getting Command-line Help

Exiting SQL*Plus Command-line

SQLPLUS Program Syntax

Options

Logon

Start

Part II Using SQL*Plus

4 SQL*Plus Basics

Entering and Executing Commands

The SQL Buffer

Executing Commands

Listing a Table Definition

Listing PL/SQL Definitions

Running SQL Commands

Understanding SQL Command Syntax

Running PL/SQL Blocks

Creating Stored Procedures

Running SQL*Plus Commands

Understanding SQL*Plus Command Syntax

System Variables that Affect How Commands Run

Stopping a Command while it is Running

Running Operating System Commands

Pausing the Display

Saving Changes to the Database Automatically

Interpreting Error Messages

5 Using Scripts in SQL*Plus

Editing Scripts

Writing Scripts with a System Editor

Editing Scripts in SQL*Plus Command-Line

Listing the Buffer Contents

Editing the Current Line

Appending Text to a Line

Adding a New Line

Deleting Lines

Placing Comments in Scripts

Using the REMARK Command

Using /*...*/

Using - -

Notes on Placing Comments

Running Scripts

Running a Script as You Start SQL*Plus

Nesting Scripts

Exiting from a Script with a Return Code

Defining Substitution Variables

Using Predefined Variables

Using Substitution Variables

Where and How to Use Substitution Variables

Avoiding Unnecessary Prompts for Values

Restrictions

System Variables

Passing Parameters through the START Command

Communicating with the User

Receiving a Substitution Variable Value

Customizing Prompts for Substitution Variable

Sending a Message and Accepting Return as Input

Clearing the Screen

Using Bind Variables

Creating Bind Variables

Referencing Bind Variables

Displaying Bind Variables

Using REFCURSOR Bind Variables

6 Formatting SQL*Plus Reports

Formatting Columns

Changing Column Headings

Formatting NUMBER Columns

Formatting Datatypes

Copying Column Display Attributes

Listing and Resetting Column Display Attributes

Suppressing and Restoring Column Display Attributes

Printing a Line of Characters after Wrapped Column Values

Clarifying Your Report with Spacing and Summary Lines

Suppressing Duplicate Values in Break Columns

Inserting Space when a Break Column's Value Changes

Inserting Space after Every Row

Using Multiple Spacing Techniques

Listing and Removing Break Definitions

Computing Summary Lines when a Break Column's Value Changes

Computing Summary Lines at the End of the Report

Computing Multiple Summary Values and Lines

Listing and Removing COMPUTE Definitions

Defining Page and Report Titles and Dimensions

Setting the Top and Bottom Titles and Headers and Footers

Displaying System-Maintained Values in Titles

Listing, Suppressing, and Restoring Page Title Definitions

Displaying Column Values in Titles

Displaying the Current Date in Titles

Setting Page Dimensions

Storing and Printing Query Results

Creating a Flat File

Sending Results to a File

Sending Results to a Printer

7 Generating HTML Reports from SQL*Plus

Creating Reports using Command-line SQL*Plus

Creating Reports

Suppressing the Display of SQL*Plus Commands in Reports

HTML Entities

8 Tuning SQL*Plus

Tracing Statements

Controlling the Autotrace Report

Execution Plan

Statistics

Collecting Timing Statistics

Tracing Parallel and Distributed Queries

Execution Plan Output in Earlier Databases

SQL*Plus Script Tuning

COLUMN NOPRINT

SET APPINFO OFF

SET ARRAYSIZE

SET DEFINE OFF

SET FLUSH OFF

SET LINESIZE

SET LONGCHUNKSIZE

SET PAGESIZE

SET SERVEROUTPUT

SET SQLPROMPT

SET TAB

SET TERMOUT

SET TRIMOUT ON SET TRIMSPOOL ON

UNDEFINE

9 SQL*Plus Security

PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table

Creating the PUP Table

PUP Table Structure

Description and Use of PUP Columns

PUP Table Administration

Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands

Creating and Controlling Roles

Disabling SET ROLE

Disabling User Roles

Disabling Commands with SQLPLUS -RESTRICT

Program Argument Security

10 Database Administration with SQL*Plus

Overview

Introduction to Database Startup and Shutdown

Database Startup

Database Shutdown

Redo Log Files

ARCHIVELOG Mode

Database Recovery

11 SQL*Plus Globalization Support

Configuring Globalization Support in Command-line SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus Client

Oracle Database

NLS_LANG Environment Variable

Viewing NLS_LANG Settings

Setting NLS_LANG

Part III SQL*Plus Reference

12 SQL*Plus Command Reference

SQL*Plus Command Summary

@ (at sign)

@@ (double at sign)

/ (slash)

ACCEPT

APPEND

ARCHIVE LOG

ATTRIBUTE

BREAK

BTITLE

CHANGE

CLEAR

COLUMN

COMPUTE

CONNECT

COPY

DEFINE

Predefined Variables

DEL

DESCRIBE

DISCONNECT

EDIT

EXECUTE

EXIT

GET

HELP

HOST

INPUT

LIST

PASSWORD

PAUSE

PRINT

PROMPT

RECOVER

REMARK

REPFOOTER

REPHEADER

RUN

SAVE

SET

SET System Variable Summary

SET APPI[NFO]{ON | OFF | text}

SET ARRAY[SIZE] {15 | n}

SET AUTO[COMMIT]{ON | OFF | IMM[EDIATE] | n}

SET AUTOP[RINT] {ON | OFF}

SET AUTORECOVERY [ON | OFF]

SET AUTOT[RACE] {ON | OFF | TRACE[ONLY]} [EXP[LAIN]] [STAT[ISTICS]]

SET BLO[CKTERMINATOR] {. | c | ON | OFF}

SET CMDS[EP] {; | c | ON | OFF}

SET COLSEP { | text}

SET CON[CAT] {. | c | ON | OFF}

SET COPYC[OMMIT] {0 | n}

SET COPYTYPECHECK {ON | OFF}

SET DEF[INE] {& | c | ON | OFF}

SET DESCRIBE [DEPTH {1 | n | ALL}] [LINENUM {ON | OFF}] [INDENT {ON | OFF}]

SET ECHO {ON | OFF}

SET EDITF[ILE] file_name[.ext]

SET EMB[EDDED] {ON | OFF}

SET ERRORL[OGGING] {ON | OFF} [TABLE [schema.]tablename] [TRUNCATE] [IDENTIFIER identifier]

SET ESC[APE] {\ | c | ON | OFF}

SET ESCCHAR {@ | ? | % | $ | OFF}

SET EXITC[OMMIT] {ON | OFF}

SET FEED[BACK] {6 | n | ON | OFF}

SET FLAGGER {OFF | ENTRY | INTERMED[IATE] | FULL}

SET FLU[SH] {ON | OFF}

SET HEA[DING] {ON | OFF}

SET HEADS[EP] { | c | ON | OFF}

SET INSTANCE [instance_path | LOCAL]

SET LIN[ESIZE] {80 | n}

SET LOBOF[FSET] {1 | n}

SET LOGSOURCE [pathname]

SET LONG {80 | n}

SET LONGC[HUNKSIZE] {80 | n}

SET MARK[UP] HTML [ON | OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP {ON | OFF}] [SPOOL {ON | OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON | OFF}]

SET NEWP[AGE] {1 | n | NONE}

SET NULL text

SET NUMF[ORMAT] format

SET NUM[WIDTH] {10 | n}

SET PAGES[IZE] {14 | n}

SET PAU[SE] {ON | OFF | text}

SET RECSEP {WR[APPED] | EA[CH] | OFF}

SET RECSEPCHAR { | c}

SET SERVEROUT[PUT] {ON | OFF} [SIZE {n | UNL[IMITED]}] [FOR[MAT] {WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED]}]

SET SHIFT[INOUT] {VIS[IBLE] | INV[ISIBLE]}

SET SHOW[MODE] {ON | OFF}

SET SQLBL[ANKLINES] {ON | OFF}

SET SQLC[ASE] {MIX[ED] | LO[WER] | UP[PER]}

SET SQLCO[NTINUE] {> | text}

SET SQLN[UMBER] {ON | OFF}

SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}

SET SQLPRE[FIX] {# | c}

SET SQLP[ROMPT] {SQL> | text}

SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF}

SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}

SET TAB {ON | OFF}

SET TERM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

SET TI[ME] {ON | OFF}

SET TIMI[NG] {ON | OFF}

SET TRIM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

SET TRIMS[POOL] {ON | OFF}

SET UND[ERLINE] {- | c | ON | OFF}

SET VER[IFY] {ON | OFF}

SET WRA[P] {ON | OFF}

SET XMLOPT[IMIZATIONCHECK] [ON|OFF]

SET XQUERY BASEURI {text}

SET XQUERY ORDERING {UNORDERED | ORDERED | DEFAULT}

SET XQUERY NODE {BYVALUE | BYREFERENCE | DEFAULT}

SET XQUERY CONTEXT {text}

SHOW

SHUTDOWN

SPOOL

START

STARTUP

STORE

TIMING

TTITLE

UNDEFINE

VARIABLE

WHENEVER OSERROR

WHENEVER SQLERROR

XQUERY

13 SQL*Plus Error Messages

SQL*Plus Error Messages

COPY Command Messages

Part IV SQL*Plus Appendixes

A SQL*Plus Limits

B SQL*Plus COPY Command

COPY Command Syntax

Terms

Usage

Examples

Copying Data from One Database to Another

Understanding COPY Command Syntax

Controlling Treatment of the Destination Table

Interpreting the Messages that COPY Displays

Specifying Another User's Table

Copying Data between Tables on One Database

C Obsolete SQL*Plus Commands

SQL*Plus Obsolete Command Alternatives

BTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form)

COL[UMN] {column|expr} DEF[AULT] (obsolete)

DOC[UMENT] (obsolete)

NEWPAGE [1|n] (obsolete)

SET BUF[FER] {buffer|SQL} (obsolete)

SET COM[PATIBILITY]{V7 | V8 | NATIVE} (obsolete)

SET CLOSECUR[SOR] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

SET DOC[UMENT] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

SET MAXD[ATA] n (obsolete)

SET SCAN {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

SET SPACE {1|n} (obsolete)

SET TRU[NCATE] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

TTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form)

D SQL*Plus Instant Client

Choosing the SQL*Plus Instant Client to Install

Basic Instant Client

Lightweight Instant Client

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client by Downloading from OTN

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from Linux RPM Packages

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the UNIX or Windows Zip Files

List of Files Required for SQL*Plus Instant Client

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the 11g Client Release Media

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on UNIX or Linux

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Linux (from RPMs)

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Linux (from Client Media or Zip File) and UNIX

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows

Connecting to a Database with SQL*Plus Instant Client

AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER Connections with SQL*Plus Instant Client

Uninstalling Instant Client

Uninstalling SQL*Plus Instant Client

Uninstalling the Complete Instant Client

Index

List of Examples

2-1 Storing and Restoring SQL*Plus System Variables

3-1 The tnsnames.ora entry for the sales database

3-2 Start a command-line session to the sales database using the net service name

3-3 Full connection identifier for SALES1

3-4 Start a command-line session to the sales database using the easy connection identifier

3-5 CONNECT to the sales database using the easy connection identifier

3-6 Start a connectionless SQL*Plus session with /NOLOG

3-7 Starting SQL*Plus

4-1 Using the DESCRIBE Command

4-2 Using the DESCRIBE Command

4-3 Entering a SQL Command

4-4 Entering a SQL*Plus Command

4-5 Turning Autocommit On

4-6 Interpreting an Error Message

5-1 Using a System Editor to Write a SQL Script

5-2 Listing the Buffer Contents

5-3 Making an Error in Command Entry

5-4 Correcting the Error

5-5 Appending Text to a Line

5-6 Adding a Line

5-7 Running a Script

5-8 Defining a Substitution Variable

5-9 Using Substitution Variables

5-10 Using Double Ampersands

5-11 Passing Parameters through START

5-12 Prompting for and Accepting Input

5-13 Using PROMPT and ACCEPT in Conjunction with Substitution Variables

5-14 Creating, Referencing, and Displaying REFCURSOR Bind Variables

5-15 Using REFCURSOR Variables in Stored Procedures

5-16 Using REFCURSOR Variables in Stored Functions

6-1 Changing a Column Heading

6-2 Splitting a Column Heading

6-3 Setting the Underline Character

6-4 Formatting a NUMBER Column

6-5 Formatting a Character Column

6-6 Formatting an XMLType Column

6-7 Copying a Column's Display Attributes

6-8 Resetting Column Display Attributes to their Defaults

6-9 Printing a Line of Characters after Wrapped Column Values

6-10 Suppressing Duplicate Values in a Break Column

6-11 Inserting Space when a Break Column's Value Changes

6-12 Combining Spacing Techniques

6-13 Computing and Printing Subtotals

6-14 Computing and Printing a Grand Total

6-15 Computing the Same Type of Summary Value on Different Columns

6-16 Computing Multiple Summary Lines on the Same Break Column

6-17 Removing COMPUTE Definitions

6-18 Placing a Top and Bottom Title on a Page

6-19 Placing a Header on a Report

6-20 Positioning Title Elements

6-21 Indenting a Title Element

6-22 Displaying the Current Page Number in a Title

6-23 Formatting a System-Maintained Value in a Title

6-24 Creating a Master/Detail Report

6-25 Setting Page Dimensions

6-26 Sending Query Results to a Printer

7-1 Creating a Report Interactively

7-2 Creating a Report using the SQLPLUS Command

8-1 Creating a PLAN_TABLE

8-2 Creating the PLUSTRACE Role

8-3 Granting the PLUSTRACE Role

8-4 Tracing Statements for Performance Statistics and Query Execution Path

8-5 Tracing Statements Without Displaying Query Data

8-6 Tracing Statements With Parallel Query Option

8-7 To monitor disk reads and buffer gets.

9-1 Setting Restrictions in the PUP Table

10-1 Starting an Instance

10-2 Mounting the Database

10-3 Opening the Database

10-4 Shutting Down the Database

11-1 Configuring Japanese Support in SQL*Plus on Windows

11-2 Configuring Japanese Support in SQL*Plus on UNIX

11-3 Configuring Japanese Support in Oracle Database

B-1 Copying from a Remote Database to Your Local Database Using CREATE

List of Tables

2-1 Parameters or Environment Variables influencing SQL*Plus

2-2 Profile Scripts affecting SQL*Plus User Interface Settings

2-3 Commands in Profile scripts affecting SQL*Plus User Interface Settings

3-1 Commands Disabled by Restriction Level

5-1 SQL*Plus Editing Commands

6-1 Compute Functions

7-1 Equivalent HTML Entities

12-1 Number Formats

12-2 COMPUTE Functions

12-3 Variables Predefined at SQL*Plus Installation

12-4 SQL*Plus Error Log Column Definitions

12-5 Exit Behavior: AUTOCOMMIT, EXITCOMMIT, EXIT

12-6 Compatibility Matrix

12-7 XQUERY SET commands

A-1 SQL*Plus Limits

D-1 Instant Client Files in the SQL*Plus Package

D-2 Instant Client Files in the Basic OCI Package

D-3 Instant Client Files in the Lightweight OCI Package

D-4 Instant Client Files in the SQL*Plus Package

SQL*Plus®

User's Guide and Reference

Release 11.2

E16604-02

August 2010

SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference, Release 11.2

E16604-02

Copyright © 1996, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Primary Author:  Simon Watt

Contributor:  Luan Nim, Andrei Souleimanian, Senthilprabhu Dhamotharan, Mahantesh Savanur

This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license agreement or allowed by law, you may not use, copy, reproduce, translate, broadcast, modify, license, transmit, distribute, exhibit, perform, publish, or display any part, in any form, or by any means. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of this software, unless required by law for interoperability, is prohibited.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing.

If this software or related documentation is delivered to the U.S. Government or anyone licensing it on behalf of the U.S. Government, the following notice is applicable:

U.S. GOVERNMENT RIGHTS Programs, software, databases, and related documentation and technical data delivered to U.S. Government customers are "commercial computer software" or "commercial technical data" pursuant to the applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency-specific supplemental regulations. As such, the use, duplication, disclosure, modification, and adaptation shall be subject to the restrictions and license terms set forth in the applicable Government contract, and, to the extent applicable by the terms of the Government contract, the additional rights set forth in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software License (December 2007). Oracle USA, Inc., 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065.

This software is developed for general use in a variety of information management applications. It is not developed or intended for use in any inherently dangerous applications, including applications which may create a risk of personal injury. If you use this software in dangerous applications, then you shall be responsible to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure the safe use of this software. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates disclaim any liability for any damages caused by use of this software in dangerous applications.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This software and documentation may provide access to or information on content, products, and services from third parties. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates are not responsible for and expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind with respect to third-party content, products, and services. Oracle Corporation and its affiliates will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to your access to or use of third-party content, products, or services.

Preface

The SQL*Plus (pronounced "sequel plus") User's Guide and Reference introduces SQL*Plus and its uses, and provides a description of each SQL*Plus command.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Related Documents

Conventions

Audience

The SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference is intended for business and technical users and system administrators who perform the following tasks:

Develop and run batch scripts

Format, calculate on, store, print and create web output from query results

Examine table and object definitions

Perform database administration

This document assumes a basic understanding of the SQL language. If you do not have familiarity with SQL, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference. If you plan to use PL/SQL in conjunction with SQL*Plus, see the Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to all users, including users that are disabled. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Screen Readers and SQL*Plus

Your screen reader and SQL*Plus must be installed on the same computer to work properly.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing Access to Oracle Support Services

To reach Oracle Support Services, use a telecommunications relay service (TRS) to call Oracle Support at 1.800.223.1711. An Oracle Support Services engineer will handle technical issues and provide customer support according to the Oracle service request process. Information about TRS is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trs.html, and a list of phone numbers is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trsphonebk.html.

Related Documents

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

SQL*Plus Quick Reference

Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference

Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide

Oracle Database Concepts

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide

Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide

Oracle Database Advanced Application Developer's Guide

Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide

Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide

Oracle Database Heterogeneous Connectivity Administrator's Guide

Oracle Database Error Messages

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide

Oracle Database Reference

Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide

Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide

Pro*COBOL Programmer's Guide

Pro*C/C++ Programmer's Guide

Oracle Database installation and user's manuals for your operating system

Many of the examples in this book use the sample schemas, which are installed by default when you select the Basic Installation option with an Oracle Database installation. See Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

SQL*Plus error message documentation is available in SQL*Plus Error Messages. Oracle Database error message documentation is only available in HTML. If you only have access to the Oracle Database Documentation media, you can browse the Oracle Database error messages by range. Once you find the specific range, use your browser's "find in page" feature to locate the specific message. When connected to the Internet, you can search for a specific error message using the error message search feature of the Oracle Database online documentation.

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention | Meaning
boldface | Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic | Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.
monospace | Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.

What's New in SQL*Plus?

This section describes new features of the SQL*Plus Release 11.2 and provides pointers to additional information.

New Features in SQL*Plus Release 11.2

SQL*Plus Release 11.2.0.2 is a superset of SQL*Plus 11.2. This section describes new features introduced in SQL*Plus Release 11.2.0.2.

SET XMLOPTIMIZATIONCHECK

A new SET command specifies that only fully optimized XML queries and DML operations are executed. It is only to assist in developing and debugging, not for production.

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference

SET XMLOPT[IMIZATIONCHECK] [ON|OFF]

SQL*Plus Quick Start

These instructions are to enable you to login and connect to a database after you have installed SQL*Plus. You can connect to the default database you created during installation, or to another existing Oracle database.

SQL*Plus Resources

SQL*Plus Overview

SQL*Plus Prerequisites

Starting SQL*Plus Command-line

Starting SQL*Plus Instant Client

Connecting to a Different Database

Sample Schemas and SQL*Plus

Running your first Query

Exiting SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus Resources

SQL*Plus on the Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/sql_plus/.

SQL*Plus Discussion Forum at http://forums.oracle.com/forums/main.jspa?categoryID=84.

Oracle Documentation Library at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation.

SQL*Plus Overview

SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool that is installed with every Oracle Database installation. It has a command-line user interface.

There is also the SQL*Plus Instant Client which is a stand-alone command-line interface available on platforms that support the OCI Instant Client. SQL*Plus Instant Client connects to any available Oracle database, but does not require its own Oracle database installation. See the Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information on the OCI Instant Client.

SQL*Plus has its own commands and environment, and it provides access to the Oracle Database. It enables you to enter and execute SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus and operating system commands to perform the following:

Format, perform calculations on, store, and print from query results

Examine table and object definitions

Develop and run batch scripts

Perform database administration

You can use SQL*Plus to generate reports interactively, to generate reports as batch processes, and to output the results to text file, to screen, or to HTML file for browsing on the Internet. You can generate reports dynamically using the HTML output facility of SQL*Plus.

Who Can Use SQL*Plus

The SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL command languages are powerful enough to serve the needs of users with some database experience, yet straightforward enough for new users who are just learning to work with the Oracle Database.

The SQL*Plus language is easy to use. For example, to rename a column labelled LAST_NAME with the heading "Family Name", enter the command:

COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'Family Name'

Similarly, to list column definitions for the EMPLOYEES table, enter the command:

DESCRIBE EMPLOYEES

How Can I Learn SQL*Plus

There are several sources available to assist you to learn SQL*Plus:

Part II of this Guide, Using SQL*Plus

Help for SQL*Plus, Command-line help

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals

An instructor-led course run by Oracle. This is a comprehensive hands-on course taking the student through all aspects of using SQL*Plus to access Oracle Database.

More Oracle Database 11g Training

To find more useful Oracle courses, go to http://www.oracle.com/education.

How to Use the SQL*Plus Guide

This guide provides information about SQL*Plus that applies to all operating systems. It also includes some Windows and UNIX specific information. Some aspects of SQL*Plus may differ on each operating system. Operating system specific details are covered in the Oracle Database Installation Guide provided for your system. Use these operating system specific guides in conjunction with this SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.

Throughout this guide, examples showing how to enter commands use a common command syntax and a common set of sample tables. The tables are described in "Sample Schemas and SQL*Plus".

SQL*Plus Command-line Architecture

SQL*Plus command-line uses a two-tier model comprising:

Client (command-line user interface).

Database (Oracle Database).

The two tiers may be on the same machine.

SQL*Plus Client

The command-line user interface is the character-based terminal implementation.

Oracle Database

Oracle Database Net components provide communication between the SQL*Plus Client and Oracle Database.

SQL*Plus Prerequisites

SQL*Plus is a component of Oracle Database. SQL*Plus is installed by default when you install the Oracle Database.

Some aspects of Oracle Database and SQL*Plus differ from one computer and operating system to another. These topics are discussed in the Oracle Database Installation Guide for each operating system that SQL*Plus supports.

What is necessary before you can run SQL*Plus?

Install Oracle Database or Oracle Client. See the Oracle Database Installation Guide for your operating system available at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/.

Obtain an Oracle Database login username and password during installation or from your Database Administrator. See Login Username and Password.

Ensure a sample database is installed and that you have a login username and password for it during Oracle Database installation. See Sample Schemas and SQL*Plus.

Create a default database during installation or obtain the connection identifier for the Oracle Database you want to connect to from your Database Administrator. See Connecting to a Database.

Ensure the database you want to connect to is started. See the STARTUP command.

SQL*Plus Date Format

The default date format in SQL*Plus is determined by the database NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter and may use a date format displaying two digit years. You can use the SQL TO_CHAR function, or the SQL*Plus COLUMN FORMAT command in your SELECT statements to control the way dates are displayed in your report.

Starting SQL*Plus Command-line

The SQL*Plus executable is usually installed in $ORACLE_HOME/bin, which is usually included in your operating system PATH environment variable. You may need to change directory to the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory to start SQL*Plus.

In the following examples, you are prompted to enter the database account password.

An example using an Easy Connection identifier to connect to the HR schema in the MYDB database running on mymachine is:

sqlplus hr@\"//mymachine.mydomain:port/MYDB\"

An example using a Net Service Name is:

sqlplus hr@MYDB

Net Service Names can be stored in a number of places, including Oracle Names. See the Net Services Reference Guide for more information.

If you want to use Net Service Names configured in a local Oracle Net tnsnames.ora file, then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to the directory containing the tnsnames.ora file. For example, on UNIX, if your tnsnames.ora file is in /home/user1 and it defines the Net Service Name MYDB2:

TNS_ADMIN=/home/user1
export TNS_ADMIN
sqlplus hr@MYDB2

This example assumes the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set, and the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora or ORACLE_HOME\network\admin\tnsnames.ora file defines the Net Service Name MYDB3:

sqlplus hr@MYDB3

The TWO_TASK (on UNIX) or LOCAL (on Windows) environment variable can be set to a connection identifier. This removes the need to explicitly enter the connection identifier whenever a connection is made in SQL*Plus or SQL*Plus Instant Client. This UNIX example connects to the database known as MYDB4:

TNS_ADMIN=/home/user1
export TNS_ADMIN
TWO_TASK=MYDB4
export TWO_TASK
sqlplus hr

To start SQL*Plus and connect to the default database

Open a UNIX or a Windows terminal and enter the SQL*Plus command:

sqlplus

When prompted, enter your Oracle Database username and password. If you do not know your Oracle Database username and password, ask your Database Administrator.

Alternatively, enter the SQL*Plus command in the form:

sqlplus username

You are prompted to enter your password.

SQL*Plus starts and connects to the default database.

Now you can start entering and executing SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus statements and commands at the SQL> prompt.

To start SQL*Plus and connect to a database other than the default

Open a UNIX or a Windows terminal and enter the SQL*Plus command:

sqlplus username@connect_identifier

You are prompted to enter your password.

Starting SQL*Plus Instant Client

SQL*Plus Instant Client is the SQL*Plus command-line without the need to install Oracle Database. For information about using it, see Starting SQL*Plus Command-line.

Because SQL*Plus Instant Client does not include a database, it is always 'remote' from any database server. To connect to a database you must specify the database using an Oracle Net connection identifier.

If TNS_ADMIN is not set, then an operating system dependent set of directories is examined to find tnsnames.ora. This search path includes looking in the directory specified by the ORACLE_HOME environment variable for network/admin/tnsnames.ora. This is the only reason to set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable for SQL*Plus Instant Client. If ORACLE_HOME is set when running Instant Client applications, it must be set to a directory that exists.

Connecting to a Different Database

From an existing command-line session, enter a CONNECT command in the form:

SQL> connect username@connect_identifier

You are prompted to enter your password.

Sample Schemas and SQL*Plus

Sample schemas are included with the Oracle Database. Examples in this guide use the EMP_DETAILS_VIEW view of the Human Resources (HR) sample schema. This schema contains personnel records for a fictitious company. To view column details for the view, EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, enter

DESCRIBE EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

For more information about the sample schemas, see the Oracle Database Sample Schemas guide.

Unlocking the Sample Tables

The Human Resources (HR) Sample Schema is installed as part of the default Oracle Database installation. The HR account is locked by default.

You need to unlock the HR account before you can use the HR sample schema. To unlock the HR account, log in as the SYSTEM user and enter the following command, where your_password is the password you want to define for the user HR:

ALTER USER HR IDENTIFIED BY your_password ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

For further information about unlocking the HR account, see the Oracle Database Sample Schemas guide. The HR user is primarily to enable you to access the HR sample schema and is necessary to enable you to run the examples in this guide.

Each table in the database is "owned" by a particular user. You may wish to have your own copies of the sample tables to use as you try the examples in this guide. To get your own copies of the HR tables, see your DBA or see the Oracle Database Sample Schemas guide, or you can create the HR tables with the script HR_MAIN.SQL which is located in the following directory on UNIX:

$ORACLE_HOME/demo/schema/human_resources/hr_main.sql

And on the following directory on Windows:

ORACLE_HOME\DEMO\SCHEMA\HUMAN_RESOURCES\HR_MAIN.SQL

To create the HR tables from command-line SQL*Plus, do the following:

Ask your DBA for your Oracle Database account username and password.

Login to SQL*Plus.

On UNIX, enter the following command at the SQL*Plus prompt:

SQL> @?/DEMO/SCHEMA/HUMAN_RESOURCES/HR_MAIN.SQL

On Windows, enter the following command at the SQL*Plus prompt:

SQL> @?\DEMO\SCHEMA\HUMAN_RESOURCES\HR_MAIN.SQL

To remove the sample tables, perform the same steps but substitute HR_DROP.SQL for HR_MAIN.SQL.

Running your first Query

To describe a database object, for example, column details for EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, enter a DESCRIBE command like:

DESCRIBE EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

which produces the following output:

Description of describe.gif follows
Description of the illustration describe.gif

To rename the column headings, and to select data from the HR sample schema view, EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, enter

COLUMN FIRST_NAME HEADING "First Name"
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING "Family Name"
SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE LAST_NAME LIKE 'K%';

which produces the following output:

Description of selectout.gif follows
Description of the illustration selectout.gif

Exiting SQL*Plus

To exit SQL*Plus command-line, enter EXIT.

Part I

SQL*Plus Getting Started

Part 1 provides the information you need to get started with SQL*Plus. It describes the command-line user interface, provides configuration information and information you need to log in and run SQL*Plus.

Part 1 contains the following chapters:

SQL*Plus User Interface

Configuring SQL*Plus

Starting SQL*Plus

1 SQL*Plus User Interface

This chapter describes the SQL*Plus command-line user interface. It contains the following topics:

The Command-line Screen

Changing the Command-line Font and Font Size

The Command-line Screen

The following image shows the SQL*Plus command-line interface.

The SQL*Plus command-line interface is standard on all operating systems.

Description of cmdline2.gif follows
Description of the illustration cmdline2.gif

When SQL*Plus starts, it displays the date and time, the SQL*Plus version and copyright information before the SQL*Plus prompt appears. The default prompt for SQL*Plus command-line is:

SQL>

Changing the Command-line Font and Font Size

In Windows, from a Command Prompt, open the Command Prompt Properties dialog to set the font and font size used in the SQL*Plus command-line interface.

To Change the Command-line Interface Font and Font Size

Right click in the command-line interface title bar.

Click Properties. The Window Preview box displays the current window's relative size on your monitor based on your font and font size selections. The Selected Font: box displays a sample of the current font.

Click the Font tab.

Select the font size to use from the Size box. Raster font sizes are shown as width by height in pixels. TrueType font sizes are shown as height in pixels.

Select the font to use from the Font box.

Select the Bold Fonts check box if you want to use a bold version of the font.

For more information about changing Command Prompt properties, see Windows Help or click Help in the Command Prompt Properties dialog.

2 Configuring SQL*Plus

This chapter explains how to configure your SQL*Plus command-line environment. It has the following topics:

SQL*Plus Environment Variables

SQL*Plus Configuration

SQL*Plus Environment Variables

These environment variables specify the location or path of files used by SQL*Plus. For other environment variables that influence the behavior of SQL*Plus, see the Oracle Database Administrator's Reference.

Table 2-1 Parameters or Environment Variables influencing SQL*Plus

Parameter or Variable
Description

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Environment variable to specify the path used to search for libraries on UNIX and Linux. The environment variable may have a different name on some operating systems, such as DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on Apple Mac OS, LIBPATH on IBM/AIX-5L, and SHLIB_PATH on HP-UX. Not applicable to Windows operating systems.

Example

$ORACLE_HOME/lib

LOCAL

Windows environment variable to specify a connection string. Performs the same function as TWO_TASK on UNIX.

NLS_LANG

Environment variable to specify globalization behavior.

Example

american_america.utf8

ORACLE_HOME

Environment variable to specify where SQL*Plus is installed. It is also used by SQL*Plus to specify where message files are located.

Examples:

d:\oracle\10g
/u01/app/oracle/product/v10g

ORA_EDITION

Environment variable to specify the database edition to use. If you specify the edition with the CONNECT or SQLPLUS command option, edition=value, it is used instead of ORA_EDITION. If no edition is specified in either the CONNECT or SQLPLUS command option, or in ORA_EDITION, SQL*Plus connects to the default edition.

ORA_NLS10

Environment variable to specify the locations of the NLS data and the user boot file in SQL*Plus 10.2. The default location is $ORACLE_HOME/nls/data. In a system with both Oracle9i and 10g, or a system under version upgrade, you should set ORA_NLS10 for Oracle 10g and set ORA_NLS33 for 9i. The default NLS location in 9i was $ORACLE_HOME/common/nls/admin/data.

ORACLE_PATH

Environment variable to specify the location of SQL scripts. If SQL*Plus cannot find the file in ORACLE_PATH, or if ORACLE_PATH is not set, it searches for the file in the current working directory.

Not applicable to Windows

ORACLE_SID

Environment variable to specify the database instance, optional

PATH

Environment variable to specify the path to search for executables, and DLLs in Windows. Typically includes ORACLE_HOME/bin

SQLPATH

Environment variable or Windows registry entry to specify the location of SQL scripts. SQL*Plus searches for SQL scripts, including login.sql, in the current directory and then in the directories specified by SQLPATH, and in the subdirectories of SQLPATH directories. SQLPATH is a colon separated list of directories. There is no default value set in UNIX installations.

In Windows, SQLPATH is defined in a registry entry during installation. For more information about the SQLPATH registry entry, see SQLPATH Registry Entry.

TNS_ADMIN

Environment variable to specify the location of the tnsnames.ora file. If not specified, $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin is used

Example

h:\network
/var/opt/oracle

TWO_TASK

UNIX environment variable to specify a connection string. Connections that do not specify a database will connect to the database specified in TWO_TASK.

Example

TWO_TASK=MYDB
export TWO_TASK
sqlplus hr

is the same as:

sqlplus hr@MYDB

SQLPATH Registry Entry

The SQLPATH registry entry specifies the location of SQL scripts. SQL*Plus searches for SQL scripts in the current directory and then in the directories specified by the SQLPATH registry entry, and in the subdirectories of SQLPATH directories.

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOME0 registry subkey (or the HOMEn directory for the associated ORACLE_HOME) contains the SQLPATH registry entry. SQLPATH is created with a default value of ORACLE_HOME\DBS. You can specify any directories on any drive as valid values for SQLPATH.

When setting the SQLPATH registry entry, you can concatenate directories with a semicolon (;). For example:

c:\oracle\ora11\database;c:\oracle\ora11\dbs

See the Registry Editor's help system for instructions on how to edit the SQLPATH registry entry.

SQL*Plus Configuration

You can set up your SQL*Plus environment to use the same settings with each session.

There are two operating system files to do this:

The Site Profile file, glogin.sql, for site wide settings.

Additionally, the User Profile, login.sql, sets user specific settings.

The exact names of these files is system dependent.

Some privileged connections may generate errors if SET SERVEROUTPUT or SET APPINFO commands are put in the Site Profile or User Profile.

The following tables show the profile scripts, and some commands and settings that affect the Command-line user interface.

Table 2-2 Profile Scripts affecting SQL*Plus User Interface Settings

This script ...
is run in the Command-line...

Site Profile (glogin.sql)

Can contain any content that can be included in a SQL*Plus script, such as system variable settings or other global settings the DBA wants to implement.

After successful Oracle Database connection from a SQLPLUS or CONNECT command.

Where /NOLOG is specified.

User Profile (login.sql)

Can contain any content that can be included in a SQL*Plus script, but the settings are only applicable to the user's sessions.

Immediately after the Site Profile.

Table 2-3 Commands in Profile scripts affecting SQL*Plus User Interface Settings

In a profile script, this command ...
affects the Command-line by ...

SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}

Also see the SQL*Plus Compatibility Matrix.

Setting the SQL*Plus compatibility mode to obtain the behavior the DBA wants for this site.

SQLPLUS command COMPATIBILITY Option

As for SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY but set with the SQLPLUS command COMPATIBILITY option.

SQLPLUS command RESTRICT Option

Starting SQL*Plus with the RESTRICT option set to 3 prevents the User Profile script from being read.

Site Profile

A Site Profile script is created during installation. It is used by the database administrator to configure site-wide behavior for SQL*Plus Command-line connections. The Site Profile script installed during installation is an empty script.

The Site Profile script is generally named glogin.sql. SQL*Plus executes this script whenever a user starts a SQL*Plus session and successfully establishes the Oracle Database connection.

The Site Profile enables the DBA to set up site wide SQL*Plus environment defaults for all users of a particular SQL*Plus installation

Users cannot directly access the Site Profile.

Default Site Profile Script

The Site Profile script is $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/glogin.sql in UNIX, and ORACLE_HOME\sqlplus\admin\glogin.sql in Windows. If a Site Profile already exists at this location, it is overwritten when you install SQL*Plus. If SQL*Plus is removed, the Site Profile script is deleted.

User Profile

For SQL*Plus command-line connections, SQL*Plus also supports a User Profile script. The User Profile is executed after the Site Profile and is intended to allow users to specifically customize their session. The User Profile script is generally named login.sql. SQL*Plus searches for the User Profile in your current directory, and then the directories you specify with the SQLPATH environment variable. SQL*Plus searches this colon-separated list of directories and their subdirectories in the order they are listed.

You can add any SQL commands, PL/SQL blocks, or SQL*Plus commands to your user profile. When you start SQL*Plus, it automatically searches for your user profile and runs the commands it contains.

Modifying Your LOGIN File

You can modify your LOGIN file just as you would any other script. The following sample User Profile script shows some modifications that you could include:

--   login.sql
--   SQL*Plus user login startup file.
--
--   This script is automatically run after glogin.sql
--
-- To change the SQL*Plus prompt to display the current user,
-- connection identifier and current time.
-- First set the database date format to show the time.
ALTER SESSION SET nls_date_format = 'HH:MI:SS';

-- SET the SQLPROMPT to include the _USER, _CONNECT_IDENTIFIER
-- and _DATE variables.
SET SQLPROMPT "_USER'@'_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER _DATE> "

-- To set the number of lines to display in a report page to 24.
SET PAGESIZE 24

-- To set the number of characters to display on each report line to 78.
SET LINESIZE 78

-- To set the number format used in a report to $99,999.
SET NUMFORMAT $99,999

See Also:

SET command for more information on these and other SET command variables you may wish to set in your SQL*Plus LOGIN file.

Using Predefined Variables for more information about predefined variables.

Storing and Restoring SQL*Plus System Variables

From the Command-line you can store the current SQL*Plus system variables in a script with the STORE command. If you alter any variables, this script can be run to restore the original values. This is useful if you want to reset system variables after running a report that alters them. You could also include the script in your User Profile script so that these system variables are set each time you start SQL*Plus.

To store the current setting of all system variables, enter

STORE SET file_name

Enter a file name and file extension, or enter only the file name to use the default extension .SQL. You can use the SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text} command to change the default file extension.

Restoring the System Variables

To restore the stored system variables, enter

START file_name

If the file has the default extension (as specified by the SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text} command), you do not need to add the period and extension to the file name.

You can also use the @ (at sign) or the @@ (double at sign) commands to run the script.

Example 2-1 Storing and Restoring SQL*Plus System Variables

To store the current values of the SQL*Plus system variables in a new script "plusenv.sql":

STORE SET plusenv

Created file plusenv

Now the value of any system variable can be changed:

SHOW PAGESIZE

PAGESIZE 24

SET PAGESIZE 60
SHOW PAGESIZE

PAGESIZE 60

The original values of system variables can then be restored from the script:

START plusenv
SHOW PAGESIZE

PAGESIZE 24

Installing Command-line Help

Command-line help is usually installed during Oracle Database installation. If not, the database administrator can create the SQL*Plus command-line help tables and populate them with SQL*Plus help data by running a supplied SQL script from SQL*Plus.

The database administrator can also remove the SQL*Plus command-line help tables by running a SQL script from SQL*Plus.

Before you can install or remove SQL*Plus help, ensure that:

SQL*Plus is installed.

The ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set.

The SQL*Plus help script files exist:

HLPBLD.SQL - to drop and create new help tables.

HELPDROP.SQL - to drop existing help tables.

HELPUS.SQL - to populate the help tables with the help data.

Running the hlpbld.sql Script to Install Command-line Help

Run the provided SQL script, HLPBLD.SQL, to load command-line help.

Log in to SQL*Plus as the SYSTEM user with:

SQLPLUS SYSTEM

You are prompted to enter the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user.

In UNIX run the SQL script, HLPBLD.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:

@$ORACLE_HOME/SQLPLUS/ADMIN/HELP/HLPBLD.SQL HELPUS.SQL

In Windows run the SQL script, HLPBLD.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:

@ORACLE_HOME\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP\HLPBLD.SQL HELPUS.SQL

The HLPBLD.SQL script creates and loads the help tables.

Running the helpdrop.sql Script to Remove Command-line Help

Run the provided SQL script, HELPDROP.SQL, to remove the command-line help.

Log in to SQL*Plus as the SYSTEM user with:

SQLPLUS SYSTEM

You are prompted to enter the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user.

In UNIX run the SQL script, HELPDROP.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:

@$ORACLE_HOME/SQLPLUS/ADMIN/HELP/HELPDROP.SQL

In Windows run the SQL script, HELPDROP.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:

@ORACLE_HOME\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP\HELPDROP.SQL

The HELPDROP.SQL script drops the help tables, and then disconnects.

Configuring Oracle Net Services

If you plan to connect to a database other than the default, whether on the same computer or another computer, you need to ensure that Oracle Net is installed, and the database listener is configured and running. Oracle Net services are used by SQL*Plus.

Oracle Net services and the database listener are installed by default during Oracle Database installation. For further information about installing and configuring Oracle Net, see the Oracle Database documentation at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation.

3 Starting SQL*Plus

This chapter describes how to start, login, and connect to a database, how to get help, and how to exit SQL*Plus.

Specific topics discussed are:

Login Username and Password

Connecting to a Database

Starting SQL*Plus

Exiting SQL*Plus Command-line

SQLPLUS Program Syntax

Login Username and Password

When you start SQL*Plus, you need a username and password to login to an Oracle Database schema. Your username and password identify you as an authorized user of the Oracle Database schema.

The database administrator (DBA) is responsible for creating your database account with the necessary privileges and giving you the username and password that enables you to access your account.

Default logins are created and you are prompted for associated passwords during Oracle Database installation. Some of the default login usernames created are:

SYS

SYSTEM

HR

Logins are created and displayed in messages during Oracle Database installation.

For further information about the default logins, see the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide.

Once you have logged in, you can connect under a different username using the CONNECT command. The username and password must be valid for the database. For example, to connect the username TODD to the default database using the password FOX, you could enter

CONNECT TODD

You are prompted to enter the password, FOX.

In the command-line interface, if you omit the username and password, SQL*Plus prompts you for them. Because CONNECT first disconnects you from your current database, you will be left unconnected to any database if you use an invalid username and password in your CONNECT command.

If you log on or connect as a user whose account has expired, you are prompted to change your password before you can connect.

If an account is locked, a message is displayed and connection as this user is not permitted until the account is unlocked by your DBA.

You can use the DISCONNECT command to disconnect from a database without leaving SQL*Plus.

Secure External Password Store

As a command-line alternative for large-scale deployments where applications use password credentials to connect to databases, it is possible to store such credentials in a client-side Oracle wallet. An Oracle wallet is a secure software container that is used to store authentication and signing credentials.

Storing database password credentials in a client-side Oracle wallet eliminates the need to embed usernames and passwords in application code, batch jobs, or scripts. This reduces the risk of exposing passwords in the clear in scripts and application code, and simplifies maintenance because you need not change your code each time usernames and passwords change. In addition, not having to change application code also makes it easier to enforce password management policies for these user accounts.

When you configure a client to use the external password store, applications can use the following syntax to connect to databases that use password authentication:

CONNECT /@database_alias

Note that you need not specify database login credentials in this CONNECT statement. Instead your system looks for database login credentials in the client wallet.

See Also:

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about configuring your client to use secure external password store and for information about managing credentials in it.

Expired Password

In the command-line interface, if your password has expired, SQL*Plus prompts you to change it when you attempt to log in. You are logged in once you successfully change your password.

Changing your Password

In the command-line interface, you can change your password with the PASSWORD command. See PASSWORD.

Connecting to a Database

You must connect to an Oracle Database (instance) before you can query or modify data in that database. You can connect to the default database and to other databases accessible through your network. To connect to another database over a network, both databases must have Oracle Net configured, and have compatible network drivers. You must enter either a connection identifier or a net service name to connect to a database other than the default.

The connection identifier or net service name is entered:

as an argument to the SQLPLUS Program Syntax when starting a command-line session.

as an argument to the CONNECT command from a current session.

Net Service Name

Your DBA is responsible for creating the databases you use and defining net service names for them in the tnsnames.ora file.

A net service name definition in the tnsnames.ora file has the syntax:

net_service_name=
(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=host)(PORT=port) )
(CONNECT_DATA=
(SERVICE_NAME=service_name) ) )

To use a net service name (alias), it must have an entry in the tnsnames.ora file on the machine running SQL*Plus. An entry in tnsnames.ora is not required if you use a connection identifier.

Example 3-1 The tnsnames.ora entry for the sales database

SALES1 =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=sales-server)(PORT=1521) )
(CONNECT_DATA=
(SERVICE_NAME=sales.us.acme.com) ) )

Example 3-2 Start a command-line session to the sales database using the net service name

SQLPLUS hr@SALES1

See the Oracle Database Net Services Reference and the Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide for more information about database connections and net service name definitions.

Full Connection Identifier

Depending on your configuration, use the full connection identifier syntax like:

(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=host)(PORT=port) )
(CONNECT_DATA=
(SERVICE_NAME=service_name) ) )

The SERVICE_NAME is the global database name entered during database creation. It combines a database name with a domain name. For example, the SERVICE_NAME sales.us.acme.com has a database name of sales and a domain of us.acme.com.

An INSTANCE_NAME is the name you give to the database instance during creation. It defaults to the SID you entered during database creation.

An Oracle System Identifier (SID) identifies a specific Oracle release 8.0 database instance.

You can optionally use an INSTANCE_NAME in place of the SERVICE_NAME phrase.

Use a SID in place of the SERVICE_NAME when connecting to an Oracle release 8.0 or earlier database.

Example 3-3 Full connection identifier for SALES1

SQLPLUS hr@\"(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=sales-server)(PORT=1521) )
(CONNECT_DATA=
(SERVICE_NAME=sales.us.acme.com) ) )\"

Easy Connection Identifier

The easy or abbreviated connection identifier has the syntax:

[//]host[:port][/service_name]

Example 3-4 Start a command-line session to the sales database using the easy connection identifier

sqlplus hr@\"sales-server:1521/sales.us.acme.com\"

Example 3-5 CONNECT to the sales database using the easy connection identifier

connect hr@"sales-server:1521/sales.us.acme.com"

The easy connection identifier can be used wherever you can use a full connection identifier, or a net service name. The easy syntax is less complex, and no tnsnames.ora entry is required.

Connectionless Session with /NOLOG

In the command-line interface, it is possible to start SQL*Plus without connecting to a database. This is useful for performing some database administration tasks, writing transportable scripts, or to use SQL*Plus editing commands to write or edit scripts.

You use the /NOLOG argument to the SQLPLUS command to start a connectionless command-line session. After SQL*Plus has started you can connect to a database with the CONNECT command.

Example 3-6 Start a connectionless SQL*Plus session with /NOLOG

SQLPLUS /NOLOG

Starting SQL*Plus

If you are connecting to a remote Oracle database, make sure your Oracle Net software is installed and working properly. For more information, see the Oracle Database Net Services Administrator's Guide.

When you start a SQL*Plus command-line session, and after a CONNECT command in that session, the site profile, glogin.sql, and the user profile file, login.sql, are processed:

After SQL*Plus starts and connects, and prior to displaying the first prompt.

After SQL*Plus starts and connects, and prior to running a script specified on the command line.

Prior to the first prompt when /NOLOG is specified on the command line and no connection is made.

The site profile file, glogin.sql is processed first, then the user profile file, login.sql.

Behavior in SQL*Plus 10.1 may be unexpected depending on the setting of SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY. For example, processing glogin.sql and login.sql after a CONNECT command only occurs with the default SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY setting of 10.1. For more information, see SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}.

Starting Command-line SQL*Plus

To begin using SQL*Plus, you must first understand how to start and stop SQL*Plus.

Example 3-7 Starting SQL*Plus

This example shows you how to start SQL*Plus:

Make sure that SQL*Plus has been installed on your computer.

Log on to the operating system (if required).

Enter the command, SQLPLUS, and press Return.

Note:

Some operating systems expect you to enter commands in lowercase letters. If your system expects lowercase, enter the SQLPLUS command in lowercase.

SQLPLUS

SQL*Plus displays its version number, the current date, and copyright information, and prompts you for your username (the text displayed on your system may differ slightly):

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.0.0 - Production on Mon Jun 2 16:29:01 2008
(c) Copyright 1982, 2008 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Enter user-name:

Enter your username and press Return. SQL*Plus displays the prompt "Enter password:".

Enter your password and press Return again. For your protection, your password does not appear on the screen.

The process of entering your username and password is called logging in. SQL*Plus displays the version of Oracle Database to which you connected and the versions of available tools such as PL/SQL.

Next, SQL*Plus displays the SQL*Plus command prompt:

SQL>

The SQL*Plus command prompt indicates that SQL*Plus is ready to accept your commands.

If SQL*Plus does not start, you should see a message to help you correct the problem.

Getting Command-line Help

To access command-line help for SQL*Plus commands, type HELP or ? followed by the command name at the SQL command prompt or in the iSQL*Plus Workspace Input area. See the HELP command for more information. For example:

HELP ACCEPT

To display a list of SQL*Plus commands, type HELP followed by either TOPICS or INDEX. HELP TOPICS displays a single column list of SQL*Plus commands. HELP INDEX displays a four column list of SQL*Plus commands which fits in a standard screen. For example:

HELP INDEX

Exiting SQL*Plus Command-line

If you cannot log in to SQL*Plus because your username or password is invalid or for some other reason, SQL*Plus returns an error status equivalent to an EXIT FAILURE command. See the EXIT command for further information.

When you are done working with SQL*Plus and wish to return to the operating system, enter EXIT or QUIT at the SQL*Plus prompt, or enter the end of file character, Ctrl+D on UNIX or Ctrl+Z on Windows.

SQL*Plus displays the version of Oracle Database from which you disconnected and the versions of tools available through SQL*Plus before you return to the operating system prompt.

SQLPLUS Program Syntax

You use the SQLPLUS command at the operating system prompt to start command-line SQL*Plus:

SQLPLUS [ [Options] [Logon|/NOLOG] [Start] ]

where: Options has the following syntax:

 -H[ELP]|-V[ERSION]
 |[[-C[OMPATIBILITY] {x.y[.z]] [-L[OGON]] [-M[ARKUP] markup_option]
  [-R[ESTRICT] {1|2|3}] [-S[ILENT]] ]

and markup_option has the following syntax:

 HTML [ON|OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP {ON|OFF}]
 [SPOOL {ON|OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON|OFF}]

where Logon has the following syntax:

 {username[/password][@connect_identifier]| / }
 [AS {SYSOPER|SYSDBA|SYSASM}][edition=value]

where Start has the following syntax:

 @{url|file_name[.ext]} [arg ...]

Warning:

Including your password in plain text is a security risk. You can avoid this risk by omitting the password, and entering it only when the system prompts for it.

You have the option of entering logon. If you do not specify logon but do specify start, SQL*Plus assumes that the first line of the script contains a valid logon. If neither start nor logon are specified, SQL*Plus prompts for logon information.

Options

The following sections contain descriptions of SQLPLUS command options:

HELP Option

-H[ELP]

Displays the usage and syntax for the SQLPLUS command, and then returns control to the operating system.

VERSION Option

-V[ERSION]

Displays the current version and level number for SQL*Plus, and then returns control to the operating system.

COMPATIBILITY Option

-C[OMPATIBILITY] {x.y[.z]

Sets the value of the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY system variable to the SQL*Plus release specified by x.y[.z]. Where x is the version number, y is the release number, and z is the update number. For example, 9.0.1 or 10.2. For more information, see the SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}system variable.

LOGON Option

-L[OGON]

Specifies not to reprompt for username or password if the initial connection does not succeed. This can be useful in operating system scripts that must either succeed or fail and you don't want to be reprompted for connection details if the database server is not running.

MARKUP Options

-M[ARKUP]

You can use the MARKUP option to generate a complete stand alone web page from your query or script. MARKUP currently supports HTML 4.0 transitional.

Note:

Depending on your operating system, the complete markup_option clause for the SQLPLUS command may need to be contained in quotes.

Use SQLPLUS -MARKUP HTML ON or SQLPLUS -MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON to produce standalone web pages. SQL*Plus will generate complete HTML pages automatically encapsulated with <HTML> and <BODY> tags. The HTML tags in a spool file are closed when SPOOL OFF is executed or SQL*Plus exits.

The -SILENT and -RESTRICT command-line options may be useful when used in conjunction with -MARKUP.

You can use MARKUP HTML ON to produce HTML output in either the <PRE> tag or in an HTML table. Output to a table uses standard HTML <TABLE>, <TR> and <TD> tags to automatically encode the rows and columns resulting from a query. Output to an HTML table is the default behavior when the HTML option is set ON. You can generate output using HTML <PRE> tags by setting PREFORMAT ON.

In SQL*Plus, use the SHOW MARKUP command to view the status of MARKUP options.

The SQLPLUS -MARKUP command has the same options and functionality as the SET MARKUP command. These options are described in this section. For other information on the SET MARKUP command, see the SET command.

HTML [ON|OFF]

HTML is a mandatory MARKUP argument which specifies that the type of output to be generated is HTML. The optional HTML arguments, ON and OFF, specify whether or not to generate HTML output. The default is OFF.

MARKUP HTML ON generates HTML output using the specified MARKUP options.

You can turn HTML output ON and OFF as required during a session. The default is OFF.

HEAD text

The HEAD text option enables you to specify content for the <HEAD> tag. By default, text includes a default in-line cascading style sheet and title.

If text includes spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes. SQL*Plus does not test this free text entry for HTML validity. You must ensure that the text you enter is valid for the HTML <HEAD> tag. This gives you the flexibility to customize output for your browser or special needs.

BODY text

The BODY text option enables you to specify attributes for the <BODY> tag. By default, there are no attributes. If text includes spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes. SQL*Plus does not test this free text entry for HTML validity. You must ensure that the text you enter is valid for the HTML <BODY> tag. This gives you the flexibility to customize output for your browser or special needs.

TABLE text

The TABLE text option enables you to enter attributes for the <TABLE> tag. You can use TABLE text to set HTML <TABLE> tag attributes such as BORDER, CELLPADDING, CELLSPACING and WIDTH. By default, the <TABLE> WIDTH attribute is set to 90% and the BORDER attribute is set to 1.

If text includes spaces, it must be enclosed in quotes. SQL*Plus does not test this free text entry for HTML validity. You must ensure that the text you enter is valid for the HTML <TABLE> tag. This gives you the flexibility to customize output for your browser or special needs.

ENTMAP {ON|OFF}

ENTMAP ON or OFF specifies whether or not SQL*Plus replaces special characters <, >, " and & with the HTML entities &lt;, &gt;, &quot; and &amp; respectively. ENTMAP is set ON by default.

You can turn ENTMAP ON and OFF as required during a session. For example, with ENTMAP OFF, SQL*Plus screen output is:

SQL>PROMPT A > B
A > B

With ENTMAP ON, SQL*Plus screen output is:

SQL&gt; PROMPT A > B
A &gt; B

As entities in the <HEAD> and <BODY> tags are not mapped, you must ensure that valid entities are used in the MARKUP HEAD and BODY options.

If entities are not mapped, web browsers may treat data as invalid HTML and all subsequent output may display incorrectly. ENTMAP OFF enables users to write their own HTML tags to customize output.

Note:

ENTMAP only takes effect when the HTML option is set ON. For more information about using entities in your output, see the COLUMN command.

SPOOL {ON|OFF}

SPOOL ON or OFF specifies whether or not SQL*Plus writes the HTML opening tags, <HTML> and <BODY>, and the closing tags, </BODY> and </HTML>, to the start and end of each file created by the SQL*Plus SPOOL filename command. The default is OFF.

You can turn SPOOL ON and OFF as required during a session.

Note:

It is important to distinguish between the SET MARKUP HTML SPOOL option, and the SQLPLUS SPOOL filename command.

The SET MARKUP HTML SPOOL ON option enables the writing of the <HTML> tag to the spool file. The spool file is not created, and the header and footer tags enabled by the SET MARKUP HTML SPOOL ON option are not written to the spool file until you issue the SQLPLUS SPOOL filename command. See the SPOOL command for more information.

SQL*Plus writes several HTML tags to the spool file when you issue the SPOOL filename command.

When you issue any of the SQL*Plus commands: EXIT, SPOOL OFF or SPOOL filename, SQL*Plus appends the following end tags and closes the file:

</BODY>
</HTML>

You can specify <HEAD> tag contents and <BODY> attributes using the HEAD and BODY options

PRE[FORMAT] {ON|OFF}

PREFORMAT ON or OFF specifies whether or not SQL*Plus writes output to the <PRE> tag or to an HTML table. The default is OFF, so output is written to a HTML table by default. You can turn PREFORMAT ON and OFF as required during a session.

Note:

To produce report output using the HTML <PRE> tag, you must set PREFORMAT ON. For example:

SQLPLUS -M "HTML ON PREFORMAT ON"

or

SET MARKUP HTML ON PREFORMAT ON

MARKUP Usage Notes

When MARKUP HTML ON PREFORMAT OFF is used, commands originally intended to format paper reports have different meaning for reports intended for web tables:

PAGESIZE is the number of rows in an HTML table, not the number of lines. Each row may contain multiple lines. The TTITLE, BTITLE and column headings are repeated every PAGESIZE rows.

LINESIZE may have an effect on data if wrapping is on, or for very long data. Depending on data size, output may be generated on separate lines, which a browser may interpret as a space character.

TTITLE and BTITLE content is output to three line positions: left, center and right, and the maximum line width is preset to 90% of the browser window. These elements may not align with the main output as expected due to the way they are handled for web output. Entity mapping in TTITLE and BTITLE is the same as the general ENTMAP setting specified in the MARKUP command.

If you use a title in your output, then SQL*Plus starts a new HTML table for output rows that appear after the title. Your browser may format column widths of each table differently, depending on the width of data in each column.

SET COLSEP, RECSEP and UNDERLINE only produce output in HTML reports when PREFORMAT is ON.

RESTRICT Option

-R[ESTRICT] {1|2|3}

Enables you to disable certain commands that interact with the operating system. This is similar to disabling the same commands in the Product User Profile (PUP) table. However, commands disabled with the -RESTRICT option are disabled even if there is no connection to a server, and remain disabled until SQL*Plus terminates.

If no -RESTRICT option is active, than all commands can be used, unless disabled in the PUP table.

If -RESTRICT 3 is used, then LOGIN.SQL is not read. GLOGIN.SQL is read but restricted commands used will fail.

Table 3-1 Commands Disabled by Restriction Level

Command
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3

EDIT

disabled

disabled

disabled

GET

disabled

HOST

disabled

disabled

disabled

SAVE

disabled

disabled

SPOOL

disabled

disabled

START, @, @@

disabled

STORE

disabled

disabled

SILENT Option

-S[ILENT]

Suppresses all SQL*Plus information and prompt messages, including the command prompt, the echoing of commands, and the banner normally displayed when you start SQL*Plus. If you omit username or password, SQL*Plus prompts for them, but the prompts are not visible! Use SILENT to invoke SQL*Plus within another program so that the use of SQL*Plus is invisible to the user.

SILENT is a useful mode for creating reports for the web using the SQLPLUS -MARKUP command inside a CGI script or operating system script. The SQL*Plus banner and prompts are suppressed and do not appear in reports created using the SILENT option.

Logon

username[/password]

Represent the username and password with which you wish to start SQL*Plus and connect to Oracle Database.

Warning:

Including your password in plain text is a security risk. You can avoid this risk by omitting the password, and entering it only when the system prompts for it.

If you omit username and password, SQL*Plus prompts you for them. If you omit only password, SQL*Plus prompts for it. In silent mode, username and password prompts are not visible! Your username appears when you type it, but not your password.

@connect_identifier

Consists of an Oracle Net connect identifier. The exact syntax depends upon the Oracle Net configuration. For more information, refer to the Oracle Net manual or contact your DBA.

edition=value

The value for the Oracle Edition. An edition enables two or more versions of an object in a database. It provides a staging area where changed objects can be loaded into the database, compiled, and executed during uptime. This is particularly useful to reduce downtime associated with patching an application. edition=value overrides any edition value specified in the ORA_EDITION environment variable. For more detailed information, see Oracle Database Advanced Application Developer's Guide.

/

Represents a default logon using operating system authentication. You cannot enter a connect identifier if you use a default logon. In a default logon, SQL*Plus typically attempts to log you in using the username OPS$name, where name is your operating system username. Note that the prefix "OPS$" can be set to any other string of text. For example, you may wish to change the settings in your INIT.ORA parameters file to LOGONname or USERIDname. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about operating system authentication.

AS {SYSOPER|SYSDBA|SYSASM}

The AS clause enables privileged connections by users who have been granted SYSOPER, SYSDBA or SYSASM system privileges.

/NOLOG

Establishes no initial connection to Oracle Database. Before issuing any SQL commands, you must issue a CONNECT command to establish a valid logon. Use /NOLOG when you want to have a SQL*Plus script prompt for the username, password, or database specification. The first line of this script is not assumed to contain a logon.

Start

@{url|file_name[.ext]} [arg ...]

Specifies the name of a script and arguments to run. The script can be called from the local file system or from a web server.

SQL*Plus passes the arguments to the script as if executing the file using the SQL*Plus START command. If no file suffix (file extension) is specified, the suffix defined by the SET SUFFIX command is used. The default suffix is .sql.

See the START command for more information.

Part II

Using SQL*Plus

Part II helps you learn how to use SQL*Plus, how to tune SQL*Plus for better performance, how to restrict access to tables and commands and provides overviews of database administration tools and globalization support.

Part II contains the following chapters:

SQL*Plus Basics

Using Scripts in SQL*Plus

Formatting SQL*Plus Reports

Generating HTML Reports from SQL*Plus

Tuning SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus Security

Database Administration with SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus Globalization Support

4 SQL*Plus Basics

This chapter helps you learn the basics of using SQL*Plus. It has the following topics:

Entering and Executing Commands

Listing a Table Definition

Listing PL/SQL Definitions

Running SQL Commands

Running PL/SQL Blocks

Running SQL*Plus Commands

System Variables that Affect How Commands Run

Stopping a Command while it is Running

Running Operating System Commands

Pausing the Display

Saving Changes to the Database Automatically

Interpreting Error Messages

Entering and Executing Commands

Unless stated otherwise, descriptions of commands are applicable to all user interfaces.

In the command-line, type commands at the SQL*Plus prompt and press Return to execute them.

Usually, you separate the words in a command with a space or a tab. You can use additional spaces or tabs between words to make your commands more readable.

Case sensitivity is operating system specific. For the sake of clarity, all table names, column names, and commands in this guide appear in capital letters.

You can enter three kinds of commands:

SQL commands, for working with information in the database

PL/SQL blocks, also for working with information in the database

SQL*Plus commands, for formatting query results, setting options, and editing and storing SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks

The manner in which you continue a command on additional lines, end a command, or execute a command differs depending on the type of command you wish to enter and run. Examples of how to run and execute these types of commands are found on the following pages.

The SQL Buffer

The SQL buffer stores the most recently entered SQL command or PL/SQL block (but not SQL*Plus commands). The command or block remains in the buffer until replaced by the next SQL command or PL/SQL block. You can view the buffer contents with the LIST command.

You can execute the command or block in the SQL buffer using the RUN or /(slash) commands. RUN displays the command or block in the buffer before executing it. /(slash) executes the command or block in the buffer without displaying it first. For information about editing a command or block stored in the buffer see Editing Scripts in SQL*Plus Command-Line.

SQL*Plus does not store SQL*Plus commands, or the semicolon or slash characters you type to execute a command in the SQL buffer.

Executing Commands

In command-line SQL*Plus, you type a command and direct SQL*Plus to execute it by pressing the Return key. SQL*Plus processes the command and re-displays the command prompt when ready for another command.

Listing a Table Definition

To see the definitions of each column in a given table or view, use the SQL*Plus DESCRIBE command.

Example 4-1 Using the DESCRIBE Command

To list the column definitions of the columns in the sample view EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, enter

DESCRIBE EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------
 EMPLOYEE_ID                               NOT NULL NUMBER(6)
 JOB_ID                                    NOT NULL VARCHAR2(10)
 MANAGER_ID                                         NUMBER(6)
 DEPARTMENT_ID                                      NUMBER(4)
 LOCATION_ID                                        NUMBER(4)
 COUNTRY_ID                                         CHAR(2)
 FIRST_NAME                                         VARCHAR2(20)
 LAST_NAME                                 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(25)
 SALARY                                             NUMBER(8,2)
 COMMISSION_PCT                                     NUMBER(2,2)
 DEPARTMENT_NAME                           NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 JOB_TITLE                                 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(35)
 CITY                                      NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 STATE_PROVINCE                                     VARCHAR2(25)
 COUNTRY_NAME                                       VARCHAR2(40)
 REGION_NAME                                        VARCHAR2(25)

Note:

DESCRIBE accesses information in the Oracle Database data dictionary. You can also use SQL SELECT commands to access this and other information in the database. See your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for details.

Listing PL/SQL Definitions

To see the definition of a function or procedure, use the SQL*Plus DESCRIBE command.

Example 4-2 Using the DESCRIBE Command

To create and list the definition of a function called AFUNC, enter

create or replace function afunc (f1 varchar2, f2 number) return number as
begin
   if (length(f1) > f2) then
    return 1;
   else
    return 0;
   end if;
end;
/

FUNCTION created.

DESCRIBE afunc

FUNCTION afunc RETURNS NUMBER
Argument Name   Type     In/Out   Default?
--------------- -------- -------- ---------
F1              VARCHAR2 IN
F2              NUMBER   IN

Running SQL Commands

The SQL command language enables you to manipulate data in the database. See your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for information on individual SQL commands.

Example 4-3 Entering a SQL Command

In this example, you will enter and execute a SQL command to display the employee number, name, job, and salary of each employee in the EMP_DETAILS_VIEW view.

At the command prompt, enter the first line of the command:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY

If you make a mistake, use Backspace to erase it and re-enter. When you are done, press Return to move to the next line.

SQL*Plus displays a "2", the prompt for the second line. Enter the second line of the command:

FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE SALARY > 12000;

The semicolon (;) means that this is the end of the command. Press Return or click Execute. SQL*Plus processes the command and displays the results:

EMPLOYEE_ID LAST_NAME                 JOB_ID             SALARY
----------- ------------------------- ---------- --------------
        100 King                      AD_PRES           $24,000
        101 Kochhar                   AD_VP             $17,000
        102 De Haan                   AD_VP             $17,000
        145 Russell                   SA_MAN            $14,000
        146 Partners                  SA_MAN            $13,500
        201 Hartstein                 MK_MAN            $13,000

6 rows selected.

After displaying the results and the number of rows retrieved, SQL*Plus command-line displays the command prompt again. If you made a mistake and therefore did not get the results shown, re-enter the command.

The headings may be repeated in your output, depending on the setting of a system variable called PAGESIZE. Sometimes, the result from a query will not fit the available page width. You can use the system variable, LINESIZE, to set the width of the output in characters. See Setting Page Dimensions. Typically, LINESIZE is set to 80 in command-line. Whether you see the message stating the number of records retrieved depends on the setting of the system variable, FEEDBACK. See System Variables that Affect How Commands Run for more information.

Understanding SQL Command Syntax

Just as spoken language has syntax rules that govern the way we assemble words into sentences, SQL*Plus has syntax rules that govern how you assemble words into commands. You must follow these rules if you want SQL*Plus to accept and execute your commands.

Dividing a SQL Command into Separate Lines

You can divide your SQL command into separate lines at any points you wish, as long as individual words are not split. Thus, you can enter the query you entered in Example 4-3, "Entering a SQL Command" on three lines:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

In this guide, you will find most SQL commands divided into clauses, one clause on each line. In Example 4-3, "Entering a SQL Command", for instance, the SELECT and FROM clauses were placed on separate lines. Many people find this clearly visible structure helpful, but you may choose whatever line division makes commands most readable to you.

Ending a SQL Command

You can end a SQL command in one of three ways:

with a semicolon (;)

with a slash (/) on a line by itself

with a blank line

A semicolon (;) tells SQL*Plus that you want to run the command. Type the semicolon at the end of the last line of the command, as shown in Example 4-3, "Entering a SQL Command", and press Return or click Execute. SQL*Plus processes the command and also stores the command in the SQL buffer. See The SQL Buffer for details. If you mistakenly press Return before typing the semicolon, SQL*Plus prompts you with a line number for the next line of your command. Type the semicolon and press Return again or click Execute to run the command.

A slash (/) on a line by itself also tells SQL*Plus that you wish to run the command. Press Return at the end of the last line of the command. SQL*Plus prompts you with another line number. Type a slash and press Return again or click Execute. SQL*Plus executes the command and stores it in the buffer.

A blank line in a SQL statement or script tells SQL*Plus that you have finished entering the command, but do not want to run it yet. Press Return at the end of the last line of the command. SQL*Plus prompts you with another line number.

Note:

You can change the way blank lines appear and behave in SQL statements using the SET SQLBLANKLINES command. For more information about changing blank line behavior, see the SET command.

To execute commands this way, press Return again; SQL*Plus now prompts you with the SQL*Plus command prompt. SQL*Plus does not execute the command, but stores it in the SQL buffer. See The SQL Buffer for details. If you subsequently enter another SQL command, SQL*Plus overwrites the previous command in the buffer.

Running PL/SQL Blocks

You can also use PL/SQL subprograms (called blocks) to manipulate data in the database. See your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for information on individual PL/SQL statements.

SQL*Plus treats PL/SQL subprograms in the same manner as SQL commands, except that a semicolon (;) or a blank line does not terminate and execute a block. Terminate PL/SQL subprograms by entering a period (.) by itself on a new line. You can also terminate and execute a PL/SQL subprogram by entering a slash (/) by itself on a new line.

You enter the mode for entering PL/SQL statements when:

You type DECLARE or BEGIN. After you enter PL/SQL mode in this way, type the remainder of your PL/SQL subprogram.

You type a SQL command (such as CREATE PROCEDURE) that creates a stored procedure. After you enter PL/SQL mode in this way, type the stored procedure you want to create.

SQL*Plus stores the subprograms you enter in the SQL buffer. Execute the current subprogram with a RUN or slash (/) command. A semicolon (;) is treated as part of the PL/SQL subprogram and will not execute the command.

SQL*Plus sends the complete PL/SQL subprogram to Oracle Database for processing (as it does SQL commands). See your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for more information.

You might enter and execute a PL/SQL subprogram as follows:

DECLARE
    x   NUMBER := 100;
    BEGIN
        FOR i IN 1..10 LOOP
           IF MOD (i, 2) = 0 THEN    --i is even
             INSERT INTO temp VALUES (i, x, 'i is even');
           ELSE
             INSERT INTO temp VALUES (i, x, 'i is odd');
           END IF;
           x := x + 100;
       END LOOP;
   END;
   .
/

Creating Stored Procedures

Stored procedures are PL/SQL functions, packages, or procedures. To create stored procedures, you use the following SQL CREATE commands:

CREATE FUNCTION

CREATE LIBRARY

CREATE PACKAGE

CREATE PACKAGE BODY

CREATE PROCEDURE

CREATE TRIGGER

CREATE TYPE

Entering any of these commands places you in PL/SQL mode, where you can enter your PL/SQL subprogram. For more information, see Running PL/SQL Blocks. When you are done typing your PL/SQL subprogram, enter a period (.) on a line by itself to terminate PL/SQL mode. To run the SQL command and create the stored procedure, you must enter RUN or slash (/). A semicolon (;) will not execute these CREATE commands.

When you use CREATE to create a stored procedure, a message appears if there are compilation errors. To view these errors, you use SHOW ERRORS. For example:

SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE ASSIGNVL

See SHOW for more information.

To execute a PL/SQL statement that references a stored procedure, you can use the SQL*Plus EXECUTE command. EXECUTE runs the PL/SQL statement that you enter immediately after the command. For example:

EXECUTE EMPLOYEE_MANAGEMENT.NEW_EMP('BLAKE')

See EXECUTE for more information.

Running SQL*Plus Commands

You can use SQL*Plus commands to manipulate SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks and to format and print query results. SQL*Plus treats SQL*Plus commands differently than SQL commands or PL/SQL blocks.

To speed up command entry, you can abbreviate many SQL*Plus commands. For information on and abbreviations of all SQL*Plus commands, see SQL*Plus Command Reference.

Example 4-4 Entering a SQL*Plus Command

This example shows how you might enter a SQL*Plus command to change the format used to display the column SALARY of the sample view, EMP_DETAILS_VIEW.

Enter this SQL*Plus command:

COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $99,999 HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY'

If you make a mistake, use Backspace to erase it and re-enter. When you have entered the line, press Return. SQL*Plus notes the new format and displays the SQL*Plus command prompt again, ready for a new command.

Enter the following query and press Return to run it:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE SALARY > 12000;

EMPLOYEE_ID LAST_NAME                 JOB_ID     MONTHLY SALARY
----------- ------------------------- ---------- --------------
        100 King                      AD_PRES           $24,000
        101 Kochhar                   AD_VP             $17,000
        102 De Haan                   AD_VP             $17,000
        145 Russell                   SA_MAN            $14,000
        146 Partners                  SA_MAN            $13,500
        201 Hartstein                 MK_MAN            $13,000

6 rows selected.

The COLUMN command formatted the column SALARY with a dollar sign ($) and a comma (,) and gave it a new heading.

Understanding SQL*Plus Command Syntax

SQL*Plus commands have a different syntax from SQL commands or PL/SQL blocks.

You do not need to end a SQL*Plus command with a semicolon. When you finish entering the command, you can just press Return or click Execute. There is no need to end a SQL*Plus command with a semicolon.

Continuing a Long SQL*Plus Command on Additional Lines

You can continue a long SQL*Plus command by typing a hyphen at the end of the line and pressing Return. If you wish, you can type a space before typing the hyphen. SQL*Plus displays a right angle-bracket (>) as a prompt for each additional line.

For example:

COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $99,999 -
HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY'

Since SQL*Plus identifies the hyphen as a continuation character, entering a hyphen within a SQL statement is ignored by SQL*Plus. SQL*Plus does not identify the statement as a SQL statement until after the input processing has joined the lines together and removed the hyphen. For example, entering the following:

SELECT 200 -
100 FROM DUAL;

returns the error:

SELECT 200 100 FROM DUAL
           *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected

To ensure that the statement is interpreted correctly, reposition the hyphen from the end of the first line to the beginning of the second line.

System Variables that Affect How Commands Run

The SQL*Plus SET command controls many variables—called SET variables or system variables—which affect the way SQL*Plus runs your commands. System variables control a variety of conditions within SQL*Plus, including default column widths for your output, whether SQL*Plus displays the number of records selected by a command, and your page size.

The examples in this guide are based on running SQL*Plus with the system variables at their default settings. Depending on the settings of your system variables, your output may appear slightly different than the output shown in the examples. (Your settings might differ from the default settings if you have a SQL*Plus LOGIN file on your computer.)

See the SET command for more information on system variables and their default settings. See SQL*Plus Configuration and SQLPLUS Program Syntax for details on the SQL*Plus LOGIN file.

To list the current setting of a system variable, enter SHOW followed by the variable name. See the SHOW command for information on other items you can list with SHOW.

Stopping a Command while it is Running

Suppose you have displayed the first page of a 50 page report and decide you do not need to see the rest of it. Press Cancel, the system's interrupt character, which is usually CTRL+C. SQL*Plus stops the display.

Note:

Pressing Cancel does not stop the printing of a file that you have sent to a printer with the OUT clause of the SQL*Plus SPOOL command. (You will learn about printing query results in Formatting SQL*Plus Reports.) You can stop the printing of a file through your operating system. For more information, see your operating system's installation and user's guide.

Running Operating System Commands

You can execute an operating system command from the SQL*Plus command prompt. This is useful when you want to perform a task such as listing existing operating system files.

To run an operating system command, enter the SQL*Plus command HOST followed by the operating system command. For example, this SQL*Plus command runs the command, DIRECTORY *.SQL:

HOST DIRECTORY *.SQL

When the command finishes running, the SQL*Plus command prompt appears again.

Note:

Operating system commands entered from a SQL*Plus session using the HOST command do not affect the current SQL*Plus session. For example, setting an operating system environment variable does not affect the current SQL*Plus session, but may affect SQL*Plus sessions started subsequently.

You can suppress access to the HOST command. For more information about suppressing the HOST command see SQL*Plus Security.

Pausing the Display

You can use the PAUSE system variable to stop and examine the contents of the screen after each page during the display of a long report, or during the display of a table definition with many columns.

You can use SET PAUSE to pause output after displaying each screen of a query or report. See SET PAU[SE] {ON | OFF | text} for more information.

Saving Changes to the Database Automatically

You can specify changes you wish to make to the information stored in the database using the SQL Database Manipulation Language (DML) commands UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE—which can be used independently or within a PL/SQL block. These changes are not made permanent until you enter a SQL COMMIT command or a SQL Database Control Language (DCL) or Database Definition Language (DDL) command (such as CREATE TABLE), or use the autocommit feature. The SQL*Plus autocommit feature causes pending changes to be committed after a specified number of successful SQL DML transactions. (A SQL DML transaction is either an UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE command, or a PL/SQL block.)

You control the autocommit feature with the SQL*Plus AUTOCOMMIT system variable. Regardless of the AUTOCOMMIT setting, changes are committed when you exit SQL*Plus successfully.

See Also:

SET EXITC[OMMIT] {ON | OFF}

Example 4-5 Turning Autocommit On

To turn the autocommit feature on, enter

SET AUTOCOMMIT ON

Alternatively, you can enter the following to turn the autocommit feature on:

SET AUTOCOMMIT IMMEDIATE

Until you change the setting of AUTOCOMMIT, SQL*Plus automatically commits changes from each SQL DML command that specifies changes to the database. After each autocommit, SQL*Plus displays the following message:

COMMIT COMPLETE

When the autocommit feature is turned on, you cannot roll back changes to the database.

To commit changes to the database after a number of SQL DML commands, for example, 10, enter

SET AUTOCOMMIT 10

SQL*Plus counts SQL DML commands as they are executed and commits the changes after each 10th SQL DML command.

Note:

For this feature, a PL/SQL block is regarded as one transaction, regardless of the actual number of SQL commands contained within it.

To turn the autocommit feature off again, enter the following command:

SET AUTOCOMMIT OFF

To confirm that AUTOCOMMIT is now set to OFF, enter the following SHOW command:

SHOW AUTOCOMMIT

AUTOCOMMIT OFF

See SET AUTO[COMMIT]{ON | OFF | IMM[EDIATE] | n} for more information.

Interpreting Error Messages

If SQL*Plus detects an error in a command, it displays an error message. See SQL*Plus Error Messages for a list of SQL*Plus error messages.

Example 4-6 Interpreting an Error Message

If you attempt to execute a file that does not exist or is unavailable by entering:

START EMPLYYES.SQL

An error message indicates that the table does not exist:

SP2-0310: unable to open file "emplyyes.sql"

You will often be able to figure out how to correct the problem from the message alone. If you need further explanation, take one of the following steps to determine the cause of the problem and how to correct it:

If the error is a numbered error beginning with the letters "SP2", look up the SQL*Plus message in SQL*Plus Error Messages.

If the error is a numbered error beginning with the letters "CPY" look up the SQL*Plus COPY command message in COPY Command Messages.

If the error is a numbered error beginning with the letters "ORA", look up the Oracle Database message in the Oracle Database Error Messages guide or in the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system.

If the error is a numbered error beginning with the letters "PLS", look up the Oracle Database message in the Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

If the error is unnumbered, look up correct syntax for the command that generated the error in SQL*Plus Command Reference for a SQL*Plus command, in the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for a SQL command, or in the Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for a PL/SQL block. Otherwise, contact your DBA.

5 Using Scripts in SQL*Plus

This chapter helps you learn to write and edit scripts containing SQL*Plus commands, SQL commands, and PL/SQL blocks. It covers the following topics:

Editing Scripts

Editing Scripts in SQL*Plus Command-Line

Placing Comments in Scripts

Running Scripts

Nesting Scripts

Exiting from a Script with a Return Code

Defining Substitution Variables

Using Predefined Variables

Using Substitution Variables

Passing Parameters through the START Command

Communicating with the User

Using Bind Variables

Using REFCURSOR Bind Variables

Read this chapter while sitting at your computer and try out the examples shown. Before beginning, make sure you have access to the sample schema described in SQL*Plus Overview.

Editing Scripts

In SQL*Plus command-line, the use of an external editor in combination with the @, @@ or START commands is an effective method of creating and executing generic scripts. You can write scripts which contain SQL*Plus, SQL and PL/SQL commands, which you can retrieve and edit. This is especially useful for storing complex commands or frequently used reports.

Writing Scripts with a System Editor

Your operating system may have one or more text editors that you can use to write scripts. You can run your operating system's default text editor without leaving the SQL*Plus command-line by entering the EDIT command.

You can use the SQL*Plus DEFINE command to define the variable, _EDITOR, to hold the name of your preferred text editor. For example, to define the editor used by EDIT to be vi, enter the following command:

DEFINE _EDITOR = vi

You can include an editor definition in your user or site profile so that it is always enabled when you start SQL*Plus. See SQL*Plus Configuration, and the DEFINE and EDIT commands for more information.

To create a script with a text editor, enter EDIT followed by the name of the file to edit or create, for example:

EDIT SALES

EDIT adds the filename extension .SQL to the name unless you specify the file extension. When you save the script with the text editor, it is saved back into the same file. EDIT lets you create or modify scripts.

You must include a semicolon at the end of each SQL command and a slash (/) on a line by itself after each PL/SQL block in the file. You can include multiple SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks in a script.

Example 5-1 Using a System Editor to Write a SQL Script

Suppose you have composed a query to display a list of salespeople and their commissions. You plan to run it once a month to keep track of how well each employee is doing.

To compose and save the query using your system editor, invoke your editor and create a file to hold your script:

EDIT SALES

Enter each of the following lines in your editor. Do not forget to include the semicolon at the end of the SQL statement:

COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST NAME'
COLUMN SALARY HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY' FORMAT $99,999
COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT HEADING 'COMMISSION %' FORMAT 90.90
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

The format model for the column COMMISSION_PCT tells SQL*Plus to display an initial zero for decimal values, and a zero instead of a blank when the value of COMMISSION_PCT is zero for a given row. Format models and the COLUMN command are described in more detail in the COLUMN command and in the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Now use your editor's save command to store your query in a file called SALES.SQL.

Editing Scripts in SQL*Plus Command-Line

You can use a number of SQL*Plus commands to edit the SQL command or PL/SQL block currently stored in the buffer.

Table 5-1, "SQL*Plus Editing Commands" lists the SQL*Plus commands that allow you to examine or change the command in the buffer without re-entering the command.

Table 5-1 SQL*Plus Editing Commands

Command
Abbreviation
Purpose

APPEND text

A text

adds text at the end of the current line

CHANGE/old/new

C/old/new

changes old to new in the current line

CHANGE/text

C/text

deletes text from the current line

CLEAR BUFFER

CL BUFF

deletes all lines

DEL

(none)

deletes the current line

DEL n

(none)

deletes line n

DEL *

(none)

deletes the current line

DEL n *

(none)

deletes line n through the current line

DEL LAST

(none)

deletes the last line

DEL m n

(none)

deletes a range of lines (m to n)

DEL * n

(none)

deletes the current line through line n

INPUT

I

adds one or more lines

INPUT text

I text

adds a line consisting of text

LIST

; or L

lists all lines in the SQL buffer

LIST n

L n or n

lists line n

LIST *

L *

lists the current line

LIST n *

L n *

lists line n through the current line

LIST LAST

L LAST

lists the last line

LIST m n

L m n

lists a range of lines (m to n)

LIST * n

L * n

lists the current line through line n

These are useful if you want to correct or modify a command you have entered.

Listing the Buffer Contents

The SQL buffer contains the last SQL or PL/SQL command. Any editing command other than LIST and DEL affects only a single line in the buffer. This line is called the current line. It is marked with an asterisk when you list the current command or block.

Example 5-2 Listing the Buffer Contents

Suppose you want to list the current command. Use the LIST command as shown. (If you have exited SQL*Plus or entered another SQL command or PL/SQL block since following the steps in Example 4-3, "Entering a SQL Command", perform the steps in that example again before continuing.)

LIST

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  3* WHERE SALARY>12000

Notice that the semicolon you entered at the end of the SELECT command is not listed. This semicolon is necessary to indicate the end of the command when you enter it, but it is not part of the SQL command and SQL*Plus does not store it in the SQL buffer.

Editing the Current Line

The SQL*Plus CHANGE command enables you to edit the current line. Various actions determine which line is the current line:

LIST a given line to make it the current line.

When you LIST or RUN the command in the buffer, the last line of the command becomes the current line. (Note, that using the slash (/) command to run the command in the buffer does not affect the current line.)

If you get an error, the error line automatically becomes the current line.

Example 5-3 Making an Error in Command Entry

Suppose you try to select the JOB_ID column but mistakenly enter it as JO_ID. Enter the following command, purposely misspelling JOB_ID in the first line:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JO_ID, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

You see this message on your screen:

SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JO_ID, SALARY
                               *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: invalid column name

Examine the error message; it indicates an invalid column name in line 1 of the query. The asterisk shows the point of error—the mis-typed column JOB_ID.

Instead of re-entering the entire command, you can correct the mistake by editing the command in the buffer. The line containing the error is now the current line. Use the CHANGE command to correct the mistake. This command has three parts, separated by slashes or any other non-alphanumeric character:

the word CHANGE or the letter C

the sequence of characters you want to change

the replacement sequence of characters

The CHANGE command finds the first occurrence in the current line of the character sequence to be changed and changes it to the new sequence. You do not need to use the CHANGE command to re-enter an entire line.

Example 5-4 Correcting the Error

To change JO_ID to JOB_ID, change the line with the CHANGE command:

CHANGE /JO_ID/JOB_ID

The corrected line appears on your screen:

1* SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, FIRST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY

Now that you have corrected the error, you can use the RUN command to run the command again:

RUN

SQL*Plus correctly displays the query and its result:

  1  SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  3* WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'

EMPLOYEE_ID LAST_NAME                 JOB_ID     MONTHLY SALARY
----------- ------------------------- ---------- --------------
        145 Russell                   SA_MAN            $14,000
        146 Partners                  SA_MAN            $13,500
        147 Errazuriz                 SA_MAN            $12,000
        148 Cambrault                 SA_MAN            $11,000
        149 Zlotkey                   SA_MAN            $10,500

Note that the column SALARY retains the format you gave it in Example 4-4, "Entering a SQL*Plus Command". (If you have left SQL*Plus and started again since performing Example 4-4, "Entering a SQL*Plus Command" the column has reverted to its original format.)

See CHANGE for information about the significance of case in a CHANGE command and on using wildcards to specify blocks of text in a CHANGE command.

Appending Text to a Line

To add text to the end of a line in the buffer, use the APPEND command.

Use the LIST command (or the line number) to list the line you want to change.

Enter APPEND followed by the text you want to add. If the text you want to add begins with a blank, separate the word APPEND from the first character of the text by two blanks: one to separate APPEND from the text, and one to go into the buffer with the text.

Example 5-5 Appending Text to a Line

To append a space and the clause DESC to line 4 of the current query, first list line 4:

LIST 4

4* ORDER BY SALARY

Next, enter the following command (be sure to type two spaces between APPEND and DESC):

APPEND  DESC

4* ORDER BY SALARY DESC

Type RUN to verify the query:

  1  SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  3  WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'
  4* ORDER BY SALARY DESC

EMPLOYEE_ID LAST_NAME                 JOB_ID     MONTHLY SALARY
----------- ------------------------- ---------- --------------
        145 Russell                   SA_MAN            $14,000
        146 Partners                  SA_MAN            $13,500
        147 Errazuriz                 SA_MAN            $12,000
        148 Cambrault                 SA_MAN            $11,000
        149 Zlotkey                   SA_MAN            $10,500

Adding a New Line

To insert a new line after the current line, use the INPUT command.

To insert a line before line 1, enter a zero ("0") and follow the zero with text. SQL*Plus inserts the line at the beginning of the buffer and all lines are renumbered starting at 1.

0 SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID

Example 5-6 Adding a Line

Suppose you want to add a fourth line to the SQL command you modified in Example 5-4, "Correcting the Error". Since line 3 is already the current line, enter INPUT and press Return.

INPUT

SQL*Plus prompts you for the new line:

4

Enter the new line. Then press Return.

4 ORDER BY SALARY

SQL*Plus prompts you again for a new line:

5

Press Return again to indicate that you will not enter any more lines, and then use RUN to verify and re-run the query.

  1  SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARY
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  3  WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'
  4* ORDER BY SALARY

EMPLOYEE_ID LAST_NAME                 JOB_ID     MONTHLY SALARY
----------- ------------------------- ---------- --------------
        149 Zlotkey                   SA_MAN            $10,500
        148 Cambrault                 SA_MAN            $11,000
        147 Errazuriz                 SA_MAN            $12,000
        146 Partners                  SA_MAN            $13,500
        145 Russell                   SA_MAN            $14,000

Deleting Lines

Use the DEL command to delete lines in the buffer. Enter DEL specifying the line numbers you want to delete.

Suppose you want to delete the current line to the last line inclusive. Use the DEL command as shown.

DEL * LAST

DEL makes the following line of the buffer (if any) the current line.

See DEL for more information.

Placing Comments in Scripts

You can enter comments in a script in three ways:

using the SQL*Plus REMARK command for single line comments.

using the SQL comment delimiters /*... */ for single or multi line comments.

using ANSI/ISO (American National Standards Institute/International Standards Organization) comments - - for single line comments.

Comments entered at the command-line are not stored in the SQL buffer.

Using the REMARK Command

Use the REMARK command on a line by itself in a script, followed by comments on the same line. To continue the comments on additional lines, enter additional REMARK commands. Do not place a REMARK command between different lines of a single SQL command.

REMARK Commission Report;
REMARK to be run monthly.;
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST_NAME';
COLUMN SALARY HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY' FORMAT $99,999;
COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT HEADING 'COMMISSION %' FORMAT 90.90;
REMARK Includes only salesmen;
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

Using /*...*/

Enter the SQL comment delimiters, /*...*/, on separate lines in your script, on the same line as a SQL command, or on a line in a PL/SQL block.

You must enter a space after the slash-asterisk(/*) beginning a comment.

The comments can span multiple lines, but cannot be nested within one another:

/* Commission Report
 to be run monthly. */
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST_NAME';
COLUMN SALARY HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY' FORMAT $99,999;
COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT HEADING 'COMMISSION %' FORMAT 90.90;
REMARK Includes only salesmen;
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
/* Include only salesmen.*/
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

Using - -

You can use ANSI/ISO "- -" style comments within SQL statements, PL/SQL blocks, or SQL*Plus commands. Since there is no ending delimiter, the comment cannot span multiple lines.

For PL/SQL and SQL, enter the comment after a command on a line, or on a line by itself:

-- Commissions report to be run monthly
DECLARE --block for reporting monthly sales

For SQL*Plus commands, you can only include "- -" style comments if they are on a line by themselves. For example, these comments are legal:

-- set maximum width for LONG to 777
SET LONG 777

This comment is illegal:

SET LONG 777 -- set maximum width for LONG to 777

If you enter the following SQL*Plus command, SQL*Plus interprets it as a comment and does not execute the command:

-- SET LONG 777

Notes on Placing Comments

SQL*Plus does not have a SQL or PL/SQL command parser. It scans the first few keywords of each new statement to determine the command type, SQL, PL/SQL or SQL*Plus. Comments in some locations can prevent SQL*Plus from correctly identifying the command type, giving unexpected results. The following usage notes may help you to use SQL*Plus comments more effectively:

Do not put comments within the first few keywords of a statement. For example:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  2  /* HELLO */
  3  PROCEDURE HELLO AS
  4  BEGIN
  5  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('HELLO');
  6  END;
  7  /

Warning: Procedure created with compilation errors.

The location of the comment prevents SQL*Plus from recognizing the command as a command. SQL*Plus submits the PL/SQL block to the server when it sees the slash "/" at the beginning of the comment, which it interprets as the "/" statement terminator. Move the comment to avoid this error. For example:

 CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE
  2  /* HELLO */
  3  HELLO AS
  4  BEGIN
  5  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('HELLO');
  6  END;
  7  /

Procedure created.

Do not put comments after statement terminators (period, semicolon or slash). For example, if you enter:

SELECT 'Y' FROM DUAL; -- TESTING

You get the following error:

SELECT 'Y' FROM DUAL; -- TESTING
                    *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00911: invalid character

SQL*Plus expects no text after a statement terminator and is unable to process the command.

Do not put statement termination characters at the end of a comment line or after comments in a SQL statement or a PL/SQL block. For example, if you enter:

SELECT *
-- COMMENT;

You get the following error:

-- COMMENT
         *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected

The semicolon is interpreted as a statement terminator and SQL*Plus submits the partially formed SQL command to the server for processing, resulting in an error.

Do not use ampersand characters '&' in comments in a SQL statement or PL/SQL block. For example, if you enter a script such as:

SELECT REGION_NAME, CITY
/* THIS & THAT */
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

SQL*Plus interprets text after the ampersand character "&" as a substitution variable and prompts for the value of the variable, &that:

Enter value for that:
old   2: /* THIS & THAT */
new   2: /* THIS  */

REGION_NAME               CITY
------------------------- ------------------------------
Americas                  Seattle
Americas                  Seattle
Americas                  Seattle
Europe                    Oxford
Europe                    Oxford
Americas                  Toronto
6 rows selected.

You can SET DEFINE OFF to prevent scanning for the substitution character.

For more information on substitution and termination characters, see DEFINE, SQLTERMINATOR and SQLBLANKLINES in the SET command.

Running Scripts

The START command retrieves a script and runs the commands it contains. Use START to run a script containing SQL commands, PL/SQL blocks, and SQL*Plus commands. You can have many commands in the file. Follow the START command with the name of the file:

START file_name

SQL*Plus assumes the file has a .SQL extension by default.

Example 5-7 Running a Script

To retrieve and run the command stored in SALES.SQL, enter

START SALES

SQL*Plus runs the commands in the file SALES and displays the results of the commands on your screen, formatting the query results according to the SQL*Plus commands in the file:

LAST NAME                 MONTHLY SALARY COMMISSION %
------------------------- -------------- ------------
Russell                          $14,000         0.40
Partners                         $13,500         0.30
Errazuriz                        $12,000         0.30
Cambrault                        $11,000         0.30
Zlotkey                          $10,500         0.20

You can also use the @ (at sign) command to run a script:

@SALES

The @ and @@ commands list and run the commands in the specified script in the same manner as START. SET ECHO affects the @ and @@ commands in the same way as it affects the START command.

To see the commands as SQL*Plus "enters" them, you can SET ECHO ON. The ECHO system variable controls the listing of the commands in scripts run with the START, @ and @@ commands. Setting the ECHO variable OFF suppresses the listing.

START, @ and @@ leave the last SQL command or PL/SQL block of the script in the buffer.

Running a Script as You Start SQL*Plus

To run a script as you start SQL*Plus, use one of the following options:

Follow the SQLPLUS command with your username, a slash, a space, @, and the name of the file:

SQLPLUS HR @SALES

SQL*Plus starts, prompts for your password and runs the script.

Include your username as the first line of the file. Follow the SQLPLUS command with @ and the filename. SQL*Plus starts, prompts for your password and runs the file.

Nesting Scripts

To run a series of scripts in sequence, first create a script containing several START commands, each followed by the name of a script in the sequence. Then run the script containing the START commands. For example, you could include the following START commands in a script named SALESRPT:

START Q1SALES
START Q2SALES
START Q3SALES
START Q4SALES
START YRENDSLS

Note:

The @@ command may be useful in this example. See the @@ (double at sign) command for more information.

Exiting from a Script with a Return Code

You can include an EXIT command in a script to return a value when the script finishes. See the EXIT command for more information.

You can include a WHENEVER SQLERROR command in a script to automatically exit SQL*Plus with a return code should your script generate a SQL error. Similarly, you can include a WHENEVER OSERROR command to automatically exit should an operating system error occur. In iSQL*Plus, the script is stopped and focus is returned to the Workspace. See the WHENEVER SQLERROR command, and the WHENEVER OSERROR command for more information.

Defining Substitution Variables

You can define variables, called substitution variables, for repeated use in a single script by using the SQL*Plus DEFINE command. Note that you can also define substitution variables to use in titles and to save your keystrokes (by defining a long string as the value for a variable with a short name).

Example 5-8 Defining a Substitution Variable

To define a substitution variable L_NAME and give it the value "SMITH", enter the following command:

DEFINE L_NAME = SMITH

To confirm the variable definition, enter DEFINE followed by the variable name:

DEFINE L_NAME

DEFINE L_NAME = "SMITH" (CHAR)

To list all substitution variable definitions, enter DEFINE by itself. Note that any substitution variable you define explicitly through DEFINE takes only CHAR values (that is, the value you assign to the variable is always treated as a CHAR datatype). You can define a substitution variable of datatype NUMBER implicitly through the ACCEPT command. You will learn more about the ACCEPT command.

To delete a substitution variable, use the SQL*Plus command UNDEFINE followed by the variable name.

Using Predefined Variables

There are eight variables containing SQL*Plus information that are defined during SQL*Plus installation. These variables can be redefined, referenced or removed the same as any other variable. They are always available from session to session unless you explicitly remove or redefine them.

See Also:

Predefined Variables for a list of the predefined variables and examples of their use.

Using Substitution Variables

Suppose you want to write a query like the one in SALES (see Example 5-1, "Using a System Editor to Write a SQL Script") to list the employees with various jobs, not just those whose job is SA_MAN. You could do that by editing a different value into the WHERE clause each time you run the command, but there is an easier way.

By using a substitution variable in place of the text, SA_MAN, in the WHERE clause, you can get the same results you would get if you had written the values into the command itself.

A substitution variable is preceded by one or two ampersands (&). When SQL*Plus encounters a substitution variable in a command, SQL*Plus executes the command as though it contained the value of the substitution variable, rather than the variable itself.

For example, if the variable SORTCOL has the value JOB_ID and the variable MYTABLE has the value EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, SQL*Plus executes the commands

SELECT &SORTCOL, SALARY
FROM &MYTABLE
WHERE SALARY>12000;

as if they were

SELECT JOB_ID, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

Where and How to Use Substitution Variables

You can use substitution variables anywhere in SQL and SQL*Plus commands, except as the first word entered. When SQL*Plus encounters an undefined substitution variable in a command, SQL*Plus prompts you for the value.

You can enter any string at the prompt, even one containing blanks and punctuation. If the SQL command containing the reference should have quote marks around the variable and you do not include them there, the user must include the quotes when prompted.

SQL*Plus reads your response from the keyboard, even if you have redirected terminal input or output to a file. If a terminal is not available (if, for example, you run the script in batch mode), SQL*Plus uses the redirected file.

After you enter a value at the prompt, SQL*Plus lists the line containing the substitution variable twice: once before substituting the value you enter and once after substitution. You can suppress this listing by setting the SET command variable VERIFY to OFF.

Example 5-9 Using Substitution Variables

Create a script named STATS, to be used to calculate a subgroup statistic (the maximum value) on a numeric column:

SELECT &GROUP_COL, MAX(&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM
FROM &TABLE
GROUP BY &GROUP_COL
.
SAVE STATS

Created file STATS

Now run the script STATS:

@STATS

And respond to the prompts for values as shown:

Enter value for group_col: JOB_ID
old   1: SELECT   &GROUP_COL,
new   1: SELECT   JOB_ID,
Enter value for number_col: SALARY
old   2:          MAX(&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM
new   2:          MAX(SALARY) MAXIMUM
Enter value for table: EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
old   3: FROM     &TABLE
new   3: FROM     EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
Enter value for group_col: JOB_ID
old   4: GROUP BY &GROUP_COL
new   4: GROUP BY JOB_ID

SQL*Plus displays the following output:

JOB_ID        MAXIMUM
---------- ----------
AC_ACCOUNT       8300
AC_MGR          12000
AD_ASST          4400
AD_PRES         24000
AD_VP           17000
FI_ACCOUNT       9000
FI_MGR          12000
HR_REP           6500
IT_PROG          9000
MK_MAN          13000
MK_REP           6000

JOB_ID        MAXIMUM
---------- ----------
PR_REP          10000
PU_CLERK         3100
PU_MAN          11000
SA_MAN          14000
SA_REP          11500
SH_CLERK         4200
ST_CLERK         3600
ST_MAN           8200

19 rows selected.

If you wish to append characters immediately after a substitution variable, use a period to separate the variable from the character. For example:

SELECT SALARY FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID='&X.5';
Enter value for X:  20

is interpreted as

SELECT SALARY FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID='205';

Avoiding Unnecessary Prompts for Values

Suppose you wanted to expand the file STATS to include the minimum, sum, and average of the "number" column. You may have noticed that SQL*Plus prompted you twice for the value of GROUP_COL and once for the value of NUMBER_COL in Example 5-9, "Using Substitution Variables", and that each GROUP_COL or NUMBER_COL had a single ampersand in front of it. If you were to add three more functions—using a single ampersand before each—to the script, SQL*Plus would prompt you a total of four times for the value of the number column.

You can avoid being re-prompted for the group and number columns by adding a second ampersand in front of each GROUP_COL and NUMBER_COL in STATS. SQL*Plus automatically DEFINEs any substitution variable preceded by two ampersands, but does not DEFINE those preceded by only one ampersand. When you have defined a variable, SQL*Plus will not prompt for its value in the current session.

Example 5-10 Using Double Ampersands

To expand the script STATS using double ampersands and then run the file, first suppress the display of each line before and after substitution:

SET VERIFY OFF

Now retrieve and edit STATS by entering the following commands:

GET STATS

SELECT   &GROUP_COL,
MAX(&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM
FROM     &TABLE
GROUP BY &GROUP_COL

2

2* MAX(&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM

APPEND ,

2* MAX(&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM,

CHANGE/&/&&

2* MAX(&&NUMBER_COL) MAXIMUM,

I

3i

MIN (&&NUMBER_COL) MINIMUM,

4i

SUM(&&NUMBER_COL)  TOTAL,

5i

AVG(&&NUMBER_COL)  AVERAGE

6i

1

1* SELECT   &GROUP_COL,

CHANGE/&/&&

1* SELECT   &&GROUP_COL,

7

7* GROUP BY &GROUP_COL

CHANGE/&/&&/

7* GROUP BY &&GROUP_COL

SAVE STATS2

Created file STATS2

Finally, run the script STATS2 and respond to the prompts as follows:

START STATS2
Enter value for group_col: JOB_ID
Enter value for number_col: SALARY
Enter value for table: EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

SQL*Plus displays the following output:

JOB_ID        MAXIMUM    MINIMUM      TOTAL    AVERAGE
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
AC_ACCOUNT       8300       8300       8300       8300
AC_MGR          12000      12000      12000      12000
AD_ASST          4400       4400       4400       4400
AD_PRES         24000      24000      24000      24000
AD_VP           17000      17000      34000      17000
FI_ACCOUNT       9000       6900      39600       7920
FI_MGR          12000      12000      12000      12000
HR_REP           6500       6500       6500       6500
IT_PROG          9000       4200      28800       5760
MK_MAN          13000      13000      13000      13000
MK_REP           6000       6000       6000       6000

JOB_ID        MAXIMUM    MINIMUM      TOTAL    AVERAGE
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
PR_REP          10000      10000      10000      10000
PU_CLERK         3100       2500      13900       2780
PU_MAN          11000      11000      11000      11000
SA_MAN          14000      10500      61000      12200
SA_REP          11500       6100     250500       8350
SH_CLERK         4200       2500      64300       3215
ST_CLERK         3600       2100      55700       2785
ST_MAN           8200       5800      36400       7280

19 rows selected.

Note that you were prompted for the values of NUMBER_COL and GROUP_COL only once. If you were to run STATS2 again during the current session, you would be prompted for TABLE (because its name has a single ampersand and the variable is therefore not DEFINEd) but not for GROUP_COL or NUMBER_COL (because their names have double ampersands and the variables are therefore DEFINEd).

Before continuing, set the system variable VERIFY back to ON:

SET VERIFY ON

Restrictions

You cannot use substitution variables in the buffer editing commands, APPEND, CHANGE, DEL, and INPUT, nor in other commands where substitution would be meaningless. The buffer editing commands, APPEND, CHANGE, and INPUT, treat text beginning with "&" or "&&" literally, like any other text string.

System Variables

The following system variables, specified with the SQL*Plus SET command, affect substitution variables:

System Variable
Affect on Substitution Variables

SET CONCAT

Defines the character that separates the name of a substitution variable or parameter from characters that immediately follow the variable or parameter—by default the period (.).

SET DEFINE

Defines the substitution character (by default the ampersand "&") and turns substitution on and off.

SET ESCAPE

Defines an escape character you can use before the substitution character. The escape character instructs SQL*Plus to treat the substitution character as an ordinary character rather than as a request for variable substitution. The default escape character is a backslash (\).

SET NUMFORMAT

Sets the default format for displaying numbers, including numeric substitution variables.

SET NUMWIDTH

Sets the default width for displaying numbers, including numeric substitution variables.

SET VERIFY ON

Lists each line of the script before and after substitution.

See SET for more information about system variables.

Passing Parameters through the START Command

You can bypass the prompts for values associated with substitution variables by passing values to parameters in a script through the START command.

You do this by placing an ampersand (&) followed by a numeral in the script in place of a substitution variable. Each time you run this script, START replaces each &1 in the file with the first value (called an argument) after START filename, then replaces each &2 with the second value, and so forth.

For example, you could include the following commands in a script called MYFILE:

SELECT * FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='&1'
AND SALARY='&2';

In the following START command, SQL*Plus would substitute PU_CLERK for &1 and 3100 for &2 in the script MYFILE:

START MYFILE PU_CLERK 3100

When you use arguments with the START command, SQL*Plus DEFINEs each parameter in the script with the value of the appropriate argument.

Example 5-11 Passing Parameters through START

To create a new script based on SALES that takes a parameter specifying the job to be displayed, enter

GET SALES

1  COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST NAME'
2  COLUMN SALARY  HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY' FORMAT $99,999
3  COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT HEADING 'COMMISSION %' FORMAT 90.90
4  SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
5  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
6* WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'

6

6* WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'

CHANGE /SA_MAN/&1

6* WHERE JOB_ID='&1'

SAVE ONEJOB

Created file ONEJOB

Now run the command with the parameter SA_MAN:

START ONEJOB SA_MAN

SQL*Plus lists the line of the SQL command that contains the parameter, before and after replacing the parameter with its value, and then displays the output:

old   3: WHERE JOB_ID='&1'
new   3: WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'

LAST NAME                 MONTHLY SALARY COMMISSION %
------------------------- -------------- ------------
Russell                          $14,000         0.40
Partners                         $13,500         0.30
Errazuriz                        $12,000         0.30
Cambrault                        $11,000         0.30
Zlotkey                          $10,500         0.20

You can use many parameters in a script. Within a script, you can refer to each parameter many times, and you can include the parameters in any order.

While you cannot use parameters when you run a command with RUN or slash (/), you could use substitution variables instead.

Before continuing, return the columns to their original heading by entering the following command:

CLEAR COLUMN

Communicating with the User

Three SQL*Plus commands—PROMPT, ACCEPT, and PAUSE—help you communicate with the end user. These commands enable you to send messages to the screen and receive input from the user, including a simple Return. You can also use PROMPT and ACCEPT to customize the prompts for values SQL*Plus automatically generates for substitution variables.

Receiving a Substitution Variable Value

Through PROMPT and ACCEPT, you can send messages to the end user and receive values from end-user input. PROMPT displays a message you specify on-screen to give directions or information to the user. ACCEPT prompts the user for a value and stores it in the substitution variable you specify. Use PROMPT in conjunction with ACCEPT when a prompt spans more than one line.

Example 5-12 Prompting for and Accepting Input

To direct the user to supply a report title and to store the input in the variable MYTITLE for use in a subsequent query, first clear the buffer:

CLEAR BUFFER

Next, set up a script as shown and save this file as PROMPT1:

PROMPT Enter a title of up to 30 characters
ACCEPT MYTITLE PROMPT 'Title: '
TTITLE LEFT MYTITLE SKIP 2
SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN'

SAVE PROMPT1

Created file PROMPT1.sql

The TTITLE command sets the top title for your report. See Defining Page and Report Titles and Dimensions for more information about the TTITILE command.

Finally, run the script, responding to the prompt for the title as shown:

START PROMPT1

Enter a title of up to 30 characters
Title: Department Report
Department ReportEMPLOYEE_ID FIRST_NAME           LAST_NAME                     SALARY
----------- -------------------- ------------------------- ----------
        145 John                 Russell                        14000
        146 Karen                Partners                       13500
        147 Alberto              Errazuriz                      12000
        148 Gerald               Cambrault                      11000
        149 Eleni                Zlotkey                        10500

Before continuing, turn the TTITLE command off:

TTITLE OFF

Customizing Prompts for Substitution Variable

If you want to customize the prompt for a substitution variable value, use PROMPT and ACCEPT in conjunction with the substitution variable, as shown in the following example.

Example 5-13 Using PROMPT and ACCEPT in Conjunction with Substitution Variables

As you have seen in Example 5-12, "Prompting for and Accepting Input", SQL*Plus automatically generates a prompt for a value when you use a substitution variable. You can replace this prompt by including PROMPT and ACCEPT in the script with the query that references the substitution variable. First clear the buffer with:

CLEAR BUFFER

To create such a file, enter the following:

INPUT
PROMPT Enter a valid employee ID
PROMPT For Example 145, 206
ACCEPT ENUMBER NUMBER PROMPT 'Employee ID. :'
SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID=&ENUMBER;

Save this file as PROMPT2. Next, run this script. SQL*Plus prompts for the value of ENUMBER using the text you specified with PROMPT and ACCEPT:

START PROMPT2

SQL*Plus prompts you to enter an Employee ID:

Enter a valid employee ID
For Example 145, 206

Employee ID. :

205

old   3: WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID=&ENUMBER
new   3: WHERE EMPLOYEE_ID=       205

Department Report

FIRST_NAME           LAST_NAME                     SALARY
-------------------- ------------------------- ----------
Shelley              Higgins                        12000

What would happen if you typed characters instead of numbers? Since you specified NUMBER after the variable name in the ACCEPT command, SQL*Plus will not accept a non-numeric value:

Try entering characters instead of numbers to the prompt for "Employee ID.", SQL*Plus will respond with an error message and prompt you again to re-enter the correct number:

START PROMPT2

When SQL*Plus prompts you to enter an Employee ID, enter the word "one" instead of a number:

Enter a valid employee ID
For Example 145, 206

Employee ID. :

one

SP2-0425: "one" is not a valid number

Sending a Message and Accepting Return as Input

If you want to display a message on the user's screen and then have the user press Return after reading the message, use the SQL*Plus command PAUSE. For example, you might include the following lines in a script:

PROMPT Before continuing, make sure you have your account card.
PAUSE Press RETURN to continue.

Clearing the Screen

If you want to clear the screen before displaying a report (or at any other time), include the SQL*Plus CLEAR command with its SCREEN clause at the appropriate point in your script, using the following format:

CLEAR SCREEN

Before continuing to the next section, reset all columns to their original formats and headings by entering the following command:

CLEAR COLUMNS

Using Bind Variables

Bind variables are variables you create in SQL*Plus and then reference in PL/SQL or SQL. If you create a bind variable in SQL*Plus, you can use the variable as you would a declared variable in your PL/SQL subprogram and then access the variable from SQL*Plus. You can use bind variables for such things as storing return codes or debugging your PL/SQL subprograms.

Because bind variables are recognized by SQL*Plus, you can display their values in SQL*Plus or reference them in PL/SQL subprograms that you run in SQL*Plus.

Creating Bind Variables

You create bind variables in SQL*Plus with the VARIABLE command. For example

VARIABLE ret_val NUMBER

This command creates a bind variable named ret_val with a datatype of NUMBER. See the VARIABLE command for more information. (To list all bind variables created in a session, type VARIABLE without any arguments.)

Referencing Bind Variables

You reference bind variables in PL/SQL by typing a colon (:) followed immediately by the name of the variable. For example

:ret_val := 1;

To change this bind variable in SQL*Plus, you must enter a PL/SQL block. For example:

BEGIN
 :ret_val:=4;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

This command assigns a value to the bind variable named ret_val.

Displaying Bind Variables

To display the value of a bind variable in SQL*Plus, you use the SQL*Plus PRINT command. For example:

PRINT RET_VAL

   RET_VAL
----------
         4

This command displays a bind variable named ret_val. See PRINT for more information about displaying bind variables.

Using REFCURSOR Bind Variables

SQL*Plus REFCURSOR bind variables allow SQL*Plus to fetch and format the results of a SELECT statement contained in a PL/SQL block.

REFCURSOR bind variables can also be used to reference PL/SQL cursor variables in stored procedures. This enables you to store SELECT statements in the database and reference them from SQL*Plus.

A REFCURSOR bind variable can also be returned from a stored function.

Example 5-14 Creating, Referencing, and Displaying REFCURSOR Bind Variables

To create, reference and display a REFCURSOR bind variable, first declare a local bind variable of the REFCURSOR datatype

VARIABLE employee_info REFCURSOR

Next, enter a PL/SQL block that uses the bind variable in an OPEN... FOR SELECT statement. This statement opens a cursor variable and executes a query. See the Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for information on the OPEN command and cursor variables.

In this example we are binding the SQL*Plus employee_info bind variable to the cursor variable.

BEGIN
OPEN :employee_info FOR SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, SALARY
FROM                                            EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN' ;
END;
 /

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The results from the SELECT statement can now be displayed in SQL*Plus with the PRINT command.

PRINT employee_info

EMPLOYEE_ID     SALARY
----------- ----------
        145      14000
        146      13500
        147      12000
        148      11000
        149      10500

The PRINT statement also closes the cursor. To reprint the results, the PL/SQL block must be executed again before using PRINT.

Example 5-15 Using REFCURSOR Variables in Stored Procedures

A REFCURSOR bind variable is passed as a parameter to a procedure. The parameter has a REF CURSOR type. First, define the type.

CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE EmpPack AS
  TYPE EmpInfoTyp IS REF CURSOR;
  PROCEDURE EmpInfoRpt (emp_cv IN OUT EmpInfoTyp);
END EmpPack;
/

Package created.

Next, create the stored procedure containing an OPEN... FOR SELECT statement.

CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY EmpPack AS
  PROCEDURE EmpInfoRpt (emp_cv IN OUT EmpInfoTyp) AS
  BEGIN
    OPEN emp_cv FOR SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, SALARY
    FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
    WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN' ;
  END;
END;
 /

Procedure created.

Execute the procedure with a SQL*Plus bind variable as the parameter.

VARIABLE cv REFCURSOR
EXECUTE EmpPack.EmpInfoRpt(:cv)

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Now print the bind variable.

PRINT cv

EMPLOYEE_ID     SALARY
----------- ----------
        145      14000
        146      13500
        147      12000
        148      11000
        149      10500

The procedure can be executed multiple times using the same or a different REFCURSOR bind variable.

VARIABLE pcv REFCURSOR
EXECUTE EmpInfo_rpt(:pcv)

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PRINT pcv

EMPLOYEE_ID     SALARY
----------- ----------
        145      14000
        146      13500
        147      12000
        148      11000
        149      10500

Example 5-16 Using REFCURSOR Variables in Stored Functions

Create a stored function containing an OPEN... FOR SELECT statement:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION EmpInfo_fn RETURN -
cv_types.EmpInfo IS
resultset cv_types.EmpInfoTyp;
BEGIN
OPEN resultset FOR SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';
RETURN(resultset);
END;
/

Function created.

Execute the function.

VARIABLE rc REFCURSOR
EXECUTE :rc := EmpInfo_fn

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Now print the bind variable.

PRINT rc

EMPLOYEE_ID     SALARY
----------- ----------
        145      14000
        146      13500
        147      12000
        148      11000
        149      10500

The function can be executed multiple times using the same or a different REFCURSOR bind variable.

EXECUTE :rc := EmpInfo_fn

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

6 Formatting SQL*Plus Reports

This chapter explains how to format your query results to produce a finished report. This chapter does not discuss HTML output, but covers the following topics:

Formatting Columns

Clarifying Your Report with Spacing and Summary Lines

Defining Page and Report Titles and Dimensions

Storing and Printing Query Results

Read this chapter while sitting at your computer and try out the examples shown. Before beginning, make sure you have access to the HR sample schema described in SQL*Plus Quick Start.

Formatting Columns

Through the SQL*Plus COLUMN command, you can change the column headings and reformat the column data in your query results.

Changing Column Headings

When displaying column headings, you can either use the default heading or you can change it using the COLUMN command. The following sections describe how default headings are derived and how to alter them using the COLUMN command. See the COLUMN command for more details.

Default Headings

SQL*Plus uses column or expression names as default column headings when displaying query results. Column names are often short and cryptic, however, and expressions can be hard to understand.

Changing Default Headings

You can define a more useful column heading with the HEADING clause of the COLUMN command, in the following format:

COLUMN column_name HEADING column_heading

Example 6-1 Changing a Column Heading

To produce a report from EMP_DETAILS_VIEW with new headings specified for LAST_NAME, SALARY, and COMMISSION_PCT, enter the following commands:

COLUMN LAST_NAME        HEADING 'LAST NAME'
COLUMN SALARY           HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY'
COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT   HEADING COMMISSION
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

LAST NAME                 MONTHLY SALARY COMMISSION
------------------------- -------------- ----------
Russell                            14000         .4
Partners                           13500         .3
Errazuriz                          12000         .3
Cambrault                          11000         .3
Zlotkey                            10500         .2

Note:

The new headings will remain in effect until you enter different headings, reset each column's format, or exit from SQL*Plus.

To change a column heading to two or more words, enclose the new heading in single or double quotation marks when you enter the COLUMN command. To display a column heading on more than one line, use a vertical bar (|) where you want to begin a new line. (You can use a character other than a vertical bar by changing the setting of the HEADSEP variable of the SET command. See the SET command for more information.)

Example 6-2 Splitting a Column Heading

To give the columns SALARY and LAST_NAME the headings MONTHLY SALARY and LAST NAME respectively, and to split the new headings onto two lines, enter

COLUMN SALARY HEADING 'MONTHLY|SALARY'
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST|NAME'

Now rerun the query with the slash (/) command:

 /

LAST                         MONTHLY
NAME                          SALARY COMMISSION
------------------------- ---------- ----------
Russell                        14000         .4
Partners                       13500         .3
Errazuriz                      12000         .3
Cambrault                      11000         .3
Zlotkey                        10500         .2

Example 6-3 Setting the Underline Character

To change the character used to underline headings to an equal sign and rerun the query, enter the following commands:

SET UNDERLINE =
/

LAST                         MONTHLY
NAME                          SALARY COMMISSION
========================= ========== ==========
Russell                        14000         .4
Partners                       13500         .3
Errazuriz                      12000         .3
Cambrault                      11000         .3
Zlotkey                        10500         .2

Now change the underline character back to a dash:

SET UNDERLINE '-'

Note:

You must enclose the dash in quotation marks; otherwise, SQL*Plus interprets the dash as a hyphen indicating that you wish to continue the command on another line.

Formatting NUMBER Columns

When displaying NUMBER columns, you can either accept the SQL*Plus default display width or you can change it using the COLUMN command. Later sections describe the default display and how you can alter it with the COLUMN command. The format model will stay in effect until you enter a new one, reset the column's format with

COLUMN column_name CLEAR

or exit from SQL*Plus.

Default Display

A NUMBER column's width equals the width of the heading or the width of the FORMAT plus one space for the sign, whichever is greater. If you do not explicitly use FORMAT, then the column's width will always be at least the value of SET NUMWIDTH.

SQL*Plus normally displays numbers with as many digits as are required for accuracy, up to a standard display width determined by the value of the NUMWIDTH variable of the SET command (normally 10). If a number is larger than the value of SET NUMWIDTH, SQL*Plus rounds the number up or down to the maximum number of characters allowed if possible, or displays hashes if the number is too large.

You can choose a different format for any NUMBER column by using a format model in a COLUMN command. A format model is a representation of the way you want the numbers in the column to appear, using 9s to represent digits.

Changing the Default Display

The COLUMN command identifies the column you want to format and the model you want to use, as shown:

COLUMN column_name FORMAT model

Use format models to add commas, dollar signs, angle brackets (around negative values), and leading zeros to numbers in a given column. You can also round the values to a given number of decimal places, display minus signs to the right of negative values (instead of to the left), and display values in exponential notation.

To use more than one format model for a single column, combine the desired models in one COLUMN command (see Example 6-4). See COLUMN for a complete list of format models and further details.

Example 6-4 Formatting a NUMBER Column

To display SALARY with a dollar sign, a comma, and the numeral zero instead of a blank for any zero values, enter the following command:

COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $99,990

Now rerun the current query:

/

LAST                       MONTHLY
NAME                        SALARY COMMISSION
------------------------- -------- ----------
Russell                    $14,000         .4
Partners                   $13,500         .3
Errazuriz                  $12,000         .3
Cambrault                  $11,000         .3
Zlotkey                    $10,500         .2

Use a zero in your format model, as shown, when you use other formats such as a dollar sign and wish to display a zero in place of a blank for zero values.

Formatting Datatypes

When displaying datatypes, you can either accept the SQL*Plus default display width or you can change it using the COLUMN command. The format model will stay in effect until you enter a new one, reset the column's format with

COLUMN column_name CLEAR

or exit from SQL*Plus. Datatypes, in this manual, include the following types:

CHAR

NCHAR

VARCHAR2 (VARCHAR)

NVARCHAR2 (NCHAR VARYING)

DATE

LONG

BLOB

BFILE

CLOB

NCLOB

XMLType

Default Display

The default width of datatype columns is the width of the column in the database. The column width of a LONG, BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, NCLOB or XMLType defaults to the value of SET LONGCHUNKSIZE or SET LONG, whichever is the smaller.

The default width and format of unformatted DATE columns in SQL*Plus is determined by the database NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter. Otherwise, the default format width is A9. See the FORMAT clause of the COLUMN command for more information on formatting DATE columns.

Left justification is the default for datatypes.

Changing the Default Display

You can change the displayed width of a datatype or DATE, by using the COLUMN command with a format model consisting of the letter A (for alphanumeric) followed by a number representing the width of the column in characters.

Within the COLUMN command, identify the column you want to format and the model you want to use:

COLUMN column_name FORMAT model

If you specify a width shorter than the column heading, SQL*Plus truncates the heading. See the COLUMN command for more details.

Example 6-5 Formatting a Character Column

To set the width of the column LAST_NAME to four characters and rerun the current query, enter

COLUMN LAST_NAME FORMAT A4
/

LAST  MONTHLY
NAME   SALARY COMMISSION
---- -------- ----------
Russ  $14,000         .4
ell

Part  $13,500         .3
ners

Erra  $12,000         .3
zuri
z

LAST  MONTHLY
NAME   SALARY COMMISSION
---- -------- ----------
Camb  $11,000         .3
raul
t

Zlot  $10,500         .2
key

If the WRAP variable of the SET command is set to ON (its default value), the employee names wrap to the next line after the fourth character, as shown in Example 6-5, "Formatting a Character Column". If WRAP is set to OFF, the names are truncated (cut off) after the fourth character.

The system variable WRAP controls all columns; you can override the setting of WRAP for a given column through the WRAPPED, WORD_WRAPPED, and TRUNCATED clauses of the COLUMN command. See the COLUMN command for more information on these clauses. You will use the WORD_WRAPPED clause of COLUMN later in this chapter.

NCLOB, BLOB, BFILE or multibyte CLOB columns cannot be formatted with the WORD_WRAPPED option. If you format an NCLOB, BLOB, BFILE or multibyte CLOB column with COLUMN WORD_WRAPPED, the column data behaves as though COLUMN WRAPPED was applied instead.

Note:

The column heading is truncated regardless of the setting of WRAP or any COLUMN command clauses.

Now return the column to its previous format:

COLUMN LAST_NAME FORMAT A10

Example 6-6 Formatting an XMLType Column

Before illustrating how to format an XMLType column, you must create a table with an XMLType column definition, and insert some data into the table. You can create an XMLType column like any other user-defined column. To create a table containing an XMLType column, enter

CREATE TABLE warehouses (
  warehouse_id  NUMBER(3),
  warehouse_spec  SYS.XMLTYPE,
  warehouse_name  VARCHAR2 (35),
  location_id  NUMBER(4));

To insert a new record containing warehouse_id and warehouse_spec values into the new warehouses table, enter

INSERT into warehouses (warehouse_id, warehouse_spec)
  VALUES (100, sys.XMLTYPE.createXML(
  '<Warehouse whNo="100">
    <Building>Owned</Building>
  </Warehouse>'));

To set the XMLType column width to 20 characters and then select the XMLType column, enter

COLUMN Building FORMAT A20
SELECT
  w.warehouse_spec.extract('/Warehouse/Building/text()').getStringVal()
  "Building"
  FROM warehouses w;

Building
--------------------
Owned

For more information about the createXML, extract, text and getStringVal functions, and about creating and manipulating XMLType data, see Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference.

Copying Column Display Attributes

When you want to give more than one column the same display attributes, you can reduce the length of the commands you must enter by using the LIKE clause of the COLUMN command. The LIKE clause tells SQL*Plus to copy the display attributes of a previously defined column to the new column, except for changes made by other clauses in the same command.

Example 6-7 Copying a Column's Display Attributes

To give the column COMMISSION_PCT the same display attributes you gave to SALARY, but to specify a different heading, enter the following command:

COLUMN COMMISSION_PCT LIKE SALARY HEADING BONUS

Rerun the query:

/

LAST        MONTHLY
NAME         SALARY    BONUS
---------- -------- --------
Russell     $14,000       $0
Partners    $13,500       $0
Errazuriz   $12,000       $0
Cambrault   $11,000       $0
Zlotkey     $10,500       $0

Listing and Resetting Column Display Attributes

To list the current display attributes for a given column, use the COLUMN command followed by the column name only, as shown:

COLUMN column_name

To list the current display attributes for all columns, enter the COLUMN command with no column names or clauses after it:

COLUMN

To reset the display attributes for a column to their default values, use the CLEAR clause of the COLUMN command as shown:

COLUMN column_name CLEAR

Example 6-8 Resetting Column Display Attributes to their Defaults

To reset all column display attributes to their default values, enter:

CLEAR COLUMNS

columns cleared

Suppressing and Restoring Column Display Attributes

You can suppress and restore the display attributes you have given a specific column. To suppress a column's display attributes, enter a COLUMN command in the following form:

COLUMN column_name OFF

OFF tells SQL*Plus to use the default display attributes for the column, but does not remove the attributes you have defined through the COLUMN command. To restore the attributes you defined through COLUMN, use the ON clause:

COLUMN column_name ON

Printing a Line of Characters after Wrapped Column Values

As you have seen, by default SQL*Plus wraps column values to additional lines when the value does not fit the column width. If you want to insert a record separator (a line of characters or a blank line) after each wrapped line of output (or after every row), use the RECSEP and RECSEPCHAR variables of the SET command.

RECSEP determines when the line of characters is printed; you set RECSEP to EACH to print after every line, to WRAPPED to print after wrapped lines, and to OFF to suppress printing. The default setting of RECSEP is WRAPPED.

RECSEPCHAR sets the character printed in each line. You can set RECSEPCHAR to any character.

You may wish to wrap whole words to additional lines when a column value wraps to additional lines. To do so, use the WORD_WRAPPED clause of the COLUMN command as shown:

COLUMN column_name WORD_WRAPPED

Example 6-9 Printing a Line of Characters after Wrapped Column Values

To print a line of dashes after each wrapped column value, enter the commands:

SET RECSEP WRAPPED
SET RECSEPCHAR "-"

Finally, enter the following query:

SELECT LAST_NAME, JOB_TITLE, CITY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

Now restrict the width of the column JOB_TITLE and tell SQL*Plus to wrap whole words to additional lines when necessary:

COLUMN JOB_TITLE FORMAT A20 WORD_WRAPPED

Run the query:

/

LAST_NAME                 JOB_TITLE            CITY
------------------------- -------------------- --------
King                      President            Seattle
Kochhar                   Administration Vice  Seattle
                          President
-------------------------------------------------------
De Haan                   Administration Vice  Seattle
                          President
-------------------------------------------------------
Russell                   Sales Manager        Oxford
Partners                  Sales Manager        Oxford
Hartstein                 Marketing Manager    Toronto

6 rows selected.

If you set RECSEP to EACH, SQL*Plus prints a line of characters after every row (after every department, for the above example).

Before continuing, set RECSEP to OFF to suppress the printing of record separators:

SET RECSEP OFF

Clarifying Your Report with Spacing and Summary Lines

When you use an ORDER BY clause in your SQL SELECT command, rows with the same value in the ordered column (or expression) are displayed together in your output. You can make this output more useful to the user by using the SQL*Plus BREAK and COMPUTE commands to create subsets of records and add space or summary lines after each subset.

The column you specify in a BREAK command is called a break column. By including the break column in your ORDER BY clause, you create meaningful subsets of records in your output. You can then add formatting to the subsets within the same BREAK command, and add a summary line (containing totals, averages, and so on) by specifying the break column in a COMPUTE command.

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Hartstein                      13000
           80 Russell                        14000
           80 Partners                       13500
           90 King                           24000
           90 Kochhar                        17000
           90 De Haan                        17000

6 rows selected.

To make this report more useful, you would use BREAK to establish DEPARTMENT_ID as the break column. Through BREAK you could suppress duplicate values in DEPARTMENT_ID and place blank lines or begin a new page between departments. You could use BREAK in conjunction with COMPUTE to calculate and print summary lines containing the total salary for each department and for all departments. You could also print summary lines containing the average, maximum, minimum, standard deviation, variance, or row count.

Suppressing Duplicate Values in Break Columns

The BREAK command suppresses duplicate values by default in the column or expression you name. Thus, to suppress the duplicate values in a column specified in an ORDER BY clause, use the BREAK command in its simplest form:

BREAK ON break_column

Note:

Whenever you specify a column or expression in a BREAK command, use an ORDER BY clause specifying the same column or expression. If you do not do this, breaks occur every time the column value changes.

Example 6-10 Suppressing Duplicate Values in a Break Column

To suppress the display of duplicate department numbers in the query results shown, enter the following commands:

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID;

For the following query (which is the current query stored in the buffer):

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Hartstein                      13000
           80 Russell                        14000
              Partners                       13500
           90 King                           24000
              Kochhar                        17000
              De Haan                        17000

6 rows selected.

Inserting Space when a Break Column's Value Changes

You can insert blank lines or begin a new page each time the value changes in the break column. To insert n blank lines, use the BREAK command in the following form:

BREAK ON break_column SKIP n

To skip a page, use the command in this form:

BREAK ON break_column SKIP PAGE

Example 6-11 Inserting Space when a Break Column's Value Changes

To place one blank line between departments, enter the following command:

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID SKIP 1

Now rerun the query:

/

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Hartstein                      13000

           80 Russell                        14000
              Partners                       13500

           90 King                           24000
              Kochhar                        17000
              De Haan                        17000

6 rows selected.

Inserting Space after Every Row

You may wish to insert blank lines or a blank page after every row. To skip n lines after every row, use BREAK in the following form:

BREAK ON ROW SKIP n

To skip a page after every row, use

BREAK ON ROW SKIP PAGE

Note:

SKIP PAGE does not cause a physical page break character to be generated unless you have also specified NEWPAGE 0.

Using Multiple Spacing Techniques

Suppose you have more than one column in your ORDER BY clause and wish to insert space when each column's value changes. Each BREAK command you enter replaces the previous one. Thus, if you want to use different spacing techniques in one report or insert space after the value changes in more than one ordered column, you must specify multiple columns and actions in a single BREAK command.

Example 6-12 Combining Spacing Techniques

Type the following:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID;

Now, to skip a page when the value of DEPARTMENT_ID changes and one line when the value of JOB_ID changes, enter the following command:

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID SKIP PAGE ON JOB_ID SKIP 1

To show that SKIP PAGE has taken effect, create a TTITLE with a page number:

TTITLE COL 35 FORMAT 9 'Page:' SQL.PNO

Run the new query to see the results:

                                  Page: 1
DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 MK_MAN     Hartstein                      13000

                                  Page: 2
DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           80 SA_MAN     Russell                        14000
                         Partners                       13500

                                  Page: 3
DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           90 AD_PRES    King                           24000

              AD_VP      Kochhar                        17000
                         De Haan                        17000

6 rows selected.

Listing and Removing Break Definitions

Before continuing, turn off the top title display without changing its definition:

TTITLE OFF

You can list your current break definition by entering the BREAK command with no clauses:

BREAK

You can remove the current break definition by entering the CLEAR command with the BREAKS clause:

CLEAR BREAKS

You may wish to place the command CLEAR BREAKS at the beginning of every script to ensure that previously entered BREAK commands will not affect queries you run in a given file.

Computing Summary Lines when a Break Column's Value Changes

If you organize the rows of a report into subsets with the BREAK command, you can perform various computations on the rows in each subset. You do this with the functions of the SQL*Plus COMPUTE command. Use the BREAK and COMPUTE commands together in the following forms:

BREAK ON break_column
COMPUTE function LABEL label_name OF column column column
... ON break_column

You can include multiple break columns and actions, such as skipping lines in the BREAK command, as long as the column you name after ON in the COMPUTE command also appears after ON in the BREAK command. To include multiple break columns and actions in BREAK when using it in conjunction with COMPUTE, use these commands in the following forms:

BREAK ON break_column_1 SKIP PAGE ON break_column_2 SKIP 1
COMPUTE function LABEL label_name OF column column column
... ON break_column_2

The COMPUTE command has no effect without a corresponding BREAK command.

You can COMPUTE on NUMBER columns and, in certain cases, on all types of columns. For more information see the COMPUTE command.

The following table lists compute functions and their effects

Table 6-1 Compute Functions

Function...
Computes the...

SUM

Sum of the values in the column.

MINIMUM

Minimum value in the column.

MAXIMUM

Maximum value in the column.

AVG

Average of the values in the column.

STD

Standard deviation of the values in the column.

VARIANCE

Variance of the values in the column.

COUNT

Number of non-null values in the column.

NUMBER

Number of rows in the column.

The function you specify in the COMPUTE command applies to all columns you enter after OF and before ON. The computed values print on a separate line when the value of the ordered column changes.

Labels for ON REPORT and ON ROW computations appear in the first column; otherwise, they appear in the column specified in the ON clause.

You can change the compute label by using COMPUTE LABEL. If you do not define a label for the computed value, SQL*Plus prints the unabbreviated function keyword.

The compute label can be suppressed by using the NOPRINT option of the COLUMN command on the break column. See the COMPUTE command for more details. If you use the NOPRINT option for the column on which the COMPUTE is being performed, the COMPUTE result is also suppressed.

Example 6-13 Computing and Printing Subtotals

To compute the total of SALARY by department, first list the current BREAK definition:

BREAK

which displays current BREAK definitions:

break on DEPARTMENT_ID page  nodup
          on JOB_ID skip 1 nodup

Now enter the following COMPUTE command and run the current query:

COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_ID
/

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 MK_MAN     Hartstein                      13000
************* **********                           ----------
sum                                                     13000

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           80 SA_MAN     Russell                        14000
                         Partners                       13500

************* **********                           ----------
sum                                                     27500

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           90 AD_PRES    King                           24000

              AD_VP      Kochhar                        17000
                         De Haan                        17000

************* **********                           ----------
sum                                                     58000

6 rows selected.

To compute the sum of salaries for departments 10 and 20 without printing the compute label:

COLUMN DUMMY NOPRINT;
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DUMMY;
BREAK ON DUMMY SKIP 1;
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID DUMMY,DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Hartstein                      13000
                                        ----------
                                             13000

           80 Russell                        14000
           80 Partners                       13500
                                        ----------
                                             27500

           90 King                           24000
           90 Kochhar                        17000
           90 De Haan                        17000
                                        ----------
                                             58000

6 rows selected.

To compute the salaries just at the end of the report:

COLUMN DUMMY NOPRINT;
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DUMMY;
BREAK ON DUMMY;
SELECT NULL DUMMY,DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Hartstein                      13000
           80 Russell                        14000
           80 Partners                       13500
           90 King                           24000
           90 Kochhar                        17000
           90 De Haan                        17000
                                        ----------
                                             98500

6 rows selected.

When you establish the format of a NUMBER column, you must allow for the size of the sums included in the report.

Computing Summary Lines at the End of the Report

You can calculate and print summary lines based on all values in a column by using BREAK and COMPUTE in the following forms:

BREAK ON REPORT
COMPUTE function LABEL label_name OF column column column
... ON REPORT

Example 6-14 Computing and Printing a Grand Total

To calculate and print the grand total of salaries for all sales people and change the compute label, first enter the following BREAK and COMPUTE commands:

BREAK ON REPORT
COMPUTE SUM LABEL TOTAL OF SALARY ON REPORT

Next, enter and run a new query:

SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------------------- ----------
Russell                        14000
Partners                       13500
Errazuriz                      12000
Cambrault                      11000
Zlotkey                        10500
                          ----------
TOTAL                          61000

To print a grand total (or grand average, grand maximum, and so on) in addition to subtotals (or sub-averages, and so on), include a break column and an ON REPORT clause in your BREAK command. Then, enter one COMPUTE command for the break column and another to compute ON REPORT:

BREAK ON break_column ON REPORT
COMPUTE function LABEL label_name OF column ON break_column
COMPUTE function LABEL label_name OF column ON REPORT

Computing Multiple Summary Values and Lines

You can compute and print the same type of summary value on different columns. To do so, enter a separate COMPUTE command for each column.

Example 6-15 Computing the Same Type of Summary Value on Different Columns

To print the total of salaries and commissions for all sales people, first enter the following COMPUTE command:

COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY COMMISSION_PCT ON REPORT

You do not have to enter a BREAK command; the BREAK you entered in Example 6-14, "Computing and Printing a Grand Total" is still in effect. Now, change the first line of the select query to include COMMISSION_PCT:

1

1* SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY

APPEND , COMMISSION_PCT;

Finally, run the revised query to see the results:

/

LAST_NAME                     SALARY COMMISSION_PCT
------------------------- ---------- --------------
Russell                        14000             .4
Partners                       13500             .3
Errazuriz                      12000             .3
Cambrault                      11000             .3
Zlotkey                        10500             .2
                          ---------- --------------
sum                            61000            1.5

You can also print multiple summary lines on the same break column. To do so, include the function for each summary line in the COMPUTE command as follows:

COMPUTE function LABEL label_name function
  LABEL label_name function LABEL label_name ...
  OF column ON break_column

If you include multiple columns after OF and before ON, COMPUTE calculates and prints values for each column you specify.

Example 6-16 Computing Multiple Summary Lines on the Same Break Column

To compute the average and sum of salaries for the sales department, first enter the following BREAK and COMPUTE commands:

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID
COMPUTE AVG SUM OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_ID

Now, enter and run the following query:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID = 30
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID, SALARY;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
              Himuro                          2600
              Tobias                          2800
              Baida                           2900
              Khoo                            3100
              Raphaely                       11000
*************                           ----------
avg                                           4150
sum                                          24900

6 rows selected.

Listing and Removing COMPUTE Definitions

You can list your current COMPUTE definitions by entering the COMPUTE command with no clauses:

COMPUTE

Example 6-17 Removing COMPUTE Definitions

To remove all COMPUTE definitions and the accompanying BREAK definition, enter the following commands:

CLEAR BREAKS

breaks cleared

CLEAR COMPUTES

computes cleared

You may wish to place the commands CLEAR BREAKS and CLEAR COMPUTES at the beginning of every script to ensure that previously entered BREAK and COMPUTE commands will not affect queries you run in a given file.

Defining Page and Report Titles and Dimensions

The word page refers to a screen full of information on your display or a page of a spooled (printed) report. You can place top and bottom titles on each page, set the number of lines per page, and determine the width of each line.

The word report refers to the complete results of a query. You can also place headers and footers on each report and format them in the same way as top and bottom titles on pages.

Setting the Top and Bottom Titles and Headers and Footers

As you have already seen, you can set a title to display at the top of each page of a report. You can also set a title to display at the bottom of each page. The TTITLE command defines the top title; the BTITLE command defines the bottom title.

You can also set a header and footer for each report. The REPHEADER command defines the report header; the REPFOOTER command defines the report footer.

A TTITLE, BTITLE, REPHEADER or REPFOOTER command consists of the command name followed by one or more clauses specifying a position or format and a CHAR value you wish to place in that position or give that format. You can include multiple sets of clauses and CHAR values:

TTITLE position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
BTITLE position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
REPHEADER position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...
REPFOOTER position_clause(s) char_value position_clause(s) char_value ...

For descriptions of all TTITLE, BTITLE, REPHEADER and REPFOOTER clauses, see the TTITLE command and the REPHEADER command.

Example 6-18 Placing a Top and Bottom Title on a Page

To put titles at the top and bottom of each page of a report, enter

TTITLE CENTER -
"ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT"
BTITLE CENTER "COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL"

Now run the current query:

/

                  ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Example 6-19 Placing a Header on a Report

To put a report header on a separate page, and to center it, enter

REPHEADER PAGE CENTER 'PERFECT WIDGETS'

Now run the current query:

/

which displays the following two pages of output, with the new REPHEADER displayed on the first page:

                ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
                            PERFECT WIDGETS

                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

                ACME SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT
DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

To suppress the report header without changing its definition, enter

REPHEADER OFF

Positioning Title Elements

The report in the preceding exercises might look more attractive if you give the company name more emphasis and place the type of report and the department name on either end of a separate line. It may also help to reduce the line size and thus center the titles more closely around the data.

You can accomplish these changes by adding some clauses to the TTITLE command and by resetting the system variable LINESIZE, as the following example shows.

You can format report headers and footers in the same way as BTITLE and TTITLE using the REPHEADER and REPFOOTER commands.

Example 6-20 Positioning Title Elements

To redisplay the personnel report with a repositioned top title, enter the following commands:

TTITLE CENTER 'A C M E  W I D G E T' SKIP 1 -
CENTER ==================== SKIP 1 LEFT 'PERSONNEL REPORT' -
RIGHT 'SALES DEPARTMENT' SKIP 2
SET LINESIZE 60
/

                    A C M E  W I D G E T
                    ====================
PERSONNEL REPORT                  SALES DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000
                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

The LEFT, RIGHT, and CENTER clauses place the following values at the beginning, end, and center of the line. The SKIP clause tells SQL*Plus to move down one or more lines.

Note that there is no longer any space between the last row of the results and the bottom title. The last line of the bottom title prints on the last line of the page. The amount of space between the last row of the report and the bottom title depends on the overall page size, the number of lines occupied by the top title, and the number of rows in a given page. In the above example, the top title occupies three more lines than the top title in the previous example. You will learn to set the number of lines per page later in this chapter.

To always print n blank lines before the bottom title, use the SKIP n clause at the beginning of the BTITLE command. For example, to skip one line before the bottom title in the example above, you could enter the following command:

BTITLE SKIP 1 CENTER 'COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL'

Indenting a Title Element

You can use the COL clause in TTITLE or BTITLE to indent the title element a specific number of spaces. For example, COL 1 places the following values in the first character position, and so is equivalent to LEFT, or an indent of zero. COL 15 places the title element in the 15th character position, indenting it 14 spaces.

Example 6-21 Indenting a Title Element

To print the company name left-aligned with the report name indented five spaces on the next line, enter

TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' SKIP 1 -
COL 6 'SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT' SKIP 2

Now rerun the current query to see the results:

/

ACME WIDGET
     SALES DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORT

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Entering Long Titles

If you need to enter a title greater than 500 characters in length, you can use the SQL*Plus command DEFINE to place the text of each line of the title in a separate substitution variable:

DEFINE LINE1 = 'This is the first line...'
DEFINE LINE2 = 'This is the second line...'
DEFINE LINE3 = 'This is the third line...'

Then, reference the variables in your TTITLE or BTITLE command as follows:

TTITLE CENTER LINE1 SKIP 1 CENTER LINE2 SKIP 1 -
CENTER LINE3

Displaying System-Maintained Values in Titles

You can display the current page number and other system-maintained values in your title by entering a system value name as a title element, for example:

TTITLE LEFT system-maintained_value_name

There are five system-maintained values you can display in titles, the most commonly used of which is SQL.PNO (the current page number). See TTITLE for a list of system-maintained values you can display in titles.

Example 6-22 Displaying the Current Page Number in a Title

To display the current page number at the top of each page, along with the company name, enter the following command:

TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' RIGHT 'PAGE:' SQL.PNO SKIP 2

Now rerun the current query:

/

ACMEWIDGET                                  PAGE:         1

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Note that SQL.PNO has a format ten spaces wide. You can change this format with the FORMAT clause of TTITLE (or BTITLE).

Example 6-23 Formatting a System-Maintained Value in a Title

To close up the space between the word PAGE: and the page number, reenter the TTITLE command as shown:

TTITLE LEFT 'ACME WIDGET' RIGHT 'PAGE:' FORMAT 999 -
SQL.PNO SKIP 2

Now rerun the query:

/

ACME WIDGET                                     'PAGE:'   1

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           30 Colmenares                      2500
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Raphaely                       11000

                    COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

Listing, Suppressing, and Restoring Page Title Definitions

To list a page title definition, enter the appropriate title command with no clauses:

TTITLE
BTITLE

To suppress a title definition, enter:

TTITLE OFF
BTITLE OFF

These commands cause SQL*Plus to cease displaying titles on reports, but do not clear the current definitions of the titles. You may restore the current definitions by entering:

TTITLE ON
BTITLE ON

Displaying Column Values in Titles

You may wish to create a master/detail report that displays a changing master column value at the top of each page with the detail query results for that value underneath. You can reference a column value in a top title by storing the desired value in a variable and referencing the variable in a TTITLE command. Use the following form of the COLUMN command to define the variable:

COLUMN column_name NEW_VALUE variable_name

You must include the master column in an ORDER BY clause and in a BREAK command using the SKIP PAGE clause.

Example 6-24 Creating a Master/Detail Report

Suppose you want to create a report that displays two different managers' employee numbers, each at the top of a separate page, and the people reporting to the manager on the same page as the manager's employee number. First create a variable, MGRVAR, to hold the value of the current manager's employee number:

COLUMN MANAGER_ID NEW_VALUE MGRVAR NOPRINT

Because you will only display the managers' employee numbers in the title, you do not want them to print as part of the detail. The NOPRINT clause you entered above tells SQL*Plus not to print the column MANAGER_ID.

Next, include a label and the value in your page title, enter the proper BREAK command, and suppress the bottom title from the last example:

TTITLE LEFT 'Manager: ' MGRVAR SKIP 2
BREAK ON MANAGER_ID SKIP PAGE
BTITLE OFF

Finally, enter and run the following query:

SELECT MANAGER_ID, DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE MANAGER_ID IN (101, 201)
ORDER BY MANAGER_ID, DEPARTMENT_ID;

Manager:       101

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           10 Whalen                          4400
           40 Mavris                          6500
           70 Baer                           10000
          100 Greenberg                      12000
          110 Higgins                        12000

Manager:       201

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           20 Fay                             6000

6 rows selected.

If you want to print the value of a column at the bottom of the page, you can use the COLUMN command in the following form:

COLUMN column_name OLD_VALUE variable_name

SQL*Plus prints the bottom title as part of the process of breaking to a new page—after finding the new value for the master column. Therefore, if you simply referenced the NEW_VALUE of the master column, you would get the value for the next set of details. OLD_VALUE remembers the value of the master column that was in effect before the page break began.

Displaying the Current Date in Titles

You can, of course, date your reports by simply typing a value in the title. This is satisfactory for ad hoc reports, but if you want to run the same report repeatedly, you would probably prefer to have the date automatically appear when the report is run. You can do this by creating a variable to hold the current date.

You can reference the predefined substitution variable _DATE to display the current date in a title as you would any other variable.

The date format model you include in your LOGIN file or in your SELECT statement determines the format in which SQL*Plus displays the date. See your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information on date format models. See Modifying Your LOGIN File for more information about the LOGIN file.

You can also enter these commands interactively. See COLUMN for more information.

Setting Page Dimensions

Typically, a page of a report contains the number of blank line(s) set in the NEWPAGE variable of the SET command, a top title, column headings, your query results, and a bottom title. SQL*Plus displays a report that is too long to fit on one page on several consecutive pages, each with its own titles and column headings. The amount of data SQL*Plus displays on each page depends on the current page dimensions.

The default page dimensions used by SQL*Plus are shown underneath:

number of lines before the top title: 1

number of lines per page, from the top title to the bottom of the page: 14

number of characters per line: 80

You can change these settings to match the size of your computer screen or, for printing, the size of a sheet of paper.

You can change the page length with the system variable PAGESIZE. For example, you may wish to do so when you print a report.

To set the number of lines between the beginning of each page and the top title, use the NEWPAGE variable of the SET command:

SET NEWPAGE number_of_lines

If you set NEWPAGE to zero, SQL*Plus skips zero lines and displays and prints a formfeed character to begin a new page. On most types of computer screens, the formfeed character clears the screen and moves the cursor to the beginning of the first line. When you print a report, the formfeed character makes the printer move to the top of a new sheet of paper, even if the overall page length is less than that of the paper. If you set NEWPAGE to NONE, SQL*Plus does not print a blank line or formfeed between report pages.

To set the number of lines on a page, use the PAGESIZE variable of the SET command:

SET PAGESIZE number_of_lines

You may wish to reduce the line size to center a title properly over your output, or you may want to increase line size for printing on wide paper. You can change the line width using the LINESIZE variable of the SET command:

SET LINESIZE number_of_characters

Example 6-25 Setting Page Dimensions

To set the page size to 66 lines, clear the screen (or advance the printer to a new sheet of paper) at the start of each page, and set the line size to 70, enter the following commands:

SET PAGESIZE 66
SET NEWPAGE 0
SET LINESIZE 70

Now enter and run the following commands to see the results:

TTITLE CENTER 'ACME WIDGET PERSONNEL REPORT' SKIP 1 -
CENTER '01-JAN-2001' SKIP 2

Now run the following query:

COLUMN FIRST_NAME HEADING 'FIRST|NAME';
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST|NAME';
COLUMN SALARY  HEADING 'MONTHLY|SALARY' FORMAT $99,999;
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

                    ACME WIDGET PERSONNEL REPORT
                              01-JAN-2001

              FIRST                LAST                      MONTHLY
DEPARTMENT_ID NAME                 NAME                       SALARY
------------- -------------------- ------------------------- --------
           90 Steven               King                       $24,000
           90 Neena                Kochhar                    $17,000
           90 Lex                  De Haan                    $17,000
           80 John                 Russell                    $14,000
           80 Karen                Partners                   $13,500
           20 Michael              Hartstein                  $13,000

6 rows selected.

Now reset PAGESIZE, NEWPAGE, and LINESIZE to their default values:

SET PAGESIZE 14
SET NEWPAGE 1
SET LINESIZE 80

To list the current values of these variables, use the SHOW command:

SHOW PAGESIZE
SHOW NEWPAGE
SHOW LINESIZE

Through the SQL*Plus command SPOOL, you can store your query results in a file or print them on your computer's default printer.

Storing and Printing Query Results

Send your query results to a file when you want to edit them with a word processor before printing or include them in a letter, email, or other document.

To store the results of a query in a file—and still display them on the screen—enter the SPOOL command in the following form:

SPOOL file_name

If you do not follow the filename with a period and an extension, SPOOL adds a default file extension to the filename to identify it as an output file. The default varies with the operating system; on most hosts it is LST or LIS. The extension is not appended when you spool to system generated files such as /dev/null and /dev/stderr. See the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system for more information.

SQL*Plus continues to spool information to the file until you turn spooling off, using the following form of SPOOL:

SPOOL OFF

Creating a Flat File

When moving data between different software products, it is sometimes necessary to use a "flat" file (an operating system file with no escape characters, headings, or extra characters embedded). For example, if you do not have Oracle Net, you need to create a flat file for use with SQL*Loader when moving data from Oracle9i to Oracle Database 10g.

To create a flat file with SQL*Plus, you first must enter the following SET commands:

SET NEWPAGE 0
SET SPACE 0
SET LINESIZE 80
SET PAGESIZE 0
SET ECHO OFF
SET FEEDBACK OFF
SET VERIFY OFF
SET HEADING OFF
SET MARKUP HTML OFF SPOOL OFF

After entering these commands, you use the SPOOL command as shown in the previous section to create the flat file.

The SET COLSEP command may be useful to delineate the columns. For more information, see the SET command.

Sending Results to a File

To store the results of a query in a file—and still display them on the screen—enter the SPOOL command in the following form:

SPOOL file_name

SQL*Plus stores all information displayed on the screen after you enter the SPOOL command in the file you specify.

Sending Results to a Printer

To print query results, spool them to a file as described in the previous section. Then, instead of using SPOOL OFF, enter the command in the following form:

SPOOL OUT

SQL*Plus stops spooling and copies the contents of the spooled file to your computer's standard (default) printer. SPOOL OUT does not delete the spool file after printing.

Example 6-26 Sending Query Results to a Printer

To generate a final report and spool and print the results, create a script named EMPRPT containing the following commands.

First, use EDIT to create the script with your operating system text editor.

EDIT EMPRPT

Next, enter the following commands into the file, using your text editor:

SPOOL TEMP
CLEAR COLUMNS
CLEAR BREAKS
CLEAR COMPUTES

COLUMN DEPARTMENT_ID HEADING DEPARTMENT
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'LAST NAME'
COLUMN SALARY HEADING 'MONTHLY SALARY' FORMAT $99,999

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID SKIP 1 ON REPORT
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_ID
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON REPORT

SET PAGESIZE 24
SET NEWPAGE 0
SET LINESIZE 70

TTITLE CENTER 'A C M E  W I D G E T' SKIP 2 -
LEFT 'EMPLOYEE REPORT' RIGHT 'PAGE:' -
FORMAT 999 SQL.PNO SKIP 2
BTITLE CENTER 'COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL'

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

SPOOL OFF

If you do not want to see the output on your screen, you can also add SET TERMOUT OFF to the beginning of the file and SET TERMOUT ON to the end of the file. Save and close the file in your text editor (you will automatically return to SQL*Plus). Now, run the script EMPRPT:

@EMPRPT

SQL*Plus displays the output on your screen (unless you set TERMOUT to OFF), and spools it to the file TEMP:

                         A C M E  W I D G E T

EMPLOYEE REPORT                                              PAGE: 1

DEPARTMENT LAST NAME                 MONTHLY SALARY
---------- ------------------------- --------------
        20 Hartstein                        $13,000
**********                           --------------
sum                                         $13,000

        80 Russell                          $14,000
           Partners                         $13,500
**********                           --------------
sum                                         $27,500

        90 King                             $24,000
           Kochhar                          $17,000
           De Haan                          $17,000
**********                           --------------
sum                                         $58,000

                                     --------------
sum                                         $98,500
                         COMPANY CONFIDENTIAL

6 rows selected.

7 Generating HTML Reports from SQL*Plus

This chapter explains how to generate a HTML report containing your query results. This chapter covers the following topics:

Creating Reports using Command-line SQL*Plus

Creating Reports using Command-line SQL*Plus

In addition to plain text output, the SQL*Plus command-line interface enables you to generate either a complete web page, or HTML output which can be embedded in a web page. You can use SQLPLUS -MARKUP "HTML ON" or SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON to produce complete HTML pages automatically encapsulated with <HTML> and <BODY> tags.

By default, data retrieved with MARKUP HTML ON is output in HTML, though you can optionally direct output to the HTML <PRE> tag so that it displays in a web browser exactly as it appears in SQL*Plus. See the SQLPLUS MARKUP Options and the SET MARKUP command for more information about these commands.

SQLPLUS -MARKUP "HTML ON" is useful when embedding SQL*Plus in program scripts. On starting, it outputs the HTML and BODY tags before executing any commands. All subsequent output is in HTML until SQL*Plus terminates.

The -SILENT and -RESTRICT command-line options may be effectively used with -MARKUP to suppress the display of SQL*Plus prompt and banner information, and to restrict the use of some commands.

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON generates an HTML page for each subsequently spooled file. The HTML tags in a spool file are closed when SPOOL OFF is executed or SQL*Plus exits.

You can use SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL OFF to generate HTML output suitable for embedding in an existing web page. HTML output generated this way has no <HTML> or <BODY> tags.

Creating Reports

During a SQL*Plus session, use the SET MARKUP command interactively to write HTML to a spool file. You can view the output in a web browser.

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON only specifies that SQL*Plus output will be HTML encoded, it does not create or begin writing to an output file. You must use the SQL*Plus SPOOL command to start generation of a spool file. This file then has HTML tags including <HTML> and </HTML>.

When creating a HTML file, it is important and convenient to specify a .html or .htm file extension which are standard file extensions for HTML files. This enables you to easily identify the type of your output files, and also enables web browsers to identify and correctly display your HTML files. If no extension is specified, the default SQL*Plus file extension is used.

You use SPOOL OFF or EXIT to append final HTML tags to the spool file and then close it. If you enter another SPOOL filename command, the current spool file is closed as for SPOOL OFF or EXIT, and a new HTML spool file with the specified name is created.

You can use the SET MARKUP command to enable or disable HTML output as required.

Example 7-1 Creating a Report Interactively

You can create HTML output in an interactive SQL*Plus session using the SET MARKUP command. You can include an embedded style sheet, or any other valid text in the HTML <HEAD> tag. Open a SQL*Plus session and enter the following:

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON PREFORMAT OFF ENTMAP ON -
HEAD "<TITLE>Department Report</TITLE> -
<STYLE type='text/css'> -
<!-- BODY {background: #FFFFC6} --> -
</STYLE>" -
BODY "TEXT='#FF00Ff'" -
TABLE "WIDTH='90%' BORDER='5'"

You use the COLUMN command to control column output. The following COLUMN commands create new heading names for the SQL query output. The first command also turns off entity mapping for the DEPARTMENT_NAME column to allow HTML hyperlinks to be correctly created in this column of the output data:

COLUMN DEPARTMENT_NAME HEADING 'DEPARTMENT' ENTMAP OFF
COLUMN CITY HEADING 'CITY'

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON enables SQL*Plus to write HTML to a spool file. The following SPOOL command triggers the writing of the <HTML> and <BODY> tags to the named file:

SPOOL report.html

After the SPOOL command, anything entered or displayed on standard output is written to the spool file, report.html.

Enter a SQL query:

SELECT '<A HREF="http://oracle.com/'||DEPARTMENT_NAME||'.html">'||DEPARTMENT_NAME||'</A>' DEPARTMENT_NAME, CITY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;

Enter the SPOOL OFF command:

SPOOL OFF

The </BODY> and </HTML> tags are appended to the spool file, report.html, before it is closed.

The output from report.sql is a file, report.html, that can be loaded into a web browser. Open report.html in your web browser. It should appear something like the following:

Description of report.gif follows
Description of the illustration report.gif

In this example, the prompts and query text have not been suppressed. Depending on how you invoke a script, you can use SET ECHO OFF or command-line -SILENT options to do this.

The SQL*Plus commands in this example contain several items of usage worth noting:

The hyphen used to continue lines in long SQL*Plus commands.

The TABLE option to set table WIDTH and BORDER attributes.

The COLUMN command to set ENTMAP OFF for the DEPARTMENT_NAME column to enable the correct formation of HTML hyperlinks. This makes sure that any HTML special characters such as quotes and angle brackets are not replaced by their equivalent entities, &quot;, &amp;, &lt; and &gt;.

The use of quotes and concatenation characters in the SELECT statement to create hyperlinks by concatenating string and variable elements.

View the report.html source in your web browser, or in a text editor to see that the table cells for the Department column contain fully formed hyperlinks as shown:

<html>
<head>
<TITLE>Department Report</TITLE>  <STYLE type="text/css">
<!-- BODY {background: #FFFFC6} -->  </STYLE>
<meta name="generator" content="SQL*Plus 10.2.0.1">
</head>
<body TEXT="#FF00Ff">
SQL&gt; SELECT '&lt;A HREF=&quot;http://oracle.com/'
||DEPARTMENT_NAME||'.html&quot;&gt;'||DEPARTMENT_NAME
||'&lt;/A&gt;' DEPARTMENT_NAME, CITY
<br>
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
<br>
  3* WHERE SALARY&gt;12000
<br>
<p>
<table WIDTH="90%" BORDER="5">
<tr><th>DEPARTMENT</th><th>CITY</th></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Executive.html">Executive</A></td>
<td>Seattle</td></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Executive.html">Executive</A></td>
<td>Seattle</td></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Executive.html">Executive</A></td>
<td>Seattle</td></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Sales.html">Sales</A></td>
<td>Oxford</td></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Sales.html">Sales</A></td>
<td>Oxford</td></tr>
<tr><td><A HREF="http://oracle.com/Marketing.html">Marketing</A></td>
<td>Toronto</td></tr>
</table>
<p>

6 rows selected.<br>

SQL&gt; spool off
<br>
</body>
</html>

Example 7-2 Creating a Report using the SQLPLUS Command

Enter the following command at the operating system prompt:

SQLPLUS -S -M "HTML ON TABLE 'BORDER="2"'" HR@Ora10g @depart.sql>depart.html

where depart.sql contains:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_NAME, CITY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;
EXIT

This example starts SQL*Plus with user "HR", prompts for the HR password, sets HTML ON, sets a BORDER attribute for TABLE, and runs the script depart.sql. The output from depart.sql is a web page which, in this case, has been redirected to the file depart.html using the ">" operating system redirect command (it may be different on your operating system). It could be sent to a web browser if SQL*Plus was called in a web server CGI script. See Suppressing the Display of SQL*Plus Commands in Reports for information about calling SQL*Plus from a CGI script.

Start your web browser and enter the appropriate URL to open depart.html:

Description of dept.gif follows
Description of the illustration dept.gif

The SQLPLUS command in this example contains three layers of nested quotes. From the inside out, these are:

"2" is a quoted HTML attribute value for BORDER.

'BORDER="2"' is the quoted text argument for the TABLE option.

"HTML ON TABLE 'BORDER="2"'" is the quoted argument for the -MARKUP option.

The nesting of quotes may be different in some operating systems or program scripting languages.

Suppressing the Display of SQL*Plus Commands in Reports

The SQLPLUS -SILENT option is particularly useful when used in combination with -MARKUP to generate embedded SQL*Plus reports using CGI scripts or operating system scripts. It suppresses the display of SQL*Plus commands and the SQL*Plus banner. The HTML output shows only the data resulting from your SQL query.

You can also use SET ECHO OFF to suppress the display of each command in a script that is executed with the START command.

HTML Entities

Certain characters, <, >, " and & have a predefined meaning in HTML. In the previous example, you may have noticed that the > character was replaced by &gt; as soon as you entered the SET MARKUP HTML ON command. To enable these characters to be displayed in your web browser, HTML provides character entities to use instead.

Table 7-1 Equivalent HTML Entities

Character
HTML Entity
Meaning

<

&lt;

Start HTML tag label

>

&gt;

End HTML tag label

"

&quot;

Double quote

&

&amp;

Ampersand

The web browser displays the > character, but the actual text in the HTML encoded file is the HTML entity, &gt;. The SET MARKUP option, ENTMAP, controls the substitution of HTML entities. ENTMAP is set ON by default. It ensures that the characters <, >, " and & are always replaced by the HTML entities representing these characters. This prevents web browsers from misinterpreting these characters when they occur in your SQL*Plus commands, or in data resulting from your query.

You can set ENTMAP at a global level with SET MARKUP HTML ENTMAP ON, or at a column level with COLUMN column_name ENTMAP ON.

8 Tuning SQL*Plus

This chapter provides information about how to tune SQL*Plus for better performance. It discusses the following topics:

Tracing Statements

Collecting Timing Statistics

Tracing Parallel and Distributed Queries

Execution Plan Output in Earlier Databases

SQL*Plus Script Tuning

For information about tuning Oracle Database, see the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

Tracing Statements

You can automatically get a report on the execution path used by the SQL optimizer and the statement execution statistics. The report is generated after successful SQL DML (that is, SELECT, DELETE, UPDATE and INSERT) statements. It is useful for monitoring and tuning the performance of these statements.

SQL*Plus report output may differ for DML if dynamic sampling is in effect.

Controlling the Autotrace Report

You can control the report by setting the AUTOTRACE system variable.

Autotrace Setting | Result
SET AUTOTRACE OFF | No AUTOTRACE report is generated. This is the default.
SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN | The AUTOTRACE report shows only the optimizer execution path.
SET AUTOTRACE ON STATISTICS | The AUTOTRACE report shows only the SQL statement execution statistics.
SET AUTOTRACE ON | The AUTOTRACE report includes both the optimizer execution path and the SQL statement execution statistics.
SET AUTOTRACE TRACEONLY | Like SET AUTOTRACE ON, but suppresses the printing of the user's query output, if any. If STATISTICS is enabled, query data is still fetched, but not printed.

To use this feature, you must create a PLAN_TABLE table in your schema and then have the PLUSTRACE role granted to you. DBA privileges are required to grant the PLUSTRACE role. For information on how to grant a role and how to create the PLAN_TABLE table, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

For more information about the roles and the PLAN_TABLE, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference and the AUTOTRACE variable of the SET command.

Example 8-1 Creating a PLAN_TABLE

Run the following commands from your SQL*Plus session to create the PLAN_TABLE in the HR schema:

CONNECT HR
@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlxplan.sql

Table created.

Example 8-2 Creating the PLUSTRACE Role

Run the following commands from your SQL*Plus session to create the PLUSTRACE role and grant it to the DBA:

CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
@$ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/plustrce.sql

drop role plustrace;

Role dropped.

create role plustrace;

Role created.

grant plustrace to dba with admin option;

Grant succeeded.

Example 8-3 Granting the PLUSTRACE Role

Run the following commands from your SQL*Plus session to grant the PLUSTRACE role to the HR user:

CONNECT / AS SYSDBA
GRANT PLUSTRACE TO HR;

Grant succeeded.

Execution Plan

The Execution Plan shows the SQL optimizer's query execution path. Execution Plan output is generated using EXPLAIN PLAN and DBMS_XPLAN.

For information about interpreting the output of DBMS_XPLAN, see the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

Statistics

The statistics are recorded by the server when your statement executes and indicate the system resources required to execute your statement. The results include the following statistics.

Database Statistic Name | Description
recursive calls | Number of recursive calls generated at both the user and system level. Oracle Database maintains tables used for internal processing. When Oracle Database needs to make a change to these tables, it internally generates an internal SQL statement, which in turn generates a recursive call.
db block gets | Number of times a CURRENT block was requested.
consistent gets | Number of times a consistent read was requested for a block
physical reads | Total number of data blocks read from disk. This number equals the value of "physical reads direct" plus all reads into buffer cache.
redo size | Total amount of redo generated in bytes
bytes sent through SQL*Net to client | Total number of bytes sent to the client from the foreground processes.
bytes received through SQL*Net from client | Total number of bytes received from the client over Oracle Net.
SQL*Net round-trips to/from client | Total number of Oracle Net messages sent to and received from the client
sorts (memory) | Number of sort operations that were performed completely in memory and did not require any disk writes
sorts (disk) | Number of sort operations that required at least one disk write
rows processed | Number of rows processed during the operation

The client referred to in the statistics is SQL*Plus. Oracle Net refers to the generic process communication between SQL*Plus and the server, regardless of whether Oracle Net is installed. You cannot change the default format of the statistics report.

For a more complete list of database statistics, see the Oracle Database Reference. For more information about the statistics and how to interpret them, see Chapter 3, "Gathering Optimizer Statistics" in the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

Example 8-4 Tracing Statements for Performance Statistics and Query Execution Path

If the SQL buffer contains the following statement:

SELECT E.LAST_NAME, E.SALARY, J.JOB_TITLE
FROM EMPLOYEES E, JOBS J
WHERE E.JOB_ID=J.JOB_ID AND E.SALARY>12000;

The statement can be automatically traced when it is run:

SET AUTOTRACE ON
/

LAST_NAME                     SALARY JOB_TITLE
------------------------- ---------- -----------------------------------
King                           24000 President
De Haan                        17000 Administration Vice President
Kochhar                        17000 Administration Vice President
Partners                       13500 Sales Manager
Russell                        14000 Sales Manager
Hartstein                      13000 Marketing Manager
6 rows selected.

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 2988506077
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation          | Name     | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT   |          |    6 |   360 |     6  (17)| 00:00:01 |
|*  1 |  HASH JOIN         |          |    6 |   360 |     6  (17)| 00:00:01 |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMPLOYEES|    6 |   204 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   3 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| JOBS     |   19 |   494 |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   1 - access("E"."JOB_ID"="J"."JOB_ID")
   2 - filter("E"."SALARY">12000)

Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
          0  recursive calls
          0  db block gets
         10  consistent gets
          0  physical reads
          0  redo size
        706  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
        496  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
          2  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
          0  sorts (memory)
          0  sorts (disk)
          6  rows processed

Example 8-5 Tracing Statements Without Displaying Query Data

To trace the same statement without displaying the query data, enter:

SET AUTOTRACE TRACEONLY
/

6 rows selected.

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 2988506077

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation          | Name     | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT   |          |    6 |   360 |     6  (17)| 00:00:01 |
|*  1 |  HASH JOIN         |          |    6 |   360 |     6  (17)| 00:00:01 |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMPLOYEES|    6 |   204 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   3 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL| JOBS     |   19 |   494 |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   1 - access("E"."JOB_ID"="J"."JOB_ID")
   2 - filter("E"."SALARY">12000)

Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
          0  recursive calls
          0  db block gets
         10  consistent gets
          0  physical reads
          0  redo size
        706  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
        496  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
          2  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
          0  sorts (memory)
          0  sorts (disk)
          6  rows processed

This option is useful when you are tuning a large query, but do not want to see the query report.

Note:

Your output may vary depending on the server version and configuration.

Collecting Timing Statistics

Use the SQL*Plus TIMING command to collect and display data on the amount of computer resources used to run one or more commands or blocks. TIMING collects data for an elapsed period of time, saving the data on commands run during the period in a timer.

See the TIMING command, and Tracing Statements for information about using AUTOTRACE to collect statistics.

To delete all timers, enter CLEAR TIMING.

Tracing Parallel and Distributed Queries

When you trace a statement in a parallel or distributed query, the Execution Plan output depends on the statement you use.

Example 8-6 Tracing Statements With Parallel Query Option

To trace a parallel query running the parallel query option:

create table D2_t1 (unique1 number) parallel -
(degree 6);

Table created.

create table D2_t2 (unique1 number) parallel -
(degree 6);

Table created.

create unique index d2_i_unique1 on d2_t1(unique1);

Index created.

set long 500 longchunksize 500
SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN
SELECT /*+ INDEX(B,D2_I_UNIQUE1) USE_NL(B) ORDERED -
*/ COUNT (A.UNIQUE1)
FROM D2_T2 A, D2_T1 B
WHERE A.UNIQUE1 = B.UNIQUE1;

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 107954098

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                 | Name    | Rows |Bytes| Cost(%CPU)| Time     |    TQ  |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT          |         |    1 |  26 |    1   (0)| 00:00:01 |        |      |            |
|   1 |  SORT AGGREGATE           |         |    1 |  26 |           |          |        |      |            |
|   2 |   PX COORDINATOR          |         |      |     |           |          |        |      |            |
|   3 |    PX SEND QC (RANDOM)    | :TQ10001|    1 |  26 |           |          |  Q1,01 | P->S | QC (RAND)  |
|   4 |     SORT AGGREGATE        |         |    1 |  26 |           |          |  Q1,01 | PCWP |            |
|   5 |      NESTED LOOPS         |         |    1 |  26 |    1   (0)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | PCWP |            |
|   6 |       PX RECEIVE          |         |      |     |           |          |  Q1,01 | PCWP |            |
|   7 |        PX SEND BROADCAST  | :TQ10000|      |     |           |          |  Q1,00 | P->P | BROADCAST  |
|   8 |         PX BLOCK ITERATOR |         |    1 |  13 |    0   (0)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,00 | PCWC |            |
|   9 |          TABLE ACCESS FULL| D2_T2   |    1 |  13 |    0   (0)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,00 | PCWP |            |
|  10 |       PX BLOCK ITERATOR   |         |    1 |  13 |    2   (0)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | PCWC |            |
|* 11 |        TABLE ACCESS FULL  | D2_T1   |    1 |  13 |    2   (0)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | PCWP |            |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
  11 - filter("A"."UNIQUE1"="B"."UNIQUE1")

Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement

Example 8-7 To monitor disk reads and buffer gets.

SET AUTOTRACE TRACEONLY STATISTICS

The following shows typical results:

Statistics
----------------------------------------------------------
        467  recursive calls
         27  db block gets
        147  consistent gets
         20  physical reads
       4548  redo size
        502  bytes sent via SQL*Net to client
        496  bytes received via SQL*Net from client
          2  SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client
         14  sorts (memory)
          0  sorts (disk)
          1  rows processed

If consistent gets or physical reads are high relative to the amount of data returned, it indicates that the query is expensive and needs to be reviewed for optimization. For example, if you are expecting less than 1,000 rows back and consistent gets is 1,000,000 and physical reads is 10,000, further optimization is needed.

Note:

You can also monitor disk reads and buffer gets using V$SQL or TKPROF.

Execution Plan Output in Earlier Databases

Execution Plan output from Oracle Database 9i Release 2 (9.2) or earlier is different.

Each line of the Execution Plan has a sequential line number. SQL*Plus also displays the line number of the parent operation.

The Execution Plan consists of four columns displayed in the following order:

Column Name | Description
ID_PLUS_EXP | Shows the line number of each execution step.
PARENT_ID_PLUS_EXP | Shows the relationship between each step and its parent. This column is useful for large reports.
PLAN_PLUS_EXP | Shows each step of the report.
OBJECT_NODE_PLUS_EXP | Shows database links or parallel query servers used.

The format of the columns may be altered with the COLUMN command. For example, to stop the PARENT_ID_PLUS_EXP column being displayed, enter

COLUMN PARENT_ID_PLUS_EXP NOPRINT

The Execution Plan output is generated using the EXPLAIN PLAN command.

When you trace a statement in a parallel or distributed query, the Execution Plan shows the cost based optimizer estimates of the number of rows (the cardinality). In general, the cost, cardinality and bytes at each node represent cumulative results. For example, the cost of a join node accounts for not only the cost of completing the join operations, but also the entire costs of accessing the relations in that join.

Lines marked with an asterisk (*) denote a parallel or remote operation. Each operation is explained in the second part of the report. See the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide for more information on parallel and distributed operations.

The second section of this report consists of three columns displayed in the following order

Column Name | Description
ID_PLUS_EXP | Shows the line number of each execution step.
OTHER_TAG_PLUS_EXP | Describes the function of the SQL statement in the OTHER_PLUS_EXP column.
OTHER_PLUS_EXP | Shows the text of the query for the parallel server or remote database.

The format of the columns may be altered with the COLUMN command.

SQL*Plus Script Tuning

Most performance benefit comes from tuning SQL queries executed in a script. This is done with tools like SQL*Plus's AUTOTRACE command. It involves restructuring queries to make best use of the Oracle Database SQL optimizer. For information about Tuning SQL statements, see the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

The performance gains made by tuning SQL*Plus-specific commands are smaller, but could be important for some applications. The following system variables and commands can influence SQL*Plus performance.

COLUMN NOPRINT

COLUMN NOPRINT turns off screen output and printing of the column heading and all values selected for the column.

It is better to remove an unneeded column from a SELECT then it is to use COLUMN NOPRINT to stop it displaying. Removing the column from the query means the SQL engine does not need to process it, or need to transfer the column data back to SQL*Plus.

SET APPINFO OFF

Sets automatic registering of scripts through the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package. Setting APPINFO OFF prevents administrators monitoring the performance and resource usage of scripts.

If many SQL scripts are being called, then turning APPINFO OFF stops internal SQL*Plus calls to the database DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.

SET ARRAYSIZE

Sets the number of rows that SQL*Plus will fetch from the database at one time. Valid values are 1 to 5000.

The effectiveness of setting ARRAYSIZE depends on how well Oracle Database fills network packets and your network latency and throughput. In recent versions of SQL*Plus and Oracle Database, ARRAYSIZE may have little effect. Overlarge sizes can easily take more SQL*Plus memory which may decrease overall performance.

SET DEFINE OFF

SET DEFINE OFF disables the parsing of commands to replace substitution variables with their values.

SET FLUSH OFF

SET FLUSH OFF enables the operating system to buffer output. ON disables buffering and flushes output to the screen. Any benefit from setting FLUSH either ON or OFF depends on your operating system and data. The gain may be marginal.

Use OFF only when you run a script that does not require user interaction and whose output you do not need to see until the script finishes running.

SET LINESIZE

SET LINESIZE sets the total number of characters that SQL*Plus displays on one line before beginning a new line.

Keep LINESIZE as small as possible to avoid extra memory allocations and memory copying.

However, if LINESIZE is too small, columns that cannot fit next to each other are put on separate lines. This may reduce performance significantly.

SET LONGCHUNKSIZE

SET LONGCHUNKSIZE sets the size of the increments SQL*Plus uses to retrieve a BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, LONG, NCLOB or XMLType value.

Experiment with different sizes if LONGS or LOBs are being fetched.

SET PAGESIZE

Sets the number of lines on each page of output.

Increase PAGESIZE to avoid printing headings frequently, or set it to 0 to prevent headings being displayed.

SET SERVEROUTPUT

SET SERVEROUTPUT OFF suppresses the display output (DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE) of stored procedures or PL/SQL blocks in SQL*Plus.

Setting SERVEROUTPUT OFF stops internal SQL*Plus calls to the DBMS_OUTPUT package done after user SQL statements.

SET SQLPROMPT

Sets the SQL*Plus command prompt.

Use the default prompt, "SQL> " to stop variable substitution occurring each time the prompt is displayed.

SET TAB

Determines how SQL*Plus formats white space in terminal output.

Setting TAB ON causes multiple spaces to be compressed in terminal output. Unless this significantly reduces the written data, the processing required may marginally outweigh any benefit.

SET TERMOUT

SET TERMOUT OFF suppresses the display so that you can spool output from a script without seeing it on the screen.

If both spooling to file and writing to terminal are not required, use SET TERMOUT OFF in SQL scripts to disable terminal output.

SET TRIMOUT ON SET TRIMSPOOL ON

SET TRIMOUT ON or SET TRIMSPOOL ON removes trailing blanks at the end of each displayed or spooled line.

Setting these variables ON can reduce the amount of data written. However, if LINESIZE is optimal, it may be faster to set the variables OFF. The SQL*Plus output line is blank filled throughout the query processing routines so removing the spaces could take extra effort.

UNDEFINE

Deletes substitution variables that you defined either explicitly (with the DEFINE command) or implicitly (with an argument to the START command or COLUMN NEW_VAL|OLD_VAL).

Use the UNDEFINE command to remove unnecessary substitution variables. This can reduce the time taken for any operation that uses '&', new_value or old_value variables.

9 SQL*Plus Security

This chapter describes the available methods for controlling access to database tables, and SQL*Plus commands. It covers the following topics:

PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table

Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands

Creating and Controlling Roles

Disabling Commands with SQLPLUS -RESTRICT

Program Argument Security

PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE Table

SQL*Plus uses the PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE (PUP) table, a table in the SYSTEM account, to provide product-level security that supplements the user-level security provided by the SQL GRANT and REVOKE commands and user roles.

DBAs can use the PUP table to disable certain SQL and SQL*Plus commands in the SQL*Plus environment on a per-user basis. SQL*Plus—not Oracle Database—enforces this security. DBAs can even restrict access to the GRANT, REVOKE, and SET ROLE commands to control users' ability to change their database privileges.

SQL*Plus reads restrictions from the PUP table when a user logs in to SQL*Plus and maintains those restrictions for the duration of the session. Changes to the PUP table will only take effect the next time the affected users log in to SQL*Plus.

When SYSTEM, SYS, or a user authenticating with SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileges connects or logs in, SQL*Plus does not read the PUP table. Therefore, no restrictions apply to these users.

The PUP table applies only to the local database. If accessing objects on a remote database through a database link, the PUP table for the remote database does not apply. The remote database cannot extract the username and password from the database link in order to determine that user's profile and privileges.

Creating the PUP Table

You can create the PUP table by running the script named PUPBLD with the extension SQL as SYSTEM. The exact format of the file extension and the location of the file are system dependent. See your DBA for more information.

Note:

If the table is created incorrectly, all users other than privileged users will see a warning when connecting to Oracle Database that the PUP table information is not loaded.

PUP Table Structure

The PUP table has the following columns:

PRODUCT                 NOT NULL VARCHAR2 (30)
USERID                  VARCHAR2(30)
ATTRIBUTE               VARCHAR2(240)
SCOPE                   VARCHAR2(240)
NUMERIC_VALUE           NUMBER(15,2)
CHAR_VALUE              VARCHAR2(240)
DATE_VALUE              DATE
LONG_VALUE              LONG

Description and Use of PUP Columns

The following list describes each column in the PUP table:

PUP Column
Description

PRODUCT
Must contain the product name (in this case "SQL*Plus"). You cannot enter wildcards or NULL in this column.

USERID
Must contain the username (uppercase) of the user for whom you wish to disable the command. To disable the command for more than one user, use SQL wild cards (%) or make multiple entries. Thus, all of the following entries are valid:

HR

CLASS1

CLASS% (all users whose names start with CLASS)

% (all users)

ATTRIBUTE
Must contain the name (in uppercase) of the SQL, SQL*Plus, or PL/SQL command to disable (for example, RUN). If you are disabling a role, it must contain the character string "ROLES". You cannot enter a wildcard. See PUP Table Administration for a list of SQL and SQL*Plus commands you can disable. See Creating and Controlling Roles for information on how to disable a role.

SCOPE
Not used, it is recommended that you enter NULL. Other products may store specific file restrictions or other data in this column.

NUMERIC_VALUE
Not used, it is recommended that you enter NULL. Other products may store numeric values in this column.

CHAR_VALUE
Must contain the character string "DISABLED" to disable a SQL, SQL*Plus, or PL/SQL command. If you are disabling a role, it must contain the name of the role you wish to disable. You cannot use a wildcard. See Disabling Commands with SQLPLUS -RESTRICT for information on disabling a role.

DATE_VALUE
Not used, it is recommended that you enter NULL. Other products may store DATE values in this column.

LONG_VALUE
Not used, it is recommended that you enter NULL. Other products may store LONG values in this column.

PUP Table Administration

The DBA username SYSTEM owns and has all privileges on the PUP table. Other Oracle Database usernames should have only SELECT access to this table, which enables a view of restrictions for that username and those restrictions assigned to PUBLIC. The script PUPBLD.SQL, when run, grants SELECT access on the PUP table to PUBLIC.

Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands

To disable a SQL or SQL*Plus command for a given user, insert a row containing the user's username in the Userid column, the command name in the Attribute column, and DISABLED in the Char_Value column. The Scope, Numeric_Value, and Date_Value columns should contain NULL. For example:

PRODUCT    USERID  ATTRIBUTE  SCOPE   NUMBERIC    CHAR       DATE    LONG
                                      VALUE       VALUE      VALUE   VALUE
-------    ------  ---------  -----   --------    ------     -----   -----
SQL*Plus   HR      HOST                           DISABLED
SQL*Plus   %       INSERT                         DISABLED
SQL*Plus   %       UPDATE                         DISABLED
SQL*Plus   %       DELETE                         DISABLED

To re-enable commands, delete the row containing the restriction.

SQL*Plus Commands That Can Be Disabled
ACCEPT | DEFINE | PASSWORD | SHUTDOWN
APPEND | DEL | PAUSE | SPOOL
ARCHIVE LOG | DESCRIBE | PRINT | START (@, @@)
ATTRIBUTE | DISCONNECT | PROMPT | STARTUP
BREAK | EDIT | RECOVER | STORE
BTITLE | EXECUTE | REMARK | TIMING
CHANGE | EXIT/QUIT | REPFOOTER | TTITLE
CLEAR | GET | REPHEADER | UNDEFINE
COLUMN | HELP (?) | RUN | VARIABLE
COMPUTE | HOST | SAVE | WHENEVER OSERROR
CONNECT | INPUT | SET | WHENEVER SQLERROR
COPY | LIST (;) | SHOW | XQUERY

SQL Commands That Can Be Disabled
ALTER | DELETE | MERGE | SET CONSTRAINTS
ANALYZE | DISASSOCIATE | NOAUDIT | SET ROLE
ASSOCIATE | DROP | PURGE | SET TRANSACTION
AUDIT | EXPLAIN | RENAME | TRUNCATE
CALL | FLASHBACK | REVOKE | UPDATE
COMMENT | GRANT | ROLLBACK | VALIDATE
COMMIT | INSERT | SAVEPOINT | na
CREATE | LOCK | SELECT | na

You can disable the following PL/SQL commands:

PL/SQL Commands That Can Be Disabled

BEGIN
DECLARE
na
na

Note:

Disabling HOST disables the operating system alias for HOST, such as $ on Windows, and ! on UNIX.

Disabling LIST disables ; and numbers (numbers entered to go to that line in a script).

You must disable HELP and ? separately to disable access to command-line help.

Disabling the SQL*Plus SET command also disables SQL SET CONSTRAINTS, SET ROLE and SET TRANSACTION.

Disabling SQL*Plus START also disables @ and @@.

Disabling BEGIN and DECLARE does not prevent the use of SQL*Plus EXECUTE to run PL/SQL. EXECUTE must be disabled separately.

Disabling EXIT/QUIT is not recommended. If disabled, terminate a command-line session by sending an EOF character such as Ctrl+D in UNIX or Ctrl+Z in Windows. Otherwise, terminate a session by terminating the SQL*Plus process. If disabled, the EXIT operation in WHENEVER OSERROR and WHENEVER SQLERROR is also disabled.

Example 9-1 Setting Restrictions in the PUP Table

This is an example of how to insert a row into the PUP table to restrict the user HR from using the SELECT statement:

Log in as SYSTEM with the command

SQLPLUS SYSTEM

Insert a row into the PUP table with the command:

INSERT INTO PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE
VALUES ('SQL*Plus', 'HR', 'SELECT', NULL, NULL, 'DISABLED', NULL, NULL);

Connect as HR and try to SELECT something:

CONNECT HR
SELECT * FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW;

This command causes the following error message:

SP2-0544: Command SELECT disabled in Product User Profile

To delete this row and remove the restriction from the user HR, CONNECT again as SYSTEM and enter:

DELETE FROM PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE WHERE USERID = 'HR';

Creating and Controlling Roles

You can use SQL commands to create and control access to roles to provide security for your database tables. By creating a role and then controlling who has access to it, you can ensure that only certain users have access to particular database privileges.

Roles are created and used with the SQL CREATE, GRANT, and SET commands:

To create a role, you use the CREATE command. You can create roles with or without passwords.

To grant access to roles, you use the GRANT command. In this way, you can control who has access to the privileges associated with the role.

To access roles, you use the SET ROLE command. If you created the role with a password, the user must know the password in order to access the role.

For more information about roles, see your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference, your Oracle Database Administrator's Guide, and your Oracle Database Concepts manual.

Disabling SET ROLE

From SQL*Plus, users can submit any SQL command. In certain situations, this can cause security problems. Unless you take proper precautions, a user could use SET ROLE to access privileges obtained through an application role. With these privileges, they might issue SQL statements from SQL*Plus that could wrongly change database tables.

To prevent application users from accessing application roles in SQL*Plus, you can use the PUP table to disable the SET ROLE command. You also need to disable the BEGIN and SQL*Plus EXECUTE commands to prevent application users setting application roles through a PL/SQL block. This gives a SQL*Plus user only those privileges associated with the roles enabled when they started SQL*Plus. For more information about the creation and usage of user roles, see your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference and Oracle Database Administrator's Guide.

Disabling User Roles

To disable a role for a given user, insert a row in the PUP table containing the user's username in the Userid column, "ROLES" in the Attribute column, and the role name in the Char_Value column.

Note:

When you enter "PUBLIC" or "%" for the Userid column, you disable the role for all users. You should only use "%" or "PUBLIC" for roles which are granted to "PUBLIC". If you try to disable a role that has not been granted to a user, none of the roles for that user are disabled.

The Scope, Numeric_Value, and Date_Value columns should contain NULL. For example:

PRODUCT    USERID  ATTRIBUTE  SCOPE   NUMERIC     CHAR      DATE     LONG
                                      VALUE       VALUE     VALUE    VALUE
-------    ------  ---------  -----   --------    ------    -----    -----
SQL*Plus   HR      ROLES                          ROLE1
SQL*Plus   PUBLIC  ROLES                          ROLE2

During login, these table rows are translated into the command

SET ROLE ALL EXCEPT ROLE1, ROLE2

To ensure that the user does not use the SET ROLE command to change their roles after login, you can disable the SET ROLE command.

To re-enable roles, delete the row containing the restriction.

See Disabling SET ROLE for more information.

Disabling Commands with SQLPLUS -RESTRICT

Like the Product User Profile table, the RESTRICT option enables you to disable certain commands that interact with the operating system. However, commands disabled with the -RESTRICT option are disabled even when no connection to a server exists, and remain disabled until SQL*Plus terminates.

The following table shows which commands are disabled in each restriction level.

Command
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3

EDIT
disabled
disabled
disabled

GET

disabled

HOST
disabled
disabled
disabled

SAVE

disabled
disabled

SPOOL

disabled
disabled

START

disabled

STORE

disabled
disabled

Note:

Disabling HOST also disables your operating system's alias for HOST, such as $ on Windows, and ! on UNIX.

Disabling the SQL*Plus START command will also disable the SQL*Plus @ and @@ commands.

For more information about the RESTRICT option, see the SQLPLUS RESTRICT Option.

Program Argument Security

Some operating systems allow any user to see what programs are being run. If the display also shows command-line arguments, it may be possible to view the usernames and passwords of other SQL*Plus users.

For example, on many UNIX or Linux systems the ps command shows program arguments. To stop passwords being displayed depends on how you use SQL*Plus.

To run SQL*Plus interactively, always wait for SQL*Plus to prompt for connection information, particularly your password.

To run a batch SQL script from a UNIX shell script, set environment variables MYUSERNAME and MYPASSWORD to the appropriate values. Run a shell script containing:

sqlplus /nolog <<EOF
connect $MYUSERNAME/$MYPASSWORD
select ...
EOF

To run a batch SQL script, hard code the username and password as the first line of the SQL script. Then call the script with:

sqlplus @myscript.sql

When SQL*Plus is started like this, it uses the first line of the script as the username/password@connection_identifier string.

Avoid storing your username and password in files or scripts. If you do store your username and password in a file or script, ensure that the file or script is secured from non-authorized access.

10 Database Administration with SQL*Plus

This chapter provides a brief overview of the database administration tools available in SQL*Plus, and discusses the following topics:

Overview

Introduction to Database Startup and Shutdown

Redo Log Files

Database Recovery

This chapter is intended for use by database administrators. You must have database administrator privileges to use this functionality.

For more information on database administration, see the Oracle Database Concepts manual.

Overview

Special operations such as starting up or shutting down a database are performed by a database administrator (DBA). The DBA has certain privileges that are not assigned to normal users. The commands outlined in this chapter would normally be used by a DBA.

For more information about security and roles in SQL*Plus, see SQL*Plus Security.

Introduction to Database Startup and Shutdown

An Oracle database may not always be available to all users. To open or close a database, or to start up or shut down an instance, you must have DBA privileges or be connected as SYSOPER or SYSDBA. Other users cannot change the current status of an Oracle database.

Database Startup

Starting a database involves three steps:

Starting an instance

An instance controls the background processes and the allocation of memory area to access an Oracle database.

Mounting the database

Mounting the database associates it with a previously started instance.

Opening the database

Opening the database makes it available for normal database operations.

For more information about database startup, see the Oracle Database Concepts guide. For more information about starting a database, see the STARTUP command.

Example 10-1 Starting an Instance

To start an Oracle Database instance, without mounting the database, enter

STARTUP NOMOUNT

Example 10-2 Mounting the Database

To start an instance, mount the database, but leave the database closed, enter

STARTUP MOUNT

Example 10-3 Opening the Database

To start an instance using the Oracle Database Server parameter file INITSALES.ORA, mount and open the database named SALES, and restrict access to database administrators, enter

STARTUP OPEN sales PFILE=INITSALES.ORA RESTRICT

where SALES is the database name specified in the DB_NAME parameter in the INITSALES.ORA parameter file.

Database Shutdown

Shutting down a database involves three steps:

Closing the database

When a database is closed, all database and recovery data in the SGA are written to the datafiles and redo log files, and all online datafiles are closed.

Dismounting the database

Dismounting the database disassociates the database from an instance and closes the control files of the database.

Shutting down the instance

Shutting down an instance reclaims the SGA from memory and terminates the background Oracle Database processes that constitute an Oracle Database instance.

For more information about database shutdown, see the Oracle Database Concepts guide. For information about stopping a database, see the SHUTDOWN command.

Example 10-4 Shutting Down the Database

To shut down the database normally after it has been opened and mounted, enter

SHUTDOWN

Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

Redo Log Files

Every Oracle database has a set of two or more redo log files. The set of redo log files for a database is collectively referred to as the database's redo log.

The redo log is used to record changes made to data. If, for example, there is a database failure, the redo log is used to recover the database. To protect against a failure involving the redo log itself, Oracle Database has a mirrored redo log so that two or more copies of the redo log can be maintained on different disks.

ARCHIVELOG Mode

Operating a database in ARCHIVELOG mode enables the archiving of the online redo log.

The SQL ALTER SYSTEM command enables a complete recovery from disk failure as well as instance failure, because all changes made to the database are permanently saved in an archived redo log.

For more information about redo log files and database archiving modes, see the Oracle Database Concepts manual, and the ARCHIVE LOG command.

To list the details of the current log file being archived, enter

ARCHIVE LOG LIST

Database log mode              Archive Mode
Automatic archival             Enabled
Archive destination            /vobs/oracle/dbs/arch
Oldest online log sequence     221
Next log sequence to archive   222
Current log sequence           222

Database Recovery

If a damaged database is in ARCHIVELOG mode, it is a candidate for either complete media recovery or incomplete media recovery operations. To begin media recovery operations use the RECOVER command. For more information about recovering data, see the RECOVER command.

In order to begin recovery operations, you must have DBA privileges.

To recover the database up to a specified time using a control backup file, enter

RECOVER DATABASE UNTIL TIME '1998-11-23:12:47:30'-
USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE

To recover two offline tablespaces, enter

RECOVER TABLESPACE ts1, ts2

Make sure that the tablespaces you are interested in recovering have been taken offline, before proceeding with recovery for those tablespaces.

11 SQL*Plus Globalization Support

Globalization support enables the storing, processing and retrieval of data in native languages. The languages that can be stored in an Oracle database are encoded by Oracle Database-supported character sets. Globalization support ensures that database utilities, error messages, sort order, and date, time, monetary, numeric, and calendar conventions adjust to the native language and locale.

Topics:

Configuring Globalization Support in Command-line SQL*Plus

NLS_LANG Environment Variable

For more information on globalization support, see the Oracle Technology Network globalization notes at http://otn.oracle.com/tech/globalization/, and see the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide

Configuring Globalization Support in Command-line SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus supports multiple languages through the NLS_LANG environment variable. To display another language in SQL*Plus, before starting SQL*Plus you must configure:

NLS_LANG in the SQL*Plus client environment.

The Oracle Database during installation.

SQL*Plus Client

The SQL*Plus client environment is configured by setting the NLS_LANG environment variable which is read by SQL*Plus at startup.

Oracle Database

The Oracle Database environment is configured by creating the database with the required character set.

NLS_LANG Environment Variable

The NLS_LANG environment variable has three components, each controlling a subset of the globalization features.

Your operating system and keyboard must be able to support the character set you have chosen. You may need to install additional support software. For more information about NLS_LANG, and software support, see the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide.

Setting up locale specific behavior on the SQL*Plus client is achieved with the use of NLS parameters. These parameters may be specified in a number of ways, including as an initialization parameter on the server. For settings that control the behavior of the server, see the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide.

NLS_LANG has the syntax:

NLS_LANG = language_territory.charset

where language specifies the conventions to use for Oracle Database messages, sorting order, day and month names. For example, to receive messages in Japanese, set language to JAPANESE. If language is not set, it defaults to AMERICAN.

where territory specifies the convention for default dates, and for monetary, and numeric formats. For example to use the Japanese territory format, set territory to JAPAN. If territory is not set, the default value is derived from the language value, and so is set to AMERICA.

where, in SQL*Plus command-line, charset specifies the character set encoding used by SQL*Plus for data processing, and is generally suited to that of the users terminal. Illogical combinations can be set, but will not work. For example, Japanese cannot be supported using a Western European character set such as:

NLS_LANG=JAPANESE_JAPAN.WE8DEC

However, Japanese could be supported with the Unicode character set. For example:

NLS_LANG=JAPANESE_JAPAN.UTF8

Viewing NLS_LANG Settings

You can view the NLS_LANG setting by entering the SELECT command:

SELECT * FROM NLS_SESSION_PARAMETERS;

The NLS_TERRITORY and NLS_LANGUAGE values correspond to the language and territory components of the NLS_LANG variable.

You can also obtain a list of valid values for the NLS_SORT, NLS_LANGUAGE, NLS_TERRITORY and NLS_CHARACTERSET by querying the NLS dynamic performance view table V$NLS_VALID_VALUES.

Setting NLS_LANG

You can set the NLS_LANG environment variable to control globalization features.

Example 11-1 Configuring Japanese Support in SQL*Plus on Windows

Ensure you have exited your current SQL*Plus session.

Open System from Start > Settings > Control Panel.

Click the Advanced tab and select Environment Variables.

Create a new environment variable, NLS_LANG, with a value of Japanese_Japan.JA16SJIS.

You may need to restart Windows for this setting to take effect.

Example 11-2 Configuring Japanese Support in SQL*Plus on UNIX

Ensure you have exited your current SQL*Plus session.

Set the NLS_LANG variable using either set or setenv depending on the UNIX shell you are using. For example, in csh, you would enter:

setenv NLS_LANG Japanese_Japan.UTF8

or

setenv NLS_LANG Japanese_Japan.JA16SJIS

or

setenv NLS_LANG Japanese_Japan.JA16EUC

The locale setting of your UNIX terminal determines the exact value of the NLS_LANG parameter. For more information on the NLS_LANG setting, see the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide.

Example 11-3 Configuring Japanese Support in Oracle Database

To store data in the Japanese character set using UTF-8 character encoding, ensure that the Oracle database has been created with the AL32UTF8 character set. See your Oracle Database Installation Guide for information about creating your database in a character set other than US7ASCII.

Part III

SQL*Plus Reference

Part III contains the SQL*Plus command reference, and the list of SQL*Plus error messages.

Part III contains the following chapters:

SQL*Plus Command Reference

SQL*Plus Error Messages

12 SQL*Plus Command Reference

This chapter contains descriptions of the SQL*Plus commands listed alphabetically. Each description contains the following parts:

Section | Description
Syntax | Shows how to enter the command and provides a brief description of the basic uses of the command.
Terms | Describes the function of each term or clause appearing in the syntax.
Usage | Provides additional information on uses of the command and on how the command works.
Examples | Gives one or more examples of the command.

You can continue a long SQL*Plus command by typing a hyphen at the end of the line and pressing Return. If you wish, you can type a space before typing the hyphen. SQL*Plus displays a right angle-bracket (>) as a prompt for each additional line.

You do not need to end a SQL*Plus command with a semicolon. When you finish entering the command, you can press Return. If you wish, however, you can enter a semicolon at the end of a SQL*Plus command.

SQL*Plus Command Summary

Command
Description

@ (at sign)

Runs SQL*Plus statements in the specified script. The script can be called from the local file system or from a web server.

@@ (double at sign)

Runs a script. This command is similar to the @ (at sign) command It is useful for running nested scripts because it looks for the specified script in the same path as the calling script.

/ (slash)

Executes the SQL command or PL/SQL block.

ACCEPT

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

APPEND

Adds specified text to the end of the current line in the buffer.

ARCHIVE LOG

Displays information about redo log files.

ATTRIBUTE

Specifies display characteristics for a given attribute of an Object Type column, and lists the current display characteristics for a single attribute or all attributes.

BREAK

Specifies where and how formatting will change in a report, or lists the current break definition.

BTITLE

Places and formats a specified title at the bottom of each report page, or lists the current BTITLE definition.

CHANGE

Changes text on the current line in the buffer.

CLEAR

Resets or erases the current clause or setting for the specified option, such as BREAKS or COLUMNS.

COLUMN

Specifies display characteristics for a given column, or lists the current display characteristics for a single column or for all columns.

COMPUTE

Calculates and prints summary lines, using various standard computations, on subsets of selected rows, or lists all COMPUTE definitions.

CONNECT

Connects a given user to Oracle Database.

COPY

Copies results from a query to a table in the same or another database.

DEFINE

Specifies a substitution variable and assigns it a CHAR value, or lists the value and variable type of a single variable or all variables.

DEL

Deletes one more lines of the buffer.

DESCRIBE

Lists the column definitions for the specified table, view, or synonym or the specifications for the specified function procedure.

DISCONNECT

Commits pending changes to the database and logs the current user off Oracle Database, but does not exit SQL*Plus.

EDIT

Invokes an operating system text editor on the contents of the specified file or on the contents of the buffer.

EXECUTE

Executes a single PL/SQL statement.

EXIT

Terminates SQL*Plus and returns control to the operating system.

GET

Loads an operating system file into the buffer.

HELP

Accesses the SQL*Plus command-line help system.

HOST

Executes an operating system command without leaving SQL*Plus.

INPUT

Adds one or more new lines after the current line in the buffer.

LIST

Lists one or more lines of the buffer.

PASSWORD

Enables a password to be changed without echoing the password on an input device.

PAUSE

Displays the specified text, then waits for the user to press Return.

PRINT

Displays the current value of a bind variable.

PROMPT

Sends the specified message to the user's screen.

EXIT

Terminates SQL*Plus and returns control to the operating system QUIT is identical to EXIT.

RECOVER

Performs media recovery on one or more tablespaces, one or more datafiles, or the entire database.

REMARK

Begins a comment in a script.

REPFOOTER

Places and formats a specified report footer at the bottom of each report, or lists the current REPFOOTER definition.

REPHEADER

Places and formats a specified report header at the top of each report, or lists the current REPHEADER definition.

RUN

Lists and runs the SQL command or PL/SQL block currently stored in the SQL buffer.

SAVE

Saves the contents of the buffer in an operating system file (a script).

SET

Sets a system variable to alter the SQL*Plus environment for your current session.

SHOW

Shows the value of a SQL*Plus system variable or the current SQL*Plus environment.

SHUTDOWN

Shuts down a currently running Oracle Database instance.

SPOOL

Stores query results in an operating system file and, optionally, sends the file to a printer.

START

Runs the SQL statements in the specified script. The script can be called from a local file system or a web server in SQL*Plus command-line.

STARTUP

Starts an Oracle Database instance and optionally mounts and opens a database.

STORE

Saves attributes of the current SQL*Plus environment in an operating system script.

TIMING

Records timing data for an elapsed period of time, lists the current timer's title and timing data, or lists the number of active timers.

TTITLE

Places and formats a specified title at the top of each report page, or lists the current TTITLE definition.

UNDEFINE

Deletes one or more substitution variables that you defined either explicitly (with the DEFINE command) or implicitly (with an argument to the START command).

VARIABLE

Declares a bind variable that can be referenced in PL/SQL.

WHENEVER OSERROR

Exits SQL*Plus if an operating system command generates an error.

WHENEVER SQLERROR

Exits SQL*Plus if a SQL command or PL/SQL block generates an error.

XQUERY

Runs an XQuery 1.0 statement.

@ (at sign)

Syntax

@{url | file_name[.ext] } [arg...]

Runs the SQL*Plus statements in the specified script. The script can be called from the local file system or from a web server. The @ command functions similarly to @@ and START.

Terms

url

Specifies the Uniform Resource Locator of a script to run on the specified web server. SQL*Plus supports HTTP and FTP protocols, but not HTTPS. HTTP authentication in the form http://username:password@machine_name.domain... is not supported in this release.

file_name[.ext]

Represents the script you wish to run. If you omit ext, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). For information on changing the default extension, see SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}.

When you enter @file_name.ext, SQL*Plus searches for a file with that filename and extension in the current default directory. If SQL*Plus does not find the file in the current directory, it searches a system-dependent path to find it. Some operating systems may not support the path search. See the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system for specific information related to your operating system environment.

arg...

Represent data items you wish to pass to parameters in the script. If you enter one or more arguments, SQL*Plus substitutes the values into the parameters (&1, &2, and so forth) in the script. The first argument replaces each occurrence of &1, the second replaces each occurrence of &2, and so forth.

The @ command defines the parameters with the values given by the arguments; if you run the script again in this session, you can enter new arguments or omit the arguments to use the current values. For more information on using parameters, see Using Substitution Variables.

Usage

All previous settings like COLUMN command settings stay in effect when the script starts. If the script changes any setting, this new value stays in effect after the script has finished.

You can include in a script any command you would normally enter interactively (typically, SQL, SQL*Plus commands, or PL/SQL blocks).

If the START command is disabled (see Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands), this will also disable the @ command. See START for information on the START command.

SQL*Plus removes the SQLTERMINATOR (a semicolon by default) before the @ command is issued. If you require a semicolon in your command, add a second SQLTERMINATOR. See SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF} for more information.

Examples

To run a script named PRINTRPT with the extension SQL, enter

@PRINTRPT

To run a script named WKRPT with the extension QRY, enter

@WKRPT.QRY

You can run a script named YEAREND specified by a URL, and pass values to variables referenced in YEAREND in the usual way:

@HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/YEAREND.SQL VAL1 VAL2
@FTP://machine_name.domain:port/YEAREND.SQL  VAL1 VAL2

On a web server configured to serve SQL reports, you could request SQL*Plus to execute a dynamic script with:

@HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/SCRIPTSERVER?ENDOFYEAR VAL1 VAL2

@@ (double at sign)

Syntax

@@{url | file_name[.ext] } [arg...]

Runs a script. This command is almost identical to the @ (at sign) command. When running nested scripts it looks for nested scripts in the same path or url as the calling script. The @@ command functions similarly to @ and START.

Terms

url

Specifies the Uniform Resource Locator of a script to run on the specified web server. SQL*Plus supports HTTP and FTP protocols, but not HTTPS. HTTP authentication in the form http://username:password@machine_name.domain... is not supported in this release.

file_name[.ext]

Represents the nested script you wish to run. If you omit ext, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). For information on changing the default extension, see SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}.

When you enter @@file_name.ext from within a script, SQL*Plus runs file_name.ext from the same directory as the script.

When you enter @@file_name.ext interactively, SQL*Plus runs file_name.ext from the current working directory or from the same url as the script from which it was called. If SQL*Plus does not find the file, it searches a system-dependent path to find the file. Some operating systems may not support the path search. See the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system for specific information related to your operating system environment.

arg...

Represent data items you wish to pass to parameters in the script. If you enter one or more arguments, SQL*Plus substitutes the values into the parameters (&1, &2, and so forth) in the script. The first argument replaces each occurrence of &1, the second replaces each occurrence of &2, and so forth.

The @@ command defines the parameters with the values given by the arguments. If you run the script again in this session, you can enter new arguments or omit the arguments to use the current values. For more information on using parameters, see Using Substitution Variables.

Usage

All previous settings like COLUMN command settings stay in effect when the script starts. If the script changes any setting, the new value stays in effect after the script has finished.

You can include in a script any command you would normally enter interactively (typically, SQL or SQL*Plus commands).

If the START command is disabled (see Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands), this will also disable the @@ command. For more information, see the SPOOL command.

SQL*Plus removes the SQLTERMINATOR (a semicolon by default) before the @@ command is issued. A workaround for this is to add another SQLTERMINATOR. See SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF} for more information.

Examples

Suppose that you have the following script named PRINTRPT:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, CITY FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW WHERE SALARY>12000;@EMPRPT.SQL@@ WKRPT.SQL

When you START PRINTRPT and it reaches the @ command, it looks for the script named EMPRPT in the current working directory and runs it. When PRINTRPT reaches the @@ command, it looks for the script named WKRPT in the same path as PRINTRPT and runs it.

Suppose that the same script PRINTRPT was located on a web server and you ran it with START HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/PRINTRPT. When it reaches the @ command, it looks for the script named EMPRPT in the current working directory and runs it. When PRINTRPT reaches the @@ command, it looks for the script named WKRPT in the same url as PRINTRPT, HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/WKRPT.SQL and runs it.

/ (slash)

Syntax

/(slash)

Executes the most recently executed SQL command or PL/SQL block which is stored in the SQL buffer.

The buffer has no command history and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Usage

You can enter a slash (/) at the command prompt or at a line number prompt of a multi-line command.

The slash command functions similarly to RUN, but does not list the command.

Executing a SQL command or PL/SQL block using the slash command will not cause the current line number in the SQL buffer to change unless the command in the buffer contains an error. In that case, SQL*Plus changes the current line number to the number of the line containing the error.

Examples

Type the following SQL script:

SELECT CITY, COUNTRY_NAMEFROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEWWHERE SALARY=12000;

Enter a slash (/) to re-execute the command in the buffer:

/

CITY                           COUNTRY_NAME
------------------------------ ----------------------------------------
Seattle                        United States of America
Oxford                         United Kingdom
Seattle                        United States of America

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.

Terms

variable

Represents the name of the variable in which you wish to store a value. If variable does not exist, SQL*Plus creates it.

NUM[BER]

Makes the variable a NUMBER datatype. If the reply does not match the datatype, ACCEPT gives an error message and prompts again.

CHAR

Makes the variable a CHAR datatype. The maximum CHAR length is 240 bytes. If a multi-byte character set is used, one CHAR may be more than one byte in size.

DATE

Makes reply a valid DATE format. If the reply is not a valid DATE format, ACCEPT gives an error message and prompts again. The datatype is CHAR.

BINARY_FLOAT

Makes the variable a BINARY_FLOAT datatype. BINARY_FLOAT is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

BINARY_DOUBLE

Makes the variable a BINARY_DOUBLE datatype. BINARY_DOUBLE is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

FOR[MAT]

Specifies the input format for the reply. If the reply does not match the specified format, ACCEPT gives an error message and prompts again. If an attempt is made to enter more characters than are specified by the char format, an error message is given and the value must be reentered. If an attempt is made to enter a greater number precision than is specified by the number format, an error message is given and the value must be reentered. The format element must be a text constant such as A10 or 9.999. See COLUMN FORMAT for a complete list of format elements.

Oracle Database date formats such as "dd/mm/yy" are valid when the datatype is DATE. DATE without a specified format defaults to the NLS_DATE_FORMAT of the current session. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide and the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for information on Oracle Database date formats.

DEF[AULT]

Sets the default value if a reply is not given. The reply must be in the specified format if defined.

PROMPT text

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

NOPR[OMPT]

Skips a line and waits for input without displaying a prompt.

HIDE

Suppresses the display as you type the reply.

To display or reference variables, use the DEFINE command. See the DEFINE command for more information.

Examples

To display the prompt "Password: ", place the reply in a CHAR variable named PSWD, and suppress the display, enter

ACCEPT pswd CHAR PROMPT 'Password:  ' HIDE

To display the prompt "Enter weekly salary: " and place the reply in a NUMBER variable named SALARY with a default of 000.0, enter

ACCEPT salary NUMBER FORMAT '999.99' DEFAULT '000.0' -
PROMPT 'Enter weekly salary:  '

To display the prompt "Enter date hired: " and place the reply in a DATE variable, HIRED, with the format "dd/mm/yyyy" and a default of "01/01/2003", enter

ACCEPT hired DATE FORMAT 'dd/mm/yyyy' DEFAULT '01/01/2003'-
PROMPT 'Enter date hired:  '

To display the prompt "Enter employee lastname: " and place the reply in a CHAR variable named LASTNAME, enter

ACCEPT lastname CHAR FORMAT 'A20' -
PROMPT 'Enter employee lastname:  '

APPEND

Syntax

A[PPEND] text

where text represents the text to append.

Adds specified text to the end of the current line in the SQL buffer. The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

To separate text from the preceding characters with a space, enter two spaces between APPEND and text.

To APPEND text that ends with a semicolon, end the command with two semicolons (SQL*Plus interprets a single semicolon as an optional command terminator).

Examples

To append a comma delimiter, a space and the column name CITY to the first line of the buffer, make that line the current line by listing the line as follows:

1

1* SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID

Now enter APPEND:

APPEND , CITY
1

1* SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, CITY

To append a semicolon to the line, enter

APPEND ;;

SQL*Plus appends the first semicolon to the line and interprets the second as the terminator for the APPEND command.

ARCHIVE LOG

Syntax

ARCHIVE LOG LIST

Displays information about redo log files.

Terms

LIST

Requests a display that shows the range of redo log files to be archived, the current log file group's sequence number, and the current archive destination (specified by either the optional command text or by the initialization parameter LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST).

If you are using both ARCHIVELOG mode and automatic archiving, the display might appear like:

ARCHIVE LOG LIST

Database log mode              Archive Mode
Automatic archival             Enabled
Archive destination            /vobs/oracle/dbs/arch
Oldest online log sequence     221
Next log sequence to archive   222
Current log sequence           222

Since the log sequence number of the current log group and the next log group to archive are the same, automatic archival has archived all log groups up to the current one.

If you are using ARCHIVELOG but have disabled automatic archiving, the last three lines might look like:

Oldest online log sequence            222
Next log sequence to archive          222
Current log sequence                  225

If you are using NOARCHIVELOG mode, the "next log sequence to archive" line is suppressed.

The log sequence increments every time the Log Writer begins to write to another redo log file group; it does not indicate the number of logs being used. Every time an online redo log file group is reused, the contents are assigned a new log sequence number.

Usage

You must be connected to an open Oracle database as SYSOPER, or SYSDBA. For information about connecting to the database, see the CONNECT command.

For information about specifying archive destinations, see your platform-specific Oracle Database documentation.

Note:

ARCHIVE LOG LIST only applies to the current instance. To START and STOP archiving, use the SQL command ALTER SYSTEM. For more information about using SQL commands, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

ATTRIBUTE

Syntax

ATTR[IBUTE] [type_name.attribute_name [option ...]]

where option represents one of the following clauses:

ALI[AS] aliasCLE[AR]FOR[MAT] formatLIKE {type_name.attribute_name | alias}ON | OFF

Specifies display characteristics for a given attribute of an Object Type column, such as the format of NUMBER data. Columns and attributes should not have the same names as they share a common namespace.

Also lists the current display characteristics for a single attribute or all attributes.

Enter ATTRIBUTE followed by type_name.attribute_name and no other clauses to list the current display characteristics for only the specified attribute. Enter ATTRIBUTE with no clauses to list all current attribute display characteristics.

Terms

type_name.attribute_name

Identifies the data item (typically the name of an attribute) within the set of attributes for a given object of Object Type, type_name.

If you select objects of the same Object Type, an ATTRIBUTE command for that type_name.attribute_name applies to all such objects you reference in that session.

ALI[AS] alias

Assigns a specified alias to a type_name.attribute_name, which can be used to refer to the type_name.attribute_name in other ATTRIBUTE commands.

CLE[AR]

Resets the display characteristics for the attribute_name. The format specification must be a text constant such as A10 or $9,999—not a variable.

FOR[MAT] format

Specifies the display format of the column. The format specification must be a text constant such as A10 or $9,999—not a variable.

LIKE {type_name.attribute_name | alias}

Copies the display characteristics of another attribute. LIKE copies only characteristics not defined by another clause in the current ATTRIBUTE command.

ON | OFF

Controls the status of display characteristics for a column. OFF disables the characteristics for an attribute without affecting the characteristics' definition. ON reinstates the characteristics.

Usage

You can enter any number of ATTRIBUTE commands for one or more attributes. All attribute characteristics set for each attribute remain in effect for the remainder of the session, until you turn the attribute OFF, or until you use the CLEAR COLUMN command. Thus, the ATTRIBUTE commands you enter can control an attribute's display characteristics for multiple SQL SELECT commands.

When you enter multiple ATTRIBUTE commands for the same attribute, SQL*Plus applies their clauses collectively. If several ATTRIBUTE commands apply the same clause to the same attribute, the last one entered will control the output.

Examples

To make the LAST_NAME attribute of the Object Type EMPLOYEE_TYPE twenty characters wide, enter

ATTRIBUTE EMPLOYEE_TYPE.LAST_NAME FORMAT A20

To format the SALARY attribute of the Object Type EMPLOYEE_TYPE so that it shows millions of dollars, rounds to cents, uses commas to separate thousands, and displays $0.00 when a value is zero, enter

ATTRIBUTE EMPLOYEE_TYPE.SALARY FORMAT $9,999,990.99

BREAK

Syntax

BRE[AK] [ON report_element [action [action]]] ...

where report_element has the syntax {column|expr|ROW|REPORT}

and action has the syntax [SKI[P] n|[SKI[P]] PAGE] [NODUP[LICATES]|DUP[LICATES]]

Specifies where changes occur in a report and the formatting action to perform, such as:

suppressing display of duplicate values for a given column

skipping a line each time a given column value changes

printing computed figures each time a given column value changes or at the end of the report.

See the COMPUTE command.

Enter BREAK with no clauses to list the current BREAK definition.

Terms

ON column [action [action]]

When you include actions, specifies actions for SQL*Plus to take whenever a break occurs in the specified column (called the break column). (column cannot have a table or view appended to it. To achieve this, you can alias the column in the SQL statement.) A break is one of three events, a change in the value of a column or expression, the output of a row, or the end of a report

When you omit actions, BREAK ON column suppresses printing of duplicate values in column and marks a place in the report where SQL*Plus will perform the computation you specify in a corresponding COMPUTE command.

You can specify ON column one or more times. If you specify multiple ON clauses, as in

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID SKIP PAGE ON JOB_ID -
SKIP 1 ON SALARY SKIP 1

the first ON clause represents the outermost break (in this case, ON DEPARTMENT_ID) and the last ON clause represents the innermost break (in this case, ON SALARY). SQL*Plus searches each row of output for the specified breaks, starting with the outermost break and proceeding—in the order you enter the clauses—to the innermost. In the example, SQL*Plus searches for a change in the value of DEPARTMENT_ID, then JOB_ID, then SALARY.

Next, SQL*Plus executes actions beginning with the action specified for the innermost break and proceeding in reverse order toward the outermost break (in this case, from SKIP 1 for ON SALARY toward SKIP PAGE for ON DEPARTMENT_ID). SQL*Plus executes each action up to and including the action specified for the first break encountered in the initial search.

If, for example, in a given row the value of JOB_ID changes—but the values of DEPARTMENT_ID and SALARY remain the same—SQL*Plus skips two lines before printing the row (one as a result of SKIP 1 ON SALARY and one as a result of SKIP 1 ON JOB_ID).

Whenever you use ON column, you should also use an ORDER BY clause in the SQL SELECT command. Typically, the columns used in the BREAK command should appear in the same order in the ORDER BY clause (although all columns specified in the ORDER BY clause need not appear in the BREAK command). This prevents breaks from occurring at meaningless points in the report.

If the BREAK command specified earlier in this section is used, the following SELECT command produces meaningful results:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID, SALARY, LAST_NAME
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID, SALARY, LAST_NAME;

All rows with the same DEPARTMENT_ID print together on one page, and within that page all rows with the same JOB_ID print in groups. Within each group of jobs, those jobs with the same SALARY print in groups. Breaks in LAST_NAME cause no action because LAST_NAME does not appear in the BREAK command.

In BREAK commands, nulls are considered equal to each other, but not equal to anything else. This is different to the treatment of nulls in WHERE clauses.

ON expr [action [action]]

When you include actions, specifies actions for SQL*Plus to take when the value of the expression changes.

When you omit actions, BREAK ON expr suppresses printing of duplicate values of expr and marks where SQL*Plus will perform the computation you specify in a corresponding COMPUTE command.

You can use an expression involving one or more table columns or an alias assigned to a report column in a SQL SELECT or SQL*Plus COLUMN command. If you use an expression in a BREAK command, you must enter expr exactly as it appears in the SELECT command. If the expression in the SELECT command is a+b, for example, you cannot use b+a or (a+b) in a BREAK command to refer to the expression in the SELECT command.

The information given for ON column also applies to ON expr.

ON ROW [action [action]]

When you include actions, specifies actions for SQL*Plus to take when a SQL SELECT command returns a row. The ROW break becomes the innermost break regardless of where you specify it in the BREAK command. You should always specify an action when you BREAK on a row.

ON REPORT [action]

Marks a place in the report where SQL*Plus will perform the computation you specify in a corresponding COMPUTE command. Use BREAK ON REPORT in conjunction with COMPUTE to print grand totals or other "grand" computed values.

The REPORT break becomes the outermost break regardless of where you specify it in the BREAK command.

Note that SQL*Plus will not skip a page at the end of a report, so you cannot use BREAK ON REPORT SKIP PAGE.

SKI[P] n

Skips n lines before printing the row where the break occurred. BREAK SKIP n does not work in SET MARKUP HTML ON mode unless PREFORMAT is SET ON.

[SKI[P]] PAGE

Skips the number of lines that are defined to be a page before printing the row where the break occurred. The number of lines per page can be set with the PAGESIZE clause of the SET command. Note that PAGESIZE only changes the number of lines that SQL*Plus considers to be a page. Therefore, SKIP PAGE may not always cause a physical page break, unless you have also specified NEWPAGE 0. Note also that if there is a break after the last row of data to be printed in a report, SQL*Plus will not skip the page.

NODUP[LICATES]

Prints blanks rather than the value of a break column when the value is a duplicate of the column's value in the preceding row.

DUP[LICATES]

Prints the value of a break column in every selected row.

Enter BREAK with no clauses to list the current break definition.

Usage

Each new BREAK command you enter replaces the preceding one.

To remove the BREAK command, use CLEAR BREAKS.

Examples

To produce a report that prints duplicate job values, prints the average of SALARY, and additionally prints the sum of SALARY, you could enter the following commands. (The example selects departments 50 and 80 and the jobs of clerk and salesman only.)

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_ID ON JOB_ID DUPLICATES
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_ID
COMPUTE AVG OF SALARY ON JOB_ID
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID IN ('SH_CLERK', 'SA_MAN')
AND DEPARTMENT_ID IN (50, 80)
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           50 SH_CLERK   Taylor                          3200
              SH_CLERK   Fleaur                          3100
                 .
                 .
                 .
              SH_CLERK   Gates                           2900

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------
           50 SH_CLERK   Perkins                         2500
              SH_CLERK   Bell                            4000
                 .
                 .
                 .
              SH_CLERK   Grant                           2600
              **********                           ----------
              avg                                        3215

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------

*************                                      ----------
sum                                                     64300

           80 SA_MAN     Russell                        14000
              SA_MAN     Partners                       13500
              SA_MAN     Errazuriz                      12000
              SA_MAN     Cambrault                      11000
              SA_MAN     Zlotkey                        10500
              **********                           ----------
              avg                                       12200

DEPARTMENT_ID JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ---------- ------------------------- ----------

*************                                      ----------
sum                                                     61000

25 rows selected.

BTITLE

Syntax

BTI[TLE] [printspec [text | variable] ...] | [ON | OFF]

where printspec represents one or more of the following clauses used to place and format the text:

BOLD

CE[NTER]

COL n

FORMAT text

LE[FT]

R[IGHT]

S[KIP] [n]

TAB n

Places and formats a specified title at the bottom of each report page, or lists the current BTITLE definition.

Enter BTITLE with no clauses to list the current BTITLE definition. For a description of the old form of BTITLE, see BTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form).

Terms

See the TTITLE command for information on terms and clauses in the BTITLE command syntax.

Usage

If you do not enter a printspec clause before the first occurrence of text, BTITLE left justifies the text. SQL*Plus interprets BTITLE in the new form if a valid printspec clause (LEFT, SKIP, COL, and so on) immediately follows the command name.

SQL*Plus substitution variables (& variables) are expanded before BTITLE is executed. The resulting string is stored as the BTITLE text. During subsequent execution for each page of results, the expanded value of a variable may itself be interpreted as a variable with unexpected results.

You can avoid this double substitution in a BTITLE command by not using the & prefix for variables that are to be substituted on each page of results. If you want to use a substitution variable to insert unchanging text in a BTITLE, enclose it in quotes so that it is only substituted once.

Examples

To set a bottom title with CORPORATE PLANNING DEPARTMENT on the left and a date on the right, enter

BTITLE LEFT 'CORPORATE PLANNING DEPARTMENT' -
RIGHT '1 JAN 2001'

To set a bottom title with CONFIDENTIAL in column 50, followed by six spaces and a date, enter

BTITLE COL 50 'CONFIDENTIAL'
TAB 6
'1 JAN 2001'

CHANGE

Syntax

C[HANGE] sepchar old [sepchar [new [sepchar]]]

Changes the first occurrence of the specified text on the current line in the buffer. The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Terms

sepchar

Represents any non-alphanumeric character such as "/" or "!". Use a sepchar that does not appear in old or new.

old

Represents the text you wish to change. CHANGE ignores case in searching for old. For example,

CHANGE /aq/aw

finds the first occurrence of "aq", "AQ", "aQ", or "Aq" and changes it to "aw". SQL*Plus inserts the new text exactly as you specify it.

If old is prefixed with "...", it matches everything up to and including the first occurrence of old. If it is suffixed with "...", it matches the first occurrence of old and everything that follows on that line. If it contains an embedded "...", it matches everything from the preceding part of old through the following part of old.

new

Represents the text with which you wish to replace old. If you omit new and, optionally, the second and third sepchars, CHANGE deletes old from the current line of the buffer.

Usage

CHANGE changes the first occurrence of the existing specified text on the current line of the buffer to the new specified text. The current line is marked with an asterisk (*) in the LIST output.

You can also use CHANGE to modify a line in the buffer that has generated an Oracle Database error. SQL*Plus sets the buffer's current line to the line containing the error so that you can make modifications.

To reenter an entire line, you can type the line number followed by the new contents of the line. If you specify a line number larger than the number of lines in the buffer and follow the number with text, SQL*Plus adds the text in a new line at the end of the buffer. If you specify zero ("0") for the line number and follow the zero with text, SQL*Plus inserts the line at the beginning of the buffer (that line becomes line 1).

Examples

Enter 3 so the current line of the buffer contains the following text:

3

3* WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('CLERK', 'SA_MAN')

Enter the following command:

CHANGE /CLERK/SH_CLERK/

The text in the buffer changes as follows:

3* WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('SH_CLERK', 'SA_MAN')

Or enter the following command:

CHANGE /'CLERK',... /'SH_CLERK'/

The original line changes to

3* WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('SH_CLERK')

Or enter the following command:

CHANGE /(...)/('SA_MAN')/

The original line changes to

3* WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('SA_MAN')

You can replace the contents of an entire line using the line number. This entry

3  WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('SH_CLERK')

causes the second line of the buffer to be replaced with

WHERE JOB_ID IS IN ('SH_CLERK')

Note that entering a line number followed by a string will replace the line regardless of what text follows the line number. For example,

2  CHANGE/OLD/NEW/

will change the second line of the buffer to be

2* C/OLD/NEW/

CLEAR

Syntax

CL[EAR] option ...

where option represents one of the following clauses:

BRE[AKS]BUFF[ER]COL[UMNS]COMP[UTES]SCR[EEN]SQL TIMI[NG]

Resets or erases the current value or setting for the specified option.

Terms

BRE[AKS]

Removes the break definition set by the BREAK command.

BUFF[ER]

Clears text from the buffer. CLEAR BUFFER has the same effect as CLEAR SQL, unless you are using multiple buffers.

See SET BUF[FER] {buffer|SQL} (obsolete) for more information about the obsolete form of this command.

COL[UMNS]

Resets column display attributes set by the COLUMN command to default settings for all columns. To reset display attributes for a single column, use the CLEAR clause of the COLUMN command. CLEAR COLUMNS also clears the ATTRIBUTEs for that column.

COMP[UTES]

Removes all COMPUTE definitions set by the COMPUTE command.

SCR[EEN]

Clears your screen.

SQL

Clears the text from SQL buffer. CLEAR SQL has the same effect as CLEAR BUFFER, unless you are using multiple buffers.

See SET BUF[FER] {buffer|SQL} (obsolete) for more information about the obsolete form of this command.

TIMI[NG]

Deletes all timers created by the TIMING command.

Examples

To clear breaks, enter

CLEAR BREAKS

To clear column definitions, enter

CLEAR COLUMNS

COLUMN

Syntax

COL[UMN] [{column | expr} [option ...]]

where option represents one of the following clauses:

ALI[AS] aliasCLE[AR]ENTMAP {ON | OFF}FOLD_A[FTER]FOLD_B[EFORE]FOR[MAT] formatHEA[DING] textJUS[TIFY] {L[EFT] | C[ENTER] | R[IGHT]}LIKE {expr | alias}NEWL[INE]NEW_V[ALUE] variableNOPRI[NT] | PRI[NT]NUL[L] textOLD_V[ALUE] variableON | OFF WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED]

Specifies display attributes for a given column, such as

text for the column heading

alignment of the column heading

format for NUMBER data

wrapping of column data

Also lists the current display attributes for a single column or all columns.

Enter COLUMN followed by column or expr and no other clauses to list the current display attributes for only the specified column or expression. Enter COLUMN with no clauses to list all current column display attributes.

Terms

{column | expr}

Identifies the data item (typically, the name of a column) in a SQL SELECT command to which the column command refers. If you use an expression in a COLUMN command, you must enter expr exactly as it appears in the SELECT command. If the expression in the SELECT command is a+b, for example, you cannot use b+a or (a+b) in a COLUMN command to refer to the expression in the SELECT command.

If you select columns with the same name from different tables, a COLUMN command for that column name will apply to both columns. That is, a COLUMN command for the column LAST_NAME applies to all columns named LAST_NAME that you reference in this session. COLUMN ignores table name prefixes in SELECT commands. Also, spaces are ignored unless the name is placed in double quotes.

To format the columns differently, assign a unique alias to each column within the SELECT command itself (do not use the ALIAS clause of the COLUMN command) and enter a COLUMN command for each column's alias.

ALI[AS] alias

Assigns a specified alias to a column, which can be used to refer to the column in BREAK, COMPUTE, and other COLUMN commands.

CLE[AR]

Resets the display attributes for the column to default values.

To reset the attributes for all columns, use the CLEAR COLUMNS command. CLEAR COLUMNS also clears the ATTRIBUTEs for that column.

ENTMAP {ON | OFF}

Enables entity mapping to be turned on or off for selected columns in HTML output. This feature enables you to include, for example, HTML hyperlinks in a column of data, while still mapping entities in other columns of the same report. By turning entity mapping off for a column containing HTML hyperlinks, the HTML anchor tag delimiters, <, >, " and &, are correctly interpreted in the report. Otherwise they would be replaced with their respective entities, &lt;, &gt;, &quot; and &amp;, preventing web browsers from correctly interpreting the HTML.

Entities in the column heading and any COMPUTE labels or output appearing in the column are mapped or not mapped according to the value of ENTMAP for the column.

The default setting for COLUMN ENTMAP is the current setting of the MARKUP HTML ENTMAP option.

For more information about the MARKUP HTML ENTMAP option, see SET MARKUP Options.

FOLD_A[FTER]

Inserts a carriage return after the column heading and after each row in the column. SQL*Plus does not insert an extra carriage return after the last column in the SELECT list. FOLD_A[FTER] does not work in SET MARKUP HTML ON mode unless PREFORMAT is set ON.

FOLD_B[EFORE]

Inserts a carriage return before the column heading and before each row of the column. SQL*Plus does not insert an extra carriage return before the first column in the SELECT list. FOLD_A[FTER] does not work in SET MARKUP HTML ON mode unless PREFORMAT is set ON.

FOR[MAT] format

Specifies the display format of the column. The format specification must be a text constant such as A10 or $9,999.

Character Columns The default width of CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2 (VARCHAR) and NVARCHAR2 (NCHAR VARYING) columns is the width of the column in the database. SQL*Plus formats these datatypes left-justified. If a value does not fit within the column width, SQL*Plus wraps or truncates the character string depending on the setting of SET WRAP.

A LONG, BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, NCLOB or XMLType column's width defaults to the value of SET LONGCHUNKSIZE or SET LONG, whichever one is smaller.

SQL*Plus truncates or wraps XMLType columns after 2000 bytes. To avoid this you need to set an explicit COLUMN format for the XMLType column. A COLUMN format can be up to a maximum of 60000 per row.

To change the width of a datatype to n, use FORMAT An. (A stands for alphabetic.) If you specify a width shorter than the column heading, SQL*Plus truncates the heading.

DATE Columns The default width and format of unformatted DATE columns in SQL*Plus is derived from the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter. The NLS_DATE_FORMAT setting is determined by the NLS territory parameter. For example, the default format for the NLS territory, America, is DD-Mon-RR, and the default width is A9. The NLS parameters may be set in your database parameter file, in environment variables or an equivalent platform-specific mechanism. They may also be specified for each session with the ALTER SESSION command. For more information about DATE formats, and about NLS parameters, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

You can change the format of any DATE column using the SQL function TO_CHAR in your SQL SELECT statement. You may also wish to use an explicit COLUMN FORMAT command to adjust the column width.

When you use SQL functions like TO_CHAR, Oracle Database automatically enables a very wide column. The default column width may also depend on the character sets in use in SQL*Plus and in the database. To maximize script portability if multiple characters sets are used, Oracle Database recommends using COLUMN FORMAT for each column selected.

To change the width of a DATE column to n, use the COLUMN command with FORMAT An. If you specify a width shorter than the column heading, the heading is truncated.

NUMBER Columns For numeric columns, COLUMN FORMAT settings take precedence over SET NUMFORMAT settings, which take precedence over SET NUMWIDTH settings.

See SET NUMF[ORMAT] format and SET NUM[WIDTH] {10 | n}.

To change a NUMBER column's width, use FORMAT followed by an element as specified in Table 12-1, "Number Formats".

Table 12-1 Number Formats

Element
Examples
Description

, (comma)

9,999

Displays a comma in the specified position.

. (period)

99.99

Displays a period (decimal point) to separate the integral and fractional parts of a number.

$

$9999

Displays a leading dollar sign.

0

0999 9990

Displays leading zeros Displays trailing zeros.

9

9999

Displays a value with the number of digits specified by the number of 9s. Value has a leading space if positive, a leading minus sign if negative. Blanks are displayed for leading zeroes. A zero (0) is displayed for a value of zero.

B

B9999

Displays blanks for the integer part of a fixed-point number when the integer part is zero, regardless of zeros in the format model.

C

C999

Displays the ISO currency symbol in the specified position.

D

99D99

Displays the decimal character to separate the integral and fractional parts of a number.

EEEE

9.999EEEE

Displays value in scientific notation (format must contain exactly four "E"s).

G

9G999

Displays the group separator in the specified positions in the integral part of a number.

L

L999

Displays the local currency symbol in the specified position.

MI

9999MI

Displays a trailing minus sign after a negative value. Display a trailing space after a positive value.

PR

9999PR

Displays a negative value in <angle brackets>. Displays a positive value with a leading and trailing space.

RN rn

RN rn

Displays uppercase Roman numerals. Displays lowercase Roman numerals. Value can be an integer between 1 and 3999.

S

S9999 9999S

Displays a leading minus or plus sign. Displays a trailing minus or plus sign.

TM

TM

Displays the smallest number of decimal characters possible. The default is TM9. Fixed notation is used for output up to 64 characters, scientific notation for more than 64 characters. Cannot precede TM with any other element. TM can only be followed by a single 9 or E

U

U9999

Displays the dual currency symbol in the specified position.

V

999V99

Displays value multiplied by 10n, where n is the number of 9's after the V.

X

XXXX xxxx

Displays the hexadecimal value for the rounded value of the specified number of digits.

The MI and PR format elements can only appear in the last position of a number format model. The S format element can only appear in the first or last position.

If a number format model does not contain the MI, S or PR format elements, negative return values automatically contain a leading negative sign and positive values automatically contain a leading space.

A number format model can contain only a single decimal character (D) or period (.), but it can contain multiple group separators (G) or commas (,). A group separator or comma cannot appear to the right of a decimal character or period in a number format model.

SQL*Plus formats NUMBER data right-justified. A NUMBER column's width equals the width of the heading or the width of the FORMAT plus one space for the sign, whichever is greater. If you do not explicitly use COLUMN FORMAT or SET NUMFORMAT, then the column's width will always be at least the value of SET NUMWIDTH.

SQL*Plus may round your NUMBER data to fit your format or field width.

If a value cannot fit in the column, SQL*Plus displays pound signs (#) instead of the number.

If a positive value is extremely large and a numeric overflow occurs when rounding a number, then the infinity sign (~) replaces the value. Likewise, if a negative value is extremely small and a numeric overflow occurs when rounding a number, then the negative infinity sign replaces the value (-~).

HEA[DING] text

Defines a column heading. If you do not use a HEADING clause, the column's heading defaults to column or expr. If text contains blanks or punctuation characters, you must enclose it with single or double quotes. Each occurrence of the HEADSEP character (by default, "|") begins a new line.

For example,

COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'Employee |Name'

would produce a two-line column heading.

See SET HEADS[EP] { | c | ON | OFF} for information on changing the HEADSEP character.

JUS[TIFY] {L[EFT] | C[ENTER] | R[IGHT]}

Aligns the heading. If you do not use a JUSTIFY clause, headings for NUMBER columns default to RIGHT and headings for other column types default to LEFT.

LIKE {expr | alias}

Copies the display attributes of another column or expression (whose attributes you have already defined with another COLUMN command). LIKE copies only attributes not defined by another clause in the current COLUMN command.

NEWL[INE]

Starts a new line before displaying the column's value. NEWLINE has the same effect as FOLD_BEFORE. NEWL[INE] does not work in SET MARKUP HTML ON mode unless PREFORMAT is SET ON.

NEW_V[ALUE] variable

Specifies a variable to hold a column value. You can reference the variable in TTITLE commands. Use NEW_VALUE to display column values or the date in the top title. You must include the column in a BREAK command with the SKIP PAGE action. The variable name cannot contain a pound sign (#).

NEW_VALUE is useful for master/detail reports in which there is a new master record for each page. For master/detail reporting, you must also include the column in the ORDER BY clause. See the example at the end of this command description.

Variables specified with NEW_V[ALUE] are expanded before TTITLE is executed. The resulting string is stored as the TTITLE text. During subsequent execution for each page of the report, the expanded value of a variable may itself be interpreted as a variable with unexpected results.

You can avoid this double substitution in a TTITLE command by not using the & prefix for NEW_V[ALUE] variables that are to be substituted on each page of the report. If you want to use a substitution variable to insert unchanging text in a TTITLE, enclose it in quotes so that it is only substituted once.

For information on displaying a column value in the bottom title, see OLD_V[ALUE] variable below. For more information on referencing variables in titles, see the TTITLE command. For information on formatting and valid format models, see FOR[MAT] format above.

NOPRI[NT] | PRI[NT]

Controls the printing of the column (the column heading and all the selected values). NOPRINT turns off the screen output and printing of the column. PRINT turns the printing of the column ON.

NUL[L] text

Controls the text SQL*Plus displays for null values in the given column. The default is a white space. SET NULL controls the text displayed for all null values for all columns, unless overridden for a specific column by the NULL clause of the COLUMN command. When a NULL value is selected, a variable's type always becomes CHAR so the SET NULL text can be stored in it.

OLD_V[ALUE] variable

Specifies a variable to hold a column value. You can reference the variable in BTITLE commands. Use OLD_VALUE to display column values in the bottom title. You must include the column in a BREAK command with the SKIP PAGE action.

OLD_VALUE is useful for master/detail reports in which there is a new master record for each page. For master/detail reporting, you must also include the column in the ORDER BY clause.

Variables specified with OLD_V[ALUE] are expanded before BTITLE is executed. The resulting string is stored as the BTITLE text. During subsequent execution for each page of the report, the expanded value of a variable may itself be interpreted as a variable with unexpected results.

You can avoid this double substitution in a BTITLE command by not using the & prefix for OLD_V[ALUE] variables that are to be substituted on each page of the report. If you want to use a substitution variable to insert unchanging text in a BTITLE, enclose it in quotes so that it is only substituted once.

For information on displaying a column value in the top title, see NEW_V[ALUE] variable. For more information on referencing variables in titles, see the TTITLE command.

ON | OFF

Controls the status of display attributes for a column. OFF disables the attributes for a column without affecting the attributes' definition. ON reinstates the attributes.

WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED]

Specifies how SQL*Plus will treat a datatype or DATE string that is too wide for a column. WRAPPED wraps the string within the column bounds, beginning new lines when required. When WORD_WRAP is enabled, SQL*Plus left justifies each new line, skipping all leading whitespace (for example, returns, newline characters, tabs and spaces), including embedded newline characters. Embedded whitespace not on a line boundary is not skipped. TRUNCATED truncates the string at the end of the first line of display.

NCLOB, BLOB, BFILE or multibyte CLOB columns cannot be formatted with the WORD_WRAPPED option. If you format an NCLOB, BLOB, BFILE or multibyte CLOB column with COLUMN WORD_WRAPPED, the column data behaves as though COLUMN WRAPPED was applied instead.

Usage

The COLUMN commands you enter can control a column's display attributes for multiple SQL SELECT commands.

You can enter any number of COLUMN commands for one or more columns. All column attributes set for each column remain in effect for the remainder of the session, until you turn the column OFF, or until you use the CLEAR COLUMN command.

When you enter multiple COLUMN commands for the same column, SQL*Plus applies their clauses collectively. If several COLUMN commands apply the same clause to the same column, the last one entered will control the output.

Examples

To make the LAST_NAME column 20 characters wide and display EMPLOYEE NAME on two lines as the column heading, enter

COLUMN LAST_NAME FORMAT A20 HEADING 'EMPLOYEE|NAME'

To format the SALARY column so that it shows millions of dollars, rounds to cents, uses commas to separate thousands, and displays $0.00 when a value is zero, enter

COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $9,999,990.99

To assign the alias NET to a column containing a long expression, to display the result in a dollar format, and to display <NULL> for null values, you might enter

COLUMN SALARY+COMMISSION_PCT+BONUS-EXPENSES-INS-TAX ALIAS NET
COLUMN NET FORMAT $9,999,999.99 NULL '<NULL>'

Note that the example divides this column specification into two commands. The first defines the alias NET, and the second uses NET to define the format.

Also note that in the first command you must enter the expression exactly as you enter it in the SELECT command. Otherwise, SQL*Plus cannot match the COLUMN command to the appropriate column.

To wrap long values in a column named REMARKS, you can enter

COLUMN REMARKS FORMAT A20 WRAP

CUSTOMER     DATE        QUANTITY REMARKS
----------   ---------   -------- --------------------
123          25-AUG-2001 144      This order must be s
                                  hipped by air freigh
                                  t to ORD

If you replace WRAP with WORD_WRAP, REMARKS looks like this:

CUSTOMER     DATE        QUANTITY   REMARKS
----------   ---------   --------   ---------------------
123          25-AUG-2001 144        This order must be
                                    shipped by air freight
                                    to ORD

If you specify TRUNCATE, REMARKS looks like this:

CUSTOMER     DATE        QUANTITY   REMARKS
----------   ---------   --------   --------------------
123          25-AUG-2001 144        This order must be s

To print the current date and the name of each job in the top title, enter the following. Use the EMPLOYEES table of the HR schema instead of EMP_DETAILS_VIEW.

For details on creating a date variable, see Displaying the Current Date in Titles.

Your two page report would look similar to the following report, with "Job Report" centered within your current linesize:

COLUMN JOB_ID NOPRINT NEW_VALUE JOBVAR
COLUMN TODAY  NOPRINT NEW_VALUE DATEVAR
BREAK ON JOB_ID SKIP PAGE ON TODAY
TTITLE CENTER 'Job Report' RIGHT DATEVAR  SKIP 2 -
LEFT 'Job:     ' JOBVAR SKIP 2
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'MM/DD/YYYY') TODAY,
LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, MANAGER_ID, HIRE_DATE, SALARY, DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE JOB_ID IN ('MK_MAN', 'SA_MAN')
ORDER BY JOB_ID, LAST_NAME;

To change the default format of DATE columns to 'YYYY-MM-DD', you can enter

ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'YYYY-MM-DD';

Session altered.

To display the change, enter a SELECT statement, such as:

SELECT HIRE_DATEFROM EMPLOYEESWHERE EMPLOYEE_ID = 206;

                                   Job Report                         04/19/01

Job:     SA_MAN

HIRE_DATE
----------
1994-06-07

See the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for information on the ALTER SESSION command.

COMPUTE

Syntax

COMP[UTE] [function [LAB[EL] text] ... OF {expr | column | alias} ... ON {expr | column | alias | REPORT | ROW} ...]

In combination with the BREAK command, calculates and prints summary lines, using various standard computations on subsets of selected rows. It also lists all COMPUTE definitions. For details on how to create summaries, see Clarifying Your Report with Spacing and Summary Lines.

Terms

function ...

Represents one of the functions listed in Table 12-2, "COMPUTE Functions". If you specify more than one function, use spaces to separate the functions.

COMPUTE command functions are always executed in the sequence AVG, COUNT, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, NUMBER, SUM, STD, VARIANCE, regardless of their order in the COMPUTE command.

Table 12-2 COMPUTE Functions

Function
Computes
Applies to Datatypes

AVG

Average of non-null values

NUMBER

COU[NT]

Count of non-null values

all types

MIN[IMUM]

Minimum value

NUMBER, CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2 (VARCHAR), NVARCHAR2 (NCHAR VARYING)

MAX[IMUM]

Maximum value

NUMBER, CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2 (VARCHAR), NVARCHAR2 (NCHAR VARYING)

NUM[BER]

Count of rows

all types

SUM

Sum of non-null values

NUMBER

STD

Standard deviation of non-null values

NUMBER

VAR[IANCE]

Variance of non-null values

NUMBER

LAB[EL] text

Defines the label to be printed for the computed value. If no LABEL clause is used, text defaults to the unabbreviated function keyword. You must place single quotes around text containing spaces or punctuation. The label prints left justified and truncates to the column width or linesize, whichever is smaller. The maximum label length is 500 characters.

The label for the computed value appears in the break column specified. To suppress the label, use the NOPRINT option of the COLUMN command on the break column.

If you repeat a function in a COMPUTE command, SQL*Plus issues a warning and uses the first occurrence of the function.

With ON REPORT and ON ROW computations, the label appears in the first column listed in the SELECT statement. The label can be suppressed by using a NOPRINT column first in the SELECT statement. When you compute a function of the first column in the SELECT statement ON REPORT or ON ROW, then the computed value appears in the first column and the label is not displayed. To see the label, select a dummy column first in the SELECT list.

OF {expr | column | alias} ...

In the OF clause, you can refer to an expression or function reference in the SELECT statement by placing the expression or function reference in double quotes. Column names and aliases do not need quotes.

ON {expr | column | alias | REPORT | ROW} ...

If multiple COMPUTE commands reference the same column in the ON clause, only the last COMPUTE command applies.

To reference a SQL SELECT expression or function reference in an ON clause, place the expression or function reference in quotes. Column names and aliases do not need quotes.

Enter COMPUTE without clauses to list all COMPUTE definitions.

Usage

In order for the computations to occur, the following conditions must all be true:

One or more of the expressions, columns, or column aliases you reference in the OF clause must also be in the SELECT command.

The expression, column, or column alias you reference in the ON clause must occur in the SELECT command and in the most recent BREAK command.

If you reference either ROW or REPORT in the ON clause, also reference ROW or REPORT in the most recent BREAK command.

To remove all COMPUTE definitions, use the CLEAR COMPUTES command.

Note that if you use the NOPRINT option for the column on which the COMPUTE is being performed, the COMPUTE result is also suppressed.

Examples

To subtotal the salary for the "account manager", AC_MGR, and "salesman", SA_MAN, job classifications with a compute label of "TOTAL", enter

BREAK ON JOB_ID SKIP 1;
COMPUTE SUM LABEL 'TOTAL' OF SALARY ON JOB_ID;
SELECT JOB_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID IN ('AC_MGR', 'SA_MAN')
ORDER BY JOB_ID, SALARY;

JOB_ID     LAST_NAME                     SALARY
---------- ------------------------- ----------
AC_MGR     Higgins                        12000
**********                           ----------
TOTAL                                     12000
SA_MAN     Zlotkey                        10500
           Cambrault                      11000
           Errazuriz                      12000
           Partners                       13500
           Russell                        14000
**********                           ----------
TOTAL                                     61000

6 rows selected.

To calculate the total of salaries greater than 12,000 on a report, enter

COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON REPORT
BREAK ON REPORT
COLUMN DUMMY HEADING ''
SELECT '   ' DUMMY, SALARY, EMPLOYEE_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000
ORDER BY SALARY;

        SALARY EMPLOYEE_ID
--- ---------- -----------
         13000         201
         13500         146
         14000         145
         17000         101
         17000         102
         24000         100
    ----------
sum      98500

6 rows selected.

To calculate the average and maximum salary for the executive and accounting departments, enter

BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_NAME SKIP 1
COMPUTE AVG LABEL 'Dept Average' -
        MAX LABEL 'Dept Maximum' -
        OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_NAME
SELECT DEPARTMENT_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE DEPARTMENT_NAME IN ('Executive', 'Accounting')
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_NAME;

DEPARTMENT_NAME                LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------------------------ ------------------------- ----------
Accounting                     Higgins                        12000
                               Gietz                           8300
******************************                           ----------
Dept Average                                                  10150
Dept Maximum                                                  12000

Executive                      King                           24000
                               Kochhar                        17000
                               De Haan                        17000
******************************                           ----------
Dept Average                                             19333.3333
Dept Maximum                                                  24000

To sum salaries for departments <= 20 without printing the compute label, enter

COLUMN DUMMY NOPRINT
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DUMMY
BREAK ON DUMMY SKIP 1
SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID DUMMY, DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID <= 20
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           10 Whalen                          4400
                                        ----------
                                              4400

           20 Hartstein                      13000
           20 Fay                             6000
                                        ----------
                                             19000

To total the salary at the end of the report without printing the compute label, enter

COLUMN DUMMY NOPRINT
COMPUTE SUM OF SALARY ON DUMMY
BREAK ON DUMMY
SELECT NULL DUMMY, DEPARTMENT_ID, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID <= 30
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

DEPARTMENT_ID LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------- ------------------------- ----------
           10 Whalen                          4400
           20 Hartstein                      13000
           20 Fay                             6000
           30 Raphaely                       11000
           30 Khoo                            3100
           30 Baida                           2900
           30 Tobias                          2800
           30 Himuro                          2600
           30 Colmenares                      2500
                                        ----------
                                             48300

9 rows selected.

CONNECT

Syntax

CONN[ECT] [{logon | / | proxy} [AS {SYSOPER | SYSDBA | SYSASM}] [edition=value]]

where logon has the syntax:

username[/password] [@connect_identifier]

where proxy has the syntax:

proxyuser[username] [/password] [@connect_identifier]

Note:

The brackets around username in proxy are required syntax, not an indication of an optional term. For example, to connect to scott through proxy user hr with password welcome1.

CONNECT hr[scott]/welcome1

Connects a given username to the Oracle Database. When you run a CONNECT command, the site profile, glogin.sql, and the user profile, login.sql, are executed.

CONNECT does not reprompt for username or password if the initial connection does not succeed.

Warning:

Including your password in plain text is a security risk. You can avoid this risk by omitting the password, and entering it only when the system prompts for it.

To connect to a database using an enterprise user proxy, you must first configure the proxy. For information about configuring an enterprise user proxy, see the Oracle Database Enterprise User Security Administrator's Guide.

Terms

username[/password]

The username and password you use to connect to Oracle Database. If you omit username and password, SQL*Plus prompts you for them. If you enter a slash (/) or enter Return or click Execute when prompted for username, SQL*Plus logs you in using a default logon. See / (slash) for more information.

If you omit only password, SQL*Plus prompts you for password. When prompting, SQL*Plus does not display password on your terminal screen.

See the PASSWORD command for information about changing your password in SQL*Plus.

connect_identifier

An Oracle Net connect identifier. The exact syntax depends on the Oracle Net configuration. For more information, refer to the Oracle Net manual or contact your DBA. SQL*Plus does not prompt for a service name, but uses your default database if you do not include a connect identifier.

edition=value

The value for the Oracle Session Edition. An edition enables two or more versions of an object in a database. It provides a staging area where changed objects can be loaded into the database, compiled, and executed during uptime. This is particularly useful to reduce downtime associated with patching an application. edition=value overrides any edition value specified in the ORA_EDITION environment variable. For more detailed information, see Oracle Database Advanced Application Developer's Guide.

/ (slash)

Represents a default logon using operating system authentication. You cannot enter a connect_identifier if you use a default logon. In a default logon, SQL*Plus typically attempts to log you in using the username OPS$name, where name is your operating system username. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about operating system authentication.

In SQL*Plus command line, where applications use password credentials to connect to databases, it is possible to store the credentials in a client-side Oracle wallet. When you configure a client to use the Oracle wallet, applications can use the following syntax to connect to databases that use password authentication:

CONNECT /@database_alias

For information about configuring your client to use secure external password store and for information about managing credentials in it, see the Oracle Database Security Guide.

AS {SYSOPER | SYSDBA | SYSASM}

The AS clause enables privileged connections by users who have been granted SYSOPER, SYSDBA or SYSASM system privileges. You can use any one of these privileged connections with the default logon, /.

For information about system privileges, see the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide.

Usage

CONNECT commits the current transaction to the database, disconnects the current username from Oracle Database, and reconnects with the specified username.

If you log on or connect as a user whose account has expired, SQL*Plus prompts you to change your password before you can connect.

If an account is locked, a message is displayed and connection into that account (as that user) is not permitted until the account is unlocked by your DBA.

For more information about user account management, refer to the CREATE USER, ALTER USER and the CREATE PROFILE commands in the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Examples

To connect across Oracle Net with username HR, to the database known by the Oracle Net alias as FLEETDB, enter

CONNECT HR@FLEETDB

For more information about setting up your password file, refer to the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide.

To connect to an instance on the current node as a privileged user named HR, enter

CONNECT HR AS SYSDBA

To connect to an instance on the current node as a privileged default user, enter

CONNECT / AS SYSDBA

In the last two examples, your default schema becomes SYS.

COPY

The COPY command is not being enhanced to handle datatypes or features introduced with, or after Oracle8i. The COPY command is likely to be made obsolete in a future release.

For COPY command details and syntax, see SQL*Plus COPY Command.

DEFINE

Syntax

DEF[INE] [variable] | [variable = text]

Specifies a user or predefined variable and assigns a CHAR value to it, or lists the value and variable type of a single variable or all variables.

Terms

variable

Represents the user or predefined variable whose value you wish to assign or list.

text

Represents the CHAR value you wish to assign to variable. Enclose text in single quotes if it contains punctuation or blanks.

variable = text

Defines (names) a substitution variable and assigns it a CHAR value.

Enter DEFINE followed by variable to list the value and type of variable. Enter DEFINE with no clauses to list the values and types of all substitution variables.

Usage

Defined variables retain their values until you:

enter a new DEFINE command referencing the variable

enter an UNDEFINE command referencing the variable

enter an ACCEPT command referencing the variable

reference the variable in the NEW_VALUE or OLD_VALUE clause of a COLUMN command and then reference the column in a SELECT command

EXIT SQL*Plus

Whenever you run a stored query or script, SQL*Plus substitutes the value of variable for each substitution variable referencing variable (in the form &variable or &&variable). SQL*Plus will not prompt you for the value of variable in this session until you UNDEFINE variable.

If the value of a defined variable extends over multiple lines (using the SQL*Plus command continuation character), SQL*Plus replaces each continuation character and carriage return with a space. For example, SQL*Plus interprets

DEFINE TEXT = 'ONE-
TWO-
THREE'

as

DEFINE TEXT = 'ONE TWO THREE'

You should avoid defining variables with names that may be identical to values that you will pass to them, as unexpected results can occur. If a value supplied for a defined variable matches a variable name, then the contents of the matching variable are used instead of the supplied value.

Some variables are predefined when SQL*Plus starts. Enter DEFINE to see their definitions.

Examples

To assign the value MANAGER to the variable POS, type:

DEFINE POS = MANAGER

If you execute a command containing a reference to &POS, SQL*Plus substitutes the value MANAGER for &POS and will not prompt you for a POS value.

To assign the CHAR value 20 to the variable DEPARTMENT_ID, type:

DEFINE DEPARTMENT_ID = 20

Even though you enter the number 20, SQL*Plus assigns a CHAR value to DEPARTMENT_ID consisting of two characters, 2 and 0.

To list the definition of DEPARTMENT_ID, enter

DEFINE DEPARTMENT_ID

DEFINE DEPARTMENT_ID = "20" (CHAR)

This result shows that the value of DEPARTMENT_ID is 20.

Predefined Variables

There are eight variables defined during SQL*Plus installation. These variables only differ from user defined variables by having predefined values.

Table 12-3 Variables Predefined at SQL*Plus Installation

Variable Name
Contains

_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER

Connection identifier used to make connection, where available.

_DATE

Current date, or a user defined fixed string.

_EDITOR

Specifies the editor used by the EDIT command.

_O_VERSION

Current version of the installed Oracle Database.

_O_RELEASE

Full release number of the installed Oracle Database.

_PRIVILEGE

Privilege level of the current connection.

_SQLPLUS_RELEASE

Full release number of installed SQL*Plus component.

_USER

User name used to make connection.

_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER

Contains the connection identifier as supplied by the user to make a connection where it is available.

_DATE

Contains either the current date as a dynamic variable, or a fixed string. The current date is the default and is formatted using the value of NLS_DATE_FORMAT.

Because _DATE can be used as a normal substitution variable, users may put it in TTITLE. If _DATE is dynamic and is used in TTITLE it will have all the normal variable semantics. If it is used with an ampersand than the value will be set to the time when the TTITLE command is executed. If it is used without an ampersand prefix, it will be re-evaluated for each page. For long reports with _DATE in the TTITLE or with multiple references to &_DATE, different times may be displayed for each occurrence of the variable.

Users using _DATE in TTITLEs will almost certainly want to use an ampersand: &_DATE, so that each page of the report has exactly the same timestamp. This is especially true when the current date format contains a "seconds" component.

A DEFINE (with no arguments) or dereference using &_DATE will give the current date.

The _DATE value can be UNDEFINED, or set to a fixed string with an explicit DEFINE _DATE.

You can re-enable the default dynamic date behavior with:

DEFINE _DATE = "" (an empty string)

_DATE enables time values to be included in your SQL*Plus prompt.

_EDITOR

Specifies the default editor used by the EDIT command.

During SQL*Plus installation on Windows operating systems, it is set to Notepad. On UNIX operating systems, it is set to the value of the UNIX environment variable, EDITOR, if it exists, otherwise it is set to Ed.

You can use the DEFINE command to redefine _EDITOR, to hold the name of your preferred text editor. For example, to define the editor used by EDIT to be vi, enter the following command:

DEFINE _EDITOR = vi

_O_VERSION

Contains the current version of the installed Oracle Database in the form:

Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production

_O_RELEASE

Contains the full release number of the installed Oracle Database in the form:

1102000100

_PRIVILEGE

Contains a value indicating the privilege level of the current connection. It contains one of the following values:

AS SYSDBA

AS SYSOPER

An empty string for normal-user connections or when there is no connection.

AS SYSDBA and AS SYSOPER are database administrator level privileges.

See Also:

Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for information on AS SYSDBA and AS SYSOPER privileges.

_SQLPLUS_RELEASE

Contains the full release number of the installed SQL*Plus component in the form:

1102000100

_USER

Contains the user name connected to the current connection.

You can view the value of each of these variables with the DEFINE command.

These variables can be accessed and redefined like any other substitution variable. They can be used in TTITLE, in '&' substitution variables, or in your SQL*Plus command-line prompt.

You can use the DEFINE command to view the definitions of these eight predefined variables in the same way as you view other DEFINE definitions. You can also use the DEFINE command to redefine their values, or you can use the UNDEFINE command to remove their definitions and make them unavailable.

To view a specific variable definition, enter

DEFINE variable

where variable is the name of the substitution variable whose definition you want to view.

To view all predefined and user defined variable definitions, enter

DEFINE

All predefined and all user defined variable definitions are displayed.

You can use UNDEFINE to remove a substitution variable definition and make it unavailable.

Examples of Use of Predefined Variables

To change your SQL*Plus prompt to display your connection identifier, enter:

SET SQLPROMPT '_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER > '

To view the predefined value of the _SQLPLUS_RELEASE substitution variable, enter

DEFINE _SQLPLUS_RELEASE

DEFINE _SQLPLUS_RELEASE = "1102000100" (CHAR)

DEL

Syntax

DEL [n | n m | n * | n LAST | * | * n | * LAST | LAST]

Deletes one or more lines of the buffer.

SQL*Plus commands are not stored in the buffer. There is no history of commands previously entered in the buffer.

Terms

Term
Description

n

Deletes line n.

n m

Deletes lines n through m.

n *

Deletes line n through the current line.

n LAST

Deletes line n through the last line.

*

Deletes the current line.

* n

Deletes the current line through line n.

* LAST

Deletes the current line through the last line.

LAST

Deletes the last line.

Enter DEL with no clauses to delete the current line of the buffer.

Usage

DEL makes the following line of the buffer (if any) the current line. You can enter DEL several times to delete several consecutive lines.

Note:

DEL is a SQL*Plus command and DELETE is a SQL command. For more information about the SQL DELETE command, see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Examples

Assume the SQL buffer contains the following query:

SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID = 'SA_MAN'
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;

To make the line containing the WHERE clause the current line, you could enter

LIST 3

3* WHERE JOB_ID = 'SA_MAN'

followed by

DEL

The SQL buffer now contains the following lines:

SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID

To delete the third line of the buffer, enter

DEL 3

The SQL buffer now contains the following lines:

SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

DESCRIBE

Syntax

DESC[RIBE] {[schema.]object[@db_link]}

Lists the column definitions for the specified table, view or synonym, or the specifications for the specified function or procedure.

Terms

schema

Represents the schema where the object resides. If you omit schema, SQL*Plus assumes you own object.

object

Represents the table, view, type, procedure, function, package or synonym you wish to describe.

@db_link

Consists of the database link name corresponding to the database where object exists. For more information on which privileges allow access to another table in a different schema, refer to the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Usage

The description for tables, views, types and synonyms contains the following information:

each column's name

whether or not null values are allowed (NULL or NOT NULL) for each column

datatype of columns, for example, CHAR, DATE, LONG, LONGRAW, NUMBER, RAW, ROWID, VARCHAR2 (VARCHAR), or XMLType

precision of columns (and scale, if any, for a numeric column)

When you do a DESCRIBE, VARCHAR columns are returned with a type of VARCHAR2.

The DESCRIBE command enables you to describe objects recursively to the depth level set in the SET DESCRIBE command. You can also display the line number and indentation of the attribute or column name when an object contains multiple object types. For more information, see the SET command.

To control the width of the data displayed, use the SET LINESIZE command.

Columns output for the DESCRIBE command are typically allocated a proportion of the linesize currently specified. Decreasing or increasing the linesize with the SET LINESIZE command usually makes each column proportionally smaller or larger. This may give unexpected text wrapping in your display. For more information, see the SET command.

The description for functions and procedures contains the following information:

the type of PL/SQL object (function or procedure)

the name of the function or procedure

the type of value returned (for functions)

the argument names, types, whether input or output, and default values, if any

the ENCRYPT keyword to indicate whether or not data in a column is encrypted

Examples

To describe the view EMP_DETAILS_VIEW, enter

DESCRIBE EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------
 EMPLOYEE_ID                               NOT NULL NUMBER(6)
 JOB_ID                                    NOT NULL VARCHAR2(10)
 MANAGER_ID                                         NUMBER(6)
 DEPARTMENT_ID                                      NUMBER(4)
 LOCATION_ID                                        NUMBER(4)
 COUNTRY_ID                                         CHAR(2)
 FIRST_NAME                                         VARCHAR2(20)
 LAST_NAME                                 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(25)
 SALARY                                             NUMBER(8,2)
 COMMISSION_PCT                                     NUMBER(2,2)
 DEPARTMENT_NAME                           NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 JOB_TITLE                                 NOT NULL VARCHAR2(35)
 CITY                                      NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
 STATE_PROVINCE                                     VARCHAR2(25)
 COUNTRY_NAME                                       VARCHAR2(40)
 REGION_NAME                                        VARCHAR2(25)

To describe a procedure called CUSTOMER_LOOKUP, enter

DESCRIBE customer_lookup

PROCEDURE customer_lookup
Argument Name           Type     In/Out   Default?
----------------------  -------- -------- ---------
CUST_ID                 NUMBER   IN
CUST_NAME               VARCHAR2 OUT

To create and describe the package APACK that contains the procedures aproc and bproc, enter

CREATE PACKAGE apack AS
PROCEDURE aproc(P1 CHAR, P2 NUMBER);
PROCEDURE bproc(P1 CHAR, P2 NUMBER);
END apack;
/

Package created.

DESCRIBE apack

PROCEDURE APROC
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 P1                             CHAR                    IN
 P2                             NUMBER                  IN
PROCEDURE BPROC
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 P1                             CHAR                    IN
 P2                             NUMBER                  IN

To create and describe the object type ADDRESS that contains the attributes STREET and CITY, enter

CREATE TYPE ADDRESS AS OBJECT
  ( STREET  VARCHAR2(20),
    CITY    VARCHAR2(20)
  );
/

Type created.

DESCRIBE address

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 STREET                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 CITY                                               VARCHAR2(20)

To create and describe the object type EMPLOYEE that contains the attributes LAST_NAME, EMPADDR, JOB_ID and SALARY, enter

CREATE TYPE EMPLOYEE AS OBJECT
(LAST_NAME VARCHAR2(30),
EMPADDR ADDRESS,
JOB_ID VARCHAR2(20),
SALARY NUMBER(7,2)
);
/

Type created.

DESCRIBE employee

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 LAST_NAME                                          VARCHAR2(30)
 EMPADDR                                            ADDRESS
 JOB_ID                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 SALARY                                             NUMBER(7,2)

To create and describe the object type addr_type as a table of the object type ADDRESS, enter

CREATE TYPE addr_type IS TABLE OF ADDRESS;
/

Type created.

DESCRIBE addr_type

 addr_type TABLE OF ADDRESS
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 STREET                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 CITY                                               VARCHAR2(20)

To create and describe the object type addr_varray as a varray of the object type ADDRESS, enter

CREATE TYPE addr_varray AS VARRAY(10) OF ADDRESS;
/

Type created.

DESCRIBE addr_varray

 addr_varray VARRAY(10) OF ADDRESS
 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 STREET                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 CITY                                               VARCHAR2(20)

To create and describe the table department that contains the columns DEPARTMENT_ID, PERSON and LOC, enter

CREATE TABLE department
(DEPARTMENT_ID NUMBER,
PERSON EMPLOYEE,
LOC NUMBER
);
/

Table created.

DESCRIBE department

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 DEPARTMENT_ID                                      NUMBER
 PERSON                                             EMPLOYEE
 LOC                                                NUMBER

To create and describe the object type rational that contains the attributes NUMERATOR and DENOMINATOR, and the METHOD rational_order, enter

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE rational AS OBJECT
(NUMERATOR NUMBER,
DENOMINATOR NUMBER,
MAP MEMBER FUNCTION rational_order -
RETURN DOUBLE PRECISION,
PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES
(rational_order, RNDS, WNDS, RNPS, WNPS) );
/

CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY rational AS OBJECT
MAP MEMBER FUNCTION rational_order -
RETURN DOUBLE PRECISION IS
BEGIN
  RETURN NUMERATOR/DENOMINATOR;
END;
END;
/
DESCRIBE rational

Name                             Null?      Type
------------------------------   --------   ------------
NUMERATOR                                   NUMBER
DENOMINATOR                                 NUMBER

METHOD
------
MAP MEMBER FUNCTION RATIONAL_ORDER RETURNS NUMBER

To create a table which contains a column of XMLType, and describe it, enter

CREATE TABLE PROPERTY (Price NUMBER, Description SYS.XMLTYPE);

Table created

DESCRIBE PROPERTY;

Name                                       Null?     Type
-----------------------------------------  --------  ----------------------
PRICE                                                NUMBER
DESCRIPTION                                          SYS.XMLTYPE

To format the DESCRIBE output use the SET command as follows:

SET LINESIZE 80
SET DESCRIBE DEPTH 2
SET DESCRIBE INDENT ON
SET DESCRIBE LINE OFF

To display the settings for the object, use the SHOW command as follows:

SHOW DESCRIBE

DESCRIBE DEPTH 2 LINENUM OFF INDENT ON

DESCRIBE employee

 Name                                      Null?    Type
 ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------
 FIRST_NAME                                         VARCHAR2(30)
 EMPADDR                                            ADDRESS
   STREET                                           VARCHAR2(20)
   CITY                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 JOB_ID                                             VARCHAR2(20)
 SALARY                                             NUMBER(7,2)

To create and describe the table des2_table which contains an encrypted column col2, enter

CREATE TABLE des2_table (
col1 VARCHAR2(10),
col2 VARCHAR2(15) ENCRYPT,
col3 CHAR(5),
col4 CHAR(20));

Table created

DESCRIBE des2_table;

Name                                       Null?     Type
-----------------------------------------  --------  ----------------------
COL1                                                 VARCHAR2(10)
COL2                                                 VARCHAR2(15) ENCRYPT
COL3                                                 CHAR(5)
COL4                                                 CHAR(20)

For more information on using the CREATE TYPE command, see your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

For information about using the SET DESCRIBE and SHOW DESCRIBE commands, see the SET and SHOW commands.

DISCONNECT

Syntax

DISC[ONNECT]

Commits pending changes to the database and logs the current username out of Oracle Database, but does not exit SQL*Plus.

Usage

Use DISCONNECT within a script to prevent user access to the database when you want to log the user out of Oracle Database but have the user remain in SQL*Plus. In SQL*Plus command-line, use EXIT or QUIT to log out of Oracle Database and return control to your computer's operating system.

Examples

Your script might begin with a CONNECT command and end with a DISCONNECT, as shown later.

CONNECT HR
SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_NAME FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW;
DISCONNECT
SET INSTANCE FIN2
CONNECT HR2

EDIT

Syntax

ED[IT] [file_name[.ext]]

where file_name[.ext] represents the file you wish to edit (typically a script).

Invokes an operating system text editor on the contents of the specified file or on the contents of the buffer. The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Enter EDIT with no filename to edit the contents of the SQL buffer with the operating system text editor.

Usage

If you omit the file extension, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). For information on changing the default extension, see the SUFFIX variable of the SET command.

If you specify a filename, SQL*Plus searches for the file in the directory set by ORACLE_PATH. If SQL*Plus cannot find the file in ORACLE_PATH, or if ORACLE_PATH is not set, it searches for the file in the current working directory. If SQL*Plus cannot find the file in either directory, it creates a file with the specified name.

The substitution variable, _EDITOR, contains the name of the text editor invoked by EDIT. You can change the text editor by changing the value of _EDITOR. For information about changing the value of a substitution variable, see DEFINE. EDIT attempts to run the default operating system editor if _EDITOR is undefined.

EDIT places the contents of the SQL buffer in a file named AFIEDT.BUF by default (in your current working directory) and runs the text editor on the contents of the file. If the file AFIEDT.BUF already exists, it is overwritten with the contents of the buffer. You can change the default filename by using the SET EDITFILE command. For more information about setting a default filename for the EDIT command, see the EDITFILE variable of the SET command.

Note:

The default file, AFIEDT.BUF, may have a different name on some operating systems.

If you do not specify a filename and the buffer is empty, EDIT returns an error message.

In SQL*Plus 9.0 and earlier versions on Windows, the command EDIT * opened a blank file after giving an invalid filename warning. In SQL*Plus 10 and later versions on Windows, EDIT * gives an invalid filename warning and does not open a blank file. To retain the SQL*Plus 9.0 behavior, enter the set command,

SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY 9.0

To leave the editing session and return to SQL*Plus, terminate the editing session in the way customary for the text editor. When you leave the editor, SQL*Plus loads the contents of the file into the buffer.

Note:

In Windows, if you use WordPad as your editor (_EDITOR=write.exe), the buffer is not reloaded when you exit WordPad. In this case, use GET to reload the buffer.

Examples

To edit the file REPORT with the extension SQL using your operating system text editor, enter

EDIT REPORT

EXECUTE

Syntax

EXEC[UTE] statement

where statement represents a PL/SQL statement.

Executes a single PL/SQL statement. The EXECUTE command is often useful when you want to execute a PL/SQL statement that references a stored procedure. For more information on PL/SQL, see your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

Usage

If your EXECUTE command cannot fit on one line because of the PL/SQL statement, use the SQL*Plus continuation character (a hyphen).

The length of the command and the PL/SQL statement cannot exceed the length defined by SET LINESIZE.

You can suppress printing of the message "PL/SQL procedure successfully completed" with SET FEEDBACK OFF.

Examples

If the variable :n has been defined with:

VARIABLE n NUMBER

The following EXECUTE command assigns a value to the bind variable n:

EXECUTE :n := 1

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

For information on how to create a bind variable, see the VARIABLE command.

EXIT

Syntax

{EXIT | QUIT} [SUCCESS | FAILURE | WARNING | n | variable | :BindVariable] [COMMIT | ROLLBACK]

Commits or rolls back all pending changes, logs out of Oracle Database, terminates SQL*Plus and returns control to the operating system.

Terms

{EXIT | QUIT}

Can be used interchangeably (QUIT is a synonym for EXIT).

SUCCESS

Exits normally.

FAILURE

Exits with a return code indicating failure.

WARNING

Exits with a return code indicating warning.

COMMIT

Saves pending changes to the database before exiting.

n

Represents an integer you specify as the return code.

variable

Represents a user-defined or system variable (but not a bind variable), such as SQL.SQLCODE. EXIT variable exits with the value of variable as the return code.

:BindVariable

Represents a variable created in SQL*Plus with the VARIABLE command, and then referenced in PL/SQL, or other subprograms. :BindVariable exits the subprogram and returns you to SQL*Plus.

ROLLBACK

Executes a ROLLBACK statement and abandons pending changes to the database before exiting.

EXIT with no clauses commits and exits with a value of SUCCESS.

Usage

EXIT enables you to specify an operating system return code. This enables you to run SQL*Plus scripts in batch mode and to detect programmatically the occurrence of an unexpected event. The manner of detection is operating-system specific.

The key words SUCCESS, WARNING, and FAILURE represent operating-system dependent values. On some systems, WARNING and FAILURE may be indistinguishable.

The range of operating system return codes is also restricted on some operating systems. This limits the portability of EXIT n and EXIT variable between platforms. For example, on UNIX there is only one byte of storage for return codes; therefore, the range for return codes is limited to zero to 255.

If you make a syntax error in the EXIT options or use a non-numeric variable, SQL*Plus performs an EXIT FAILURE COMMIT.

For information on exiting conditionally, see the WHENEVER SQLERROR and WHENEVER OSERROR commands.

Examples

The following example commits all uncommitted transactions and returns the error code of the last executed SQL command or PL/SQL block:

EXIT SQL.SQLCODE

GET

Syntax

GET [FILE] file_name[.ext] [LIST | NOLIST]

Loads an operating system file into the SQL buffer.

The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Terms

FILE

Keyword to specify that the following argument is the name of the script you want to load. This optional keyword is usually omitted.

If you want to load a script with the name file, because it is a command keyword, you need to put the name file in single quotes.

file_name[.ext]

Represents the file you wish to load (typically a script).

LIST

Lists the contents of the file after it is loaded. This is the default.

NOLIST

Suppresses the listing.

Usage

If you do not specify a file extension, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). For information on changing the default extension, see SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}.

If the filename you specify contains the word list or the word file, the name must be in double quotes. SQL*Plus searches for the file in the current working directory.

The operating system file should contain a single SQL statement or PL/SQL block. The statement should not be terminated with a semicolon. If a SQL*Plus command or more than one SQL statement or PL/SQL block is loaded into the SQL buffer from an operating system file, an error occurs when the RUN or slash (/) command is used to execute the buffer.

The GET command can be used to load files created with the SAVE command. See SAVE for more information.

Examples

To load a file called YEARENDRPT with the extension SQL into the buffer, enter

GET YEARENDRPT

HELP

Syntax

HELP | ? [topic]

where topic represents a SQL*Plus help topic, for example, COLUMN.

Accesses the SQL*Plus command-line help system. Enter HELP INDEX or ? INDEX for a list of topics. You can view SQL*Plus resources at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/sql_plus/ and the Oracle Database Library at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/.

Enter HELP or ? without topic to get help on the help system.

Usage

You can only enter one topic after HELP. You can abbreviate the topic (for example, COL for COLUMN). However, if you enter only an abbreviated topic and the abbreviation is ambiguous, SQL*Plus displays help for all topics that match the abbreviation. For example, if you enter

HELP EX

SQL*Plus displays the syntax for the EXECUTE command followed by the syntax for the EXIT command.

If you get a response indicating that help is not available, consult your database administrator.

Examples

To see a list of SQL*Plus commands for which help is available, enter

HELP INDEX

or

? INDEX

To see a single column list of SQL*Plus commands for which help is available, enter

HELP TOPICS

HOST

Syntax

HO[ST] [command]

where command represents an operating system command.

Executes an operating system command without leaving SQL*Plus.

Enter HOST without command to display an operating system prompt. You can then enter multiple operating system commands. For information on returning to SQL*Plus, refer to the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system.

Note:

Operating system commands entered from a SQL*Plus session using the HOST command do not affect the current SQL*Plus session. For example, setting an operating system environment variable only affects SQL*Plus sessions started subsequently.

You can disable HOST. For more information about disabling HOST, see SQL*Plus Security.

Usage

In some operating systems, you can use a character in place of HOST such as "$" in Windows or "!" in UNIX, or you may not have access to the HOST command. See the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system or ask your DBA for more information.

On some platforms, an _RC substitution variable may be created with a HOST return value that is operation system dependent. It is recommended that you do not use the _RC substitution variable in scripts as it is not portable.

SQL*Plus removes the SQLTERMINATOR (a semicolon by default) before the HOST command is issued. A workaround for this is to add another SQLTERMINATOR. See SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF} for more information.

Examples

To execute a UNIX operating system command, ls *.sql, enter

HOST ls *.sql

To execute a Windows operating system command, dir *.sql, enter

HOST dir *.sql

INPUT

Syntax

I[NPUT] [text]

where text represents the text you wish to add.

Adds one or more new lines of text after the current line in the buffer. The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

To add a single line, enter the text of the line after the command INPUT, separating the text from the command with a space. To begin the line with one or more spaces, enter two or more spaces between INPUT and the first non-blank character of text.

To add several lines, enter INPUT with no text. INPUT prompts you for each line. To leave INPUT, enter a null (empty) line or a period.

Usage

If you enter a line number at the command prompt larger than the number of lines in the buffer, and follow the number with text, SQL*Plus adds the text in a new line at the end of the buffer. If you specify zero (0) for the line number and follow the zero with text, then SQL*Plus inserts the line at the beginning of the buffer (that line becomes line 1).

Examples

Assume the SQL buffer contains the following command:

SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

To add an ORDER BY clause to the query, enter

LIST 2

2* FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

INPUT ORDER BY LAST_NAME

LIST 2 ensures that line 2 is the current line. INPUT adds a new line containing the ORDER BY clause after the current line. The SQL buffer now contains the following lines:

1 SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
2 FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
3* ORDER BY LAST_NAME

To add a two-line WHERE clause, enter

LIST 2

2* FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

INPUT
  3  WHERE JOB_ID = 'SA_MAN'
  4  AND COMMISSION_PCT=.25
  5

INPUT prompts you for new lines until you enter an empty line or a period. The SQL buffer now contains the following lines:

SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID, SALARY, COMMISSION_PCT
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID = 'SA_MAN'
AND COMMISSION_PCT = .25
ORDER BY LAST_NAME

LIST

Syntax

L[IST] [n | n m | n * | n LAST | * | * n | * LAST | LAST]

Lists one or more lines of the SQL buffer.

The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands. In SQL*Plus command-line you can also use ";" to list all the lines in the SQL buffer.

Terms

Term
Description

n

Lists line n.

n m

Lists lines n through m.

n *

Lists line n through the current line.

n LAST

Lists line n through the last line.

*

Lists the current line.

* n

Lists the current line through line n.

* LAST

Lists the current line through the last line.

LAST

Lists the last line.

Enter LIST with no clauses, or ";" to list all lines. The last line listed becomes the new current line (marked by an asterisk).

Examples

To list the contents of the buffer, enter

LIST

or enter

;

1 SELECT LAST_NAME, DEPARTMENT_ID, JOB_ID
2 FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
3 WHERE JOB_ID = 'SH_CLERK'
4* ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID

The asterisk indicates that line 4 is the current line.

To list the second line only, enter

LIST 2

The second line is displayed:

2* FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

To list from the current line (now line 2) to the last line, enter

LIST * LAST

You will then see this:

2 FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
3 WHERE JOB_ID = 'SH_CLERK'
4* ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID

PASSWORD

Syntax

PASSW[ORD] [username]

where username specifies the user. If omitted, username defaults to the current user.

Enables you to change a password without echoing it on an input device.

Usage

To change the password of another user, you must have been granted the appropriate privilege. See CONNECT for more information about changing your password.

Examples

If you want to change your current password, enter

PASSWORD
Changing password for your_password
Old password: your_password
New password: new_password
Retype new password: new_password
Password changed

If you are logged on as a DBA, and want to change the password for user johnw (currently identified by johnwpass) to johnwnewpass

PASSWORD johnw
Changing password for johnw
New password: johnwnewpass
Retype new password: johnwnewpass
Password changed

Passwords are not echoed to the screen, they are shown here for your convenience.

PAUSE

Syntax

PAU[SE] [text]

where text represents the text you wish to display.

Displays the specified text then waits for the user to press RETURN.

Enter PAUSE followed by no text to display two empty lines.

Usage

Because PAUSE always waits for the user's response, it is best to use a message that tells the user explicitly to press [Return].

PAUSE reads input from the terminal (if a terminal is available) even when you have designated the source of the command input as a file.

See SET PAU[SE] {ON | OFF | text} for information on pausing between pages of a report.

Examples

To print "Adjust paper and press RETURN to continue." and to have SQL*Plus wait for the user to press [Return], you might include the following PAUSE command in a script:

SET PAUSE OFF
PAUSE Adjust paper and press RETURN to continue.
SELECT ...

PRINT

Syntax

PRINT [variable ...]

where variable ... represents names of bind variables whose values you want to display.

Displays the current values of bind variables. For more information on bind variables, see your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

Enter PRINT with no variables to print all bind variables.

Usage

Bind variables are created using the VARIABLE command. See VARIABLE for more information and examples.

You can control the formatting of the PRINT output just as you would query output. For more information, see the formatting techniques described in Formatting SQL*Plus Reports.

To automatically display bind variables referenced in a successful PL/SQL block or used in an EXECUTE command, use the AUTOPRINT clause of the SET command. See SET for more information.

Examples

The following example illustrates a PRINT command:

VARIABLE n NUMBER
BEGIN
:n := 1;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PRINT n

N
----------
1

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.

Usage

You can use this command in scripts to give information to the user.

Examples

The following example shows the use of PROMPT in conjunction with ACCEPT in a script called ASKFORDEPT.SQL. ASKFORDEPT.SQL contains the following SQL*Plus and SQL commands:

PROMPTPROMPT Please enter a valid departmentPROMPT For example:  10SELECT DEPARTMENT_NAME FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEWWHERE DEPARTMENT_ID = &NEWDEPT

Assume you run the file using START or @:

@ASKFORDEPT.SQL VAL1
@HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/ASKFORDEPT.SQL VAL1

Please enter a valid department
For example: 10
Department ID?>

You can enter a department number at the prompt Department ID?>. By default, SQL*Plus lists the line containing &NEWDEPT before and after substitution, and then displays the department name corresponding to the number entered at the Department ID?> prompt. You can use SET VERIFY OFF to prevent this behavior.

RECOVER

Syntax

RECOVER {general | managed | BEGIN BACKUP | END BACKUP}

where the general clause has the following syntax:

[AUTOMATIC] [FROM location]{ {full_database_recovery | partial_database_recovery | LOGFILE filename}[ {TEST | ALLOW integer CORRUPTION | parallel_clause } [TEST | ALLOW integer CORRUPTION | parallel_clause ]...]| CONTINUE [DEFAULT] | CANCEL}

where the full_database_recovery clause has the following syntax:

[STANDBY] DATABASE [ {UNTIL {CANCEL | TIME date | CHANGE integer} | USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE} [UNTIL {CANCEL | TIME date | CHANGE integer} | USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE]...]

where the partial_database_recovery clause has the following syntax:

{TABLESPACE tablespace [, tablespace]... | DATAFILE {filename | filenumber} [, filename | filenumber]... | STANDBY {TABLESPACE tablespace [, tablespace]... | DATAFILE {filename | filenumber} [, filename | filenumber]...} UNTIL [CONSISTENT WITH] CONTROLFILE }

where the parallel clause has the following syntax:

{ NOPARALLEL | PARALLEL [ integer ] }

where the managed clause has the following syntax:

MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE recover_clause | cancel_clause | finish_clause

where the recover_clause has the following syntax:

{ { DISCONNECT [ FROM SESSION ] | { TIMEOUT integer | NOTIMEOUT } } | { NODELAY | DEFAULT DELAY | DELAY integer } | NEXT integer | { EXPIRE integer | NO EXPIRE } | parallel_clause | USING CURRENT LOGFILE | UNTIL CHANGE integer | THROUGH { [ THREAD integer ] SEQUENCE integer | ALL ARCHIVELOG | { ALL | LAST | NEXT } SWITCHOVER} } [ DISCONNECT [ FROM SESSION ] | { TIMEOUT integer | NOTIMEOUT } | { NODELAY | DEFAULT DELAY | DELAY integer } | NEXT integer | { EXPIRE integer | NO EXPIRE } | parallel_clause | USING CURRENT LOGFILE | UNTIL CHANGE integer | THROUGH { [ THREAD integer ] SEQUENCE integer | ALL ARCHIVELOG | { ALL | LAST | NEXT } SWITCHOVER} ] ...

where the cancel_clause has the following syntax:

CANCEL [IMMEDIATE] [WAIT | NOWAIT]

where the finish_clause has the following syntax:

[ DISCONNECT [ FROM SESSION ] ] [ parallel_clause ]FINISH [ SKIP [ STANDBY LOGFILE ] ] [ WAIT | NOWAIT ]

where the parallel_clause has the following syntax:

{ NOPARALLEL | PARALLEL [ integer ] }

Performs media recovery on one or more tablespaces, one or more datafiles, or the entire database. For more information on the RECOVER command, see the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide, the ALTER DATABASE RECOVER command in the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference, and the Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide guide.

Terms

AUTOMATIC

Automatically generates the name of the next archived redo log file needed to continue the recovery operation. Oracle Database uses the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST (or LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_ 1) and LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT parameters (or their defaults) to generate the target redo log filename. If the file is found, the redo contained in that file is applied. If the file is not found, SQL*Plus prompts you for a filename, displaying a generated filename as a suggestion.

If you do not specify either AUTOMATIC or LOGFILE, SQL*Plus prompts you for a filename, suggesting the generated filename. You can either accept the generated filename or replace it with a fully qualified filename. You can save time by using the LOGFILE clause to specify the filename if you know the archived filename differs from the filename Oracle Database would generate.

FROM location

Specifies the location from which the archived redo log file group is read. The value of location must be a fully specified file location. If you omit this parameter, SQL*Plus assumes the archived redo log file group is in the location specified by the initialization parameter LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST or LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1. Do not specify FROM if you have set a file with SET LOGSOURCE.

full_database_recovery

Enables you to specify the recovery of a full database.

partial_database_recovery

Enables you to specify the recovery of individual tablespaces and datafiles.

LOGFILE

Continues media recovery by applying the specified redo log file. In interactive recovery mode (AUTORECOVERY OFF), if a bad log name is entered, errors for the bad log name are displayed and you are prompted to enter a new log name.

TEST

Specifies a trial recovery to detect possible problems. Redo is applied normally, but no changes are written to disk, and changes are rolled back at the end of the trial recovery. You can only use the TEST clause for a trial recovery if you have restored a backup. In the event of logfile corruption, specifies the number of corrupt blocks that can be tolerated while allowing recovery to proceed. During normal recovery, integer cannot exceed 1.

ALLOW integer CORRUPTION

In the event of logfile corruption, specifies the number of corrupt blocks that can be tolerated while allowing recovery to proceed.

parallel _clause

Enables you to specify the degree of parallel processing to use during the recovery operation.

CONTINUE

Continues multi-instance recovery after it has been interrupted to disable a thread.

CONTINUE DEFAULT

Continues recovery using the redo log file generated automatically by Oracle Database if no other logfile is specified. This is equivalent to specifying AUTOMATIC, except that Oracle Database does not prompt for a filename.

CANCEL

Terminates cancel-based recovery.

STANDBY DATABASE

Recovers the standby database using the control file and archived redo log files copied from the primary database. The standby database must be mounted but not open.

DATABASE

Recovers the entire database.

UNTIL CANCEL

Specifies an incomplete, cancel-based recovery. Recovery proceeds by prompting you with suggested filenames of archived redo log files, and recovery completes when you specify CANCEL instead of a filename.

UNTIL TIME

Specifies an incomplete, time-based recovery. Use single quotes, and the following format:

'YYYY-MM-DD:HH24:MI:SS'

UNTIL CHANGE

Specifies an incomplete, change-based recovery. integer is the number of the System Change Number (SCN) following the last change you wish to recover. For example, if you want to restore your database up to the transaction with an SCN of 9, you would specify UNTIL CHANGE 10.

USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE

Specifies that a backup of the control file be used instead of the current control file.

TABLESPACE

Recovers a particular tablespace. tablespace is the name of a tablespace in the current database. You may recover up to 16 tablespaces in one statement.

DATAFILE

Recovers a particular datafile. You can specify any number of datafiles.

STANDBY TABLESPACE

Reconstructs a lost or damaged tablespace in the standby database using archived redo log files copied from the primary database and a control file.

STANDBY DATAFILE

Reconstructs a lost or damaged datafile in the standby database using archived redo log files copied from the primary database and a control file.

UNTIL CONSISTENT WITH CONTROLFILE

Specifies that the recovery of an old standby datafile or tablespace uses the current standby database control file.

PARALLEL [integer]

SQL*Plus selects a degree of parallelism equal to the number of CPUs available on all participating instances times the value of the PARALLEL_THREADS_PER_CPU initialization parameter.

The PARALLEL keyword overrides the RECOVERY_PARALLELISM initialization parameter. For more information about the PARALLEL keyword see the Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide guide.

Use integer to specify the degree of parallelism, which is the number of parallel threads used in the parallel operation. Each parallel thread may use one or two parallel execution processes.

NOPARALLEL

Specifies serial recovery processing. This is the default.

MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE

Specifies sustained standby recovery mode. This mode assumes that the standby database is an active component of an overall standby database architecture. A primary database actively archives its redo log files to the standby site. As these archived redo logs arrive at the standby site, they become available for use by a managed standby recovery operation. Sustained standby recovery is restricted to media recovery.

For more information on the parameters of this clause, see the Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide.

DISCONNECT

Indicates that the managed redo process (MRP) should apply archived redo files as a detached background process. Doing so leaves the current session available.

TIMEOUT

Specifies in minutes the wait period of the sustained recovery operation. The recovery process waits for integer minutes for a requested archived log redo to be available for writing to the standby database. If the redo log file does not become available within that time, the recovery process terminates with an error message. You can then issue the statement again to return to sustained standby recovery mode.

If you do not specify this clause, or if you specify NOTIMEOUT, the database remains in sustained standby recovery mode until you reissue the statement with the RECOVER CANCEL clause or until instance shutdown or failure.

NODELAY

Applies a delayed archivelog immediately to the standby database overriding any DELAY setting in the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameter on the primary database. If you omit this clause, application of the archivelog is delayed according to the parameter setting. If DELAY was not specified in the parameter, the archivelog is applied immediately.

DEFAULT DELAY

Waits the default number of minutes specified in the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n initialization parameter before applying the archived redo logs.

DELAY integer

Waits integer minutes before applying the archived redo logs.

NEXT integer

Applies the specified number of archived redo logs as soon as possible after they have been archived. It temporarily overrides any DELAY setting in the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameter on the primary database, and any delay values set in an earlier SQL*Plus RECOVER command or an ALTER DATABASE RECOVER command.

EXPIRE integer

Specifies the number of minutes from the current time after which managed recovery terminates automatically.

NO EXPIRE

Disables a previously specified EXPIRE integer option.

USING CURRENT LOGFILE

Recovers redo from standby online logs as they are being filled, without requiring them to be archived in the standby database first.

UNTIL CHANGE integer

Processes managed recovery up to but not including the specified system change number (SCN).

THROUGH THREAD integer SEQUENCE integer

Terminates managed recovery based on archivelog thread number and sequence number. Managed recovery terminates when the corresponding archivelog has been applied. If omitted, THREAD defaults to 1.

THROUGH ALL ARCHIVELOG

Continues managed standby until all archivelogs have been recovered. You can use this statement to override a THROUGH THREAD integer SEQUENCE integer clause issued in an earlier statement. If the THROUGH clause is omitted, this is the default.

THROUGH ALL SWITCHOVER

Keeps managed standby recovery running through all switchover operations.

THROUGH LAST SWITCHOVER

Terminates managed standby recovery after the final end-of-redo archival indicator.

THROUGH NEXT SWITCHOVER

Terminates managed standby recovery after recovering the next end-of-redo archival indicator.

CANCEL (managed clause)

Terminates managed standby recovery after applying the current archived redo file. Session control returns when the recovery process terminates.

CANCEL IMMEDIATE

Terminates managed standby recovery after applying the current archived redo file, or after the next redo log file read, whichever comes first. Session control returns when the recovery process terminates.

CANCEL IMMEDIATE WAIT

Terminates managed standby recovery after applying the current archived redo file or after the next redo log file read, whichever comes first. Session control returns when the managed standby recovery terminates.

CANCEL IMMEDIATE cannot be issued from the same session that issued the RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE statement.

CANCEL IMMEDIATE NOWAIT

Terminates managed standby recovery after applying the current archived redo file, or after the next redo log file read, whichever comes first. Session control returns immediately.

CANCEL NOWAIT

Terminates managed standby recovery after the next redo log file read and returns session control immediately.

FINISH

Recovers the current standby online logfiles of the standby database. This clause may be useful if the primary database fails. It overrides any delays specified for archivelogs, so that logs are applied immediately.

FINISH cannot be issued if you have also specified TIMEOUT, DELAY, EXPIRE or NEXT clauses.

Usage

You must have the OSDBA role enabled. You cannot use the RECOVER command when connected through the multi-threaded server.

To perform media recovery on an entire database (all tablespaces), the database must be mounted and closed, and all tablespaces requiring recovery must be online.

To perform media recovery on a tablespace, the database must be mounted or open, and the tablespace must be offline.

To perform media recovery on a datafile, the database can remain open and mounted with the damaged datafiles offline (unless the file is part of the SYSTEM tablespace).

Before using the RECOVER command you must have restored copies of the damaged datafiles from a previous backup. Be sure you can access all archived and online redo log files dating back to when that backup was made.

When another log file is required during recovery, a prompt suggests the names of files that are needed. The name is derived from the values specified in the initialization parameters LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST and LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT. You should restore copies of the archived redo log files needed for recovery to the destination specified in LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST, if necessary. You can override the initialization parameters by setting the LOGSOURCE variable with the SET LOGSOURCE command.

During recovery you can accept the suggested log name by pressing return, cancel recovery by entering CANCEL instead of a log name, or enter AUTO at the prompt for automatic file selection without further prompting.

If you have enabled autorecovery (that is, SET AUTORECOVERY ON), recovery proceeds without prompting you with filenames. Status messages are displayed when each log file is applied. When normal media recovery is done, a completion status is returned.

Examples

To recover the entire database, enter

RECOVER DATABASE

To recover the database until a specified time, enter

RECOVER DATABASE UNTIL TIME 01-JAN-2001:04:32:00

To recover the two tablespaces ts_one and ts_two from the database, enter

RECOVER TABLESPACE ts_one, ts_two

To recover the datafile data1.db from the database, enter

RECOVER DATAFILE 'data1.db'

REMARK

Syntax

REM[ARK]

Begins a comment in a script. SQL*Plus does not interpret the comment as a command.

Usage

The REMARK command must appear at the beginning of a line, and the comment ends at the end of the line. A line cannot contain both a comment and a command.

A "–" at the end of a REMARK line is treated as a line continuation character.

For details on entering comments in scripts using the SQL comment delimiters, /* ... */, or the ANSI/ISO comment delimiter, - -, see Placing Comments in Scripts.

Examples

The following script contains some typical comments:

REM COMPUTE uses BREAK ON REPORT to break on end of table
BREAK ON REPORT
COMPUTE SUM OF "DEPARTMENT 10" "DEPARTMENT 20" -
"DEPARTMENT 30" "TOTAL BY JOB_ID" ON REPORT
REM Each column displays the sums of salaries by job for
REM one of the departments 10, 20, 30.
SELECT JOB_ID,
SUM(DECODE( DEPARTMENT_ID, 10, SALARY, 0)) "DEPARTMENT 10",
SUM(DECODE( DEPARTMENT_ID, 20, SALARY, 0)) "DEPARTMENT 20",
SUM(DECODE( DEPARTMENT_ID, 30, SALARY, 0)) "DEPARTMENT 30",
SUM(SALARY) "TOTAL BY JOB_ID"
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
GROUP BY JOB_ID;

REPFOOTER

Syntax

REPF[OOTER] [PAGE] [printspec [text | variable] ...] | [ON | OFF]

where printspec represents one or more of the following clauses used to place and format the text:

COL nS[KIP] [n]TAB nLE[FT]CE[NTER]R[IGHT]BOLD FORMAT text

Places and formats a specified report footer at the bottom of each report, or lists the current REPFOOTER definition.

Enter REPFOOTER with no clauses to list the current REPFOOTER definition.

Terms

See the REPHEADER command for additional information on terms and clauses in the REPFOOTER command syntax.

Usage

If you do not enter a printspec clause before the text or variables, REPFOOTER left justifies the text or variables.

You can use any number of constants and variables in a printspec. SQL*Plus displays the constants and variables in the order you specify them, positioning and formatting each constant or variable as specified by the printspec clauses that precede it.

Note:

If SET EMBEDDED is ON, the report footer is suppressed.

Examples

To define "END EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT" as a report footer on a separate page and to center it, enter:

REPFOOTER PAGE CENTER 'END EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT'
TTITLE RIGHT 'Page: ' FORMAT 999 SQL.PNO
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000;

LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------------------- ----------
King                           24000
Kochhar                        17000
De Haan                        17000
Russell                        14000
Partners                       13500
Hartstein                      13000
                          ----------
sum                            98500

                                                                      Page:  2
                           END EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT

6 rows selected.

To suppress the report footer without changing its definition, enter

REPFOOTER OFF

REPHEADER

Syntax

REPH[EADER] [PAGE] [printspec [text | variable] ...] | [ON | OFF]

where printspec represents one or more of the following clauses used to place and format the text:

COL nS[KIP] [n]TAB nLE[FT]CE[NTER]R[IGHT]BOLD FORMAT text

Places and formats a specified report header at the top of each report, or lists the current REPHEADER definition.

Enter REPHEADER with no clauses to list the current REPHEADER definition.

Terms

These terms and clauses also apply to the REPFOOTER command.

PAGE

Begins a new page after printing the specified report header or before printing the specified report footer.

text

The report header or footer text. Enter text in single quotes if you want to place more than one word on a single line. The default is NULL.

variable

A substitution variable or any of the following system-maintained values. SQL.LNO is the current line number, SQL.PNO is the current page number, SQL.CODE is the current error code, SQL.RELEASE is the current Oracle Database release number, and SQL.USER is the current username.

To print one of these values, reference the appropriate variable in the report header or footer. You can use the FORMAT clause to format variable.

OFF

Turns the report header or footer off (suppresses its display) without affecting its definition.

COL n

Indents to column n of the current line (backward if column n has been passed). Column in this context means print position, not table column.

S[KIP] [n]

Skips to the start of a new line n times; if you omit n, one time; if you enter zero for n, backward to the start of the current line.

TAB n

Skips forward n columns (backward if you enter a negative value for n). Column in this context means print position, not table column.

LE[FT] CE[NTER] R[IGHT]

Left-align, center, and right-align data on the current line respectively. SQL*Plus aligns following data items as a group, up to the end of the printspec or the next LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT, or COL command. CENTER and RIGHT use the SET LINESIZE value to calculate the position of the data item that follows.

BOLD

Prints data in bold print. SQL*Plus represents bold print on your terminal by repeating the data on three consecutive lines. On some operating systems, SQL*Plus may instruct your printer to print bold text on three consecutive lines, instead of bold.

FORMAT text

Specifies a format model that determines the format of data items up to the next FORMAT clause or the end of the command. The format model must be a text constant such as A10 or $999. See COLUMN for more information on formatting and valid format models.

If the datatype of the format model does not match the datatype of a given data item, the FORMAT clause has no effect on that item.

If no appropriate FORMAT model precedes a given data item, SQL*Plus prints NUMBER values according to the format specified by SET NUMFORMAT or, if you have not used SET NUMFORMAT, the default format. SQL*Plus prints DATE values using the default format.

Usage

If you do not enter a printspec clause before the text or variables, REPHEADER left justifies the text or variables.

You can use any number of constants and variables in a printspec. SQL*Plus displays the constants and variables in the order you specify, positioning and formatting each constant or variable as specified by the printspec clauses that precede it.

Examples

To define "EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT" as a report header on a separate page, and to center it, enter:

REPHEADER PAGE CENTER 'EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT'
TTITLE RIGHT 'Page: ' FORMAT 999 SQL.PNO
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000;

                                                                 Page:   1
                             EMPLOYEE LISTING REPORT
                                                                 Page:   2
LAST_NAME                     SALARY
------------------------- ----------
King                           24000
Kochhar                        17000
De Haan                        17000
Russell                        14000
Partners                       13500
Hartstein                      13000
                          ----------
sum                            98500

6 rows selected.

To suppress the report header without changing its definition, enter:

REPHEADER OFF

RUN

Syntax

R[UN]

Lists and executes the SQL command or PL/SQL block currently stored in the SQL buffer.

The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Usage

RUN causes the last line of the SQL buffer to become the current line.

The slash command (/) functions similarly to RUN, but does not list the command in the SQL buffer on your screen. The SQL buffer always contains the last SQL statement or PL/SQL block entered.

Examples

Assume the SQL buffer contains the following script:

SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000

To RUN the script, enter

RUN

  1  SELECT DEPARTMENT_ID
  2  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  3 WHERE SALARY>12000

DEPARTMENT_ID
-------------
           90
           90
           90
           80
           80
           20

6 rows selected.

SAVE

Syntax

SAV[E] [FILE] file_name[.ext] [CRE[ATE] | REP[LACE] | APP[END]]

Saves the contents of the SQL buffer in an operating system script.

The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

Terms

FILE

Keyword to specify that the following argument is the name you want to give to the saved script. This optional keyword is usually omitted.

If you want to save the script with the name file, because it is a command keyword, you need to put the name file in single quotes.

file_name[.ext]

Specifies the script in which you wish to save the buffer's contents.

CREATE

Creates a new file with the name specified. This is the default behavior.

REP[LACE]

Replaces the contents of an existing file. If the file does not exist, REPLACE creates the file.

APP[END]

Adds the contents of the buffer to the end of the file you specify.

Usage

If you do not specify an extension, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). See SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text} for information on changing this default extension.

If you wish to SAVE a file under a name identical to a SAVE command clause (CREATE, REPLACE, or APPEND), you must specify a file extension.

When you SAVE the contents of the SQL buffer, SAVE adds a line containing a slash (/) to the end of the file.

Examples

To save the contents of the buffer in a file named DEPTSALRPT with the extension SQL, enter

SAVE DEPTSALRPT

To save the contents of the buffer in a file named DEPTSALRPT with the extension OLD, enter

SAVE DEPTSALRPT.OLD

SET

Sets a system variable to alter the SQL*Plus environment settings for your current session, for example, to:

customize HTML formatting

enable or disable the printing of column headings

set the number of lines per page

set the display width for data

Syntax

SET system_variable value

where system_variable and value represent one of the clauses shown in the SET System Variable Summary table following.

Usage

SQL*Plus maintains system variables (also called SET command variables) to enable you to set up a particular environment for a SQL*Plus session. You can change these system variables with the SET command and list them with the SHOW command.

SET ROLE and SET TRANSACTION are SQL commands (see the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information). When not followed by the keywords TRANSACTION or ROLE, SET is assumed to be a SQL*Plus command.

SET System Variable Summary

System Variable
Description

SET APPI[NFO]{ON | OFF | text}

Sets automatic registering of scripts through the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.

SET ARRAY[SIZE] {15 | n}

Sets the number of rows, called a batch, that SQL*Plus will fetch from the database at one time.

SET AUTO[COMMIT]{ON | OFF | IMM[EDIATE] | n}

Controls when Oracle Database commits pending changes to the database.

SET AUTOP[RINT] {ON | OFF}

Sets the automatic printing of bind variables.

SET AUTORECOVERY [ON | OFF]

ON sets the RECOVER command to automatically apply the default filenames of archived redo log files needed during recovery.

SET AUTOT[RACE] {ON | OFF | TRACE[ONLY]} [EXP[LAIN]] [STAT[ISTICS]]

Displays a report on the execution of successful SQL DML statements (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE or MERGE).

SET BLO[CKTERMINATOR] {. | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the non-alphanumeric character used to end PL/SQL blocks to c.

SET CMDS[EP] {; | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the non-alphanumeric character used to separate multiple SQL*Plus commands entered on one line to c.

SET COLSEP { | text}

Sets the text to be printed between selected columns.

SET CON[CAT] {. | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character you can use to terminate a substitution variable reference if you wish to immediately follow the variable with a character that SQL*Plus would otherwise interpret as a part of the substitution variable name.

SET COPYC[OMMIT] {0 | n}

Controls the number of batches after which the COPY command commits changes to the database.

SET COPYTYPECHECK {ON | OFF}

Sets the suppression of the comparison of datatypes while inserting or appending to tables with the COPY command.

SET DEF[INE] {& | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to prefix variables to c.

SET DESCRIBE [DEPTH {1 | n | ALL}] [LINENUM {ON | OFF}] [INDENT {ON | OFF}]

Sets the depth of the level to which you can recursively describe an object.

SET ECHO {ON | OFF}

Controls whether the START command lists each command in a script as the command is executed.

SET EDITF[ILE] file_name[.ext]

Sets the default filename for the EDIT command.

SET EMB[EDDED] {ON | OFF}

Controls where on a page each report begins.

SET ERRORL[OGGING] {ON | OFF} [TABLE [schema.]tablename] [TRUNCATE] [IDENTIFIER identifier]

Enables recording of SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus errors to an error log table which you can query later.

SET ESC[APE] {\ | c | ON | OFF}

Defines the character you enter as the escape character.

SET ESCCHAR {@ | ? | % | $ | OFF}

Specifies a special character to escape in a filename. Prevents character translation causing an error.

SET EXITC[OMMIT] {ON | OFF}

Specifies whether the default EXIT behavior is COMMIT or ROLLBACK.

SET FEED[BACK] {6 | n | ON | OFF}

Displays the number of records returned by a query when a query selects at least n records.

SET FLAGGER {OFF | ENTRY | INTERMED[IATE] | FULL}

Checks to make sure that SQL statements conform to the ANSI/ISO SQL92 standard.

SET FLU[SH] {ON | OFF}

Controls when output is sent to the user's display device.

SET HEA[DING] {ON | OFF}

Controls printing of column headings in reports.

SET HEADS[EP] { | c | ON | OFF}

Defines the character you enter as the heading separator character.

SET INSTANCE [instance_path | LOCAL]

Changes the default instance for your session to the specified instance path.

SET LIN[ESIZE] {80 | n}

Sets the total number of characters that SQL*Plus displays on one line before beginning a new line.

SET LOBOF[FSET] {1 | n}

Sets the starting position from which BLOB, BFILE, CLOB and NCLOB data is retrieved and displayed.

SET LOGSOURCE [pathname]

Specifies the location from which archive logs are retrieved during recovery.

SET LONG {80 | n}

Sets maximum width (in bytes) for displaying LONG, BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, NCLOB and XMLType values; and for copying LONG values.

SET LONGC[HUNKSIZE] {80 | n}

Sets the size (in bytes) of the increments in which SQL*Plus retrieves a LONG, BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, NCLOB or XMLType value.

SET MARK[UP] HTML [ON | OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP {ON | OFF}] [SPOOL {ON | OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON | OFF}]

Outputs HTML marked up text.

SET NEWP[AGE] {1 | n | NONE}

Sets the number of blank lines to be printed from the top of each page to the top title.

SET NULL text

Sets the text that represents a null value in the result of a SQL SELECT command.

SET NUMF[ORMAT] format

Sets the default format for displaying numbers.

SET NUM[WIDTH] {10 | n}

Sets the default width for displaying numbers.

SET PAGES[IZE] {14 | n}

Sets the number of lines in each page.

SET PAU[SE] {ON | OFF | text}

Enables you to control scrolling of your terminal when running reports.

SET RECSEP {WR[APPED] | EA[CH] | OFF}

RECSEP tells SQL*Plus where to make the record separation.

SET RECSEPCHAR { | c}

Display or print record separators.

SET SERVEROUT[PUT] {ON | OFF} [SIZE {n | UNL[IMITED]}] [FOR[MAT] {WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED]}]

Controls whether to display the output (that is, DBMS_OUTPUT PUT_LINE) of stored procedures or PL/SQL blocks in SQL*Plus.

SET SHIFT[INOUT] {VIS[IBLE] | INV[ISIBLE]}

Enables correct alignment for terminals that display shift characters.

SET SHOW[MODE] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus lists the old and new settings of a SQL*Plus system variable when you change the setting with SET.

SET SQLBL[ANKLINES] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus puts blank lines within a SQL command or script.

SET SQLC[ASE] {MIX[ED] | LO[WER] | UP[PER]}

Converts the case of SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks just prior to execution.

SET SQLCO[NTINUE] {> | text}

Sets the character sequence SQL*Plus displays as a prompt after you continue a SQL*Plus command on an additional line using a hyphen (–).

SET SQLN[UMBER] {ON | OFF}

Sets the prompt for the second and subsequent lines of a SQL command or PL/SQL block.

SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}

Sets the behavior or output format of VARIABLE to that of the release or version specified by x.y[.z].

SET SQLPRE[FIX] {# | c}

Sets the SQL*Plus prefix character.

SET SQLP[ROMPT] {SQL> | text}

Sets the SQL*Plus command prompt.

SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to end and execute SQL commands to c.

SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}

Sets the default file that SQL*Plus uses in commands that refer to scripts.

SET TAB {ON | OFF}

Determines how SQL*Plus formats white space in terminal output.

SET TERM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of output generated by commands executed from a script.

SET TI[ME] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of the current time.

SET TIMI[NG] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of timing statistics.

SET TRIM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

Determines whether SQL*Plus puts trailing blanks at the end of each displayed line.

SET TRIMS[POOL] {ON | OFF}

Determines whether SQL*Plus puts trailing blanks at the end of each spooled line.

SET UND[ERLINE] {- | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to underline column headings in SQL*Plus reports to c.

SET VER[IFY] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus lists the text of a SQL statement or PL/SQL command before and after SQL*Plus replaces substitution variables with values.

SET WRA[P] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus truncates the display of a SELECTed row if it is too long for the current line width.

SET XMLOPT[IMIZATIONCHECK] [ON|OFF]

Specifies that only fully optimized XML queries and DML operations are executed. Only to assist in developing and debugging, not for production.

SET XQUERY BASEURI {text}

Defines the base URI to use. This is useful to change the prefix of the file to access when writing generic XQuery expressions.

SET XQUERY ORDERING {UNORDERED | ORDERED | DEFAULT}

Controls the ordering of results from an XQuery.

SET XQUERY NODE {BYVALUE | BYREFERENCE | DEFAULT}

Sets the preservation mode for notes created or returned.

SET XQUERY CONTEXT {text}

Specifies an XQuery context item which can be either a node or a value.

SET APPI[NFO]{ON | OFF | text}

Sets automatic registering of scripts through the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.

This enables the performance and resource usage of each script to be monitored by your DBA. The registered name appears in the MODULE column of the V$SESSION and V$SQLAREA virtual tables. You can also read the registered name using the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.READ_MODULE procedure.

ON registers scripts invoked by the @, @@ or START commands. OFF disables registering of scripts. Instead, the current value of text is registered. text specifies the text to register when no script is being run or when APPINFO is OFF, which is the default. The default for text is "SQL*Plus". If you enter multiple words for text, you must enclose them in quotes. The maximum length for text is limited by the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package.

The registered name has the format nn@xfilename where: nn is the depth level of script; x is '<' when the script name is truncated, otherwise, it is blank; and filename is the script name, possibly truncated to the length allowed by the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package interface.

For more information on the DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package, see the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

Example

To display the value of APPINFO, as it is SET OFF by default, enter

SET APPINFO ON
SHOW APPINFO

APPINFO is ON and set to "SQL*Plus"

To change the default text, enter

SET APPINFO 'This is SQL*Plus'

To make sure that registration has taken place, enter

VARIABLE MOD VARCHAR2(50)
VARIABLE ACT VARCHAR2(40)
EXECUTE DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.READ_MODULE(:MOD, :ACT);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PRINT MOD

MOD
---------------------------------------------------
This is SQL*Plus

To change APPINFO back to its default setting, enter

SET APPINFO OFF

SET ARRAY[SIZE] {15 | n}

Sets the number of rows that SQL*Plus will fetch from the database at one time.

Valid values are 1 to 5000. A large value increases the efficiency of queries and subqueries that fetch many rows, but requires more memory. Values over approximately 100 provide little added performance. ARRAYSIZE has no effect on the results of SQL*Plus operations other than increasing efficiency.

SET AUTO[COMMIT]{ON | OFF | IMM[EDIATE] | n}

Controls when Oracle Database commits pending changes to the database after SQL or PL/SQL commands.

ON commits pending changes to the database after Oracle Database executes each successful INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE, or PL/SQL block. OFF suppresses automatic committing so that you must commit changes manually (for example, with the SQL command COMMIT). IMMEDIATE functions in the same manner as ON. n commits pending changes to the database after Oracle Database executes n successful SQL INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE commands, or PL/SQL blocks. n cannot be less than zero or greater than 2,000,000,000. The statement counter is reset to zero after successful completion of n INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE commands or PL/SQL blocks, a commit, a rollback, or a SET AUTOCOMMIT command.

SET AUTOCOMMIT does not alter the commit behavior when SQL*Plus exits. Any uncommitted data is committed by default.

Note:

For this feature, a PL/SQL block is considered one transaction, regardless of the actual number of SQL commands contained within it.

SET AUTOP[RINT] {ON | OFF}

Sets the automatic printing of bind variables.

ON or OFF controls whether SQL*Plus automatically displays bind variables (referenced in a successful PL/SQL block or used in an EXECUTE command).

See PRINT for more information about displaying bind variables.

SET AUTORECOVERY [ON | OFF]

ON sets the RECOVER command to automatically apply the default filenames of archived redo log files needed during recovery.

No interaction is needed, provided the necessary files are in the expected locations with the expected names. The filenames used are derived from the values of the initialization parameters LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST and LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT.

OFF, the default option, requires that you enter the filenames manually or accept the suggested default filename given. See RECOVER for more information about database recovery.

Example

To set the recovery mode to AUTOMATIC, enter

SET AUTORECOVERY ON
RECOVER DATABASE

SET AUTOT[RACE] {ON | OFF | TRACE[ONLY]} [EXP[LAIN]] [STAT[ISTICS]]

Displays a report on the execution of successful SQL DML statements (such as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE or MERGE).

The report can include execution statistics and the query execution path.

SQL*Plus report output may differ for DML if dynamic sampling is in effect.

OFF does not display a trace report. ON displays a trace report. TRACEONLY displays a trace report, but does not print query data, if any. EXPLAIN shows the query execution path by performing an EXPLAIN PLAN. STATISTICS displays SQL statement statistics. Information about EXPLAIN PLAN is documented in the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

Using ON or TRACEONLY with no explicit options defaults to EXPLAIN STATISTICS.

The TRACEONLY option may be useful to suppress the query data of large queries. If STATISTICS is specified, SQL*Plus still fetches the query data from the server, however, the data is not displayed.

The AUTOTRACE report is printed after the statement has successfully completed.

Information about Execution Plans and the statistics is documented in the Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide.

When SQL*Plus produces a STATISTICS report, a second connection to the database is automatically created. This connection is closed when the STATISTICS option is set to OFF, or you log out of SQL*Plus.

The formatting of your AUTOTRACE report may vary depending on the version of the server to which you are connected and the configuration of the server. The additional information and tabular output of AUTOTRACE PLAN is supported when connecting to Oracle Database 10g (Release 10.1) or later. When you connect to an earlier database, the older form or AUTOTRACE reporting is used.

AUTOTRACE is not available when FIPS flagging is enabled.

See Tracing Statements for more information on AUTOTRACE.

SET BLO[CKTERMINATOR] {. | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to end PL/SQL blocks to c.

It cannot be an alphanumeric character or a whitespace. To execute the block, you must issue a RUN or / (slash) command.

OFF means that SQL*Plus recognizes no PL/SQL block terminator. ON changes the value of c back to the default period (.), not the most recently used character.

SET CMDS[EP] {; | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the non-alphanumeric character used to separate multiple SQL*Plus commands entered on one line to c.

ON or OFF controls whether you can enter multiple commands on a line. ON automatically sets the command separator character to a semicolon (;).

Example

To specify a title with TTITLE and format a column with COLUMN, both on the same line, enter

SET CMDSEP +
TTITLE LEFT 'SALARIES' + COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $99,999
SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID = 'SH_CLERK';

SALARIES
LAST_NAME                   SALARY
------------------------- --------
Taylor                      $3,200
Fleaur                      $3,100
Sullivan                    $2,500
Geoni                       $2,800
Sarchand                    $4,200
Bull                        $4,100
Dellinger                   $3,400
Cabrio                      $3,000
Chung                       $3,800
Dilly                       $3,600
Gates                       $2,900
Perkins                     $2,500
Bell                        $4,000
Everett                     $3,900
McCain                      $3,200
Jones                       $2,800

SALARIES
LAST_NAME                   SALARY
------------------------- --------
Walsh                       $3,100
Feeney                      $3,000
OConnell                    $2,600
Grant                       $2,600

20 rows selected.

SET COLSEP { | text}

Sets the column separator character printed between columns in output.

If the COLSEP variable contains blanks or punctuation characters, you must enclose it with single quotes. The default value for text is a single space.

In multi-line rows, the column separator does not print between columns that begin on different lines. The column separator does not appear on blank lines produced by BREAK ... SKIP n and does not overwrite the record separator. See SET RECSEP {WR[APPED] | EA[CH] | OFF} for more information.

Example

To set the column separator to "|" enter

SET MARKUP HTML PREFORMAT ON
SET COLSEP '|'
SELECT LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID = 20;

LAST_NAME                |JOB_ID    |DEPARTMENT_ID
-------------------------|----------|-------------
Hartstein                |MK_MAN    |           20
Fay                      |MK_REP    |           20

SET CON[CAT] {. | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to terminate a substitution variable reference when SQL*Plus would otherwise interpret the next character as a part of the variable name.

SQL*Plus resets the value of CONCAT to a period when you switch CONCAT on.

SET COPYC[OMMIT] {0 | n}

Controls the number of rows after which the COPY command commits changes to the database.

COPY commits rows to the destination database each time it copies n row batches. Valid values are zero to 5000. You can set the size of a batch with the ARRAYSIZE variable. If you set COPYCOMMIT to zero, COPY performs a commit only at the end of a copy operation.

SET COPYTYPECHECK {ON | OFF}

Sets the suppression of the comparison of datatypes while inserting or appending to tables with the COPY command.

This is to facilitate copying to DB2, which requires that a CHAR be copied to a DB2 DATE.

SET DEF[INE] {& | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to prefix substitution variables to c.

ON or OFF controls whether SQL*Plus will scan commands for substitution variables and replace them with their values. ON changes the value of c back to the default '&', not the most recently used character. The setting of DEFINE to OFF overrides the setting of the SCAN variable.

See SET SCAN {ON|OFF} (obsolete) for more information on the SCAN variable.

SET DESCRIBE [DEPTH {1 | n | ALL}] [LINENUM {ON | OFF}] [INDENT {ON | OFF}]

Sets the depth of the level to which you can recursively describe an object.

The valid range of the DEPTH clause is from 1 to 50. If you SET DESCRIBE DEPTH ALL, then the depth will be set to 50, which is the maximum level allowed. You can also display the line number and indentation of the attribute or column name when an object contains multiple object types. Use the SET LINESIZE command to control the width of the data displayed.

See DESCRIBE for more information about describing objects.

Example

To create an object type ADDRESS, enter

CREATE TYPE ADDRESS AS OBJECT
  ( STREET  VARCHAR2(20),
    CITY    VARCHAR2(20)
  );
/

Type created

To create the table EMPLOYEE that contains a nested object, EMPADDR, of type ADDRESS, enter

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE
  (LAST_NAME VARCHAR2(30),
   EMPADDR ADDRESS,
   JOB_ID VARCHAR2(20),
   SALARY NUMBER(7,2)
  );
/

Table created

To describe the table EMPLOYEE to a depth of two levels, and to indent the output and display line numbers, enter:

SET DESCRIBE DEPTH 2 LINENUM ON INDENT ON
DESCRIBE employee

       Name                            Null?    Type
       ------------------------------- -------- --------------------------
1      LAST_NAME                                VARCHAR2(30)
2      EMPADDR                                  ADDRESS
3    2   STREET                                 VARCHAR2(20)
4    2   CITY                                   VARCHAR2(20)
5      JOB_ID                                   VARCHAR2(20)
6      SALARY                                   NUMBER(7,2)

SET ECHO {ON | OFF}

Controls whether or not to echo commands in a script that is executed with @, @@ or START. ON displays the commands on screen. OFF suppresses the display. ECHO does not affect the display of commands you enter interactively or redirect to SQL*Plus from the operating system.

SET EDITF[ILE] file_name[.ext]

Sets the default filename for the EDIT command. See EDIT for more information about the EDIT command. The default filename for the EDIT command is afiedt.buf which is the SQL buffer. The buffer has no command history list and does not record SQL*Plus commands.

You can include a path and/or file extension. See SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text} for information on changing the default extension. The default filename and maximum filename length are operating system specific.

SET EMB[EDDED] {ON | OFF}

Controls where on a page each report begins.

OFF forces each report to start at the top of a new page. ON enables a report to begin anywhere on a page. Set EMBEDDED to ON when you want a report to begin printing immediately following the end of the previously run report.

SET ERRORL[OGGING] {ON | OFF} [TABLE [schema.]tablename] [TRUNCATE] [IDENTIFIER identifier]

Turns SQL*Plus error logging ON or OFF. Error logging records SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus errors and associated parameters in an error log table. You can then query the log table to review errors resulting from a query. When error logging is ON, errors are recorded whether the query is run interactively or from a script. This is particularly useful for capturing errors generated from long running queries and avoids capturing all output using the SPOOL command, or having to remain present during the run.

By default, errors are written to a the table SPERRORLOG in your schema. If this table does not exist, it is created automatically. You can also use the TABLE schema.tablename option to specify other tables to use. When using a table other than SPERRORLOG, it must already exist, and you must have access to it. See Creating a User Defined Error Log Table.

If an internal error occurs, to avoid recursion errors caused by the errorlog calling itself, errorlogging is automatically set OFF.

Error logging is set OFF by default.

ON

Writes ORA, PLS and SP2 errors to the default table, SPERRORLOG.

OFF

Disables error .

TABLE [schema.]tablename

Specifies a user defined table to use instead of the default, SPERRORLOG. If you omit schema. the table is created in the current schema. The table you specify must exist, and you must have access permissions.

If the table specified does not exist, or you do not have access, an error message is displayed and the default table, SPERRORLOG, is used.

TRUNCATE

Clears all existing rows in the error log table and begins recording errors from the current session.

IDENTIFIER identifier

A user defined string to identify errors. You can use it to identify errors from a particular session or from a particular version of a query.

Creating a User Defined Error Log Table

You can create one or more error log tables to use other than the default. Before specifying a user defined error log table with the TABLE schema.tablename option, you must create it and ensure that you have permissions to access it. The error log table has the following column definitions:

Table 12-4 SQL*Plus Error Log Column Definitions

Column
Type
Description

username

VARCHAR(256)

Oracle account name.

timestamp

TIMESTAMP

Time when the error occurred.

script

VARCHAR(1024)

Name of the originating script if applicable.

identifier

VARCHAR(256)

User defined identifier string.

message

CLOB

ORA, PLA or SP2 error message. No feed back messages are included. For example, "PL/SQL Block Created" is not recorded.

statement

CLOB

The statement causing the error.

Using User Defined Error Log Tables

To use a user defined log table, you must have permission to access the table, and you must issue the SET ERRORLOGGING command with the TABLE schema.tablename option to identify the error log table and the schema if applicable.

Querying Error Log Tables

To view the records recorded in an error log table, you query the columns you want to view as for any table. The columns available are shown in Table 12-4, "SQL*Plus Error Log Column Definitions".

Example

To use the default error log table to record query errors from a script, myfile.sql, which contains the following:

VARIABLE U REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :U FOR SELECT * FROM DEPT;
END;
/

SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE 'SSS'

SET GARBAGE

SELECT *
FROM
GARBAGE
;

Enter the following:

SET ERRORLOGGING ON
@myfile

which produces the following output:

open :u for select * from dept;
                          *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-6550: line 2, column 29:
PLS-00201: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
ORA-6550: line 2, column 16:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

ERROR:
ORA-00907: missing right parenthesis

SP2-0158: unknown SET option "garbage"

garbage
*
ERROR at line 3:
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

To view the errror log written to the default error log table, SPERRORLOG, enter:

SELECT TIMESTAMP, USERNAME, SCRIPT, IDENTIFIER, STATEMENT, MESSAGE
FROM SPERRORLOG;

which produces the following output:

TIMESTAMP
USERNAME
SCRIPT
IDENTIFIER
STATEMENT
MESSAGE

Mon May 08 21:30:03 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
ORA-06550: line 2, column 27:

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
PL/SQL: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
ORA-06550: line 2, column 13:

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

Mon May 08 21:30:06 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

show errors procedure "sss"
ORA-00907: missing right parenthesis

Mon May 08 21:30:09 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

set garbage
SP2-0158: unknown SET option "garbage"

Mon May 08 21:30:10 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

garbage
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

Example 2

To use a user defined error log table to record query errors from a script, myfile.sql, which contains the following:

VARIABLE U REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :U FOR SELECT * FROM DEPT;
END;
/

SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE 'SSS'

SET GARBAGE

SELECT *
FROM
GARBAGE
;

Enter the following:

SET ERRORLOGGING ON
@MYFILE

which produces the following output:

open :u for select * from dept;
                          *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-6550: line 2, column 29:
PLS-00201: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
ORA-6550: line 2, column 16:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

ERROR:
ORA-00907: missing right parenthesis

SP2-0158: unknown SET option "garbage"

garbage
*
ERROR at line 3:
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

To view the errror log written to the default error log table, SPERRORLOG, enter:

SELECT TIMESTAMP, USERNAME, SCRIPT, IDENTIFIER, STATEMENT, MESSAGE
FROM SPERRORLOG;

which produces the following output:

TIMESTAMP
USERNAME
SCRIPT
IDENTIFIER
STATEMENT
MESSAGE

Mon May 08 21:30:03 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
ORA-06550: line 2, column 27:

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
PL/SQL: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
ORA-06550: line 2, column 13:

Mon May 08 21:30:05 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

open :u for select * from dept;
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

Mon May 08 21:30:06 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

show errors procedure "sss"
ORA-00907: missing right parenthesis

Mon May 08 21:30:09 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

set garbage
SP2-0158: unknown SET option "garbage"

Mon May 08 21:30:10 2006
SYSTEM
d:\myfile.sql

garbage
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

Example 3

To use an error log table other than the default:

Create the error log table you want to use

Specify the table you want to use with the TABLE option of the SET ERRORLOGGING ON command.

The error log table must have the column definitions defined in Table 12-4, "SQL*Plus Error Log Column Definitions".

John wants to use an error log table named john_sperrorlog. John would run the following SQL statements to create the new error log table:

DROP TABLE john_sperrorlog;
CREATE TABLE john_sperrorlog(username   VARCHAR(256),
timestamp  TIMESTAMP,
script     VARCHAR(1024),
identifier VARCHAR(256),
message    CLOB,
statement  CLOB);

John then issues the following SET command to enable error logging using the newly created error log table

SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE john_sperrorlog

All error logging for John is now recorded to john_sperrorlog, and not to the default error log table, SPERRORLOG.

Access privileges for the error log table are handled in the same way as for any user table. See the Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information about granting access to tables.

SET ESC[APE] {\ | c | ON | OFF}

Defines the character used as the escape character.

OFF undefines the escape character. ON enables the escape character. ON changes the value of c back to the default "\".

You can use the escape character before the substitution character (set through SET DEFINE) to indicate that SQL*Plus should treat the substitution character as an ordinary character rather than as a request for variable substitution.

Example

If you define the escape character as an exclamation point (!), then

SET ESCAPE !
ACCEPT v1 PROMPT 'Enter !&1:'

displays this prompt:

Enter &1:

To set the escape character back to the default value of \ (backslash), enter

SET ESCAPE ON

SET ESCCHAR {@ | ? | % | $ | OFF}

Specifies a character to be escaped and not interpreted when used in a file name for the SPOOL, START, @, RUN and EDIT commands. These special characters are translated to the following:

While it is not recommended that these characters are used in filenames, if you have legacy files that do use them, it might be useful to include a SET ESCCHAR command in your GLogin file to implement it across your site.

Example

If you include the character '$' in your filename, then

SET ESCCHAR $
RUN MYFILE$

behaves normally.

SET EXITC[OMMIT] {ON | OFF}

Specifies whether the default EXIT behavior is COMMIT or ROLLBACK.

The default setting is ON, which means that work is committed on exit, whether you expected it to be committed or not. Set EXITCOMMIT OFF to rollback work on exit.

Table 12-5 shows the exit action associated with combinations of SET commands (AUTOCOMMIT & EXITCOMMIT) and the EXIT command.

Table 12-5 Exit Behavior: AUTOCOMMIT, EXITCOMMIT, EXIT

AUTOCOMMIT
EXITCOMMIT
EXIT
Exit Behavior

ON

ON

-

COMMIT

ON

OFF

-

COMMIT

OFF

ON

-

COMMIT

OFF

OFF

-

ROLLBACK

ON

ON

COMMIT

COMMIT

ON

ON

ROLLBACK

COMMIT

ON

OFF

COMMIT

COMMIT

ON

OFF

ROLLBACK

COMMIT

OFF

ON

COMMIT

COMMIT

OFF

ON

ROLLBACK

ROLLBACK

OFF

OFF

COMMIT

COMMIT

OFF

OFF

ROLLBACK

ROLLBACK

SET FEED[BACK] {6 | n | ON | OFF}

Displays the number of records returned by a script when a script selects at least n records.

ON or OFF turns this display on or off. Turning feedback ON sets n to 1. Setting feedback to zero is equivalent to turning it OFF.

SET FEEDBACK OFF also turns off the statement confirmation messages such as 'Table created' and 'PL/SQL procedure successfully completed' that are displayed after successful SQL or PL/SQL statements.

SET FLAGGER {OFF | ENTRY | INTERMED[IATE] | FULL}

Checks to make sure that SQL statements conform to the ANSI/ISO SQL92 standard.

If any non-standard constructs are found, the Oracle Database Server flags them as errors and displays the violating syntax. This is the equivalent of the SQL language ALTER SESSION SET FLAGGER command.

You may execute SET FLAGGER even if you are not connected to a database. FIPS flagging will remain in effect across SQL*Plus sessions until a SET FLAGGER OFF (or ALTER SESSION SET FLAGGER = OFF) command is successful or you exit SQL*Plus.

When FIPS flagging is enabled, SQL*Plus displays a warning for the CONNECT, DISCONNECT, and ALTER SESSION SET FLAGGER commands, even if they are successful.

SET FLU[SH] {ON | OFF}

Controls when output is sent to the user's display device. OFF enables the operating system to buffer output. ON disables buffering. FLUSH only affects display output, it does not affect spooled output.

Use OFF only when you run a script non-interactively (that is, when you do not need to see output and/or prompts until the script finishes running). The use of FLUSH OFF may improve performance by reducing the amount of program I/O.

SET HEA[DING] {ON | OFF}

Controls printing of column headings in reports.

ON prints column headings in reports; OFF suppresses column headings.

The SET HEADING OFF command does not affect the column width displayed, it only suppresses the printing of the column header itself.

Example

To suppress the display of column headings in a report, enter

SET HEADING OFF

If you then run a SQL SELECT command

SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID = 'AC_MGR';

the following output results:

Higgins 12000

To turn the display of column headings back on, enter

SET HEADING ON

SET HEADS[EP] { | c | ON | OFF}

Defines the character used as a line break in column headings.

The heading separator character cannot be alphanumeric or white space. You can use the heading separator character in the COLUMN command and in the old forms of BTITLE and TTITLE to divide a column heading or title onto more than one line. ON or OFF turns heading separation on or off. When heading separation is OFF, SQL*Plus prints a heading separator character like any other character. ON changes the value of c back to the default "|".

SET INSTANCE [instance_path | LOCAL]

Changes the default instance for your session to the specified instance path.

Using the SET INSTANCE command does not connect to a database. The default instance is used for commands when no instance is specified. Any commands preceding the first use of SET INSTANCE communicate with the default instance.

To reset the instance to the default value for your operating system, you can either enter SET INSTANCE with no instance_path or SET INSTANCE LOCAL.

Note, you can only change the instance when you are not currently connected to any instance. That is, you must first make sure that you have disconnected from the current instance, then set or change the instance, and reconnect to an instance in order for the new setting to be enabled.

This command may only be issued when Oracle Net is running. You can use any valid Oracle Net connect identifier as the specified instance path. See your operating system-specific Oracle Database documentation for a complete description of how your operating system specifies Oracle Net connect identifiers. The maximum length of the instance path is 64 characters.

Example

To set the default instance to "PROD1" enter

DISCONNECT
SET INSTANCE PROD1

To set the instance back to the default of local, enter

SET INSTANCE local

You must disconnect from any connected instances to change the instance.

SET LIN[ESIZE] {80 | n}

Sets the total number of characters that SQL*Plus displays on one line before beginning a new line.

It also controls the position of centered and right-aligned text in TTITLE, BTITLE, REPHEADER and REPFOOTER. Changing the linesize setting can affect text wrapping in output from the DESCRIBE command. DESCRIBE output columns are typically allocated a proportion of the linesize. Decreasing or increasing the linesize may give unexpected text wrapping in your display. You can define LINESIZE as a value from 1 to a maximum that is system dependent.

SET LOBOF[FSET] {1 | n}

Sets the starting position from which BLOB, BFILE, CLOB and NCLOB data is retrieved and displayed.

Example

To set the starting position from which a CLOB column's data is retrieved to the 22nd position, enter

SET LOBOFFSET 22

The CLOB data will wrap on your screen; SQL*Plus will not truncate until the 23rd character.

SET LOGSOURCE [pathname]

Specifies the location from which archive logs are retrieved during recovery.

The default value is set by the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST initialization parameter in the Oracle Database initialization file, init.ora. Using the SET LOGSOURCE command without a pathname restores the default location.

Example

To set the default location of log files for recovery to the directory "/usr/oracle10/dbs/arch" enter

SET LOGSOURCE "/usr/oracle10/dbs/arch"
RECOVER DATABASE

SET LONG {80 | n}

Sets maximum width (in bytes) for displaying BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, LONG, NCLOB and XMLType values; and for copying LONG values.

Querying LONG columns requires enough local memory to store the amount of data specified by SET LONG, irrespective of the value of the SET LONGCHUNKSIZE command. This requirement does not apply when querying LOBs.

It is recommended that you do not create tables with LONG columns. LONG columns are supported only for backward compatibility. Use LOB columns (BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, NCLOB) instead. LOB columns have fewer restrictions than LONG columns and are still being enhanced.

The maximum value of n is 2,000,000,000 bytes. It is important to check that the memory required by your SET LONG command is available on your machine, for example:

SET LONG 2000000000

assumes that available RAM (random access memory) on the machine exceeds 2 gigabytes.

Example

To set the maximum number of bytes to fetch for displaying and copying LONG values, to 500, enter

SET LONG 500

The LONG data will wrap on your screen; SQL*Plus will not truncate until the 501st byte. The default for LONG is 80 bytes.

SET LONGC[HUNKSIZE] {80 | n}

Sets the size (in bytes) of the increments SQL*Plus uses to retrieve a BLOB, BFILE, CLOB, LONG, NCLOB or XMLType value.

LONGCHUNKSIZE is not used for object relational queries such as CLOB, or NCLOB.

Example

To set the size of the increments in which SQL*Plus retrieves LONG values to 100 bytes, enter

SET LONGCHUNKSIZE 100

The LONG data will be retrieved in increments of 100 bytes until the entire value is retrieved or the value of SET LONG is reached, whichever is the smaller.

SET MARK[UP] HTML [ON | OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP {ON | OFF}] [SPOOL {ON | OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON | OFF}]

Outputs HTML marked up text.

To be effective, SET MARKUP commands that change values in dynamic report output must occur before statements that produce query output. The first statement that produces query output triggers the output of information affected by SET MARKUP such as HEAD and TABLE settings. Subsequent SET MARKUP commands have no effect on the information already sent to the report.

SET MARKUP only specifies that SQL*Plus output will be HTML encoded. You must use SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON and the SQL*Plus SPOOL command to create and name a spool file, and to begin writing HMTL output to it. SET MARKUP has the same options and behavior as SQLPLUS -MARKUP.

See MARKUP Options for detailed information. For examples of usage, see SET MARK[UP] HTML [ON | OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP {ON | OFF}] [SPOOL {ON | OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON | OFF}], and Generating HTML Reports from SQL*Plus.

Use the SHOW MARKUP command to view the status of MARKUP options.

Example

The following is a script which uses the SET MARKUP HTML command to enable HTML marked up text to be spooled to a specified file:

Note:

The SET MARKUP example command is laid out for readability using line continuation characters "–" and spacing. Command options are concatenated in normal entry.

Use your favorite text editor to enter the commands necessary to set up the HTML options and the query you want for your report.

SET MARKUP HTML ON SPOOL ON HEAD "<TITLE>SQL*Plus Report</title> -
<STYLE TYPE='TEXT/CSS'><!--BODY {background: ffffc6} --></STYLE>"
SET ECHO OFF
SPOOL employee.htm
SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY>12000;
SPOOL OFF
SET MARKUP HTML OFF
SET ECHO ON

As this script contains SQL*Plus commands, do not attempt to run it with / (slash) from the buffer because it will fail. Save the script in your text editor and use START to execute it:

START employee.sql

As well as writing the HTML spool file, employee.htm, the output is also displayed on screen because SET TERMOUT defaults to ON. You can view the spool file, employee.htm, in your web browser. It should appear something like the following:

Description of markup.gif follows
Description of the illustration markup.gif

SET NEWP[AGE] {1 | n | NONE}

Sets the number of blank lines to be printed from the top of each page to the top title. A value of zero places a formfeed at the beginning of each page (including the first page) and clears the screen on most terminals. If you set NEWPAGE to NONE, SQL*Plus does not print a blank line or formfeed between the report pages.

SET NULL text

Sets the text displayed whenever a null value occurs in the result of a SQL SELECT command.

Use the NULL clause of the COLUMN command to override the setting of the NULL variable for a given column. The default output for a null is blank ("").

SET NUMF[ORMAT] format

Sets the default format for displaying numbers. See the FORMAT clause of the COLUMN command for number format descriptions. Enter a number format for format. To use the default field width and formatting model specified by SET NUMWIDTH, enter

SET NUMFORMAT ""

SET NUM[WIDTH] {10 | n}

Sets the default width for displaying numbers. See the FORMAT clause of the COLUMN command for number format descriptions.

COLUMN FORMAT settings take precedence over SET NUMFORMAT settings, which take precedence over SET NUMWIDTH settings.

SET PAGES[IZE] {14 | n}

Sets the number of lines on each page of output. You can set PAGESIZE to zero to suppress all headings, page breaks, titles, the initial blank line, and other formatting information.

SET PAU[SE] {ON | OFF | text}

Enables you to control scrolling of your terminal when running reports. You need to first, SET PAUSE text, and then SET PAUSE ON if you want text to appear each time SQL*Plus pauses.

SET PAUSE ON pauses output at the beginning of each PAGESIZE number of lines of report output. Press Return to view more output. SET PAUSE text specifies the text to be displayed each time SQL*Plus pauses. Multiple words in text must be enclosed in single quotes.

You can embed terminal-dependent escape sequences in the PAUSE command. These sequences allow you to create inverse video messages or other effects on terminals that support such characteristics.

SET RECSEP {WR[APPED] | EA[CH] | OFF}

RECSEP tells SQL*Plus where to make the record separation.

For example, if you set RECSEP to WRAPPED, SQL*Plus prints a record separator only after wrapped lines. If you set RECSEP to EACH, SQL*Plus prints a record separator following every row. If you set RECSEP to OFF, SQL*Plus does not print a record separator.

SET RECSEPCHAR { | c}

Defines the character to display or print to separate records.

A record separator consists of a single line of the RECSEPCHAR (record separating character) repeated LINESIZE times. The default is a single space.

SET SERVEROUT[PUT] {ON | OFF} [SIZE {n | UNL[IMITED]}] [FOR[MAT] {WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED]}]

Controls whether to display output (that is, DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE) of stored procedures or PL/SQL blocks in SQL*Plus. The DBMS_OUTPUT line length limit is 32767 bytes.

OFF suppresses the output of DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE. ON displays the output.

ON uses the SIZE and FORMAT of the previous SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE n FORMAT f, or uses default values if no SET SERVEROUTPUT command was previously issued in the current connection.

SIZE sets the number of bytes of the output that can be buffered within the Oracle Database server. The default is UNLIMITED. n cannot be less than 2000 or greater than 1,000,000.

Resources are not pre-allocated when SERVEROUTPUT is set. As there is no performance penalty, use UNLIMITED unless you want to conserve physical memory.

Every server output line begins on a new output line.

When WRAPPED is enabled SQL*Plus wraps the server output within the line size specified by SET LINESIZE, beginning new lines when required.

When WORD_WRAPPED is enabled, each line of server output is wrapped within the line size specified by SET LINESIZE. Lines are broken on word boundaries. SQL*Plus left justifies each line, skipping all leading whitespace.

When TRUNCATED is enabled, each line of server output is truncated to the line size specified by SET LINESIZE.

For detailed information about using UTL_FILE and associated utilities, see the Oracle Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference .

For more information on DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE, see your Oracle Database Advanced Application Developer's Guide.

Example

To enable text display in a PL/SQL block using DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE, enter

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

The following example shows what happens when you execute an anonymous procedure with SET SERVEROUTPUT ON:

BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Task is complete');
END;
/

Task is complete.
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The following example shows what happens when you create a trigger with SET SERVEROUTPUT ON:

CREATE TABLE SERVER_TAB (Letter CHAR);
CREATE TRIGGER SERVER_TRIG BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE -
OR DELETE
ON SERVER_TAB
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Task is complete.');
END;
/

Trigger Created.

INSERT INTO SERVER_TAB VALUES ('M');
DROP TABLE SERVER_TAB;
/* Remove SERVER_TAB from database */

Task is complete.
1 row created.

To set the output to WORD_WRAPPED, enter

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON FORMAT WORD_WRAPPED
SET LINESIZE 20
BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('If there is nothing left to do');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('shall we continue with plan B?');
END;
/

If there is nothing
left to do
shall we continue
with plan B?

To set the output to TRUNCATED, enter

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON FORMAT TRUNCATED
SET LINESIZE 20
BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('If there is nothing left to do');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('shall we continue with plan B?');
END;
/

If there is nothing
shall we continue wi

SET SHIFT[INOUT] {VIS[IBLE] | INV[ISIBLE]}

Enables correct alignment for terminals that display shift characters. The SET SHIFTINOUT command is useful for terminals which display shift characters together with data (for example, IBM 3270 terminals). You can only use this command with shift sensitive character sets (for example, JA16DBCS).

Use VISIBLE for terminals that display shift characters as a visible character (for example, a space or a colon). INVISIBLE is the opposite and does not display any shift characters.

Example

To enable the display of shift characters on a terminal that supports them, enter

SET SHIFTINOUT VISIBLE
SELECT LAST_NAME, JOB_ID FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE SALARY > 12000;

LAST_NAME      JOB_ID
---------- ----------
:JJOO:       :AABBCC:
:AA:abc       :DDEE:e

where ":" = visible shift character uppercase represents multibyte characters

lowercase represents singlebyte characters

SET SHOW[MODE] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus lists the old and new settings of a SQL*Plus system variable when you change the setting with SET. ON lists the settings; OFF suppresses the listing. SHOWMODE ON has the same behavior as the obsolete SHOWMODE BOTH.

SET SQLBL[ANKLINES] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus puts blank lines within a SQL command or script. ON interprets blank lines and new lines as part of a SQL command or script. OFF, the default value, does not allow blank lines or new lines in a SQL command or script or script.

Enter the BLOCKTERMINATOR to stop SQL command entry without running the SQL command. Enter the SQLTERMINATOR character to stop SQL command entry and run the SQL statement.

Example

To allow blank lines in a SQL statement, enter

SET SQLBLANKLINES ON
REM Using the SQLTERMINATOR (default is ";")
REM Could have used the BLOCKTERMINATOR (default is ".")
SELECT *

FROM

DUAL

;

The following output results:

D
-
X

SET SQLC[ASE] {MIX[ED] | LO[WER] | UP[PER]}

Converts the case of SQL commands and PL/SQL blocks just prior to execution.

SQL*Plus converts all text within the command, including quoted literals and identifiers, to uppercase if SQLCASE equals UPPER, to lowercase if SQLCASE equals LOWER, and makes no changes if SQLCASE equals MIXED.

SQLCASE does not change the SQL buffer itself.

SET SQLCO[NTINUE] {> | text}

Sets the character sequence SQL*Plus displays as a prompt after you continue a SQL*Plus command on an additional line using a hyphen (–).

Example

To set the SQL*Plus command continuation prompt to an exclamation point followed by a space, enter

SET SQLCONTINUE '! '

SQL*Plus will prompt for continuation as follows:

TTITLE 'MONTHLY INCOME' -
! RIGHT SQL.PNO SKIP 2 -
! CENTER 'PC DIVISION'

The default continuation prompt is "> ".

SET SQLN[UMBER] {ON | OFF}

Sets the prompt for the second and subsequent lines of a SQL command or PL/SQL block. ON sets the prompt to be the line number. OFF sets the prompt to the value of SQLPROMPT.

SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}

Sets the behavior to that of the release or version specified by x.y[.z].

Where x is the version number, y is the release number, and z is the update number. For example, 8.1.7, 9.0.1 or 10.2. The features affected by SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY are tabulated in the SQL*Plus Compatibility Matrix shown. You can also set the value of SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY using the -C[OMPATIBILITY] argument of the SQLPLUS command when starting SQL*Plus from the command line.

The default setting for SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY is the value of the SQL*Plus client.

It is recommended that you add SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY 11.2 to your scripts to maximize their compatibility with future versions of SQL*Plus.

SQL*Plus Compatibility Matrix

The SQL*Plus Compatibility Matrix tabulates behavior affected by each SQL*Plus compatibility setting. SQL*Plus compatibility modes can be set in three ways:

You can include a SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY command in your site or user profile. On installation, there is no SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY setting in glogin.sql. Therefore the default compatibility is 11.2.

You can use the SQLPLUS -C[OMPATIBILITY] {x.y[.z]} command argument at startup to set the compatibility mode of that session.

You can use the SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY {x.y[.z]} command during a session to set the SQL*Plus behavior you want for that session.

The following table shows the release of SQL*Plus which introduced the behavior change, and hence the minimum value of SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY to obtain that behavior. For example, to obtain the earlier behavior of the VARIABLE command, you must either use a version of SQL*Plus earlier than 9.0.1, or you must use a SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY value of less than 9.0.1. The lowest value that can be set for SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY is 7.3.4

Table 12-6 Compatibility Matrix

Value
Consequence
When available

>=10.1

SHOW ERRORS sorts PL/SQL error messages using new columns only available in Oracle Database 10g.

10.1

>=10.1

SPOOL Options CREATE, REPLACE, SAVE were added which may affect filename parsing on some platforms.

10.1

>=10.1

SET SQLPROMPT

10.1

>=10.1

Whitespace characters are allowed in Windows file names that are enclosed in quotes. Some other special punctuation characters are now disallowed in Windows.

10.1

>=10.1

Glogin/login files are called for each reconnect.

10.1

  <10.1

Uses the obsolete DOC> prompt when echoing /* comments.

10.1

>= 9.2

A wide column defined FOLD_AFTER may be displayed at the start of a new line. Otherwise it is incorrectly put at the end of the preceding line with a smaller width than expected.

9.2.

>= 9.0

Whitespace before a slash ("/") in a SQL statement is ignored and the slash is taken to mean execute the statement. Otherwise the slash is treated as part of the statement, for example, as a division sign.

9.0.1.4.

>= 9.0

The length specified for NCHAR and NVARCHAR2 types is characters. Otherwise the length may represent bytes or characters depending on the character set.

9.0.1

SET SQLPRE[FIX] {# | c}

Sets the SQL*Plus prefix character. While you are entering a SQL command or PL/SQL block, you can enter a SQL*Plus command on a separate line, prefixed by the SQL*Plus prefix character. SQL*Plus will execute the command immediately without affecting the SQL command or PL/SQL block that you are entering. The prefix character must be a non-alphanumeric character.

SET SQLP[ROMPT] {SQL> | text}

Sets the SQL*Plus command prompt. SET SQLPROMPT substitute variables dynamically. This enables the inclusion of runtime variables such as the current connection identifier. Substitution variables used in SQLPROMPT do not have to be prefixed with '&', and they can be used and accessed like any other substitution variable. Variable substitution is not attempted for the default prompt, "SQL> ".

Variable substitution occurs each time SQLPROMPT is SET. If SQLPROMPT is included in glogin.sql, then substitution variables in SQLPROMPT are refreshed with each login or connect.

Example

To change your SQL*Plus prompt to display your connection identifier, enter:

SET SQLPROMPT "_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER > "

To set the SQL*Plus command prompt to show the current user, enter

SET SQLPROMPT "_USER > "

To change your SQL*Plus prompt to display your the current date, the current user and the users privilege level, enter:

SET SQLPROMPT "_DATE _USER _PRIVILEGE> "

To change your SQL*Plus prompt to display a variable you have defined, enter:

DEFINE mycon = Prod1
SET SQLPROMPT "mycon> "

Prod1>

Text in nested quotes is not parsed for substitution. To have a SQL*Plus prompt of your username, followed by "@", and then your connection identifier, enter:

SET SQLPROMPT "_USER'@'_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER > "

SET SQLT[ERMINATOR] {; | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to end script or data entry for PL/SQL blocks or SQL statements, to execute the script, and to load it into the buffer.

It cannot be an alphanumeric character or a whitespace. OFF means that SQL*Plus recognizes no command terminator; you terminate a SQL command by entering an empty line or a slash (/). If SQLBLANKLINES is set ON, you must use the BLOCKTERMINATOR to terminate a SQL command. ON resets the terminator to the default semicolon (;).

SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text}

Sets the default file extension that SQL*Plus uses in commands that refer to scripts. SUFFIX does not control extensions for spool files.

Example

To change the default command-file extension from the default, .SQL to .TXT, enter

SET SUFFIX TXT

If you then enter

GET EXAMPLE

SQL*Plus will look for a file named EXAMPLE.TXT instead of EXAMPLE.SQL.

SET TAB {ON | OFF}

Determines how SQL*Plus formats white space in terminal output. OFF uses spaces to format white space in the output. ON uses the TAB character. TAB settings are every eight characters. The default value for TAB is system dependent.

SET TERM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of output generated by commands in a script that is executed with @, @@ or START. OFF suppresses the display so that you can spool output to a file without displaying the output on screen. ON displays the output on screen. TERMOUT OFF does not affect output from commands you enter interactively or redirect to SQL*Plus from the operating system.

SET TI[ME] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of the current time. ON displays the current time before each command prompt. OFF suppresses the time display.

SET TIMI[NG] {ON | OFF}

Controls the display of timing statistics.

ON displays timing statistics on each SQL command or PL/SQL block run. OFF suppresses timing of each command.

See TIMING for information on timing multiple commands.

Example

The format of timing statistics is dependent on the operating system. In Linux and Windows, the timing statistics are in 24 hour format displaying hours, minutes, seconds and hundredths of seconds

SET SUFFIX TXT

If you enter

GET EXAMPLE

SQL*Plus displays output like

GET EXAMPLE

SET TRIM[OUT] {ON | OFF}

Determines whether SQL*Plus puts trailing blanks at the end of each displayed line. ON removes blanks at the end of each line, improving performance especially when you access SQL*Plus from a slow communications device. OFF enables SQL*Plus to display trailing blanks. TRIMOUT ON does not affect spooled output.

SET TRIMS[POOL] {ON | OFF}

Determines whether SQL*Plus puts trailing blanks at the end of each spooled line. ON removes blanks at the end of each line. OFF enables SQL*Plus to include trailing blanks. TRIMSPOOL ON does not affect terminal output.

SET UND[ERLINE] {- | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to underline column headings in reports. The underline character cannot be an alphanumeric character or a white space. ON or OFF turns underlining on or off. ON changes the value of c back to the default "-".

SET VER[IFY] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether to list the text of a SQL statement or PL/SQL command before and after replacing substitution variables with values. ON lists the text; OFF suppresses the listing.

SET WRA[P] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether to truncate the display of a selected row if it is too long for the current line width. OFF truncates the selected row; ON enables the selected row to wrap to the next line.

Use the WRAPPED and TRUNCATED clauses of the COLUMN command to override the setting of WRAP for specific columns.

SET XMLOPT[IMIZATIONCHECK] [ON|OFF]

Controls whether only XML queries and DML operations that are fully optimized are executed. ON prevents the execution of any XML query or DML operation that cannot be fully optimized and writes the reason in the trace file. OFF does not prevent the execution of such queries and operations. OFF is the default.

SET XMLOPT[IMIZATIONCHECK] ON is only to assist during development and debugging an XML query or DML operation.

SET XQUERY BASEURI {text}

Specifies the base URI used to resolve relative URIs in functions. It enables the prefix of the file accessed by an XQuery to be changed.

To unset the BASEURI, set an empty string, for example:

SET XQUERY BASEURI ''

Take care to enter valid values as values are checked only when an XQUERY command is issued.

Example

SET XQUERY BASEURI '/public/scott'
XQUERY for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i
/

This is equivalent to:

XQuery declare base-uri "/public/hr";
for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i

SET XQUERY ORDERING {UNORDERED | ORDERED | DEFAULT}

Sets the ordering of output from an XQuery. There are three values:

UNORDERED specifies that results are sorted in the order they are retrieved from the database.

ORDERED specifies that results are sorted as defined by the XQuery.

DEFAULT specifies the database default. In Oracle Database 10g the default is UNORDERED.

When SET XQUERY ORDERING is not set, the default is DEFAULT (UNORDERED).

Example

SET XQUERY ORDERING ORDERED
XQUERY for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i
/

This is equivalent to:

XQuery declare ordering ordered;
for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i
/

SET XQUERY NODE {BYVALUE | BYREFERENCE | DEFAULT}

Sets the node identity preservation mode. The preservation mode applies to all expressions that either create a new node (such as element constructors) or return an item or sequence containing nodes (such as path expressions). There are three values:

BYVALUE specifies that the node identity need not be preserved. This means that any node operation such as creation, or that is returned as a result of an expression is deep copied and loses its context from the original tree. Subsequent operations on this node that test for node identity, parent or sibling axes or ordering will be undefined.

BYREFERENCE specifies that node identities are to be preserved. Subsequent operations on this node preserve the node's context and definition.

DEFAULT specifies the database default. In Oracle Database 10g the default is BYVALUE.

When SET XQUERY NODE is not set, the default is DEFAULT (BYVALUE).

Example

SET XQUERY NODE BYREFERENCE
XQUERY for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i
/

This is equivalent to:

XQuery declare node byreference;
for $i in doc("foo.xml") return $i
/

SET XQUERY CONTEXT {text}

Specifies an XQuery context item expression. A context item expression evaluates to the context item, which may be either a node (as in the expression fn:doc("bib.xml")//book[fn:count(./author)>1]), or an atomic value (as in the expression (1 to 100)[. mod 5 eq 0]).

To unset the XQUERY CONTEXT, set an empty string, for example:

SET XQUERY CONTEXT ''

Take care to enter valid values as values are checked only when an XQUERY command is issued.

Example

SET XQUERY CONTEXT 'doc("foo.xml")'
XQUERY for $i in /a return $i
/

This is equivalent to:

XQuery for $i in /a return $i
passing XMLQuery("doc('foo.xml')")
/

SHOW

Syntax

SHO[W] option

where option represents one of the following terms or clauses:

system_variable ALL BTI[TLE]ERR[ORS] [ { FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | PACKAGE | PACKAGE BODY | TRIGGER | VIEW | TYPE | TYPE BODY | DIMENSION | JAVA CLASS } [schema.]name] LNO PARAMETERS [parameter_name] PNO RECYC[LEBIN] [original_name] REL[EASE] REPF[OOTER] REPH[EADER] SGA SPOO[L] SPPARAMETERS [parameter_name SQLCODE TTI[TLE] USER XQUERY

Shows the value of a SQL*Plus system variable or the current SQL*Plus environment. SHOW SGA requires a DBA privileged login.

Terms

system_variable

Represents any system variable set by the SET command.

ALL

Lists the settings of all SHOW options, except ERRORS and SGA, in alphabetical order.

BTI[TLE]

Shows the current BTITLE definition.

ERR[ORS] [{FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | PACKAGE | PACKAGE BODY | TRIGGER | VIEW | TYPE | TYPE BODY | DIMENSION | JAVA CLASS} [schema.]name]

Shows the compilation errors of a stored procedure (includes stored functions, procedures, and packages). After you use the CREATE command to create a stored procedure, a message is displayed if the stored procedure has any compilation errors. To see the errors, you use SHOW ERRORS.

When you specify SHOW ERRORS with no arguments, SQL*Plus shows compilation errors for the most recently created or altered stored procedure. When you specify the type (function, procedure, package, package body, trigger, view, type, type body, dimension, or java class) and the name of the PL/SQL stored procedure, SQL*Plus shows errors for that stored procedure. For more information on compilation errors, see your PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference.

schema contains the named object. If you omit schema, SHOW ERRORS assumes the object is located in your current schema.

SHOW ERRORS output displays the line and column number of the error (LINE/COL) as well as the error itself (ERROR). LINE/COL and ERROR have default widths of 8 and 65, respectively. You can use the COLUMN command to alter the default widths.

LNO

Shows the current line number (the position in the current page of the display and/or spooled output).

PARAMETERS [parameter_name]

Displays the current values for one or more initialization parameters. You can use a string after the command to see a subset of parameters whose names include that string. For example, if you enter:

SHOW PARAMETERS COUNT

NAME                              TYPE     VALUE
------------------------------    -----    -----
db_file_multiblock_read_count     integer  12
spin_count                        integer  0

The SHOW PARAMETERS command, without any string following the command, displays all initialization parameters.

Your output may vary depending on the version and configuration of the Oracle Database server to which you are connected. You need SELECT ON V_$PARAMETER object privileges to use the PARAMETERS clause, otherwise you will receive a message

ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

PNO

Shows the current page number.

RECYC[LEBIN] [original_name]

Shows objects in the recycle bin that can be reverted with the FLASHBACK BEFORE DROP command. You do not need to remember column names, or interpret the less readable output from the query:

SELECT * FROM USER_RECYCLEBIN

The query returns four columns displayed in the following order:

Column Name | Description
ORIGINAL NAME | Shows the original name used when creating the object.
RECYCLEBIN NAME | Shows the name used to identify the object in the recyclebin.
OBJECT TYPE | Shows the type of the object.
DROP TIME | Shows the time when the object was dropped.

The output columns can be formatted with the COLUMN command.

For DBAs, the command lists their own objects as they have their own user_recyclebin view.

REL[EASE]

Shows the release number of Oracle Database that SQL*Plus is accessing.

REPF[OOTER]

Shows the current REPFOOTER definition.

REPH[EADER]

Shows the current REPHEADER definition.

SPOO[L]

Shows whether output is being spooled.

SGA

Displays information about the current instance's System Global Area. You need SELECT ON V_$SGA object privileges otherwise you will receive a message

ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

SPPARAMETERS [parameter_name]

As for SHOW PARAMETERS except that SHOW SPPARAMETERS displays current values for initialization parameters for all instances. You can use a string after the command to see a subset of parameters whose names include that string.

The SHOW SPPARAMETERS command, without any string following the command, displays all initialization parameters for all instances.

Your output may vary depending on the version and configuration of the Oracle Database server to which you are connected. You need SELECT ON V_$PARAMETER object privileges to use the SPPARAMETERS clause.

SQLCODE

Shows the value of SQL.SQLCODE (the SQL return code of the most recent operation).

TTI[TLE]

Shows the current TTITLE definition.

USER

Shows the username you are currently using to access SQL*Plus. If you connect as "/ AS SYSDBA", then the SHOW USER command displays

USER is "SYS"

XQUERY

Shows the current values of the XQUERY settings, BASEURI, CONTEXT, NODE and ORDERING.

xquery BASEURI "public/scott" CONTEXT "doc("test.xml")" NODE byreference ORDERING ordered

The following output is displayed when no values are set:

xquery BASEURI "" CONTEXT "" NODE default ORDERING default

Examples

To display information about the SGA, enter

SHOW SGA

Total System Global Area                            7629732 bytes
Fixed Size                                            60324 bytes
Variable Size                                       6627328 bytes
Database Buffers                                     409600 bytes
Redo Buffers                                         532480 bytes

The following example illustrates how to create a stored procedure and then show its compilation errors:

CONNECT SYSTEM/MANAGER
CREATE PROCEDURE HR.PROC1 AS
BEGIN
:P1 := 1;
END;
/

Warning: Procedure created with compilation errors.

SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE PROC1

NO ERRORS.

SHOW ERRORS PROCEDURE HR.PROC1

Errors for PROCEDURE HR PROC1:
LINE/COL ERROR
--------------------------------------------------------
3/3      PLS-00049: bad bind variable 'P1'

To show whether AUTORECOVERY is enabled, enter

SHOW AUTORECOVERY

AUTORECOVERY ON

To display the connect identifier for the default instance, enter

SHOW INSTANCE

INSTANCE "LOCAL"

To display the location for archive logs, enter

SHOW LOGSOURCE

LOGSOURCE "/usr/oracle90/dbs/arch"

To display objects that can be reverted with the FLASHBACK commands where CJ1 and ABC were objects dropped, enter:

SHOW RECYCLEBIN

ORIGINAL NAME     RECYCLEBIN NAME       OBJECT TYPE     DROP TIME
--------------    ------------------    ------------    --------------------
CJ1               RB$$29458$TABLE$0     TABLE           2003-01-22:14:54:07
ABC               RB$$29453$TABLE$0     TABLE           2003-01-20:18:50:29

To restore CJ1, enter

FLASHBACK TABLE CJ1 TO BEFORE DROP;

SHUTDOWN

Syntax

SHUTDOWN [ABORT | IMMEDIATE | NORMAL | TRANSACTIONAL [LOCAL]]

Shuts down a currently running Oracle Database instance, optionally closing and dismounting a database.

Shutdown commands that wait for current calls to complete or users to disconnect such as SHUTDOWN NORMAL and SHUTDOWN TRANSACTIONAL have a time limit of one hour that the SHUTDOWN command will wait. If all events blocking the shutdown have not occurred within one hour, the shutdown command cancels with the following message:

ORA-01013: user requested cancel of current operation

Terms

ABORT

Proceeds with the fastest possible shutdown of the database without waiting for calls to complete or users to disconnect.

Uncommitted transactions are not rolled back. Client SQL statements currently being processed are terminated. All users currently connected to the database are implicitly disconnected and the next database startup will require instance recovery.

You must use this option if a background process terminates abnormally.

IMMEDIATE

Does not wait for current calls to complete or users to disconnect from the database.

Further connects are prohibited. The database is closed and dismounted. The instance is shutdown and no instance recovery is required on the next database startup.

NORMAL

NORMAL is the default option which waits for users to disconnect from the database.

Further connects are prohibited. The database is closed and dismounted. The instance is shutdown and no instance recovery is required on the next database startup.

TRANSACTIONAL [LOCAL]

Performs a planned shutdown of an instance while allowing active transactions to complete first. It prevents clients from losing work without requiring all users to log off.

No client can start a new transaction on this instance. Attempting to start a new transaction results in disconnection. After completion of all transactions, any client still connected to the instance is disconnected. Now the instance shuts down just as it would if a SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE statement was submitted. The next startup of the database will not require any instance recovery procedures.

The LOCAL mode specifies a transactional shutdown on the local instance only, so that it only waits on local transactions to complete, not all transactions. This is useful, for example, for scheduled outage maintenance.

Usage

SHUTDOWN with no arguments is equivalent to SHUTDOWN NORMAL.

You must be connected to a database as SYSOPER, or SYSDBA. You cannot connect through a multi-threaded server. See CONNECT for more information about connecting to a database.

Examples

To shutdown the database in normal mode, enter

SHUTDOWN

Database closed.
Database dismounted.
Oracle instance shut down.

SPOOL

Syntax

SPO[OL] [file_name[.ext] [CRE[ATE] | REP[LACE] | APP[END]] | OFF | OUT]

Stores query results in a file, or optionally sends the file to a printer.

Terms

file_name[.ext]

Represents the name of the file to which you wish to spool. SPOOL followed by file_name begins spooling displayed output to the named file. If you do not specify an extension, SPOOL uses a default extension (LST or LIS on most systems). The extension is not appended to system files such as /dev/null and /dev/stderr.

CRE[ATE]

Creates a new file with the name specified.

REP[LACE]

Replaces the contents of an existing file. If the file does not exist, REPLACE creates the file. This is the default behavior.

APP[END]

Adds the contents of the buffer to the end of the file you specify.

OFF

Stops spooling.

OUT

Stops spooling and sends the file to your computer's standard (default) printer. This option is not available on some operating systems.

Enter SPOOL with no clauses to list the current spooling status.

Usage

To spool output generated by commands in a script without displaying the output on the screen, use SET TERMOUT OFF. SET TERMOUT OFF does not affect output from commands that run interactively.

You must use quotes around file names containing white space.

To create a valid HTML file using SPOOL APPEND commands, you must use PROMPT or a similar command to create the HTML page header and footer. The SPOOL APPEND command does not parse HTML tags.

SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] to 9.2 or earlier to disable the CREATE, APPEND and SAVE parameters. See SQL*Plus Compatibility Matrix to determine what functionality is controlled by the SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] command.

Examples of SPOOL Command

To record your output in the new file DIARY using the default file extension, enter

SPOOL DIARY CREATE

To append your output to the existing file DIARY, enter

SPOOL DIARY APPEND

To record your output to the file DIARY, overwriting the existing content, enter

SPOOL DIARY REPLACE

To stop spooling and print the file on your default printer, enter

SPOOL OUT

START

Syntax

STA[RT] {url | file_name[.ext] } [arg...]

Runs the SQL*Plus statements in the specified script. The script can be called from the local file system or from a web server.

Terms

url

Specifies the Uniform Resource Locator of a script to run on the specified web server. SQL*Plus supports HTTP and FTP protocols, but not HTTPS. HTTP authentication in the form http://username:password@machine_name.domain... is not supported in this release.

file_name[.ext]

The script you wish to execute. The file can contain any command that you can run interactively.

If you do not specify an extension, SQL*Plus assumes the default command-file extension (normally SQL). See SET SUF[FIX] {SQL | text} for information on changing the default extension.

When you enter START file_name.ext, SQL*Plus searches for a file with the filename and extension you specify in the current default directory. If SQL*Plus does not find such a file, SQL*Plus will search a system-dependent path to find the file. Some operating systems may not support the path search. See the platform-specific Oracle documentation provided for your operating system for specific information related to your operating system environment.

arg ...

Data items you wish to pass to parameters in the script. If you enter one or more arguments, SQL*Plus substitutes the values into the parameters (&1, &2, and so forth) in the script. The first argument replaces each occurrence of &1, the second replaces each occurrence of &2, and so on.

The START command defines the parameters with the values of the arguments; if you START the script again in this session, you can enter new arguments or omit the arguments to use the old values.

See Defining Substitution Variables and Using Substitution Variables for more information on using parameters.

Usage

All previous settings like COLUMN command settings stay in effect when the script starts. If the script changes any setting, then this new value stays in effect after the script has finished

The @ (at sign) and @@ (double at sign) commands function similarly to START. Disabling the START command in the Product User Profile also disables the @ and @@ commands. See @ (at sign) and @@ (double at sign) for further information on these commands. See Disabling SQL*Plus, SQL, and PL/SQL Commands for more information.

The EXIT or QUIT command in a script terminates SQL*Plus.

Examples

A file named PROMOTE with the extension SQL, used to promote employees, might contain the following command:

SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, JOB_ID, SALARYFROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEWWHERE JOB_ID='&1' AND SALARY>&2;

To run this script, enter

START PROMOTE ST_MAN 7000

or if it is located on a web server, enter a command in the form:

START HTTP://machine_name.domain:port/PROMOTE.SQL ST_MAN 7000

Where machine_name.domain must be replaced by the host.domain name, and port by the port number used by the web server where the script is located.

The following command is executed:

SELECT LAST_NAME, LAST_NAME
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
WHERE JOB_ID='ST_MAN' AND SALARY>7000;

and the results displayed.

STARTUP

Syntax

STARTUP options | upgrade_options

where options has the following syntax:

[FORCE] [RESTRICT] [PFILE=filename] [QUIET] [ MOUNT [dbname] | [ OPEN [open_options] [dbname] ] | NOMOUNT ]

where open_options has the following syntax:

READ {ONLY | WRITE [RECOVER]} | RECOVER

and where upgrade_options has the following syntax:

[PFILE=filename] {UPGRADE | DOWNGRADE} [QUIET]

Starts an Oracle Database instance with several options, including mounting and opening a database.

Terms

FORCE

Shuts down the current Oracle Database instance (if it is running) with SHUTDOWN mode ABORT, before restarting it. If the current instance is running and FORCE is not specified, an error results. FORCE is useful while debugging and under abnormal circumstances. It should not normally be used.

RESTRICT

Only enables Oracle Database users with the RESTRICTED SESSION system privilege to connect to the database. Later, you can use the ALTER SYSTEM command to disable the restricted session feature.

PFILE=filename

Specifies the client parameter file to be used while starting the instance. If PFILE is not specified, the server attempts to access a default server parameter file (spfile). If the default spfile isn't found, the server then attempts to access a default pfile. The default files are platform specific. For example, the default file is $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init$ORACLE_SID.ora on UNIX, and ORACLE_HOME\database\initORCL.ora on Windows.

QUIET

Suppresses the display of System Global Area information for the starting instance.

MOUNT dbname

Mounts a database but does not open it.

dbname is the name of the database to mount or open. If no database name is specified, the database name is taken from the initialization parameter DB_NAME.

OPEN

Mounts and opens the specified database.

NOMOUNT

Causes the database not to be mounted upon instance startup.

Cannot be used with MOUNT, or OPEN.

RECOVER

Specifies that media recovery should be performed, if necessary, before starting the instance. STARTUP RECOVER has the same effect as issuing the RECOVER DATABASE command and starting an instance. Only complete recovery is possible with the RECOVER option.

Recovery proceeds, if necessary, as if AUTORECOVERY is set to ON, regardless of whether or not AUTORECOVERY is enabled. If a redo log file is not found in the expected location, recovery continues as if AUTORECOVERY is disabled, by prompting you with the suggested location and name of the subsequent log files that need to be applied.

UPGRADE

Starts the database in OPEN UPGRADE mode and sets system initialization parameters to specific values required to enable database upgrade scripts to be run. UPGRADE should only be used when a database is first started with a new version of the Oracle Database Server.

See the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for details about preparing for, testing and implementing a database version upgrade.

When run, upgrade scripts transform an installed version or release of an Oracle database into a later version, for example, to upgrade an Oracle9i database to Oracle Database 10g. Once the upgrade completes, the database should be shut down and restarted normally.

DOWNGRADE

Starts the database in OPEN DOWNGRADE mode and sets system initialization parameters to specific values required to enable database downgrade scripts to be run.

See the Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for details about preparing for, testing and implementing a database version downgrade.

When run, downgrade scripts transform an installed version or release of Oracle Database into a previous version, for example, to downgrade an Oracle10g database to an Oracle9i database. Once the downgrade completes, the database should be shut down and restarted normally.

Usage

You must be connected to a database as SYSOPER, or SYSDBA. You cannot be connected to a shared server via a dispatcher.

STARTUP with no arguments is equivalent to STARTUP OPEN.

STARTUP OPEN RECOVER mounts and opens the database even when recovery fails.

Examples

To start an instance using the standard parameter file, mount the default database, and open the database, enter

STARTUP

or enter

STARTUP OPEN database

To start an instance using the standard parameter file, mount the default database, and open the database, enter

STARTUP FORCE RESTRICT MOUNT

To start an instance using the parameter file TESTPARM without mounting the database, enter

STARTUP PFILE=testparm NOMOUNT

To shutdown a particular database, immediately restart and open it, allow access only to users with the RESTRICTED SESSION privilege, and use the parameter file MYINIT.ORA. enter

STARTUP FORCE RESTRICT PFILE=myinit.ora OPEN database

To startup an instance and mount but not open a database, enter

CONNECT / as SYSDBA

Connected to an idle instance.

STARTUP MOUNT

ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area                              7629732 bytes
Fixed Size                                              60324 bytes
Variable Size                                         6627328 bytes
Database Buffers                                       409600 bytes
Redo Buffers                                           532480 bytes

STORE

Syntax

STORE SET file_name[.ext] [ CRE[ATE | REP[LACE] | APP[END]]

Saves attributes of the current SQL*Plus environment in a script.

Terms

See SAVE for information on the other terms and clauses in the STORE command syntax.

SET

Saves the values of the system variables.

Usage

This command creates a script which can be executed with the START, @ (at sign) or @@ (double at sign) commands.

If you want to store a file under a name identical to a STORE command clause (that is, CREATE, REPLACE or APPEND), you must put the name in single quotes or specify a file extension.

Examples

To store the current SQL*Plus system variables in a file named DEFAULTENV with the default command-file extension, enter

STORE SET DEFAULTENV

To append the current SQL*Plus system variables to an existing file called DEFAULTENV with the extension OLD, enter

STORE SET DEFAULTENV.OLD APPEND

TIMING

Syntax

TIMI[NG] [START text | SHOW | STOP]

Records timing data for an elapsed period of time, lists the current timer's name and timing data, or lists the number of active timers.

Terms

START text

Sets up a timer and makes text the name of the timer. You can have more than one active timer by STARTing additional timers before STOPping the first; SQL*Plus nests each new timer within the preceding one. The timer most recently STARTed becomes the current timer.

SHOW

Lists the current timer's name and timing data.

STOP

Lists the current timer's name and timing data, then deletes the timer. If any other timers are active, the next most recently STARTed timer becomes the current timer.

Enter TIMING with no clauses to list the number of active timers. For other information about TIMING, see SET AUTOTRACE

Usage

You can use this data to do a performance analysis on any commands or blocks run during the period.

See the SET TIMING command for information on automatically displaying timing data after each SQL command or PL/SQL block you run.

To delete all timers, use the CLEAR TIMING command.

Examples

To create a timer named SQL_TIMER, enter

TIMING START SQL_TIMER

To list the current timer's title and accumulated time, enter

TIMING SHOW

To list the current timer's title and accumulated time and to remove the timer, enter

TIMING STOP

TTITLE

Syntax

TTI[TLE] [printspec [text | variable] ...] [ON | OFF]

where printspec represents one or more of the following clauses used to place and format the text:

BOLD

CE[NTER]

COL n

FORMAT text

LE[FT]

R[IGHT]

S[KIP] [n]

TAB n

Places and formats a specified title at the top of each report page. Enter TTITLE with no clauses to list its current definition. The old form of TTITLE is used if only a single word or string in quotes follows the TTITLE command.

See TTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form) for a description of the old form of TTITLE.

Terms

These terms and clauses also apply to the BTITLE command.

text

The title text. Enter text in single quotes if you want to place more than one word on a single line.

variable

A substitution variable or any of the following system-maintained values, SQL.LNO (the current line number), SQL.PNO (the current page number), SQL.RELEASE (the current Oracle Database release number), SQL.SQLCODE (the current error code), or SQL.USER (the current username).

To print one of these values, reference the appropriate variable in the title. You can format variable with the FORMAT clause.

SQL*Plus substitution variables (& variables) are expanded before TTITLE is executed. The resulting string is stored as the TTITLE text. During subsequent execution for each page of results, the expanded value of a variable may itself be interpreted as a substitution variable with unexpected results.

You can avoid this double substitution in a TTITLE command by not using the & prefix for variables that are to be substituted on each page of results. If you want to use a substitution variable to insert unchanging text in a TTITLE, enclose it in quotes so that it is only substituted once.

OFF

Turns the title off (suppresses its display) without affecting its definition.

ON

Turns the title on (restores its display). When you define a top title, SQL*Plus automatically sets TTITLE to ON.

COL n

Indents to column n of the current line (backward if column n has been passed). Here "column" means print position, not table column.

S[KIP] [n]

Skips to the start of a new line n times; if you omit n, one time; if you enter zero for n, backward to the start of the current line.

TAB n

Skips forward n columns (backward if you enter a negative value for n). "Column" in this context means print position, not table column.

LE[FT] | CE[NTER] | R[IGHT]

Left-align, center, and right-align data on the current line respectively. SQL*Plus aligns following data items as a group, up to the end of the printspec or the next LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT, or COL command. CENTER and RIGHT use the SET LINESIZE value to calculate the position of the data item that follows.

BOLD

Prints data in bold print. SQL*Plus represents bold print on your terminal by repeating the data on three consecutive lines. On some operating systems, SQL*Plus may instruct your printer to print bold text on three consecutive lines, instead of bold.

FORMAT text

Specifies a format model that determines the format of following data items, up to the next FORMAT clause or the end of the command. The format model must be a text constant such as A10 or $999. See the COLUMN command for more information on formatting and valid format models.

If the datatype of the format model does not match the datatype of a given data item, the FORMAT clause has no effect on that item.

If no appropriate FORMAT model precedes a given data item, SQL*Plus prints NUMBER values using the format specified by SET NUMFORMAT or, if you have not used SET NUMFORMAT, the default format. SQL*Plus prints DATE values according to the default format.

Enter TTITLE with no clauses to list the current TTITLE definition.

Usage

If you do not enter a printspec clause before the first occurrence of text, TTITLE left justifies the text. SQL*Plus interprets TTITLE in the new form if a valid printspec clause (LEFT, SKIP, COL, and so on) immediately follows the command name.

See COLUMN for information on printing column and DATE values in the top title.

You can use any number of constants and variables in a printspec. SQL*Plus displays them in the order you specify them, positioning and formatting each constant or variable as specified by the printspec clauses that precede it.

The length of the title you specify with TTITLE cannot exceed 2400 characters.

The continuation character (a hyphen) will not be recognized inside a single-quoted title text string. To be recognized, the continuation character must appear outside the quotes, as follows:

TTITLE CENTER 'Summary Report for' -
> 'the Month of May'

Examples

To define "Monthly Analysis" as the top title and to left-align it, to center the date, to right-align the page number with a three-digit format, and to display "Data in Thousands" in the center of the next line, enter

TTITLE LEFT 'Monthly Analysis' CENTER '01 Jan 2003' -
RIGHT 'Page:' FORMAT 999 SQL.PNO SKIP CENTER -
'Data in Thousands'

Monthly Analysis                01 Jan 2003                      Page: 1
                              Data in Thousands

To suppress the top title display without changing its definition, enter

TTITLE OFF

UNDEFINE

Syntax

UNDEF[INE] variable ...

where variable represents the name of the substitution variable you want to delete.

Deletes one or more substitution variables that you defined either explicitly (with the DEFINE command) or implicitly (with an argument to the START command).

Examples

To undefine a substitution variable named POS, enter

UNDEFINE POS

To undefine two substitution variables named MYVAR1 and MYVAR2, enter

UNDEFINE MYVAR1 MYVAR2

VARIABLE

Syntax

VAR[IABLE] [variable [type] ]

where type represents one of the following:

NUMBER

CHAR

CHAR (n [CHAR | BYTE])

NCHAR

NCHAR (n)

VARCHAR2 (n [CHAR | BYTE])

NVARCHAR2 (n)

BLOB

BFILE

CLOB

NCLOB

REFCURSOR

BINARY_FLOAT

BINARY_DOUBLE

Declares a bind variable that can be referenced in PL/SQL.

VARIABLE without arguments displays a list of all the variables declared in the session. VARIABLE followed only by a variable name lists that variable.

To free resources used by BLOB, BFILE, CLOB and NCLOB bind variables, you may need to manually free temporary LOBs with:

EXECUTE DBMS_LOB.FREETEMPORARY(:cv)

See Using Bind Variables for more information on bind variables. See your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for more information about PL/SQL.

Terms

variable

Represents the name of the bind variable you wish to create.

NUMBER

Creates a variable of type NUMBER with fixed length.

CHAR

Creates a variable of type CHAR (character) with length one.

CHAR (n[CHAR | BYTE])

Creates a variable of type CHAR with length n bytes or n characters. The maximum that n can be is 2000 bytes, and the minimum is 1 byte or 1 character. The maximum n for a CHAR variable with character semantics is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen character set, with an upper limit of 2000 bytes. The length semantics are determined by the length qualifiers CHAR or BYTE, and if not explicitly stated, the value of the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS environment variable is applied to the bind variable. Explicitly stating the length semantics at variable definition stage will always take precedence over the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS setting.

NCHAR

Creates a variable of type NCHAR (national character) with length one.

NCHAR (n)

Creates a variable of type NCHAR with length n characters. The maximum that n can be is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen national character set, with an upper limit of 2000 bytes. The only exception to this is when a SQL*Plus session is connected to a pre Oracle9i server, or the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY system variable is set to a version less than 9.0.0. In this case the length n can be in bytes or characters depending on the chosen national character set, with the upper limit of 2000 bytes still retained.

VARCHAR2 (n[CHAR | BYTE])

Creates a variable of type VARCHAR2 with length of up to n bytes or n characters. The maximum that n can be is 4000 bytes, and the minimum is 1 byte or 1 character. The maximum n for a VARCHAR2 variable with character semantics is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen character set, with an upper limit of 4000 bytes. The length semantics are determined by the length qualifiers CHAR or BYTE, and if not explicitly stated, the value of the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS environment variable is applied to the bind variable. Explicitly stating the length semantics at variable definition stage will always take precedence over the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS setting.

NVARCHAR2 (n)

Creates a variable of type NVARCHAR2 with length of up to n characters. The maximum that n can be is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen national character set, with an upper limit of 4000 bytes. The only exception to this is when a SQL*Plus session is connected to a pre Oracle9i server, or the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY system variable is set to a version less than 9.0.0. In this case the length n can be in bytes or characters depending on the chosen national character set, with the upper limit of 4000 bytes still retained.

BLOB

Creates a variable of type BLOB.

BFILE

Creates a variable of type BFILE.

CLOB

Creates a variable of type CLOB.

NCLOB

Creates a variable of type NCLOB.

REFCURSOR

Creates a variable of type REF CURSOR.

BINARY_FLOAT

Creates a variable of type BINARY_FLOAT. BINARY_FLOAT is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

BINARY_DOUBLE

Creates a variable of type BINARY_DOUBLE. BINARY_DOUBLE is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

Usage

Bind variables may be used as parameters to stored procedures, or may be directly referenced in anonymous PL/SQL blocks.

To display the value of a bind variable created with VARIABLE, use the PRINT command. See PRINT for more information.

To automatically display the value of a bind variable created with VARIABLE, use the SET AUTOPRINT command. See SET AUTOP[RINT] {ON | OFF} for more information.

Bind variables cannot be used in the COPY command or SQL statements, except in PL/SQL blocks. Instead, use substitution variables.

When you execute a VARIABLE ... BLOB, BFILE, CLOB or NCLOB command, SQL*Plus associates a LOB locator with the bind variable. The LOB locator is automatically populated when you execute a SELECT clob_column INTO :cv statement in a PL/SQL block. SQL*Plus closes the LOB locator when you exit SQL*Plus.

To free resources used by BLOB, BFILE, CLOB and NCLOB bind variables, you may need to manually free temporary LOBs with:

EXECUTE DBMS_LOB.FREETEMPORARY(:cv)

All temporary LOBs are freed when you exit SQL*Plus.

SQL*Plus SET commands such as SET LONG and SET LONGCHUNKSIZE and SET LOBOFFSET may be used to control the size of the buffer while PRINTing BLOB, BFILE, CLOB or NCLOB bind variables.

SQL*Plus REFCURSOR bind variables may be used to reference PL/SQL 2.3 or higher Cursor Variables, allowing PL/SQL output to be formatted by SQL*Plus. For more information on PL/SQL Cursor Variables, see your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference.

When you execute a VARIABLE ... REFCURSOR command, SQL*Plus creates a cursor bind variable. The cursor is automatically opened by an OPEN ... FOR SELECT statement referencing the bind variable in a PL/SQL block. SQL*Plus closes the cursor after completing a PRINT statement for that bind variable, or on exit.

SQL*Plus formatting commands such as BREAK, COLUMN, COMPUTE and SET may be used to format the output from PRINTing a REFCURSOR.

A REFCURSOR bind variable may not be PRINTed more than once without re-executing the PL/SQL OPEN ... FOR statement.

Examples

The following example illustrates creating a bind variable, changing its value, and displaying its current value.

To create a bind variable, enter:

VARIABLE ret_val NUMBER

To change this bind variable in SQL*Plus, you must use a PL/SQL block:

BEGIN
 :ret_val:=4;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

To display the value of the bind variable in SQL*Plus, enter:

PRINT ret_val

   RET_VAL
----------
         4

The following example illustrates creating a bind variable and then setting it to the value returned by a function:

VARIABLE id NUMBER
BEGIN
  :id := EMP_MANAGEMENT.HIRE
  ('BLAKE','MANAGER','KING',2990,'SALES');
END;
/

The value returned by the stored procedure is being placed in the bind variable, :id. It can be displayed with the PRINT command or used in subsequent PL/SQL subprograms.

The following example illustrates automatically displaying a bind variable:

SET AUTOPRINT ON
VARIABLE a REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :a FOR SELECT LAST_NAME, CITY, DEPARTMENT_ID
  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  WHERE SALARY > 12000
  ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
LAST_NAME                  CITY                            DEPARTMENT_ID
-------------------------  ------------------------------  -------------
Hartstein                  Toronto                                    20
Russell                    Oxford                                     80
Partners                   Oxford                                     80
King                       Seattle                                    90
Kochhar                    Seattle                                    90
De Haan                    Seattle                                    90

6 rows selected.

In the above example, there is no need to issue a PRINT command to display the variable.

The following example creates some variables:

VARIABLE id NUMBER
VARIABLE txt CHAR (20)
VARIABLE myvar REFCURSOR

Enter VARIABLE with no arguments to list the defined variables:

VARIABLE

variable id
datatype NUMBER

variable txt
datatype CHAR(20)

variable myvar
datatype REFCURSOR

The following example lists a single variable:

VARIABLE txt

variable txt
datatype CHAR(20)

The following example illustrates producing a report listing individual salaries and computing the departmental salary cost for employees who earn more than $12,000 per month:

VARIABLE rc REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :rc FOR SELECT DEPARTMENT_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  WHERE SALARY > 12000
  ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_NAME, LAST_NAME;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SET PAGESIZE 100 FEEDBACK OFF
TTITLE LEFT '*** Departmental Salary Bill ***' SKIP 2
COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $999,990.99 HEADING 'Salary'
COLUMN DEPARTMENT_NAME HEADING 'Department'
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'Employee'
COMPUTE SUM LABEL 'Subtotal:' OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_NAME
COMPUTE SUM LABEL 'Total:' OF SALARY ON REPORT
BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_NAME SKIP 1 ON REPORT SKIP 1
PRINT rc

*** Departmental Salary Bill ***

DEPARTMENT_NAME                Employee                  Salary
------------------------------ ------------------------- ------------
Executive                      De Haan                     $17,000.00
                               King                        $24,000.00
                               Kochhar                     $17,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $58,000.00

Marketing                      Hartstein                   $13,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $13,000.00

Sales                          Partners                    $13,500.00
                               Russell                     $14,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $27,500.00

                                                         ------------
Total:                                                     $98,500.00

The following example illustrates producing a report containing a CLOB column, and then displaying it with the SET LOBOFFSET command.

Assume you have already created a table named clob_tab which contains a column named clob_col of type CLOB. The clob_col contains the following data:

Remember to run the Departmental Salary Bill report each month. This report
contains confidential information.

To produce a report listing the data in the col_clob column, enter

VARIABLE T CLOB
BEGIN
  SELECT CLOB_COL INTO :T FROM CLOB_TAB;
END;
/

PL/SQL PROCEDURE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED

To print 200 characters from the column clob_col, enter

SET LINESIZE 70
SET LONG 200
PRINT T

T
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember to run the Departmental Salary Bill report each month This r
eport contains confidential information.

To set the printing position to the 21st character, enter

SET LOBOFFSET 21
PRINT T

T
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Departmental Salary Bill report each month This report contains confi
dential information.

For more information on creating CLOB columns, see your Oracle Database SQL Language Reference

WHENEVER OSERROR

Syntax

WHENEVER OSERROR {EXIT [SUCCESS | FAILURE | n | variable | :BindVariable] [COMMIT | ROLLBACK] | CONTINUE [COMMIT | ROLLBACK | NONE]}

Performs the specified action (exits SQL*Plus by default) if an operating system error occurs (such as a file writing error).

Terms

[SUCCESS | FAILURE | n | variable | :BindVariable]

Directs SQL*Plus to perform the specified action as soon as an operating system error is detected. You can also specify that SQL*Plus return a success or failure code, the operating system failure code, or a number or variable of your choice.

EXIT [SUCCESS | FAILURE | n | variable | :BindVariable]

Directs SQL*Plus to exit as soon as an operating system error is detected. You can also specify that SQL*Plus return a success or failure code, the operating system failure code, or a number or variable of your choice. See EXIT for more information.

CONTINUE

Turns off the EXIT option.

COMMIT

Directs SQL*Plus to execute a COMMIT before exiting or continuing and save pending changes to the database.

ROLLBACK

Directs SQL*Plus to execute a ROLLBACK before exiting or continuing and abandon pending changes to the database.

NONE

Directs SQL*Plus to take no action before continuing.

Usage

If you do not enter the WHENEVER OSERROR command, the default behavior of SQL*Plus is to continue and take no action when an operating system error occurs.

If you do not enter the WHENEVER SQLERROR command, the default behavior of SQL*Plus is to continue and take no action when a SQL error occurs.

Examples

If a failure occurs when reading from the output file, the commands in the following script cause SQL*Plus to exit and COMMIT any pending changes:

WHENEVER OSERROR EXIT
START no_such_file

OS Message: No such file or directory
Disconnected from Oracle......

WHENEVER SQLERROR

Syntax

WHENEVER SQLERROR {EXIT [SUCCESS | FAILURE | WARNING | n | variable | :BindVariable] [COMMIT | ROLLBACK] | CONTINUE [COMMIT | ROLLBACK | NONE]}

Performs the specified action (exits SQL*Plus by default) if a SQL command or PL/SQL block generates an error.

Terms

[SUCCESS | FAILURE | WARNING | n | variable | :BindVariable]

Directs SQL*Plus to perform the specified action as soon as it detects a SQL command or PL/SQL block error (but after printing the error message). SQL*Plus will not exit on a SQL*Plus error.

EXIT [SUCCESS | FAILURE | WARNING | n | variable | :BindVariable]

Directs SQL*Plus to exit as soon as it detects a SQL command or PL/SQL block error (but after printing the error message). SQL*Plus will not exit on a SQL*Plus error. The EXIT clause of WHENEVER SQLERROR follows the same syntax as the EXIT command. See EXIT for more information.

CONTINUE

Turns off the EXIT option.

COMMIT

Directs SQL*Plus to execute a COMMIT before exiting or continuing and save pending changes to the database.

ROLLBACK

Directs SQL*Plus to execute a ROLLBACK before exiting or continuing and abandon pending changes to the database.

NONE

Directs SQL*Plus to take no action before continuing.

Usage

The WHENEVER SQLERROR command is triggered by SQL command or PL/SQL block errors, and not by SQL*Plus command errors.

Examples

The commands in the following script cause SQL*Plus to exit and return the SQL error code if the SQL UPDATE command fails:

WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
UPDATE EMP_DETAILS_VIEW SET SALARY = SALARY*1.1;

The following examples show that the WHENEVER SQLERROR command is not executed after errors with SQL*Plus commands, but it is executed if SQL commands or PL/SQL blocks cause errors:

WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
column LAST_name headIing "Employee Name"

Unknown COLUMN option "headiing"

SHOW non_existed_option

The following PL/SQL block error causes SQL*Plus to exit and return the SQL error code:

WHENEVER SQLERROR EXIT SQL.SQLCODE
begin
  SELECT COLUMN_DOES_NOT_EXIST FROM DUAL;
END;
/

SELECT COLUMN_DOES_NOT_EXIST FROM DUAL;
       *
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-06550: line 2, column 10:
PLS-00201: identifier 'COLUMN_DOES_NOT_EXIST' must be declared
ORA-06550: line 2, column 3:
PL/SQL: SQL Statement ignored

Disconnected from Oracle.....

XQUERY

Syntax

XQUERY xquery_statement

The SQL*Plus XQUERY command enables you to perform an XQuery 1.0 query on a specified database. XQUERY is supported on Oracle Database 10g (Release 2) and later versions. Attempting to use XQUERY on an earlier version of the Oracle Database gives the error:

SP2-614 Server version too low

Terms

xquery_statement

Specifies the XQuery statement you want to run. The statement is entered with standard XQuery syntax. The XQUERY statement is terminated with a forward slash, '/'.

Usage

Prefix your XQuery statement with the SQL*Plus command, XQUERY, and terminate the XQUERY command with a slash (/). XQUERY is a SQL*Plus keyword. If XQueries are executed in other tools, the keyword may not be needed.

XML output from the XQUERY command is displayed as native XML according to the active SET command options. SET LONG typically needs to be set. It may be useful to consider the following settings:

Linesize for rows longer than the default 80 characters (SET LINESIZE).

LOB, LONG and XML Type Size for rows longer than the default 80 characters (SET LONG).

Output Page Setup to match output (SET PAGESIZE).

Display Headings to repress the "Result Sequence" column heading (SET HEADING OFF).

The XQUERY command requires an active database connection. The command will not work with SQLPLUS /NOLOG.

Bind variables are not supported in the XQUERY command.

There are four SET commands specific to the XQUERY command. The SHOW XQUERY command gives the status of these settings. They are:

Table 12-7 XQUERY SET commands

SET Command

SET XQUERY BASEURI

SET XQUERY ORDERING

SET XQUERY NODE

SET XQUERY CONTEXT

For more information about the SET XQUERY commands, see :

SET XQUERY BASEURI {text}

SET XQUERY ORDERING {UNORDERED | ORDERED | DEFAULT}

SET XQUERY NODE {BYVALUE | BYREFERENCE | DEFAULT}

SET XQUERY CONTEXT {text}

Examples

The XQuery statement in the following script queries the EMP_DETAILS_VIEW view of the HR schema:

set long 160
set linesize 160
xquery for $i in ora:view("EMP_DETAILS_VIEW") return $i
/

Result Sequence
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<ROW><EMPNO>7369</EMPNO><ENAME>SMITH</ENAME><JOB>CLERK</JOB><MGR>7902</MGR><HIREDATE>17-
DEC-80</HIREDATE><SAL>800</SAL><DEPTNO>20</DEPTNO></ROW>

14 item(s) selected.

13 SQL*Plus Error Messages

This appendix lists error messages with prefixes SP2- and CPY- generated by SQL*Plus:

SQL*Plus Error Messages

COPY Command Messages

For error messages with prefixes such as ORA-, TNS- and PLS- generated by Oracle Database, see the Oracle Database Error Messages guide.

SQL*Plus Error Messages

SP2-0002 ACCEPT statement must specify a variable name

Cause: Required variable name was missing after the ACCEPT command.

Action: Re-enter the ACCEPT command with a variable argument to store the input value.

SP2-0003 Ill-formed ACCEPT command starting as command_string

Cause: An invalid option was used in the ACCEPT command.

Action: Check the syntax of the ACCEPT command for the correct option.

SP2-0004 Nothing to append

Cause: There was no specified text entered after the APPEND command.

Action: Re-enter the APPEND command with the specified text.

SP2-0006 not enough room to format computations

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to format computations.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0015 no break(s) defined

Cause: There was no break defined.

Action: Define a break. Check the syntax of the BREAK command for the correct options.

SP2-0016 break specification must start with ON/BY or ACROSS keyword

Cause: An invalid option was used in the BREAK command.

Action: Check the syntax of the BREAK command for the correct options.

SP2-0017 missing column name after keyword_name keyword

Cause: There was no column name after the specified keyword.

Action: Enter a column name after the specified keyword.

SP2-0019 invalid numeric argument to option_name option

Cause: An invalid numeric argument was used in the specified option.

Action: Correct the argument and try again.

SP2-0020 no storage available for column_name

Cause: An error has occurred. SQL*Plus was unable to allocate memory for a BREAK command.

Action: Allocate more memory by closing some applications.

SP2-0022 cannot allocate space to modify the buffer_name buffer variable

Cause: An internal error occurred.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0023 String not found

Cause: The search string specified was not found.

Action: Check the search string to make sure that it is valid.

SP2-0024 Nothing to change

Cause: There was nothing in the SQL buffer when using the CHANGE command.

Action: Make sure the SQL buffer is not empty before using the CHANGE command.

SP2-0025 Invalid change string

Cause: An invalid option was used in the CHANGE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the CHANGE command for the correct options.

SP2-0026 No lines to delete

Cause: There was nothing in the SQL buffer when using the DEL command.

Action: Make sure the SQL buffer is not empty before using the DEL command.

SP2-0027 Input is too long (> max_characters characters) - line ignored

Cause: The input value specified was too long.

Action: Re-enter with fewer characters.

SP2-0029 command buffer space exhausted

Cause: A large SQL or PL/SQL script is being executed from SQL*Plus.

Action: Reduce the size of the SQL statement or PL/SQL block by one of the following:

Remove extra white space and comments.

Re-code to use fewer commands and/or shorter variable names.

Place sections of the block into stored (or packaged) procedures, and then call these procedures from the block.

SP2-0030 no room for another line

Cause: The maximum number of lines in a SQL statement or PL/SQL block has been exceeded.

Action: Reduce the number of lines and try again.

SP2-0038 Command too long. (max_characters characters)

Cause: The specified command entered was too long.

Action: Check the command syntax for the limitation.

SP2-0039 command-line overflow while substituting into command_name

Cause: The maximum length of the command line has been exceeded.

Action: Reduce the length of the data in the substitution variables used in the command.

SP2-0042 unknown command command_name - rest of line ignored

Cause: The command entered was not valid.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0044 For a list of known commands enter HELP and to leave enter EXIT

Cause: An unknown command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0045 no column_name defined

Cause: No columns have been defined.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0046 column_name not defined

Cause: The column name specified was not defined.

Action: Retry with a valid column name.

SP2-0047 Invalid number for option_name option

Cause: An invalid number was used for this option.

Action: Re-try the operation with a valid number.

SP2-0052 like column_name, column_name not defined

Cause: The column which the format is based on was not defined.

Action: Use the COLUMN command to make sure the column the format is based on is defined first.

SP2-0054 no room to allocate definition_name definition. Ignored

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the COLUMN command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0055 out of room while allocating portion of new definition_name. Old definition (if any) retained

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to store the new definition.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0080 no COMPUTES currently defined

Cause: No COMPUTE definition.

Action: Define a COMPUTE. Check the syntax of the COMPUTE command for the correct options.

SP2-0081 maximum of number COMPUTE functions allowed at a time

Cause: The maximum number of COMPUTE functions has been exceeded.

Action: Reduce the number of COMPUTE functions.

SP2-0082 no COMPUTE functions requested

Cause: No COMPUTE functions requested.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0083 warning: COMPUTE option function_name specified number times

Cause: A label or a function was specified more than once.

Action: Remove the unnecessary labels or functions.

SP2-0084 COMPUTE ON keyword specified already

Cause: The ON keyword was specified more than once.

Action: Specify the ON keyword once in the command.

SP2-0085 COMPUTE OF keyword specified already

Cause: The OF keyword was specified more than once.

Action: Specify the OF keyword once in the command.

SP2-0087 no room to allocate COMPUTE control block for column_name

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the COMPUTE command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0088 missing keyword_name keyword. Usage: STORE {SET} filename[.ext] [CRE[ATE]|REP[LACE]|APP[END]]

Cause: Missing a keyword in the statement.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options, and use the keyword in the appropriate place.

SP2-0092 missing columns for keyword_name keyword

Cause: The column name was not specified for the keyword.

Action: Specify the column name and try again.

SP2-0096 no more room to allocate INTO variable variable_name

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the COMPUTE command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0097 no storage to allocate ON column column_name

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the COMPUTE command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0098 no storage to allocate COMPUTE block for column_name

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the COMPUTE command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0103 Nothing in SQL buffer to run

Cause: Nothing was in the SQL buffer to run.

Action: Enter a valid SQL command. SQL*Plus commands are not stored in the SQL buffer.

SP2-0105 Illegal, or missing, entity name

Cause: File name was not specified in the GET or SAVE commands.

Action: Specify a file name and try again.

SP2-0107 Nothing to save

Cause: Nothing in the SQL buffer when attempting to save the content to a file.

Action: Enter a SQL command to save. SQL*Plus commands are not stored in the SQL buffer.

SP2-0108 The filenames CREATE, REPLACE, APPEND, FILE and abbreviations may not be used

Cause: An attempt was made to enter a filename using the word FILE, or one of the command keywords CREATE, REPLACE, APPEND, or one of their abbreviations. The filename specified in the command was not permitted.

Action: Check the following command syntax and enter a valid filename:

command filename[.ext] [CR[EATE]|REP[LACE]|AP[PEND]]

where command can be SAVE, SPOOL or STORE SET

To use the command keywords CREATE, REPLACE, APPEND or one of their abbreviations as the filename, or to use the word FILE as the filename, you must enclose it in single quotes.

SP2-0109 Cannot append to file file_name

Cause: An attempt was made to append the content of the SQL buffer to a file and the file could not be written. Possible causes:

An error was encountered when creating the destination file.

A directory name specified in the SAVE statement was not found.

A system error made it impossible to open the file.

Action: Take the following actions:

Check that the destination is valid and that there is sufficient space on the destination device.

Check the statement for a typing mistake in the directory name. Then issue the statement again after correcting the directory name.

SP2-0110 Cannot create save file file_name

Cause: An attempt was made to save the content of the SQL buffer to a file and the file could not be written. Possible causes:

An error was encountered when creating the destination file.

A directory name specified in the SAVE statement was not found.

A system error made it impossible to open the file.

Action: Take the following actions:

Check that the destination is valid and that there is sufficient space on the destination device.

Check the statement for a typing mistake in the directory name. Then issue the statement again after correcting the directory name.

SP2-0111 Cannot close save file file_name

Cause: The file was in use.

Action: Release the file from the other process.

SP2-0116 Illegal SAVE command

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SAVE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SAVE command for the correct options.

SP2-0134 no symbols currently defined

Cause: No DEFINE symbols were defined.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0135 Symbol symbol_name is UNDEFINED

Cause: The specified symbol was undefined.

Action: Re-enter the DEFINE command with an assignment clause or a valid symbol or variable name.

SP2-0136 DEFINE requires an equal sign (=)

Cause: Expecting an equal sign after a symbol or variable name in the DEFINE command.

Action: Specify an equal sign after the symbol or variable name.

SP2-0137 DEFINE requires a value following equal sign

Cause: There was no value for the variable or symbol. SQL*Plus expected a value to be assigned to a symbol or variable name after the equal sign.

Action: Specify a value for the symbol or variable.

SP2-0138 no room to add substitution variable variable

Cause: Maximum number of variables that can be defined in a SQL*Plus session was exceeded.

Action: UNDEFINE any unused variables to make room for this variable and re-run the command.

SP2-0146 Unable to allocate dynamic space needed (number_of_bytes bytes) - exiting

Cause: An internal error occurred.

Action: Note the message and number, and contact the System Administrator.

SP2-0152 ORACLE may not be functioning properly

Cause: Unable to initialize a session to the Oracle instance.

Action: Make a note of the message and the number, then contact the Database Administrator.

SP2-0157 unable to CONNECT to ORACLE after 3 attempts, exiting SQL*Plus

Cause: Unable to connect to Oracle after three attempts.

Action: Validate login details and re-try.

SP2-0158 unknown command_name option "option_name"

Cause: An invalid option was specified for the given command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0160 Unable to open file_name

Cause: Possible causes:

The file was not found under the specified name in the specified location.

File lacked the necessary privileges to open the file.

A system error made it impossible to open the file.

Action: Take the following actions:

Make sure the file name specified is stored in the appropriate directory.

Make sure that the file has the privileges necessary for access. If it does not then change privileges accordingly.

Consult operating system documentation or contact the System Administrator.

SP2-0161 line line_number truncated

Cause: The line in the file was too long.

Action: No action required or reduce the length of the line.

SP2-0162 unable to close file_name

Cause: Unable to close the specified file as it was being used.

Action: Release the file from the other process.

SP2-0171 HELP system not available

Cause: Command-line SQL*Plus help is not installed in this Oracle instance.

Action: Command-line SQL*Plus help is not installed in this Oracle instance. Use the sqlplus/admin/help/hlpbld.sql script to install HELP on this database:

sqlplus system @hlpbld.sql helpus.sql

SP2-0172 No HELP matching this topic was found.

Cause: There is no help information available for the specified command.

Action: Enter HELP INDEX for a list of topics.

SP2-0176 Option ? Is invalid

Cause: The option ? is not valid in this command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0187 error in variable assignment

Cause: The assignment for the specified variable was incorrect.

Action: Check the syntax of the ACCEPT command for the correct options.

SP2-0223 No lines in buffer_name buffer

Cause: There are no lines stored in the buffer.

Action: Enter SQL statements into the buffer.

SP2-0224 invalid starting line number

Cause: The line number specified was incorrect.

Action: Check that the line number is correct and try again.

SP2-0225 invalid ending line number

Cause: The line number specified was incorrect.

Action: Check that the line number is correct and try again.

SP2-0226 Invalid line number current_line_number

Cause: Invalid line number was specified.

Action: Re-enter with a valid line number.

SP2-0232 Input too long. Must be less than number_of_characters characters

Cause: The input value was too long.

Action: Reduce the size of the value and re-enter.

SP2-0233 Unable to obtain userid after number_of_attempts attempts. Retry command

Cause: SQL*Plus was unable to login after three attempts.

Action: Make sure the userid and password is correct and try again.

SP2-0240 Enter value for variable_name:

Cause: SQL*Plus was unable to find a value for a substitution variable.

Action: Enter a value for the substitution variable at the prompt.

SP2-0241 No room for symbol symbol_name (not defined)

Cause: Unable to allocate memory for the symbol.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0244 Cannot issue a PRINT command within a PAGE break

Cause: The PRINT command is not allowed within a PAGE break.

Action: Check the syntax of the PRINT command for the correct options.

SP2-0245 Unable to allocate temporary storage for printing

Cause: Unable to allocate temporary storage for printing.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0246 Illegal FORMAT string column_ format_name

Cause: An invalid format was specified for the column.

Action: Specify a valid format for the column.

SP2-0249 variable_name not a valid variable type for printing

Cause: The specified variable is not valid for printing.

Action: Check the variable type before re-typing the command.

SP2-0253 data item line_number (data_item_name) will not fit on line

Cause: The current line size setting is too small to fit the specified data item on a line.

Action: Increase the line size so that the item can be displayed.

SP2-0258 could not create variable variable_name for column column_name

Cause: The specified variable could not be created for column – internal error or out of memory.

Action: Check memory usage.

SP2-0259 could not create variable variable_name for COMPUTE INTO

Cause: The specified variable could not be created.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0260 computation for column column_name not uniquely qualified. could be for table table_name or table_name. computation ignored.

Cause: The specified column was not uniquely qualified in the statement.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0262 no room to allocate CCBDEF pointer array

Cause: An internal memory error occurred.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0263 no room to allocate COMPUTE block for column_name ON page/report/column_name

Cause: Insufficient memory allocated to the COMPUTE block.

Action: Allocate more memory by closing other applications.

SP2-0265 option_name must be set ON or OFF

Cause: An invalid SET option name was specified.

Action: Re-enter with either ON or OFF as one of the SET options.

SP2-0266 internal error: buffer (buffer_size) smaller than l (buffer_limit)

Cause: An internal error occurred.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0267 option_name option parameter_number out of range (lower_range through upper_range)

Cause: A value for a parameter was out of the specified range.

Action: Check the limits of the parameter and enter a value that is within the range.

SP2-0268 option_name option not a valid number

Cause: Non-numeric value (integer) was entered for a parameter.

Action: Enter a valid numeric value (integer).

SP2-0271 variable_name is not a buffer variable

Cause: The specified variable was not defined as a buffer.

Action: Make sure that the buffer variable name is correct and try again.

SP2-0272 character_name character cannot be alphanumeric or white-space

Cause: The specified character in the SET command cannot be alphanumeric or white-space.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0277 entered_value value not valid

Cause: The value entered was incorrect.

Action: Re-enter with a valid value.

SP2-0281 option_name missing set option Usage: SET SHIFT[INOUT] [VIS[IBLE|INV[ISIBLE]]or Usage: SET MARKUP HTML [ON|OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text] [ENTMAP [ON|OFF]] [SPOOL [ON|OFF]] [PRE[FORMAT] [ON|OFF]][-M[ARKUP] \"HTML [ON|OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text]

Cause: SET option was missing in the command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0306 Invalid option Usage: CONN[ECT] [login] [AS {SYSDBA|SYSOPER}]Where <login> ::= <username>[/<password>][@<connect_string>] | /or Usage: CONN[ECT] username/password[@connect_identifier] [AS {SYSOPER|SYSDBA}]or: CONN[ECT] /[@connect_identifier] AS {SYSOPER|SYSDBA}

Cause: Invalid option was specified for the command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0308 cannot close spool file

Cause: The file is currently being used.

Action: Release the file from the other process.

SP2-0309 SQL*Plus command procedures may only be nested to a depth of number_of_nested_procedures

Cause: Maximum number of nested procedures or scripts was reached.

Action: Reduce the number of nested procedures or scripts.

SP2-0310 unable to open file file_name

Cause: Unable to open the specified file.

Action: Check and make sure the file name is valid.

SP2-0311 string expected but not found

Cause: SQL*Plus was expecting a string at the end of the command, but could not find it.

Action: Retry the command with a valid string. Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0312 missing terminating quote (quote_type)

Cause: The DESCRIBE command schema or object did not have a terminating quote.

Action: Close the opening quotation mark with the corresponding closing quotation mark.

SP2-0317 expected symbol name is missing

Cause: SQL*Plus was expecting a symbol, but it was not specified.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0318 symbol name beginning variable_name.. is too long (max max_name_length) Illegal variable name variable_name

Cause: Specified variable name exceeded the maximum name length.

Action: Reduce the size of the symbol name and re-enter.

SP2-0323 no room to add timing element - request denied

Cause: Unable to allocate memory while trying to run the TIMING command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0324 operating system timing error error_option_number - request denied

Cause: The TIMING command failed to initialize due to a possible operating system error.

Action: Resolve the operating system error and try again.

SP2-0325 no timing elements to option_name

Cause: There are no timers recorded to SHOW or STOP.

Action: Check that timers were created with the TIMING command.

SP2-0328 no room to allocate title buffer

Cause: Unable to allocate memory while trying to run the TTITLE or BTITLE command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0331 SPOOL OUT disabled

Cause: An attempt was made to use SPOOL OUT where it is not supported.

Action: No action possible. SPOOL OUT has been disabled possibly because of lack of printing support at the operating system level.

SP2-0332 Cannot create spool file

Cause: Possible causes:

Insufficient privileges to create a file.

A system error made it impossible to create a file.

Action: Take the following actions:

Change privileges to allow creation of the file.

Consult the operating system documentation or contact the System Administrator.

SP2-0333 Illegal spool file name: spool_name (bad character: 'character_name')

Cause: An invalid filename was entered in the SPOOL command.

Action: Correct the filename and re-enter.

SP2-0341 line overflow during variable substitution (>number_of_characters characters at line line_number)

Cause: The maximum number of characters was exceeded in the SQL buffer after the substitution variable was expanded.

Action: Reduce the length in the substitution variable and try again.

SP2-0357 Out of temporary storage

Cause: Unable to allocate memory while trying to run the command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0359 memory exhausted

Cause: Unable to allocate memory while trying to run the command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0381 command_name is not available

Cause: The command specified is not implemented.

Action: Use the appropriate SQL*Plus command. See the documentation for a list of commands and their correct syntax.

SP2-0382 The command_name command is not available

Cause: The command was not recognized, or it is disabled. This occurs if it is a command that does not have any meaning in SQL*Plus (such as a SQL buffer editing command), or it is not allowed for security reasons.

Action: Remove the command from the script. See the documentation for a list of commands and their correct syntax.

SP2-0392 Cannot UNDEFINE the current edit buffer

Cause: The current edit buffer cannot be undefined.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0394 Illegal buffer name: buffer_name

Cause: A buffer name contained an illegal character, for example hyphen (-).

Action: Correct and remove the illegal character from the buffer name.

SP2-0423 Illegal GET command

Cause: An invalid option was used in the GET command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0425 value is not a valid datatype

Cause: The value entered in the ACCEPT command was not valid for the specified datatype.

Action: Enter a valid value, e.g. 123 for a NUMBER variable.

SP2-0426 Input truncated to number_of_characters characters

Cause: There was no carriage return at the last line of the SQL statement.

Action: Insert a carriage return.

SP2-0495 FROM and TO clauses both missing; specify at least one

Cause: The FROM and TO clauses were missing from the COPY statement.

Action: Specify at least one clause. Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0496 Misplaced FROM clause

Cause: The FROM keyword was in the wrong position in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0497 Misplaced TO clause

Cause: The TO keyword was in the wrong position in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0498 Missing parenthetical column list or USING keyword

Cause: A parenthetical list was missing in the column list or the USING keyword is missing in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0499 Misplaced APPEND keyword

Cause: The APPEND keyword was in the wrong position in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0501 Error in SELECT statement: Oracle_database_error_message

Cause: Invalid SELECT statement found in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0513 Misplaced CREATE keyword

Cause: The CREATE keyword was in the wrong position in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0514 Misplaced REPLACE keyword

Cause: The REPLACE keyword was in the wrong position in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0515 Maximum number of columns (max_num_columns) exceeded

Cause: The maximum number of columns was exceeded in the COPY command.

Action: Reduce the number of columns and try again.

SP2-0516 Invalid command_name name NULL encountered

Cause: An invalid or null column name was specified in either the COLUMN or the ATTRIBUTE command.

Action: Retry the operation with a valid column name.

SP2-0517 Missing comma or right parenthesis

Cause: A missing right parenthesis was identified in the COPY command.

Action: Retry the operation with a comma or right parenthesis.

SP2-0518 Missing USING clause

Cause: USING keyword is missing in the USING clause of the COPY command.

Action: Specify the USING keyword before the USING clause of the COPY command.

SP2-0519 FROM string missing Oracle Net @database specification

Cause: Missing connect string for the database that contains the data to be copied from in the COPY command.

Action: Include a FROM clause to specify a source database other than the default.

SP2-0520 TO string missing Oracle Net @database specification

Cause: Missing connect string for the database containing the destination table in the COPY command.

Action: Include a TO clause to specify a source database other than the default.

SP2-0526 Misplaced INSERT keyword

Cause: The INSERT keyword was misplaced in the COPY command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COPY command for the correct options.

SP2-0540 File file_name already exists. Use SAVE filename[.ext] REPLACE

Cause: The file specified already exists.

Action: Use the REPLACE option to overwrite the existing file, or specify another file name.

SP2-0544 Command command_name disabled in Product User Profile

Cause: An attempt was made to use a command that has been explicitly disabled for your schema in this database.

Action: Ask your System Administrator why the Product User Profile (PUP) table has been set to disable this command for your schema.

SP2-0545 SET command requires an argument

Cause: An argument was missing in the SET command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET command for the correct options.

SP2-0546 User requested Interrupt or EOF detected

Cause: Either end-of-file was reached, or CTRL-C was entered to cancel the process.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0547 option_name option value out of range (lower_value through upper_value)

Cause: The specified SET option was out of range.

Action: Enter a value within the SET option range and re-try the SET command.

SP2-0548 Usage: VAR[IABLE] [<variable> [NUMBER | CHAR | CHAR (n [CHAR|BYTE]) |VARCHAR2 (n [CHAR|BYTE]) | NCHAR | NCHAR (n) |NVARCHAR2 (n) | CLOB | NCLOB | REFCURSOR |BINARY_FLOAT | BINARY_DOUBLE]]

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the VARIABLE command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the VARIABLE command for the correct usage.

SP2-0549 Usage: PRINT [:<variable> ...]

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the PRINT command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the PRINT command for the correct usage.

SP2-0550 Usage: SHOW ERRORS [{FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | PACKAGE | PACKAGE BODY | TRIGGER | VIEW | TYPE | TYPE BODY | DIMENSION| JAVA SOURCE | JAVA CLASS} [schema.]name]

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the SHOW ERRORS command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the SHOW ERRORS command for the correct options.

SP2-0552 Bind variable variable_name not declared

Cause: The specified bind variable was not declared.

Action: Run the VARIABLE command to check that the bind variables you used in your SQL statement exist. Before running a SQL statement with bind variables, you must use the VARIABLE command to declare each variable.

SP2-0556 Invalid file name Usage: STORE {SET} filename[.ext] [CRE[ATE]|REP[LACE]|APP[END]]or Unable to complete EDIT command

Cause: Missing file name or an invalid file name specified.

Action: Make sure that a file name was specified.

SP2-0559 Usage: EXEC[UTE] statement

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the EXECUTE command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the EXECUTE command for the correct usage.

SP2-0560 Usage: DESCRIBE [schema.]object[.subobject|@db_link] [column]

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the DESCRIBE command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the DESCRIBE command for the correct usage.

SP2-0561 Object does not exist

Cause: The specified object you tried to DESCRIBE does not exist in the database.

Action: Retry the command with a valid object name.

SP2-0562 Object does not exist in package

Cause: The specified object you tried to DESCRIBE does not exist in the package.

Action: Check and make sure that the object name is correct.

SP2-0564 Object object_name is INVALID, it may not be described

Cause: The specified object you tried to DESCRIBE is invalid.

Action: Re-validate the object.

SP2-0565 Illegal identifier

Cause: An invalid character was used in the DESCRIBE command.

Action: Correct the character and try again.

SP2-0566 Illegal sub-object specification

Cause: Invalid sub-object specification in the DESCRIBE command.

Action: Correct the subject specification and try again.

SP2-0567 Illegal column specification for PL/SQL object

Cause: A column was described within an object in the DESCRIBE command.

Action: Remove the column specification in the DESCRIBE command and try again.

SP2-0568 No bind variables declared

Cause: There are no bind variables declared.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0570 Usage: SET SERVEROUTPUT {ON | OFF} [SIZE {n | UNL[IMITED]} ] [FOR[MAT] {WRA[PPED] | WOR[D_WRAPPED] | TRU[NCATED] } ]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET SERVEROUTPUT command.

Action: Specify a valid option.

SP2-0575 Use of Oracle SQL feature not in SQL92 Entry |Intermediate|Full Level

Cause: A SQL statement was attempted that is not FIPS compliant. May also occur if a SQL*Plus feature, for example SET AUTOTRACE, that uses Oracle-specific SQL was turned on when you are using FIPS flagging.

Action: Use SET FLAGGER, and turn FIPS compliance checking OFF, or rewrite the statement.

SP2-0577 Usage: SET FLAGGER {OFF | ENTRY | INTERMEDIATE | FULL}

Cause: An invalid option was specified in the SET FLAGGER command.

Action: Specify a valid option.

SP2-0581 Object object_name is a package; use 'DESCRIBE <package>.<procedure>'

Cause: A attempt was made to describe a package as stand-alone, no sub-object such as a procedure was supplied.

Action: Use the DESCRIBE command to describe a sub-object within a package.

SP2-0582 Usage: {EXIT | QUIT} [SUCCESS | FAILURE | WARNING | n |<variable> | :<bindvariable>] [COMMIT | ROLLBACK]

Cause: An option to EXIT was invalid in SQL*Plus.

Action: Specify a valid option.

SP2-0584 EXIT variable variable_name was non-numeric

Cause: The specified EXIT variable is non-numeric.

Action: Check the syntax of the EXIT command for the correct usage.

SP2-0590 A COMPUTE function must appear before each LABEL keyword

Cause: The function COMPUTE must appear before each LABEL keyword.

Action: Check the syntax of the COMPUTE command for the correct usage.

SP2-0591 Unable to allocate dynamic space needed (number_of_bytes bytes) Try reducing ARRAYSIZE or the number of columns selected

Cause: Unable to allocate memory to process the command.

Action: Free up additional memory by: closing applications not required; reducing the size of the command, or statement; or by recoding the query to select fewer records.

SP2-0593 Label text must follow the LABEL keyword

Cause: Missing label text about the LABEL keyword in the COMPUTE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the COMPUTE command for the correct options.

SP2-0594 Usage: SET COLSEP {" " | text}

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET COLSEP command.

Action: Specify a valid option.

SP2-0596 Usage: SET AUTO[COMMIT] {OFF | ON | IMM[EDIATE] | n}

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET AUTO[COMMIT] command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET AUTOCOMMIT command for the correct options.

SP2-0597 datatype _name is not a valid datatype _name format

Cause: The value entered in the ACCEPT command was not in the specified datatype.

Action: Correct the datatype and re-enter.

SP2-0598 value_name does not match input format "format_name"

Cause: The value entered in the ACCEPT command was not in the specified format.

Action: Correct the format and try again.

SP2-0599 Usage: SET EDITF[ILE] filename[.ext]

Cause: Required filename was missing after the SET EDITFILE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET EDITFILE command for the correct options.

SP2-0603 Usage: Illegal STORE command. Usage: STORE {SET} filename[.ext] [CRE[ATE]|REP[LACE]|APP[END]]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the STORE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the STORE command for the correct options.

SP2-0605 File file_name already exists. Use another name or STORE {SET} filename[.ext] REPLACE

Cause: The file specified in the STORE command already exists.

Action: Use the REPLACE option to overwrite the existing file, or specify another file name.

SP2-0606 Cannot create file_name file

Cause: The STORE command was unable to create the specified file. There may be insufficient disk space, too many open files, or read-only protection on the output directory.

Action: Check that there is sufficient disk space and that the protection on the directory enables file creation.

SP2-0607 Cannot close file_name file

Cause: The STORE command was unable to close the specified file. Another resource may have locked the file.

Action: Check that the file is not locked before closing it.

SP2-0608 Object object_name is a remote object, cannot further describe

Cause: Unable to DESCRIBE the remote object.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0609 Usage: SET AUTOT[RACE] {OFF | ON | TRACE[ONLY] } [EXP[LAIN]] [STAT[ISTICS] ]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET AUTOTRACE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET AUTOTRACE command for the correct options.

SP2-0610 Error initializing feature_name

Cause: Not enough memory to enable this feature.

Action: Free up additional memory by closing applications not required, or reduce the size of the command, statement or query output.

SP2-0612 Error generating report_name report

Cause: Unable to generate the report using AUTOTRACE.

Action: Make a note of the message and the number, then contact the Database Administrator.

SP2-0613 Unable to verify PLAN_TABLE format or existence Error enabling autotrace_report report

Cause: An AUTOTRACE command was issued by a user with insufficient privileges, or who did not have a PLAN_TABLE.

Action: Make sure the user has been granted the PLUSTRACE role, and that a PLAN_TABLE has been created for the user.

SP2-0614 Server version too low for this feature

Cause: The current version of the Oracle Server is too low for this feature.

Action: Use a higher version of the Oracle Server.

SP2-0617 Cannot construct a unique STATEMENT_ID

Cause: Unable to construct a unique statement ID in AUTOTRACE.

Action: Check that AUTOTRACE is configured and that you have the PLUSTRACE role enabled.

SP2-0618 Cannot find the Session Identifier. Check PLUSTRACE role is enabled Error enabling autotrace_report report

Cause: Unable to find the session identifier.

Action: Check that the PLUSTRACE role has been granted.

SP2-0619 Error while connecting

Cause: An error occurred while AUTOTRACE attempted to make a second connection to the database instance.

Action: Check that the database limit on number of active sessions has not been exceeded.

SP2-0620 Error while disconnecting

Cause: An error occurred while AUTOTRACE attempted to disconnect from the database instance.

Action: Check that the database is still available.

SP2-0621 Error ORA -error_number while gathering statistics

Cause: No data was found in the PLAN_TABLE while gathering statistics using AUTOTRACE.

Action: Refer to the Oracle Database Error Messages for the specified ORA error message.

SP2-0622 Starting line number must be less than ending line number

Cause: The starting line number specified is larger than the ending number.

Action: Re-enter the starting line number with a smaller line number.

SP2-0623 Error accessing PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE. Warning: Product user profile information not loaded! You may need to run PUPBLD.SQL as SYSTEM

Cause: The PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table has not been built in the SYSTEM account.

Action: The exact format of the file extension and location of the file are system dependent. See the SQL*Plus installation guide provided for your operating system. The script must be run as user SYSTEM.

SP2-0625 Error printing variable variable_name

Cause: Error encountered while printing the specified variable.

Action: Check that the specified variable is correct and try again.

SP2-0626 Error accessing package DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO You may need to install the Oracle Procedural option SET APPINFO requires Oracle Server Release 7.2 or later

Cause: This message is followed by a successful login to the Oracle Server. The DBMS_APPLICATION package is used to maintain on-line information about a particular application logged onto Oracle. SET APPINFO could not be initialized.

Action: This package is created during the running of the CATPROC.SQL and should be available on all databases from Oracle 7.2. Check that your database is correctly installed.

SP2-0631 String beginning string_name is too long. Maximum size is 1 characteror Maximum size is string_length characters

Cause: The string specified was too long.

Action: Reduce the size of the specified string and re-try the operation.

SP2-0640 Not connected.

Cause: The PASSWORD command was issued when there was no connection to the Oracle instance.

Action: Connect to the Oracle database before re-issuing the PASSWORD command.

SP2-0641 command_name requires connection to server

Cause: SQL*Plus was unable to execute the command because there was no connection to a database.

Action: Connect to a database and re-try the operation.

SP2-0642 SQL*Plus internal error state error_state context error_number. Unsafe to proceedor Unable to proceed

Cause: An internal error occurred.

Action: Make a note of the message, then contact Oracle Support Services.

SP2-0645 Operating System error occurred Unable to complete EDIT command

Cause: An operating system error occurred with the EDIT command.

Action: Check that the file was created successfully, and verify that the device you are writing to is still available.

SP2-0650 New passwords do not match

Cause: The new passwords entered did not match.

Action: Re-issue the PASSWORD command and make sure that the new passwords are entered correctly.

SP2-0659 Password unchanged

Cause: The PASSWORD command failed to change passwords because:

No passwords were given.

The new passwords did not match.

Action: Re-issue the PASSWORD command and make sure that the new passwords are entered correctly.

SP2-0666 WARNING: SHIFTINOUT only affects shift sensitive character sets

Cause: The NLS character set used in this session does not contain shift sensitive characters. The SET SHIFTINOUT command is unnecessary.

Action: No action required.

SP2-0667 Message file facility<lang>.msb not found

Cause: The SP1, SP2, or CPY message file could not be found. SQL*Plus cannot run.

Action: Check the Oracle platform specific documentation to make sure SQL*Plus is installed correctly. This may occur because the ORACLE_HOME environment variable or registry equivalent is not set to the location of the Oracle software. Make sure this value is set correctly. Check that the SQL*Plus binary message files exist in the SQL*Plus message directory, for example $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/mesg. Check the value of NLS_LANG environment variable or registry equivalent is correct.

SP2-0668 Invalid variable name

Cause: An invalid character was specified as part of the variable name.

Action: Specify the variable with valid characters.

SP2-0669 Valid characters are alphanumerics and '_'

Cause: An invalid character was specified as part of the variable name.

Action: Specify the variable with alphanumeric characters and '_'.

SP2-0670 Internal number conversion failed

Cause: A conversion request could not be performed because the string contained alphanumeric characters.

Action: Make sure that the string only contains numeric digits.

SP2-0675 COPY command not available

Cause: The COPY command is not available in this version of SQL*Plus.

Action: Make a note of the message and the number, then contact Oracle Support Services.

SP2-0676 Bind variable length cannot exceed variable_length units_of_variable

Cause: The length of the bind variable datatype was exceeded.

Action: Reduce the length of the bind variable datatype.

SP2-0678 Column or attribute type can not be displayed by SQL*Plus

Cause: The type specified is not supported.

Action: Rewrite the query to select the data with types that SQL*Plus supports.

SP2-0685 The date entered_variable is invalid or format mismatched format

Cause: An invalid date was entered or does not match the format.

Action: Enter a valid date or a date in the required format.

SP2-0686 Usage: DESCRIBE [schema.]object[@db_link]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the DESCRIBE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the DESCRIBE command for the correct options.

SP2-0692 Usage: CONN[ECT] [logon] [AS {SYSDBA|SYSOPER}]Where <logon> ::= <username>[/<password>][@<connect_string>] | /

Cause: An invalid option was entered for the SQL*Plus CONNECT command.

Action: Check the syntax for the CONNECT command for the correct usage.

SP2-0714 Invalid combination of STARTUP options

Cause: The specified options of the STARTUP command cannot be used simultaneously.

Action: Check the syntax of the STARTUP command for the correct usage.

SP2-0715 Invalid combination of SHUTDOWN options

Cause: The specified options of the SHUTDOWN command cannot be used simultaneously.

Action: Check the syntax of the SHUTDOWN command for the correct usage.

SP2-0716 Invalid combination of ARCHIVE LOG options

Cause: The specified options of the ARCHIVE LOG command cannot be used simultaneously.

Action: Check the syntax of the ARCHIVE LOG command for the correct usage.

SP2-0717 Illegal SHUTDOWN option

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SHUTDOWN command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SHUTDOWN command for the correct options.

SP2-0718 Illegal ARCHIVE LOG option

Cause: An invalid option was used in the ARCHIVE LOG command.

Action: Check the syntax of the ARCHIVE LOG command for the correct options.

SP2-0728 Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}

Cause: This is a RECOVER DATABASE command prompt, prompting for the redo log files to be applied.

Action: Enter one of the redo log file options.

SP2-0729 Cannot SET INSTANCE while connected to a database

Cause: There was a problem with the connection instance while issuing the SET INSTANCE command.

Action: Disconnect from the instance before re-issuing the command.

SP2-0733 Invalid connect string

Cause: An invalid connect string was specified.

Action: Check that the connect string is correct.

SP2-0734 Unknown command beginning command_name ... - rest of line ignored

Cause: The command entered was invalid.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0735 Unknown command_name option beginning option_name

Cause: An invalid option was specified for a given command.

Action: Check the syntax of the command you used for the correct options.

SP2-0736 Command line overflow while substituting into line beginning string_name

Cause: The maximum length of the command line was exceeded.

Action: Reduce the length of the data in the substitution variables used in the command.

SP2-0737 Usage: SET DESCRIBE [DEPTH {1|n|ALL}] [LINENUM {ON|OFF}] [INDENT {ON|OFF}]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET DESCRIBE command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET DESCRIBE command for the correct options.

SP2-0738 Restricted command command_name not available

Cause: For security reasons, the command was restricted by the -RESTRICT command-line option.

Action: Ask your Database Administrator why SQL*Plus should be run with a -RESTRICT option.

SP2-0745 Usage: SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] version.release.[update]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBLITY] command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SET SQLPLUSCOMPATIBLITY command for the correct options.

SP2-0746 command_option option out of range (lower through upper )

Cause: The specified value was not in the range.

Action: Specify a value in the range.

SP2-0747 PAGESIZE must be at least max_page_size to run this query with LINESIZE line_size

Cause: The PAGESIZE setting was too small to display the specified LINESIZE.

Action: Increase the PAGESIZE to at least match the specified LINESIZE.

SP2-0749 Cannot resolve circular path of synonym synonym_name

Cause: An attempt was made to use a synonym to point to an object that no longer exists where the synonym had the same name as the base object, or an attempt was made to use a synonym that has a circular path that points back to itself.

Action: Make sure that the last synonym in the synonym path points to an object that exists, and that it doesn't point back to itself.

SP2-0750 ORACLE_HOME may not be set

Cause: SQL*Plus was unable to find a message file during program initialization, and could not display error messages or text required for normal operation. The most common cause is that ORACLE_HOME has not been set. Other possible causes are a corrupt or unreadable message file. On Windows the SQLPLUS registry entry may be invalid.

This message is hard coded (in English) in the SQL*Plus source code so it can be displayed on message file error. It could never be read from this message file because the error occurs only when the message files cannot be opened. This entry in the message file is for documentation purposes only.

Action: Make sure that all environment variables or registry entries needed to run SQL*Plus are set. The variables are platform specific but may include ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID, NLS_LANG, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

On Windows if the environment variable called SQLPLUS is set, it must contain the directory name of the SQL*Plus message files, for example ORACLE_HOME\sqlplus\mesg.

Also check that the file sp1XX.msb is in the $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/mesg or ORACLE_HOME\sqlplus\mesg directory. The "XX" stands for the country prefix associated with your NLS_LANG environment variable. SQL*Plus reads only one of the sp1XX.msb files. For example sp1ja.msb is read if NLS_LANG is JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16EUC. If NLS_LANG is not set, then the default (English language) sp1us.msb is used. Check that the appropriate file is of non-zero size and that the file permissions allow it to be read. Note that ".msb" files are binary. The contents may be meaningless when viewed or printed. If you are unsure which language file is being used, unset NLS_LANG and run SQL*Plus to verify it can read the sp1us.msb file.

SP2-0751 Unable to connect to Oracle. Exiting SQL*Plus

Cause: No connection to an Oracle server could be made.

Action: Normally occurs after other errors showing that the database is not running, or that the username and password were invalid.

SP2-0752 Usage: -C[OMPATIBILITY] version.release.[update]

Cause: An invalid option was used in the -C[OMPATIBILITY] command option.

Action: Check the syntax of the SQL*Plus executable for the correct options.

SP2-0753 STARTUP with MIGRATE only valid with Oracle 9.2 or greater

Cause: STARTUP MIGRATE was used to try to startup an Oracle server for a release prior to 9.2.

Action: Check the platform specific environment to verify that you are connecting to an Oracle server that is at least release 9.2.

SP2-0754 FROM clause cannot contain AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER

Cause: The COPY command does not support AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER connections.

Action: Remove AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER from the FROM clause.

SP2-0755 TO clause cannot contain AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER

Cause: The COPY command does not support AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER connections.

Action: Remove AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER from the TO clause.

SP2-0756 FROM clause length clause_len bytes exceeds maximum length max_len

Cause: The FROM clause is too long.

Action: Reduce the string specified in the FROM clause.

SP2-0757 TO clause length clause_len bytes exceeds maximum length max_len

Cause: The TO clause is too long.

Action: Reduce the string specified in the TO clause.

SP2-0758 FROM clause missing username or connection identifier

Cause: The COPY command FROM clause must include a username and a connection identifier.

Action: Specify a username and a connection identifier in the FROM clause.

SP2-0759 TO clause missing username or connection identifier

Cause: The COPY command TO clause must include a username and a connection identifier.

Action: Specify a username and a connection identifier in the TO clause.

SP2-0762 Mismatched quotes in SHOW ERRORS [object]

Cause: Invalid syntax was found in the object name submitted as an argument to SHOW ERRORS.

Action: If quotes are used, check that they are correctly matched. Either quote the whole argument, or quote the schema and object components separately.

SP2-0768 Illegal SPOOL command

Cause: An invalid option was used in the SPOOL command.

Action: Check the syntax of the SPOOL command for the correct options.

SP2-0769 Usage: SPOOL { <file> | OFF | OUT }

where <file> is file_name[.ext] [CRE[ATE]|REP[LACE]|APP[END]]

Cause: Incorrect syntax for the SPOOL command was entered.

Action: Check the syntax of the SPOOL command for the correct usage.

SP2-0771 File filename already exists. Use another name or "SPOOL filename[.ext] REPLACE"

Cause: The file specified in the SPOOL command already exists.

Action: Use the REPLACE option to overwrite the existing file, or specify another file name.

SP2-0772 Automatic Storage Manager instance started

Cause: Document: Feedback message

Action:

SP2-0773 Automatic Storage Manager diskgroups mounted

Cause: Document: Feedback message

Action:

SP2-0774 Automatic Storage Manager instance shutdown

Cause: Document: Feedback message

Action:

SP2-0775 Automatic Storage Manager diskgroups dismounted

Cause: Document: Feedback message

Action:

SP2-0776 Invalid schema and object separator in SHOW ERRORS [object]

Cause: Invalid syntax was found in the object name submitted as an argument to SHOW ERRORS.

Action: If a schema is specified, check that the schema and object names are separated by a period.

SP2-0777 Invalid single quotes in SHOW ERRORS [object]

Cause: Invalid syntax was found in the object name submitted as an argument to SHOW ERRORS.

Action: If the SHOW ERRORs argument is quoted, check that only double quotes are used. Either quote the whole argument, or quote the schema and object components separately.

SP2-0778 Script filename and arguments too long

Cause: The combined length of the script filename and script arguments is too long for SQL*Plus.

Action: Reduce the length of the script name and path. Reduce the number and/or size of the script arguments.

SP2-0780 Value entered is not a valid datatype

Cause: The value entered in the ACCEPT command was not valid for the specified datatype.

Action: Enter a valid number within a valid range for the datatype.

SP2-0781 command option option_name out of range (min through max)

Cause: Attempted to enter a value outside the allowed range for the command option.

Action: Check the limits for the command option and enter a value within the allowed range.

SP2-0782 Prelim connection established

Cause: Document: Feedback message

Action:

SP2-0783 Cannot SET variable while connected to a database

Cause: Attempted to set a system variable that cannot be set while still connected to a database instance.

Action: Disconnect from the database instance before attempting to set the system variable.

SP2-0784 Invalid or incomplete character beginning byte returned

Cause: Attempted to return a string from the database that contained an invalid or incomplete character.

Action: Replace the invalid or incomplete string in the database with a valid or complete string.

SP2-0804 Procedure created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL procedure has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL procedure.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0805 Procedure altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL procedure has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL procedure.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0806 Function created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL function has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL function.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0807 Function altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL function has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL function.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0808 Package created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL package has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL package.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0809 Package altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL package has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL package.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0810 Package Body created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL package body has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL package body.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0811 Package Body altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL package body has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL package body.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0812 View created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL view has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL view.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0813 View altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL view has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL view.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0814 Trigger created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL trigger has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL trigger.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0815 Trigger altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL trigger has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL trigger.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0816 Type created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL type has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL type.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0817 Type altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL type has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL type.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0818 Type Body created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL type body has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL type body.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0819 Type Body altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL type body has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL type body.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0820 Library created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL library has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL library.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0821 Library altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL library has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL library.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0822 Java created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL java has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL java.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0823 Java altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL java has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL java.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0824 PL/SQL compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL block has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL block.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0825 Dimension created with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL dimension has been created, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL dimension.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0826 Dimension altered with compilation warnings

Cause: The PL/SQL dimension has been altered, but has one or more warnings, informational messages or performance messages that may help you to improve your PL/SQL dimension.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0827 Procedure created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL procedure has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0828 Procedure altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL procedure has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0829 Function created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL function has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0830 Function altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL function has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0831 Package created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL package has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0832 Package altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL package has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0833 Package Body created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL package body has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0834 Package Body altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL package body has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0835 View created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL view has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0836 View altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL view has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0837 Trigger created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL trigger has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0838 Trigger altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL trigger has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0839 Type created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL type has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0840 Type altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL type has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0841 Type Body created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL type body has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0842 Type Body altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL type body has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0843 Library created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL library has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0844 Library altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL library has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0845 Java created with compilation error

Cause: The PL/SQL java has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0846 Java altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL java has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0847 PL/SQL compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL block has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0848 Dimension created with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL dimension has been created, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-0849 Dimension altered with compilation errors

Cause: The PL/SQL dimension has been altered, but has one or more error messages.

Action: Use the SQL*Plus SHOW ERR[ORS] command to display the warnings and messages.

SP2-1500 STARTUP with UPGRADE only valid with Oracle 9.2 or greater

Cause: STARTUP UPGRADE was used to try to startup an Oracle server for a release prior to 9.2.

Action: Check the platform specific environment to verify that you are connecting to an Oracle server that is at least release 9.2.

SP2-1501 STARTUP with DOWNGRADE only valid with Oracle 9.2 or greater

Cause: STARTUP DOWNGRADE was used to try to startup an Oracle server for a release prior to 9.2.

Action: Check the platform specific environment to verify that you are connecting to an Oracle server that is at least release 9.2.

SP2-1502 The HTTP proxy server specified by http_proxy is not accessible

Cause: The HTTP proxy server used by SQL*Plus cannot be accessed. SQL*Plus will be unable to run scripts located on a web server.

Action: Check that the proxy setting has the correct value, or unset it if no proxy is needed. SQL*Plus may get the proxy name from the environment variable http_proxy, or the value may be set in another way on your system. Check that the given proxy server is operational. Most web browsers can be configured to use a proxy. Configure a browser to use the desired proxy and verify that web pages can still be loaded.

SP2-1503 Unable to initialize Oracle call interface

Cause: Indicates a library used by SQL*Plus to communicate with the database failed to initialize correctly.

Action: Check that the Oracle environment or registry entries are consistent and correct. If using the SQL*Plus Instant Client make sure the SQL*Plus and Oracle libraries are from the same release. Make sure you have read access to the libraries.

SP2-1504 Cannot print uninitialized LOB variable

Cause: The specified LOB variable should be initialized before printing.

Action: Check that the specified variable is initialized and try again.

SP2-1505 Invalid COL or TAB position entered

Cause: The BTITLE, TTITLE, REPHEADER or REPFOOTER command you entered attempts to use a COL or TAB value greater than 240, or a COL or TAB value greater than LINESIZE if LINESIZE is greater than 240.

Action: Make sure the BTITLE, TTITLE, REPHEADER or REPFOOTER command you enter uses a COL or TAB value of 240 or less, or uses a COL or TAB value of LINESIZE or less if LINESIZE is greater than 240.

SP2-1507 Errorlogging table, role or privilege is missing or not accessible

Cause: Errorlogging table/role/privilege is missing or not accessible.

Action: See elgsetup.txt in the sqlplus doc directory for information about how to create a non-default error log table. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about how to grant privileges.

SP2-1508 Invalid option for SET ERRORLOGGING OFF

Cause: An attempt was made to issue the SET ERRORLOGGING OFF command with additional options. SET ERRORLOGGING OFF accepts no other options.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING OFF command without any other options.

SP2-1509 Invalid option for SET ERRORLOGGING ON

Cause: An attempt was made to enter an invalid option for SET ERRORLOGGING ON.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON command with valid options. Valid options are: TABLE, IDENTIFIER, and TRUNCATE.

SP2-1510 Invalid option option_name for SET ERRORLOGGING ON

Cause: An attempt was made to enter an invalid option for SET ERRORLOGGING ON.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON command with valid options. Valid options are: TABLE, IDENTIFIER, and TRUNCATE.

SP2-1511 Missing table name for SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE

Cause: Either no table name was entered, or an invalid table or schema name was entered with the SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE command. The table name is assumed to be in the current schema unless another schema is specified with the syntax schema.table.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE command with a valid table name.

SP2-1512 Unable to set table_name as table name for SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE

Cause: Either no table name was entered, or an invalid table or schema name was entered with the SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE command. The table name is assumed to be in the current schema unless another schema is specified with the syntax schema.table.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON TABLE command with a valid table name.

SP2-1513 Invalid file name file_name for SET ERRORLOGGING ON FILE

Cause: Either no file name was entered, or an invalid file name or path was entered with the SET ERRORLOGGING ON FILE command.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON FILE command with a valid file name and path.

SP2-1514 Invalid identifier identifier for SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER

Cause: Either no identifier string was entered, or an invalid identifier string was entered with the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command. The identifier string cannot contain special characters.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command with a valid identifier string.

SP2-1515 Invalid identifier identifier for SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER

Cause: Either no identifier string was entered, or an invalid identifier string was entered with the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command. The identifier string cannot contain special characters.

Action: Reenter the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command with a valid identifier string.

SP2-1516 Unmatched quotes in identifier identifier for SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER

Cause: An invalid string was found in the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command. The identifier string must be contained in single or double quotes.

Action: Check string quotes in the identifier before reentering the SET ERRORLOGGING ON IDENTIFIER command.

SP2-1517 Unable to flush the error log table schema.table

Cause: User may have insufficient privileges to flush the error log table.

Action: Check the privileges granted to access the error log table. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about how to grant privileges.

SP2-1518 Errorlogging table table_name does not exist in schema schema_name

Cause: Attempted to write to a non-existent error log table.

Action: See elgsetup.txt in the sqlplus doc directory for information about how to create a non-default error log table.

SP2-1519 Unable to write to the error log table schema.table

Cause: User may have insufficient privileges to write to the error log table.

Action: Check the privileges granted to access the error log table. See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about how to grant privileges.

SP2-01538 Edition only valid when connected to Oracle Database

Cause: Attempted to connect to an Edition session when database unavailable.

Action: Ensure database is available before attempting to connect to an Edition session.

SP2-01539 Edition requires Oracle Database 11g or later

Cause: Attempted to connect to an Edition session on Oracle Database earlier than 11g.

Action: Edition is only valid with Oracle Database 11g or later.

COPY Command Messages

CPY-0002 Illegal or missing APPEND, CREATE, INSERT, or REPLACE option

Cause: An internal COPY function has invoked COPY with a create option (flag) value that is out of range.

Action: Please contact Oracle Worldwide Customer Support Services.

CPY-0003 Internal Error: logical host number out of range

Cause: An internal COPY function has been invoked with a logical host number value that is out of range.

Action: Please contact Oracle Worldwide Customer Support Services.

CPY-0004 Source and destination table and column names don't match

Cause: On an APPEND operation or an INSERT (when the table exists), at least one column name in the destination table does not match the corresponding column name in the optional column name list or in the SELECT command.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the column names and their respective order in the destination table match the column names and column order in the optional column list or in the SELECT command

CPY-0005 Source and destination column attributes don't match

Cause: On an APPEND operation or an INSERT (when the table exists), at least one column in the destination table does not have the same datatype as the corresponding column in the SELECT command.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the data types for items being selected agree with the destination. Use TO_DATE, TO_CHAR, and TO_NUMBER to make conversions.

CPY-0006 Select list has more columns than destination table

Cause: On an APPEND operation or an INSERT (when the table exists), the number of columns in the SELECT command is greater than the number of columns in the destination table.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the number of columns being selected agrees with the number in the destination table.

CPY-0007 Select list has fewer columns than destination table

Cause: On an APPEND operation or INSERT (when the table exists), the number of columns in the SELECT command is less than the number of columns in the destination table.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the number of columns being selected agrees with the number in the destination table.

CPY-0008 More column list names than columns in the destination table

Cause: On an APPEND operation or an INSERT (when the table exists), the number of columns in the column name list is greater than the number of columns in the destination table.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the number of columns in the column list agrees with the number in the destination table.

CPY-0009 Fewer column list names than columns in the destination table

Cause: On an APPEND operation or an INSERT (when the table exists), the number of columns in the column name list is less than the number of columns in the destination table.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the number of columns in the column list agrees with the number in the destination table.

CPY-0012 Datatype cannot be copied

Cause: An attempt was made to copy a datatype that is not supported in the COPY command. Datatypes supported by the COPY command are CHAR, DATE, LONG, NUMBER and VARCHAR2.

Action: Re-specify the COPY command, making sure that the unsupported datatype column is removed. For more information, see the SQL*Plus COPY Command.

Part IV

SQL*Plus Appendixes

Part IV contains the following SQL*Plus appendixes:

SQL*Plus Limits

SQL*Plus COPY Command

Obsolete SQL*Plus Commands

SQL*Plus Instant Client

A SQL*Plus Limits

The general SQL*Plus limits shown are valid for most operating systems.

Table A-1 SQL*Plus Limits

Item
Limit

filename length

system dependent

username length

30 bytes

substitution variable name length

30 bytes

substitution variable value length

240 characters

command-line length

2500 characters

LONG

2,000,000,000 bytes

LINESIZE

system dependent

LONGCHUNKSIZE value

system dependent

output line size

system dependent

SQL or PL/SQL command- line size after variable substitution

3,000 characters (internal only)

number of characters in a COMPUTE command label

500 characters

number of lines per SQL command

500 (assuming 80 characters per line)

maximum PAGESIZE

50,000 lines

total row width

32,767 characters

maximum ARRAYSIZE

5000 rows

maximum number of nested scripts

20

maximum page number

99,999

maximum PL/SQL error message size

2K

maximum ACCEPT character string length

240 Bytes

maximum number of substitution variables

2048

B SQL*Plus COPY Command

This appendix discusses the following topics:

COPY Command Syntax

Copying Data from One Database to Another

Copying Data between Tables on One Database

Read this chapter while sitting at your computer and try out the example shown. Before beginning, make sure you have access to the sample tables described in SQL*Plus Quick Start.

The COPY command will be obsoleted in future releases of SQL*Plus. No new datatypes will be supported by COPY.

COPY Command Syntax

COPY {FROM database | TO database | FROM database TO database} {APPEND|CREATE|INSERT|REPLACE} destination_table [(column, column, column, ...)] USING query

where database has the following syntax:

username[/password]@connect_identifier

Copies data from a query to a table in the same or another database. COPY supports the following datatypes:

CHAR

DATE

LONG

NUMBER

VARCHAR2

Warning:

Including your password in plain text is a security risk. You can avoid this risk by omitting the password, and entering it only when the system prompts for it.

Terms

See the following list for a description of each term or clause:

FROM database

The database that contains the data to be copied. If you omit the FROM clause, the source defaults to the database to which SQL*Plus is connected (that is, the database that other commands address). You must use a FROM clause to specify a source database other than the default. The COPY command FROM clause does not support SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileged connections.

TO database

The database containing the destination table. If you omit the TO clause, the destination defaults to the database to which SQL*Plus is connected (that is, the database that other commands address). You must use a TO clause to specify a destination database other than the default. The COPY command TO clause does not support SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileged connections.

database

Specifies username[/password] @connect_identifier of the Oracle Database source or destination database you wish to COPY FROM or COPY TO. The COPY command does not support SYSDBA or SYSOPER privileged connections. You must include a username. SQL*Plus prompts you for the password associated with the username specified in the COPY FROM or COPY TO clauses. SQL*Plus suppresses the display of your password response.

You must include the connect_identifier clause to specify the source or destination database. The exact syntax depends on the Oracle Net configuration. For more information, refer to the Oracle Net manual or contact your DBA.

APPEND

Inserts the rows from query into destination_table if the table exists. If destination_table does not exist, COPY creates it.

CREATE

Inserts the rows from query into destination_table after first creating the table. If destination_table already exists, COPY returns an error.

INSERT

Inserts the rows from query into destination_table. If destination_table does not exist, COPY returns an error. When using INSERT, the USING query must select one column for each column in destination_table.

REPLACE

Replaces destination_table and its contents with the rows from query. If destination_table does not exist, COPY creates it. Otherwise, COPY drops the existing table and replaces it with a table containing the copied data.

destination_table

Represents the table you wish to create or to which you wish to add data.

(column, column, column, ...)

Specifies the names of the columns in destination_table. You must enclose a name in double quotes if it contains lowercase letters or blanks.

If you specify columns, the number of columns must equal the number of columns selected by the query. If you do not specify any columns, the copied columns will have the same names in the destination table as they had in the source if COPY creates destination_table.

USING query

Specifies a SQL query (SELECT command) determining which rows and columns COPY copies.

Usage

To enable the copying of data between Oracle and non-Oracle databases, NUMBER columns are changed to DECIMAL columns in the destination table. Hence, if you are copying between Oracle databases, a NUMBER column with no precision will be changed to a DECIMAL(38) column. When copying between Oracle databases, you should use SQL commands (CREATE TABLE AS and INSERT) or you should ensure that your columns have a precision specified.

The SQL*Plus SET LONG variable limits the length of LONG columns that you copy. If any LONG columns contain data longer than the value of LONG, COPY truncates the data.

SQL*Plus performs a commit at the end of each successful COPY. If you set the SQL*Plus SET COPYCOMMIT variable to a positive value n, SQL*Plus performs a commit after copying every n batches of records. The SQL*Plus SET ARRAYSIZE variable determines the size of a batch.

Some operating environments require that service names be placed in double quotes.

Examples

The following command copies the entire EMPLOYEES table to a table named WESTEMPLOYEES. Note that the tables are located in two different databases. If WESTEMPLOYEES already exists, SQL*Plus replaces the table and its contents. The columns in WESTEMPLOYEES have the same names as the columns in the source table, EMPLOYEES.

COPY FROM HR@HQ TO JOHN@WEST -
REPLACE WESTEMPLOYEES -
USING SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES

The following command copies selected records from EMPLOYEES to the database to which SQL*Plus is connected. SQL*Plus creates SALESMEN through the copy. SQL*Plus copies only the columns EMPLOYEE_ID and LAST_NAME, and at the destination names them EMPLOYEE_ID and SA_MAN.

COPY FROM HR@ORACLE01 -
CREATE SALESMEN (EMPLOYEE_ID, SA_MAN) -
USING SELECT EMPLOYEE_ID, LAST_NAME FROM EMPLOYEES -
WHERE JOB_ID='SA_MAN';

Copying Data from One Database to Another

Use the SQL*Plus COPY command to copy CHAR, DATE, LONG, NUMBER or VARCHAR2 data between databases and between tables on the same database. With the COPY command, you can copy data between databases in the following ways:

Copy data from a remote database to your local database.

Copy data from your local (default) database to a remote database (most systems).

Copy data from one remote database to another remote database (most systems).

Note:

In general, the COPY command was designed to be used for copying data between Oracle and non-Oracle databases. You should use SQL commands (CREATE TABLE AS and INSERT) to copy data between Oracle databases.

Understanding COPY Command Syntax

You enter the COPY command in the following form:

COPY FROM database TO database action -
destination_table (column_name, column_name, -
column_name ...) USING query

Here is a sample COPY command:

COPY FROM HR@BOSTONDB -
TO TODD@CHICAGODB -
CREATE NEWDEPT (DEPARTMENT_ID, DEPARTMENT_NAME, CITY) -
USING SELECT * FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW

To specify a database in the FROM or TO clause, you must have a valid username and password for the local and remote databases and know the appropriate Oracle Net service names. COPY obeys Oracle Database security, so the username you specify must have been granted access to tables for you to have access to tables. For information on what databases are available to you, contact your DBA.

When you copy to your local database from a remote database, you can omit the TO clause. When you copy to a remote database from your local database, you can omit the FROM clause. When you copy between remote databases, you must include both clauses. However, including both clauses increases the readability of your scripts.

The COPY command behaves differently based on whether the destination table already exists and on the action clause you enter (CREATE in the example). See Controlling Treatment of the Destination Table for more information.

By default, the copied columns have the same names in the destination table that they have in the source table. If you want to give new names to the columns in the destination table, enter the new names in parentheses after the destination table name. If you enter any column names, you must enter a name for every column you are copying.

Note:

To enable the copying of data between Oracle and non-Oracle databases, NUMBER columns are changed to DECIMAL columns in the destination table. Hence, if you are copying between Oracle databases, a NUMBER column with no precision will be changed to a DECIMAL(38) column. When copying between Oracle databases, you should use SQL commands (CREATE TABLE AS and INSERT) or you should ensure that your columns have a precision specified.

The USING clause specifies a query that names the source table and specifies the data that COPY copies to the destination table. You can use any form of the SQL SELECT command to select the data that the COPY command copies.

Here is an example of a COPY command that copies only two columns from the source table, and copies only those rows in which the value of DEPARTMENT_ID is 30:

COPY FROM HR@BOSTONDB -
REPLACE EMPCOPY2 -
USING SELECT LAST_NAME, SALARY -
FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW -
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID = 30

You may find it easier to enter and edit long COPY commands in scripts rather than trying to enter them directly at the command prompt.

Controlling Treatment of the Destination Table

You control the treatment of the destination table by entering one of four control clauses—REPLACE, CREATE, INSERT, or APPEND.

The REPLACE clause names the table to be created in the destination database and specifies the following actions:

If the destination table already exists, COPY drops the existing table and replaces it with a table containing the copied data.

If the destination table does not already exist, COPY creates it using the copied data.

You can use the CREATE clause to avoid accidentally writing over an existing table. CREATE specifies the following actions:

If the destination table already exists, COPY reports an error and stops.

If the destination table does not already exist, COPY creates the table using the copied data.

Use INSERT to insert data into an existing table. INSERT specifies the following actions:

If the destination table already exists, COPY inserts the copied data in the destination table.

If the destination table does not already exist, COPY reports an error and stops.

Use APPEND when you want to insert data in an existing table, or create a new table if the destination table does not exist. APPEND specifies the following actions:

If the destination table already exists, COPY inserts the copied data in the destination table.

If the table does not already exist, COPY creates the table and then inserts the copied data in it.

Example B-1 Copying from a Remote Database to Your Local Database Using CREATE

To copy HR from a remote database into a table called EMPLOYEE_COPY on your own database, enter the following command:

Note:

See your DBA for an appropriate username, password, and service name for a remote computer that contains a copy of EMPLOYEE_COPY.

COPY FROM HR@BOSTONDB -
CREATE EMPCOPY -
USING SELECT * FROM HR

Array fetch/bind size is 15. (arraysize is 15)
Will commit when done. (copycommit is 0)
Maximum long size is 80. (long is 80)

SQL*Plus then creates the table EMPLOYEE_COPY and copies the rows:

Table SALESMAN created.

   5 rows selected from HR@BOSTONDB.
   5 rows inserted into SALESMAN.
   5 rows committed into SALESMAN at DEFAULT HOST connection.

In this COPY command, the FROM clause directs COPY to connect you to the database with the specification BOSTONDB as HR.

Notice that you do not need a semicolon at the end of the command; COPY is a SQL*Plus command, not a SQL command, even though it contains a query. Since most COPY commands are longer than one line, you must use a line continuation hyphen (-), optionally preceded by a space, at the end of each line except the last.

Interpreting the Messages that COPY Displays

The first three messages displayed by COPY show the values of SET command variables that affect the COPY operation. The most important one is LONG, which limits the length of a LONG column's value. (LONG is a datatype, similar to CHAR.) If the source table contains a LONG column, COPY truncates values in that column to the length specified by the system variable LONG.

The variable ARRAYSIZE limits the number of rows that SQL*Plus fetches from the database at one time. This number of rows makes up a batch. The variable COPYCOMMIT sets the number of batches after which COPY commits changes to the database. (If you set COPYCOMMIT to zero, COPY commits changes only after all batches are copied.) For more information on SET variables, including how to change their settings, see the SET command.

After listing the three system variables and their values, COPY tells you if a table was dropped, created, or updated during the copy. Then COPY lists the number of rows selected, inserted, and committed.

Specifying Another User's Table

You can refer to another user's table in a COPY command by qualifying the table name with the username, just as you would in your local database, or in a query with a database link.

For example, to make a local copy of a table named DEPARTMENT owned by the username ADAMS on the database associated with the Oracle Net connect identifier BOSTONDB, you would enter

COPY FROM HR@BOSTONDB -
CREATE EMPLOYEE_COPY2 -
USING SELECT * FROM ADAMS.DEPARTMENT

Of course, you could get the same result by instructing COPY to log in to the remote database as ADAMS. You cannot do that, however, unless you know the password associated with the username ADAMS.

Copying Data between Tables on One Database

You can copy data from one table to another in a single database (local or remote). To copy between tables in your local database, specify your own username and the service name for your local database in either a FROM or a TO clause (omit the other clause):

COPY FROM HR@MYDATABASE -
INSERT EMPLOYEE_COPY2 -
USING SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE_COPY

To copy between tables on a remote database, include the same username and service name in the FROM and TO clauses:

COPY FROM HR@BOSTONDB -
TO HR@BOSTONDB -
INSERT EMPLOYEE_COPY2 -
USING SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE_COPY

C Obsolete SQL*Plus Commands

This appendix covers earlier versions of some SQL*Plus commands. While these older commands still function in SQL*Plus, they are not supported. It is recommended that you use the alternative SQL*Plus commands listed in the following table.

SQL*Plus Obsolete Command Alternatives

Obsolete commands are available in current releases of SQL*Plus. In future releases, they may only be available by setting the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY variable. You should modify scripts using obsolete commands to use the alternative commands.

Obsolete Command
Alternative Command
Description of Alternative Command

BTITLE (old form)

BTITLE

Places and formats a title at the bottom of each report page or lists the current BTITLE definition.

COLUMN DEFAULT

COLUMN CLEAR

Resets column display attributes to default values.

DOCUMENT

REMARK

Places a comment which SQL*Plus does not interpret as a command.

NEWPAGE

SET NEWP[AGE] {1 | n | NONE}

Sets the number of blank lines to be printed from the top of each page to the top title.

SET BUFFER

EDIT

Enables the editing of the SQL*Plus command buffer, or the contents of a saved file. Use the SQL*Plus SAVE, GET, @ and START commands to create and use external files.

SET COMPATIBILITY

none

Obsolete

SET CLOSECURSOR

none

Obsolete

SET DOCUMENT

none

Obsolete

SET MAXDATA

none

Obsolete

SET SCAN

SET DEF[INE] {& | c | ON | OFF}

Sets the character used to prefix substitution variables.

SET SPACE

SET COLSEP { | text}

Sets the text to be printed between SELECTed columns.

SET TRUNCATE

SET WRA[P] {ON | OFF}

Controls whether SQL*Plus truncates a SELECTed row if it is too long for the current line width.

SHOW LABEL

none

Obsolete

TTITLE (old form)

TTITLE

Places and formats a title at the top of each report page or lists the current TTITLE definition.

BTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form)

Displays a title at the bottom of each report page.

The old form of BTITLE offers formatting features more limited than those of the new form, but provides compatibility with UFI (a predecessor of SQL*Plus). The old form defines the bottom title as an empty line followed by a line with centered text. See TTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form) for more details.

COL[UMN] {column|expr} DEF[AULT] (obsolete)

Resets the display attributes for a given column to default values.

Has the same effect as COLUMN CLEAR.

DOC[UMENT] (obsolete)

Begins a block of documentation in a script.

For information on the current method of inserting comments in a script, see the section Placing Comments in Scripts and the REMARK command.

After you type DOCUMENT and enter [Return], SQL*Plus displays the prompt DOC> in place of SQL> until you end the documentation. The "pound" character (#) on a line by itself ends the documentation.

If you have set DOCUMENT to OFF, SQL*Plus suppresses the display of the block of documentation created by the DOCUMENT command. For more information, see SET DOC[UMENT] {ON|OFF} (obsolete).

NEWPAGE [1|n] (obsolete)

Advances spooled output n lines beyond the beginning of the next page.

See SET NEWP[AGE] {1 | n | NONE} for information on the current method for advancing spooled output.

SET BUF[FER] {buffer|SQL} (obsolete)

Makes the specified buffer the current buffer.

Initially, the SQL buffer is the current buffer. SQL*Plus does not require the use of multiple buffers; the SQL buffer alone should meet your needs.

If the buffer name you enter does not exist, SET BUFFER defines (creates and names) the buffer. SQL*Plus deletes the buffer and its contents when you exit SQL*Plus.

Running a query automatically makes the SQL buffer the current buffer. To copy text from one buffer to another, use the GET and SAVE commands. To clear text from the current buffer, use CLEAR BUFFER. To clear text from the SQL buffer while using a different buffer, use CLEAR SQL.

SET COM[PATIBILITY]{V7 | V8 | NATIVE} (obsolete)

Specifies the version of the SQL language parsing syntax to use.

Set COMPATIBILITY to V7 for Oracle7, or to V8 for Oracle8 or later. COMPATIBILITY always defaults to NATIVE. Set COMPATIBILITY for the version of Oracle Database SQL syntax you want to use on the connected database, otherwise.

The default compatibility setting, NATIVE, is the most relevant setting for modern Oracle databases.

For information about SQL*Plus version compatibility settings, see SET SQLPLUSCOMPAT[IBILITY] {x.y[.z]}.

Example

To run a script, SALARY.SQL, created with Oracle7 SQL syntax, enter

SET COMPATIBILITY V7
START SALARY

After running the file, reset compatibility to NATIVE to run scripts created for Oracle Database 10g:

SET COMPATIBILITY NATIVE

Alternatively, you can add the command SET COMPATIBILITY V7 to the beginning of the script, and reset COMPATIBILITY to NATIVE at the end of the file.

SET CLOSECUR[SOR] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

Sets the cursor usage behavior.

On or OFF sets whether or not the cursor will close and reopen after each SQL statement. This feature may be useful in some circumstances to release resources in the database server.

SET DOC[UMENT] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

Displays or suppresses blocks of documentation created by the DOCUMENT command.

SET DOCUMENT ON causes blocks of documentation to be echoed to the screen. Set DOCUMENT OFF suppresses the display of blocks of documentation.

See DOC[UMENT] (obsolete) for information on the DOCUMENT command.

SET MAXD[ATA] n (obsolete)

Sets the maximum total row width that SQL*Plus can process.

In SQL*Plus, the maximum row width is now unlimited. Any values you set using SET MAXDATA are ignored by SQL*Plus.

SET SCAN {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

Controls scanning for the presence of substitution variables and parameters. OFF suppresses processing of substitution variables and parameters; ON enables normal processing.

ON functions in the same manner as SET DEFINE ON.

SET SPACE {1|n} (obsolete)

Sets the number of spaces between columns in output. The maximum value of n is 10.

The SET SPACE 0 and SET COLSEP " commands have the same effect. This command is obsoleted by SET COLSEP, but you can still use it for backward compatibility. You may prefer to use COLSEP because the SHOW command recognizes COLSEP and does not recognize SPACE.

SET TRU[NCATE] {ON|OFF} (obsolete)

Controls whether SQL*Plus truncates or wraps a data item that is too long for the current line width.

ON functions in the same manner as SET WRAP OFF, and vice versa. You may prefer to use WRAP because the SHOW command recognizes WRAP and does not recognize TRUNCATE.

TTI[TLE] text (obsolete old form)

Displays a title at the top of each report page.

The old form of TTITLE offers formatting features more limited than those of the new form, but provides compatibility with UFI (a predecessor of SQL*Plus). The old form defines the top title as a line with the date left-aligned and the page number right-aligned, followed by a line with centered text and then a blank line.

The text you enter defines the title TTITLE displays.

SQL*Plus centers text based on the size of a line as determined by SET LINESIZE. A separator character (|) begins a new line; two line separator characters in a row (||) insert a blank line. You can change the line separator character with SET HEADSEP.

You can control the formatting of page numbers in the old forms of TTITLE and BTITLE by defining a variable named "_page". The default value of _page is the formatting string "page &P4". To alter the format, you can DEFINE _page with a new formatting string as follows:

SET ESCAPE / SQL> DEFINE _page = 'Page /&P2'

This formatting string will print the word "page" with an initial capital letter and format the page number to a width of two. You can substitute any text for "page" and any number for the width. You must set escape so that SQL*Plus does not interpret the ampersand (&) as a substitution variable. See SET ERRORL[OGGING] {ON | OFF} [TABLE [schema.]tablename] [TRUNCATE] [IDENTIFIER identifier] for more information on setting the escape character.

SQL*Plus interprets TTITLE in the old form if a valid new-form clause does not immediately follow the command name.

If you want to use CENTER with TTITLE and put more than one word on a line, you should use the new form of TTITLE. For more information see the TTITLE command.

Example

To use the old form of TTITLE to set a top title with a left-aligned date and right-aligned page number on one line followed by SALES DEPARTMENT on the next line and PERSONNEL REPORT on a third line, enter

TTITLE 'SALES DEPARTMENT|PERSONNEL REPORT'

D SQL*Plus Instant Client

SQL*Plus Instant Client is a standalone product with all the functionality of SQL*Plus command-line. It connects to existing remote Oracle databases, but does not include its own database. It is easy to install and uses significantly less disk space than the full Oracle Database Client installation required to use SQL*Plus command-line.

SQL*Plus Instant Client is available on platforms that support the OCI Instant Client. See the Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information on the OCI Instant Client.

To install SQL*Plus Instant Client, you need two packages:

SQL*Plus Instant Client package.

Either the Basic OCI Instant Client package, or the lightweight OCI Instant Client package.

Choosing the SQL*Plus Instant Client to Install

SQL*Plus Instant Client can be installed in two ways:

Download the packages from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

Copy the same files that are in the packages from an Oracle Database 11g Client Administrator installation.

Both the SQL*Plus and OCI packages must be from the same Oracle Database version, for example, 11.1.0.6.

Basic Instant Client

SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package works with any NLS_LANG setting supported by the Oracle Database. It supports all character sets and language settings available in the Oracle Database.

Lightweight Instant Client

SQL*Plus Instant Client using the lightweight OCI package displays error messages in English only and supports only specific character sets. It is significantly smaller than SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package.

Valid values for NLS_LANG parameters with the lightweight Instant Client are:

language can be any valid language supported by the Oracle Database, however, error messages are only reported in English.

territory can be any valid territory supported by the Oracle Database.

charset is one of the following character sets:

US7ASCII

WE8DEC

WE8MSWIN1252

WE8ISO8859P1

UTF8

AL16UTF16

AL32UTF8

For example:

NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8

See the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide, and NLS_LANG Environment Variable for more information about NLS settings.

Lightweight SQL*Plus Instant Client Error with Unsupported Character Set

Attempting to start SQL*Plus Instant Client with an unsupported character set will fail with the following error:

Error 5 initializing SQL*Plus
NLS initialization error

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client by Downloading from OTN

The OTN downloads for Linux are RPM packages. The OTN downloads for UNIX and Windows are zip files.

The SQL*Plus Instant Client package should never be installed on an ORACLE_HOME.

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from Linux RPM Packages

Download the RPM packages containing the SQL*Plus Instant Client package, and the OCI package from the OTN Instant Client page at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/instantclient.html. Both packages must be from the same version such as 11.1.0.6.

Use rpm -i for the initial install of the RPM packages, or rpm -u to upgrade to a newer version of the packages.

Configure SQL*Plus Instant Client. See Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client.

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the UNIX or Windows Zip Files

Download the zip files containing the SQL*Plus Instant Client package, and the OCI package from the OTN Instant Client page at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/instantclient.html. Both packages must be from the same version such as 11.1.0.6.

Create a new directory, for example, /home/instantclient11_2 on UNIX or c:\instantclient11_2 on Windows.

Unzip the two packages into the new directory.

Configure SQL*Plus Instant Client. See Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client.

List of Files Required for SQL*Plus Instant Client

Tables E-1, E-2 and E-3 list the required files from each of the SQL*Plus and OCI packages. The files from only one of the OCI packages are required. Other files installed that are not listed here can be ignored, or can be removed to save disk space.

Table D-1 Instant Client Files in the SQL*Plus Package

Linux and UNIX
Windows
Description

sqlplus

sqlplus.exe

SQL*Plus executable

libsqlplus.so

not applicable

SQL*Plus library

libsqlplusic.so

orasqlplusic11.dll

SQL*Plus data shared library

Table D-2 Instant Client Files in the Basic OCI Package

Linux and UNIX
Windows
Description

libclntsh.so.11.1

oci.dll

Client code library

libociei.so

oraociei11.dll

OCI Instant Client data shared library

libnnz11.so

orannzsbb11.dll

Security library

Table D-3 Instant Client Files in the Lightweight OCI Package

Linux and UNIX
Windows
Description

libclntsh.so.11.1

oci.dll

Client code library

libociicus.so

oraociicus11.dll

OCI Instant Client data shared library (English only)

libnnz11.so

orannzsbb11.dll

Security library

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the 11g Client Release Media

Run the installer on the Oracle Database 11g Client Release media and choose the Administrator option.

Create a new directory, for example, /home/instantclient11_2 on UNIX and Linux, or c:\instantclient11_2 on Windows.

Copy the SQL*Plus Instant Client and the OCI Instant Client files to the new directory. All files must be copied from the same ORACLE_HOME.

See Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on UNIX or Linux or Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows for a list of the files to copy.

Configure SQL*Plus Instant Client. See Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client.

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on UNIX or Linux

To install SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package on UNIX and Linux, copy the following files:

$ORACLE_HOME/instantclient/libociei.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libclntsh.so.11.1
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libnnz11.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libsqlplus.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libsqlplusic.so
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus

To install SQL*Plus Instant Client using the lightweight OCI package on UNIX and Linux, copy the following files:

$ORACLE_HOME/instantclient/light/libociicus.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libclntsh.so.11.1
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libnnz11.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libsqlplus.so
$ORACLE_HOME/lib/libsqlplusic.so
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus

Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows

To install SQL*Plus Instant Client using the Basic OCI package on Windows, copy the following files:

ORACLE_HOME\instantclient\oraociei11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\oci.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\orannzsbb11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\orasqlplusic11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\sqlplus.exe

To install SQL*Plus Instant Client using the lightweight OCI package on Windows, copy the following files:

ORACLE_HOME\instantclient\light\oraociicus11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\oci.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\orannzsbb11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\orasqlplusic11.dll
ORACLE_HOME\bin\sqlplus.exe

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client

The SQL*Plus Instant Client executable should only be used with the matching version of the OCI Instant Client.

Note that no ORACLE_HOME or ORACLE_SID environment variables need to be set.

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Linux (from RPMs)

The RPMs downloaded from OTN install into Oracle specific sub-directories in the /usr file system. The sub-directory structure enables multiple versions of Instant Client to be available.

Add the name of the directory containing the Instant Client libraries to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Remove any other Oracle directories.

For example, to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH on Solaris in the Bourne or Korn shells:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2.0.1/client/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Make sure the sqlplus executable installed from the RPM is the first found in your PATH. To test, enter which sqlplus which should return /usr/bin/sqlplus. If not, remove any other Oracle directories from PATH, or put /usr/bin before other SQL*Plus executables in PATH, or use an absolute or relative path to start SQL*Plus.

For example, to set PATH in the bash shell:

PATH=/usr/bin:${PATH}
export PATH

If you install multiple versions of SQL*Plus, you may need to change the symbolic link /usr/bin/sqlplus to the version of SQL*Plus matching the libraries in LD_LIBRARY_PATH. For 11.2.0.1, /usr/bin/sqlplus is a symbolic link to the SQL*Plus binary at /usr/lib/oracle/11.2.0.1/client/bin/sqlplus.

Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information.

For example:

NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
export NLS_LANG

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Linux (from Client Media or Zip File) and UNIX

Add the name of the directory containing the Instant Client files to the appropriate shared library path LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LIBPATH or SHLIB_PATH. Remove any other Oracle directories.

For example on Solaris in the Bourne or Korn shells:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/instantclient11_2:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Add the directory containing the Instant Client files to the PATH environment variable. If it is not set, then an absolute or relative path must be used to start SQL*Plus. Remove any other Oracle directories from PATH. For example:

PATH=/home/instantclient11_2:${PATH}
export PATH

Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information.

For example:

NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
export NLS_LANG

Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows

The environment may be configured using SET commands in a Windows command prompt or made permanent by setting Environment Variables in System Properties.

For example, to set environment variables in Windows 2000 using System Properties, open System from the Control Panel, click the Advanced tab and then click Environment Variables.

Add the directory containing the Instant Client files to the PATH system environment variable. Remove any other Oracle directories from PATH.

For example, add c:\instantclient11_2 to the beginning of PATH.

Set Oracle globalization variables required for your locale. A default locale will be assumed if no variables are set. See the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information. For example, to set NLS_LANG for a Japanese environment, create a user environment variable NLS_LANG set to JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16EUC.

If you have installed the lightweight Instant Client, see Lightweight Instant Client for information about supported NLS_LANG settings.

Connecting to a Database with SQL*Plus Instant Client

SQL*Plus Instant Client is always 'remote' from any database server. To connect to a database you must specify the database using an Oracle Net connection identifier.

An example using an Easy Connection identifier to connect to the HR schema in the MYDB database running on mymachine is:

sqlplus hr/your_password@\"//mymachine.mydomain:port/MYDB\"

Alternatively you can use a Net Service Name:

sqlplus hr/your_password@MYDB

Net Service Names can be stored in a number of places, including LDAP. The use of LDAP is recommended to take advantage of the new features of Oracle Database 11g. See the Oracle Database Net Services Reference for more information.

If you want to use Net Service Names configured in a local Oracle Net tnsnames.ora file, then set the environment variable TNS_ADMIN to the directory containing the tnsnames.ora file. For example, on UNIX, if your tnsnames.ora file is in /home/user1 and it defines the Net Service Name MYDB2:

TNS_ADMIN=/home/user1
export TNS_ADMIN
sqlplus hr@MYDB2

If TNS_ADMIN is not set, then an operating system dependent set of directories is examined to find tnsnames.ora. This search path includes looking in the directory specified by the ORACLE_HOME environment variable for network/admin/tnsnames.ora. This is the only reason to set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable for SQL*Plus Instant Client. If ORACLE_HOME is set when running Instant Client applications, it must be set to a directory that exists.

This example assumes the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set, and the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora or ORACLE_HOME\network\admin\tnsnames.ora file defines the Net Service Name MYDB3:

sqlplus hr@MYDB3

The TWO_TASK (on UNIX) or LOCAL (on Windows) environment variable can be set to a connection identifier. This removes the need to explicitly enter the connection identifier whenever a connection is made in SQL*Plus or SQL*Plus Instant Client. This UNIX example connects to the database known as MYDB4:

TNS_ADMIN=/home/user1
export TNS_ADMIN
TWO_TASK=MYDB4
export TWO_TASK
sqlplus hr

On Windows, TNS_ADMIN and LOCAL may be set in the System Properties. See Configuring SQL*Plus Instant Client on Windows.

AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER Connections with SQL*Plus Instant Client

To connect AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER to perform DBA tasks, you need to set up an Oracle password file on the database server using the database's orapwd utility. Once this is configured, your SQL*Plus Instant Client connection string might look something like:

sqlplus sys@MYDB AS SYSDBA

See the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information on Oracle password files.

Uninstalling Instant Client

The SQL*Plus Instant Client package can be removed separately from the OCI Instant Client. After uninstalling the SQL*Plus Instant Client package, the remaining OCI Instant Client libraries enable custom written OCI programs or third party database utilities to connect to a database.

Uninstalling SQL*Plus Instant Client

For installations on Linux from RPM packages, use rpm -e only on the SQL*Plus Instant Client package

or

For installations on UNIX and Windows, and installations on Linux from the Client Release media, manually remove the following SQL*Plus specific files:

Table D-4 Instant Client Files in the SQL*Plus Package

UNIX
Windows
Description

sqlplus

sqlplus.exe

SQL*Plus executable

libsqlplus.so

not applicable

SQL*Plus library

libsqlplusic.so

orasqlplusic11.dll

SQL*Plus data shared library

Reset environment variables and remove tnsnames.ora if necessary.

Uninstalling the Complete Instant Client

For installations on Linux from RPM packages, use rpm -qa to find the SQL*Plus Instant Client and Basic OCI package names and run rpm -e to remove them

or

For installations on UNIX and Windows, and installations on Linux from the Client Release media, manually delete the directory containing the SQL*Plus executable and Oracle libraries.

See Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client from the 11g Client Release Media for a list of the files you copied to the directory.

Reset environment variables such as PATH, SQLPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and TNS_ADMIN.

Remove tnsnames.ora if necessary.

Index

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X 

Symbols

-- (comment delimiter), 5.3.3

- (hyphen)

clause, 3.5.1.1

continuing a long SQL*Plus command, 4.6.1.1, 12

. (period), 4.5

/ (slash) command

default logon, 3.5.2, 12

entered at buffer line-number prompt, 4.4.1.2, 12

entered at command prompt, 12

executing current PL/SQL block, 4.5

similar to RUN, 12, 12

usage, 12

# pound sign

overflow indication, 12

SET SQLPREFIX character, 12

$ number format, 6.1.2.2

& (ampersand)

disabling substitution variables, 5.9.4

substitution variables, 5.9

&&, 5.9.2

* (asterisk)

in DEL command, 5.2, 12

in LIST command, 5.2, 12

/*...*/ (comment delimiters), 5.3.2

: (colon)

bind variables, 5.12

:BindVariable clause

EXIT command, 12

; (semicolon), 4.4, 5.2, 12

@ (at sign)

command, 2.2.3.1, 5.4, 12

command arguments, 12, 12

in CONNECT command, 12

in COPY command, B.1, B.2.1

in SQLPLUS command, 3.5

passing parameters to a script, 12, 12

script, 5.4, 12

similar to START, 5.4, 12

@ at sign)

similar to START, 12

@@ (double at sign) command, 2.2.3.1, 12

script, 12

similar to START, 12, 12

_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER predefined variable, 2.2.2.1, 12, 12

_DATE predefined variable, 12, 12

_EDITOR predefined variable, 5.1.1, 12, 12, 12, 12

_EDITOR substitution variable, 12

_EDITOR, in EDIT command, 5.1.1, 12, 12

_O_RELEASE predefined variable, 12, 12

_O_VERSION predefined variable, 12, 12

_PRIVILEGE predefined variable, 12, 12

_RC predefined variable, 12

_SQLPLUS_RELEASE predefined variable, 12, 12, 12

_USER predefined variable, 12, 12

~ infinity sign, 12

-~ negative infinity sign, 12

Numerics

0, number format, 6.1.2.2

9, number format, 6.1.2.2

A

ABORT mode, 12

abort query, 4.8

ACCEPT command, 5.11.1, 12, 12

and DEFINE command, 12

BINARY_DOUBLE clause, 12, 12

BINARY_FLOAT clause, 12, 12

customizing prompts for value, 5.11.2

DATE clause, 12

DEFAULT clause, 12

FORMAT clause, 12

HIDE clause, 12

NOPROMPT clause, 12

NUMBER clause, 5.11.2

PROMPT clause, 5.11.1, 12

access, denying and granting, 9.1

alias, 3.2.2

ALIAS clause, 12, 12

in ATTRIBUTE command, 12

ALL clause, 12

ALTER command

disabling, 9.2

ampersands &(amp;)

in parameters, 5.10, 12, 12, 12

substitution variables, 5.9

ANALYZE command

disabling, 9.2

APPEND clause

in COPY command, B.1.1, B.2.2

in SAVE command, 12, 12

APPEND command, 5.2, 5.2.3, 12

APPINFO clause, 8.5.2, 12

ARCHIVE LOG

command, 10.3.1, 12

mode, 10.3.1

argument

in START command, 5.10

ARRAYSIZE variable, 8.5.3, 12, 12

relationship to COPY command, B.1.2, B.2.3

ASSOCIATE command

disabling, 9.2

ATTRIBUTE command, 12

ALIAS clause, 12

and CLEAR COLUMN command, 12

CLEAR clause, 12

clearing columns, 12, 12

controlling display characteristics, 12

display characteristics, 12

entering multiple, 12

FORMAT clause, 12

LIKE clause, 12

listing attribute display characteristics, 12, 12

OFF clause, 12

ON clause, 12

restoring column display attributes, 12

suppressing column display attributes, 12

AUDIT command

disabling, 9.2

AUTOCOMMIT variable, 4.11, 12, 12

AUTOMATIC clause, 12

AUTOPRINT variable, 12, 12

AUTORECOVERY variable, 12, 12

autotrace report, 8.1.1

AUTOTRACE variable, 8.1.1, 12, 12

B

background process

startup after abnormal termination, 12

BASEURI variable, 12

BASEURI XQUERY option, 12

basic OCI package, D.1.1

batch jobs, authenticating users in, 3.1.1

batch mode, 12

BEGIN command, 4.5

disabling, 9.2

BFILE clause

VARIABLE command, 12

BINARY_DOUBLE clause

ACCEPT command, 12, 12

VARIABLE command, 12

BINARY_FLOAT clause

ACCEPT command, 12, 12

VARIABLE command, 12

bind variables, 5.12

creating, 12

displaying, 12

displaying automatically, 12, 12

in PL/SQL blocks, 12

in SQL statements, 12

in the COPY command, 12

blank line

in PL/SQL blocks, 4.5

in SQL commands, 4.4.1.2

preserving in SQL commands, 12, 12

BLOB

column width, 6.1.3.1

formating in reports, 6.1.3

BLOB clause

VARIABLE command, 12

BLOB columns

default format, 12

setting maximum width, 12, 12

setting retrieval position, 12, 12

setting retrieval size, 8.5.7, 12, 12

blocks, PL/SQL

continuing, 4.5

editing in buffer, 5.2

editing with system editor, 5.1, 12

entering and executing, 4.5

listing current in buffer, 5.2.1

saving current, 12

setting character used to end, 12, 12

stored in SQL buffer, 4.5

timing statistics, 12

within SQL commands, 4.5.1

BLOCKTERMINATOR, 12, 12, 12, 12

BODY clause, 3.5.1.5

BODY option, 3.5.1.5

BOLD clause, 12, 12

break columns, 6.2, 12

inserting space when value changes, 6.2.2

specifying multiple, 6.2.4

suppressing duplicate values in, 6.2.1

BREAK command, 6.2, 12

and SQL ORDER BY clause, 6.2, 6.2.1, 6.2.4, 12

clearing BREAKS, 6.2.5

displaying column values in titles, 6.3.4

DUPLICATES clause, 12

inserting space after every row, 6.2.3

inserting space when break column changes, 6.2.2

listing current break definition, 6.2.5, 12

ON column clause, 6.2.1, 12

ON expr clause, 12

ON REPORT clause, 6.2.7, 12

ON ROW clause, 6.2.3, 12

printing grand and sub summaries, 6.2.7

printing summary lines at ends of reports, 6.2.7

removing definition, 12

SKIP clause, 6.2.3, 12

SKIP PAGE clause, 6.2.2, 6.2.2, 6.2.3, 12

specifying multiple break columns, 6.2.4, 12

suppressing duplicate values, 6.2.1

used in conjunction with COMPUTE, 6.2.6

used in conjunction with SET COLSEP, 12

used to format a REFCURSOR variable, 12

used with COMPUTE, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

break definition

listing current, 6.2.5, 12

removing current, 6.2.5, 12

BREAKS clause, 6.2.5, 12

browser, web, 7.1.1

BTITLE clause, 12

BTITLE command, 6.3.1, 12

aligning title elements, 12

BOLD clause, 12

CENTER clause, 12

COL clause, 12

FORMAT clause, 12

indenting titles, 12

LEFT clause, 12

OFF clause, 12

old form, C.2

printing blank lines before bottom title, 6.3.1.1

referencing column value variable, 12

RIGHT clause, 12

SKIP clause, 12

suppressing current definition, 12

TAB clause, 12

TTITLE command, 12

buffer, 4.1.1

appending text to a line in, 5.2.3, 12

delete a single line, 5.2

delete the current line, 5.2

delete the last line, 5.2

deleting a range of lines, 5.2, 12

deleting a single line, 12

deleting all lines, 5.2, 12, 12

deleting lines from, 5.2.5, 12

deleting the current line, 12

deleting the last line, 12

executing contents, 12, 12

inserting new line in, 5.2.4, 12

listing a range of lines, 5.2, 12

listing a single line, 5.2, 12

listing all lines, 5.2, 12

listing contents, 5.2.1, 12

listing the current line, 5.2, 12

listing the last line, 5.2, 12

loading into system editor, 12

saving contents, 12

BUFFER clause, 5.1.1, 5.2, 12

BUFFER variable, C.6

C

CALL command

disabling, 9.2

CANCEL clause, 12, 12

Cancel key, 4.8

cancel query, 4.8

CENTER clause, 6.3.1.1, 12, 12

CHANGE command, 5.2, 5.2.2, 12

CHAR clause

VARIABLE command, 12

CHAR columns

changing format, 12

default format, 6.1.3.1

definition from DESCRIBE, 12

charset

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.1.2

CLEAR clause, 6.1.5, 12

in ATTRIBUTE command, 12

CLEAR command, 12

BREAKS clause, 6.2.5, 12

BUFFER clause, 5.1.1, 5.2, 12

COLUMNS clause, 12

COMPUTES clause, 12

SCREEN clause, 5.11.4, 12

SQL clause, 12

TIMING clause, 12

CLOB clause

VARIABLE command, 12

CLOB columns

changing format, 12

default format, 12

setting maximum width, 12, 12

setting retrieval position, 12, 12

setting retrieval size, 8.5.7, 12, 12, 12

CLOSECURSOR variable, C.1, C.8

CMDSEP variable, 12, 12

COL clause, 6.3.1.2, 12, 12

colons &(colon;)

bind variables, 5.12

COLSEP variable, 12, 12

COLUMN command, 6.1, 12

ALIAS clause, 12

and BREAK command, 12

and DEFINE command, 12

CLEAR clause, 6.1.5, 12, 12

DEFAULT clause, C.3

displaying column values in bottom titles, 6.3.4, 12

displaying column values in top titles, 6.3.4, 12

entering multiple, 12

ENTMAP clause, 12

FOLD_AFTER clause, 12, 12, 12

FOLD_BEFORE clause, 12, 12

FORMAT clause, 6.1.2.2, 6.1.3.2, 12, 12

formatting a REFCURSOR variable, 12

formatting NUMBER columns, 6.1.2.1, 12

HEADING clause, 6.1.1.2, 12, 12

HEADSEP character, 12

JUSTIFY clause, 12

LIKE clause, 6.1.4, 12, 12

listing column display attributes, 6.1.5, 6.1.5, 12, 12

NEW_VALUE clause, 6.3.4, 12, 12

NEWLINE clause, 12, 12

NOPRINT clause, 6.3.4, 8.5.1, 12

NULL clause, 12, 12

OFF clause, 6.1.6, 12

OLD_VALUE clause, 6.3.4, 12, 12

ON clause, 6.1.6, 12

PRINT clause, 12

resetting a column to default display, C.1

resetting to default display, 6.1.5, 12, C.1

restoring column display attributes, 6.1.6, 12

storing current date in variable for titles, 12

suppressing column display attributes, 6.1.6, 12

TRUNCATED clause, 6.1.3.2, 12

WORD_WRAPPED clause, 6.1.3.2, 6.1.7, 12

WRAPPED clause, 6.1.3.2, 12

column headings

aligning, 12

changing, 6.1.1.1, 12

changing character used to underline, 12, 12

changing to two or more words, 6.1.1.2, 12

displaying on more than one line, 6.1.1.2, 12

suppressing printing in a report, 12, 12

when truncated, 12

when truncated for CHAR and LONG columns, 6.1.3.2

when truncated for DATE columns, 6.1.3.2

when truncated for NUMBER columns, 6.1.2.1

column separator, 12, 12, C.1

columns

assigning aliases, 12

computing summary lines, 6.2.6, 12

copying display attributes, 6.1.4, 12, 12

copying values between tables, B.1, B.2, B.3

displaying values in bottom titles, 6.3.4, 12

displaying values in top titles, 6.3.4, 12

formatting CHAR, VARCHAR, LONG, and DATE, 12

formatting in reports, 6.1, 12

formatting MLSLABEL, RAW MLSLABEL, ROWLABEL, 12

formatting NUMBER, 6.1.2.1, 12

listing display attributes for all, 6.1.5, 12

listing display attributes for one, 6.1.5, 12

names in destination table when copying, B.1.1, B.2.1

printing line after values that overflow, 6.1.7, 12, 12

resetting a column to default display, 6.1.5, 12, C.1, C.1

resetting all columns to default display, 12

restoring display attributes, 6.1.6, 12, 12

setting printing to off or on, 6.3.4, 8.5.1, 12

starting new lines, 12

storing values in variables, 6.3.4, 12

suppressing display attributes, 6.1.6, 12, 12

truncating display for all when value overflows, 6.1.3.2, 12

truncating display for one when value overflows, 6.1.3.2, 12

wrapping display for all when value overflows, 6.1.3.2, 12

wrapping display for one when value overflows, 6.1.3.2, 12

wrapping whole words for one, 6.1.7

COLUMNS clause, 12

comma, number format, 6.1.2.2

command files

aborting and exiting with a return code, 5.6, 12, 12

creating with a system editor, 5.1.1

creating with SAVE, 12, 12

editing with system editor, 12

in @ (at sign) command, 5.4, 12

in EDIT command, 12

in GET command, 12

in SAVE command, 5.1.1, 12

in SQLPLUS command, 3.5.3, 5.4.1

in START command, 5.4, 12

including comments in, 5.3, 12

including more than one PL/SQL block, 5.1.1

including more than one SQL command, 5.1.1

nesting, 5.5

passing parameters to, 5.10, 12, 12, 12

registering, 12, 12

retrieving, 12

running, 5.4, 12, 12

running a series in sequence, 5.5

running as you start SQL*Plus, 3.5.3, 5.4.1

running in batch mode, 5.6, 12

uniform resource locator, 12, 12, 12, 12

command prompt

SET SQLPROMPT, 8.5.10, 12, 12

SQL*Plus, 3.3.1

command-line

configuring globalization support, 11.1

installing help, 2.2.4

command-line interface

changing face and size, 1.2

commands

collecting timing statistics on, 8.2, 12

disabled in schema, 13.1

disabling, 9.2

echo on screen, 12

host, running from SQL*Plus, 4.9, 12

listing current in buffer, 12

re-enabling, 9.2

spaces, 4.1

SQL

continuing on additional lines, 4.4.1.1

editing in buffer, 5.2

editing with system editor, 12

ending, 4.4.1.2

entering and executing, 4.4

entering without executing, 4.4.1.2

executing current, 12, 12

following syntax, 4.4.1

listing current in buffer, 5.2.1

saving current, 12

setting character used to end and run, 12

SQL*Plus

command summary, 12

continuing on additional lines, 4.6.1.1, 12

ending, 4.6.1, 12

entering and executing, 4.6

entering during SQL command entry, 12

obsolete command alternatives, C.1

stopping while running, 4.8

tabs, 4.1

types of, 4.1

variables that affect running, 4.7

COMMENT command

disabling, 9.2

comments

including in command files, C.1

including in scripts, 5.3, 12, C.1

using -- to create, 5.3.3

using /*...*/ to create, 5.3.2

using REMARK, C.1

using REMARK to create, 5.3.1, 12, C.1

COMMIT clause, 12

WHENEVER OSERROR, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR, 12

COMMIT command, 4.11

disabling, 9.2

communication between tiers, Preface

COMPATIBILITY variable, C.1, C.7

compilation errors, 4.5.1, 12, 13.1

COMPUTE command, 6.2, 12

computing a summary on different columns, 6.2.8

LABEL clause, 6.2.6, 6.2.7, 12

listing all definitions, 6.2.9, 12

maximum LABEL length, 12

OF clause, 6.2.6

ON, 12

ON column clause, 6.2.6, 12

ON expr clause, 12

ON REPORT clause, 6.2.7, 12

printing grand and sub summaries, 6.2.7

printing multiple summaries on same column, 6.2.8

printing summary lines at ends of reports, 6.2.7

printing summary lines on a break, 6.2.6

referencing a SELECT expression in OF, 12

referencing a SELECT expression in ON, 12

removing definitions, 6.2.9, 12

used to format a REFCURSOR variable, 12

COMPUTES clause, 12

CONCAT variable, 5.9.4, 5.9.4, 12, 12, 12, 12

configuration

globalization support

configuring

Oracle Net, 2.2.5

SQL*Plus, 2

CONNECT / feature, 3.1.1

CONNECT command, 3.1, 12

and @ (at sign), 12

changing password, 12, 12, 12

SYSDBA clause, 3.5.2, 12, 12

SYSOPER clause, 3.5.2, 12

username/password, 12

connect identifier, 12

in CONNECT command, 12

in COPY command, B.1

in DESCRIBE command, 12

in SQLPLUS command, 3.5.2

connection identifier, 3.2.1

easy or abbreviated, 3.2.3

full, 3.2.2

net service name, 3.2.2

CONTEXT variable, 12

CONTEXT XQUERY option, 12

CONTINUE clause

WHENEVER OSERROR, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR, 12

continuing a long SQL*Plus command, 4.6.1.1, 12

COPY command, 12, B.1, B.2

and @ (at sign), B.1, B.2.1

and ARRAYSIZE variable, B.1.2, B.2.3

and COPYCOMMIT variable, B.1.2, B.2.3

and LONG variable, B.1.2, B.2.3

APPEND clause, B.1.1, B.2.2

copying data between databases, B.2

copying data between tables on one database, B.3

CREATE clause, B.1.1, B.2.2

creating a table, B.1.1, B.2.2, B.2.2

destination table, B.1.1, B.2.1

determining actions, B.2.1

determining source rows and columns, B.1.1, B.2.1

error messages, 13.2

FROM clause, B.2.1

INSERT clause, B.1.1, B.2.2

inserting data in a table, B.1.1, B.2.2, B.2.2

interpreting messages, B.2.3

mandatory connect identifier, B.1.1

naming the source table with SELECT, B.1.1, B.2.1

query, B.1.1, B.2.1

referring to another user's table, B.2.4

REPLACE clause, B.1.1, B.2.2

replacing data in a table, B.1.1, B.2.2

sample command, B.2.1, B.2.1

service name, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.3

specifying columns for destination, B.1.1, B.2.1

specifying the data to copy, B.1.1, B.2.1

TO clause, B.2.1

username/password, B.1.1, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.3

USING clause, B.1.1, B.2.1

COPYCOMMIT variable, 12, 12

relationship to COPY command, B.1.2, B.2.3

COPYTYPECHECK variable, 12, 12

CREATE clause

in COPY command, B.1.1, B.2.2

CREATE command

disabling, 9.2

entering PL/SQL, 4.5.1

creating a PLAN_TABLE, 8.1.1

creating flat files, 6.4.1

creating PLUSTRACE role, 8.1.1

creating sample tables, Preface

creating the PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table, 9.1.1

cursor variables, 12

D

database

administrator, 10.1

connect identifier, 12

mounting, 12, 12

opening, 12, 12

database changes, saving automatically, 12, 12

DATABASE clause, 12

database files

recovering, 12

database name at startup, 12

database schema, 8.1.1

default, 12

DESCRIBE parameter, 12

SHOW, 12, 12

databases

connecting to default, 12

connecting to remote, 12

copying data between, B.1, B.2

copying data between tables on a single, B.3

disconnecting without leaving SQL*Plus, 3.1, 12

mounting, 10.2.1

opening, 10.2.1

recovering, 10.4, 12

shutting down, 10.2, 10.2.2

starting, 10.2

DATAFILE clause, 12

DATE

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

DATE clause, 12

DATE columns

changing format, 12, 12

default format, 6.1.3.1

date, storing current in variable for titles, 6.3.5, 12, 12

DB2, 12, 12

DBA, 10.1

mode, 12

privilege, 12

DBMS output, 8.5.9, 12

DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO package, 8.5.2, 12, 12

DECLARE command

disabling, 9.2

PL/SQL, 4.5

DEFAULT clause, 12

DEFINE command, 5.7, 12

and system editor, 5.1.1, 12

and UNDEFINE command, 5.7, 12

CHAR values, 12

SET DEFINE ON|OFF, 12, 12

substitution variables, 12

DEFINE variable

See substitution variable

DEL command, 5.2, 5.2.5, 12

using an asterisk, 5.2, 12

DELETE command

disabling, 9.2

DESCRIBE command (SQL*Plus), 4.2, 12

connect_identifier, 12

PL/SQL properties listed by, 12

table properties listed by, 12

DISABLED keyword, disabling commands, 9.1.3

disabling

PL/SQL commands, 9.2

SQL commands, 9.2

SQL*Plus commands, 9.2

DISASSOCIATE command

disabling, 9.2

DISCONNECT command, 3.1, 12

DOCUMENT command, C.1, C.4

REMARK as newer version of, C.4, C.4

DOCUMENT variable, C.1, C.9

DROP command

disabling, 9.2

DUPLICATES clause, 12

E

ECHO

SET command, 12

ECHO variable, 5.4, 12, 12

Ed on UNIX, 12

EDIT command, 5.1.1, 12, 12, 12

creating scripts with, 5.1.1

defining _EDITOR, 12

modifying scripts, 12

setting default file name, 12, 12

EDITFILE variable, 12, 12

edition, 3.5.2, 12

in CONNECT command, 12

in SQLPLUS command, 3.5.2, 3.5.2

EDITOR operating system variable, 12

EMBEDDED variable, 12, 12

entities, HTML, 7.1.3

ENTMAP, 3.5.1.5

ENTMAP clause, 3.5.1.5, 7.1.3, 12

environment variables

LD_LIBRARY_PATH, 2.1

LOCAL, 2.1

NLS_LANG, 2.1

ORA_EDITION, 2.1

ORA_NLS10, 2.1

ORACLE_HOME, 2.1

ORACLE_PATH, 2.1

ORACLE_SID, 2.1

PATH, 2.1

SQL*Plus, 2.1

SQLPATH, 2.1

TNS_ADMIN, 2.1

TWO_TASK, 2.1

error

SQL*Plus Instant Client unsupported charset, D.1.2.1

error messages

COPY command, 13.2

interpreting, 4.12

sqlplus, 13.1

ERRORLOGGING variable, 12

errors

compilation errors, 4.5.1, 12, 13.1

making line containing current, 5.2.2

escape characters, definition of, 12, 12

ESCAPE variable, 5.9.4, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

ESCCHAR variable, 12

example

interactive HTML report, 7.1.1, 7.1.1

EXECUTE command, 12

executing

a CREATE command, 4.5.1

execution plan, 8.1.2

execution statistics

including in report, 12

EXIT clause

WHENEVER OSERROR, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR, 12

EXIT command, 3.4, 12

:BindVariable clause, 12

COMMIT clause, 12

FAILURE clause, 12

in a script, 12

ROLLBACK clause, 12

use with SET MARKUP, 7.1.1

WARNING clause, 12

exit, conditional, 12

EXITCOMMIT variable, 12

EXPLAIN command

disabling, 9.2

extension, 12, 12, 12

F

FAILURE clause, 12

features

new, Preface

FEEDBACK variable, 12, 12

file extensions, 2.2.3, 12, 12, 12

file names

in @ (at sign) command, 12

in @@ (double at sign) command, 12

in EDIT command, 12

in GET command, 12

in SAVE command, 12

in SPOOL command, 6.4.2, 12

in SQLPLUS command, 3.5.3

files

flat, 6.4.1

required for SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.2.3

FLAGGER variable, 12, 12

FLASHBACK command

disabling, 9.2

flat file, 6.4.1

FLUSH variable, 8.5.5, 12, 12

FOLD_AFTER clause, 12

FOLD_BEFORE clause, 12

font

changing face and size in command-line, 1.2

footers

aligning elements, 12

displaying at bottom of page, 12

displaying system-maintained values, 12

formatting elements, 12

indenting, 12

listing current definition, 12

setting at the end of reports, 6.3

suppressing definition, 12

FORCE clause, 12

FORMAT clause, 12, 12

in ATTRIBUTE command, 12

in COLUMN command, 6.1.2.2, 6.1.3.2

in REPHEADER and REPFOOTER commands, 12

in TTITLE and BTITLE commands, 6.3.2, 12

format models, number, 6.1.2.2, 12

formfeed, to begin a new page, 6.3.6, 12

FROM clause, 12, B.2.1

G

GET command, 12

LIST clause, 12

NOLIST clause, 12

retrieving scripts, 12

globalization support

Oracle10g, 11.3

glogin

profile, 12

See also login.sql

site profile, 2.2, 2.2.1, 2.2.2.1, 3.5.1.7, 12

GRANT command, 9.1

disabling, 9.2

H

HEAD clause, 3.5.1.5

HEAD option, 3.5.1.5

headers

aligning elements, 6.3.1.1

displaying at top of page, 12

displaying system-maintained values, 12

setting at the start of reports, 6.3

suppressing, 6.3.1

HEADING clause, 6.1.1.2, 12

HEADING variable, 12

headings

aligning elements, 12

column headings, 12

formatting elements, 12

indenting, 12

listing current definition, 12

suppressing definition, 12

HEADSEP variable, 12, 12

use in COLUMN command, 6.1.1.2

help

installing command-line, 2.2.4

online, 3.3.2, 12

HELP command, ? command, 12

HIDE clause, 12

HOST command, 4.9, 12

HTML, 7.1.1

clause, 3.5.1.5

entities, 7.1.3

option, 3.5.1.5

spooling to file, 3.5.1.5

tag, 7.1

hyphen

continuing a long SQL*Plus command, 4.6.1.1, 12

I

IMMEDIATE mode, 12

infinity sign (~), 12

initialization parameters

displaying, 12, 12

INIT.ORA file

parameter file, 12

input

accepting [Return], 5.11.3

accepting values from the user, 5.11.1, 12

INPUT command, 5.2, 5.2.4, 12

entering several lines, 12

INSERT clause, B.1.1, B.2.2

INSERT command

disabling, 9.2

installation

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D

SQL*Plus Instant Client by copying, D.1

SQL*Plus Instant Client by copying from 10g Client, D.3

SQL*Plus Instant Client by download from OTN, D.1, D.2

SQL*Plus Instant Client on Linux, D.2.1

SQL*Plus Instant Client on UNIX or Windows, D.2.2

SQL*Plus Instant Client UNIX and Linux files to copy, D.3.1

SQL*Plus Instant Client Windows files to copy, D.3.2

installation by copying, D.1

installation by copying from 10g Client, D.3

installation by download from OTN, D.1, D.2

installation on Linux, D.2.1

installation on UNIX or Windows, D.2.2

installation, UNIX and Linux files to copy, D.3.1

installation, Windows files to copy, D.3.2

INSTANCE variable, 12, 12

instances

shutting down, 12

starting, 12

Instant Client

SQL*Plus, D

Instant Client packages, D.1

J

Japanese

JUSTIFY clause, 12, 12

L

LABEL variable

SHOW command, C.1

labels

in COMPUTE command, 6.2.6, 12

language

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.1.2

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

environment variables, 2.1

LEFT clause, 6.3.1.1, 12, 12

lightweight OCI package, D.1.2

LIKE clause, 6.1.4, 12, 12

limits, SQL*Plus, A

lines

adding at beginning of buffer, 12

adding at end of buffer, 12

adding new after current, 5.2.4, 12

appending text to, 5.2.3, 12

changing width, 6.3.6, 8.5.6, 12, 12

deleting all in buffer, 12

deleting from buffer, 5.2.5, 12

determining which is current, 5.2.2

editing current, 5.2.2

listing all in buffer, 5.2, 12

removing blanks at end, 12

LINESIZE variable, 6.3.1.1, 6.3.6, 12, 12

Linux

installing SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.2.1

SQL*Plus Instant Client files to copy, D.3.1

LIST clause, 12, 12

LIST command, 5.2, 12

determining current line, 5.2.2, 12

making last line current, 5.2.2, 12

using an asterisk, 5.2, 12

LNO clause, 12

LOBOFFSET variable, 12, 12

LOCAL

environment variables, 2.1

LOCK TABLE command

disabling, 9.2

LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST parameter, 12

LOGFILE clause, 12

logging off

conditionally, 12, 12

Oracle Database, 3.1, 12

SQL*Plus, 3.4, 12

logging on

Oracle Database, 12

SQL*Plus, 3.3.1

login

user profile, 2.2.2.1

login.sql, 2.2.2

LONG

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

LONG columns

changing format, 12

default format, 12

setting maximum width, 12, 12, 12

setting retrieval size, 8.5.7, 8.5.7, 12, 12, 12

LONG variable, 12, 12

effect on COPY command, B.1.2, B.2.3

LONGCHUNKSIZE variable, 6.1.3.1, 12, 12, 12, 12

LONGRAW

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

M

-MARKUP, 3.5.1.5, 3.5.1.5, 7.1, 7.1, 12

BODY clause, 3.5.1.5

ENTMAP clause, 3.5.1.5

HEAD clause, 3.5.1.5

PREFORMAT clause, 3.5.1.5

SQLPLUS command clause, 3.5.1.5

TABLE clause, 3.5.1.5

MAXDATA variable, C.1, C.10

media recovery, 12

MERGE command

disabling, 9.2

message, sending to screen, 5.11.1, 12

MOUNT clause, 12

mounting a database, 12

N

national language support

See also globalization support

NCHAR clause

VARIABLE command, 12

NCHAR columns

changing format, 12

default format, 6.1.3.1, 6.1.3.1, 12

NCLOB clause

VARIABLE command, 12

NCLOB columns

changing format, 12

default format, 12

setting maximum width, 12, 12

setting retrieval position, 12, 12

setting retrieval size, 8.5.7, 12, 12, 12

negative infinity sign (-~), 12

net service name, 3.2.1, 3.2.2

new features, Preface

NEW_VALUE clause, 6.3.4, 12

storing current date in variable for titles, 12

NEWLINE clause, 12

NEWPAGE command, C.1, C.5

NEWPAGE variable, 6.3.6, 12, 12

NLS

NLS_DATE_FORMAT, 12, 12

NLS_LANG

charset parameter for Instant Client, D.1.2

environment variables, 2.1

language parameter for Instant Client, D.1.2

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.1.2

territory parameter for Instant Client, D.1.2

NOAUDIT command

disabling, 9.2

NODE variable, 12

NODE XQUERY option, 12

NOLIST clause, 12

NOLOG, 3.2.4, 3.5.2

NOMOUNT clause, 12

NONE clause

WHENEVER OSERROR, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR, 12

NOPARALLEL clause, 12

NOPRINT clause, 6.2.6, 6.3.4, 8.5.1, 12

NOPROMPT clause, 12

NORMAL mode, 12

Notepad on Windows, 12

NULL clause, 12

null values

setting text displayed, 12, 12, 12

NULL variable, 12, 12

NUMBER

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

NUMBER clause, 5.11.2

VARIABLE command, 12

NUMBER columns

changing format, 6.1.2.1, 12

default format, 6.1.2.1, 12

number formats

$, 6.1.2.2

0, 6.1.2.2

9, 6.1.2.2

comma, 6.1.2.2

setting default, 5.9.4, 5.9.4, 12, 12

NUMFORMAT clause

in LOGIN.SQL, 2.2.2.1

NUMFORMAT variable, 12, 12

NUMWIDTH variable, 12, 12

effect on NUMBER column format, 6.1.2.1, 12

NVARCHAR2 columns

changing format, 12

default format, 6.1.3.1, 12

O

objects, describing, 12

obsolete commands

BTITLE, C.2

COLUMN command DEFAULT clause, C.3

DOCUMENT, C.1, C.4

NEWPAGE, C.1, C.5

SET command BUFFER variable, C.6

SET command CLOSECURSOR variable, C.1, C.8

SET command COMPATIBILITY variable, C.1, C.7

SET command DOCUMENT variable, C.1, C.9

SET command MAXDATA variable, C.1, C.10

SET command SCAN variable, C.1, C.11

SET command SPACE variable, C.1, C.12

SET command TRUNCATE variable, C.1, C.13

SHOW command LABEL variable, C.1

TTITLE command old form, C.14

OCI Instant Client, D

OCI package

basic, D.1.1

lightweight, D.1.2

OF clause, 6.2.6

OFF clause, 12

in ATTRIBUTE command, 12

in COLUMN command, 6.1.6, 12

in REPFOOTER commands, 12

in REPHEADER commands, 12

in SPOOL command, 6.4, 12

in TTITLE and BTITLE commands, 6.3.3, 12

OLD_VALUE clause, 6.3.4, 12

ON clause

in ATTRIBUTE command, 12

in COLUMN command, 6.1.6, 12

in TTITLE and BTITLE commands, 6.3.3

ON column clause

in BREAK command, 12

in COMPUTE command, 6.2.6, 12

ON expr clause

in BREAK command, 12

in COMPUTE command, 12

ON REPORT clause

in BREAK command, 6.2.7, 12

in COMPUTE command, 6.2.7, 12

ON ROW clause

in BREAK command, 6.2.3, 12

in COMPUTE command, 12

online help, 3.3.2, 3.3.2, 12

OPEN clause, 12

opening a database, 12

operating system

editor, 5.1.1, 12, 12

file, loading into buffer, 12

running commands from SQL*Plus, 4.9, 12

text editor, 5.1.1

ORA_EDITION

environment variables, 2.1

ORA_NLS10

environment variables, 2.1

Oracle Application Editions

edition, 3.5.2

Oracle Database Client, D

Oracle Net

configuring, 2.2.5

connect identifier, 12

Oracle Session Editions

edition, 12

ORACLE_HOME

environment variables, 2.1

ORACLE_PATH

environment variables, 2.1

ORACLE_SID

environment variables, 2.1

Oracle10g

globalization support, 11.3

ORDER BY clause

displaying column values in titles, 6.3.4

displaying values together in output, 6.2

ORDERING variable, 12

ORDERING XQUERY option, 12

OUT clause, 6.4.3, 12

output

formatting white space in, 8.5.11, 12

pausing during display, 4.10, 12

P

packages

SQL*Plus and OCI for Instant Client, D.1

PAGE clause, 12

page number, including in titles, 6.2.4, 6.3.2

pages

changing length, 6.3.6, 8.5.8, 12, 12

default dimensions, 6.3.6

matching to screen or paper size, 6.3.6

setting dimensions, 6.3.6

PAGESIZE clause

in LOGIN.SQL, 2.2.2.1

PAGESIZE variable, 4.4, 6.3.6, 8.5.8, 12, 12

parameter, 5.10, 12, 12, 12

SQLPATH, 2.1.1

parameter files (INIT.ORA files)

specifying alternate, 12

PARAMETERS clause, 12, 12

password

changing with the PASSWORD command, 12

in CONNECT command, 3.1, 12

in COPY command, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.3

in SQLPLUS command, 3.3.1, 3.5.2

viewable warning, 3.5.2

PASSWORD command, 12, 12

PATH

environment variables, 2.1

PAUSE command, 5.11.3, 12

PAUSE variable, 4.10, 12, 12

performance

of SQL statements, 8.1

over dial-up lines, 12

period (.)

terminating PL/SQL blocks, 4.5, 12, 12

PLAN_TABLE

creating, 8.1.1

table, 8.1.1

PL/SQL, 4.5

blocks, PL/SQL, 4.5

executing, 12

formatting output in SQL*Plus, 12

listing definitions, 4.3

mode in SQL*Plus, 4.5.1

within SQL commands, 4.5.1

PLUSTRACE

creating role, 8.1.1

role, 8.1.1

PNO clause, 12

pound sign (#), 12

predefined variable

_CONNECT_IDENTIFIER, 2.2.2.1, 12, 12

_DATE, 12, 12

_EDITOR, 5.1.1, 12, 12, 12, 12

_O_RELEASE, 12, 12

_O_VERSION, 12, 12

_PRIVILEGE, 12, 12

_RC, 12

_SQLPLUS_RELEASE, 12, 12, 12

_USER, 12, 12

PREFORMAT, 3.5.1.5

PREFORMAT clause, 3.5.1.5

PRINT clause, 12

PRINT command, 12

printing

bind variables automatically, 12

REFCURSOR variables, 12

SPOOL command, 12

Product User Profile table, 9.1

prompt

SET SQLPROMPT, 8.5.10, 12, 12

PROMPT clause, 5.11.1, 12

PROMPT command, 5.11.1, 12

customizing prompts for value, 5.11.2

prompts for value

bypassing with parameters, 5.10

customizing, 5.11.2

through ACCEPT, 5.11.1

through substitution variables, 5.9.1

PUPBLD.SQL, 9.1.1

PURGE command

disabling, 9.2

Q

queries

in COPY command, B.1.1, B.2.1

show number of records retrieved, 4.4, 12, 12

tracing, 8.3, 8.4

query execution path

including in report, 12

query results

displaying on-screen, 4.4

sending to a printer, 6.4.3, 12

storing in a file, 6.4.2, 12

QUIT command, 12

See also EXIT

R

RAW

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

record separators, printing, 6.1.7, 12, 12

RECOVER clause, 12

RECOVER command, 12

and database recovery, 10.4

AUTOMATIC clause, 12

CANCEL clause, 12, 12

CONTINUE clause, 12

DATABASE clause, 12

FROM clause, 12

LOGFILE clause, 12

NOPARALLEL clause, 12

STANDBY DATABASE clause, 12

STANDBY DATAFILE clause, 12

STANDBY TABLESPACE clause, 12, 12

UNTIL CANCEL clause, 12

UNTIL CONTROLFILE clause, 12

UNTIL TIME clause, 12

USING BACKUP CONTROL FILE clause, 12

recovery

RECOVER command, 12

RECSEP variable, 6.1.7, 12, 12

RECSEPCHAR variable, 6.1.7, 12, 12

REFCURSOR bind variables

in a stored function, 5.13

REFCURSOR clause

VARIABLE command, 12

registry

editor, 2.1.1

registry entry

SQLPATH, 2.1, 2.1.1

RELEASE clause, 12

REMARK command, 5.3.1, 12

removing sample tables, Preface

RENAME command

disabling, 9.2

REPFOOTER clause, 12

REPFOOTER command, 6.3.1, 12

aligning footer elements, 12

BOLD clause, 12

CENTER clause, 12

COL clause, 12

FORMAT clause, 12

indenting report footers, 12

LEFT clause, 12

OFF clause, 12

RIGHT clause, 12

SKIP clause, 12

suppressing current definition, 12

TAB clause, 12

REPHEADER clause, 12

REPHEADER command, 6.3.1, 12

aligning header elements, 6.3.1.1

aligning heading elements, 12

BOLD clause, 12

CENTER clause, 12

COL clause, 12

FORMAT clause, 12

indenting headings, 12

LEFT clause, 12

OFF clause, 12

PAGE clause, 12

RIGHT clause, 12

SKIP clause, 12

suppressing current definition, 12

TAB clause, 12

REPLACE clause

in COPY command, B.1.1, B.2.2

in SAVE command, 12, 12

reports

autotrace, 8.1.1

breaks, 12

clarifying with spacing and summary lines, 6.2

columns, 12

creating bottom titles, 6.3, 12, C.1, C.1

creating footers, 12

creating headers, 12

creating headers and footers, 6.3

creating master/detail, 6.3.4, 12, 12

creating top titles, 6.3, 12, C.1

displaying, 12, 12

formatting column headings, 6.1.1.2, 12

formatting columns, 6.1.2.1, 6.1.3.1, 12

interactive HTML example, 7.1.1, 7.1.1

on the web, 7.1

SILENT mode, 7.1.2

starting on a new page, 12

title, 12, C.1

RESTRICT, 3.5.1.7, 9.4, 12

return code, specifying, 5.6, 12, 12

REVOKE command, 9.1

disabling, 9.2

RIGHT clause, 6.3.1.1, 12, 12

roles, 9.3

disabling, 9.3.2

re-enabling, 9.3.2

ROLLBACK clause, 12

WHENEVER OSERROR, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR, 12

ROLLBACK command

disabling, 9.2

ROWID

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

rows

performing computations on, 6.2.6, 12

setting number retrieved at one time, 8.5.3, 12, 12

setting the number after which COPY commits, 12

RUN command, 12

executing current PL/SQL block, 4.5

making last line current, 5.2.2

similar to / (slash) command, 12

S

sample schemas, Preface, Preface, Preface, Preface, Preface

see Oracle Database Sample Schemas guide, Preface

using HR in COLUMN example, 12

using HR in examples, 5, 6

sample tables

access to, Preface

creating, Preface

removing, Preface

unlocking, Preface

SAVE command, 12

APPEND clause, 12

CREATE clause, 12

REPLACE clause, 12

storing commands in scripts, 12

using with INPUT to create scripts, 5.1.1

SAVEPOINT command

disabling, 9.2

saving environment attributes, 12

SCAN variable, C.1, C.11

schemas

command, 13.1

database, 8.1.1

database default, 12

DESCRIBE parameter, 12

disabled commands, 13.1

HR sample, Preface, Preface

installing own copy of HR, Preface

sample, Preface

SHOW parameter, 12, 12

unlocking HR, Preface

using HR in COLUMN example, 12

using HR in examples, 5, 6

SCREEN clause, 5.11.4, 12

screens

clearing, 5.11.4, 12

scripts

extension, 12, 12, 12

registering, 8.5.2

scripts, authenticating users in, 3.1.1

security

changing password, 12

password viewable, 3.5.2

PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table, 9.1

RESTRICT, 3.5.1.7, 9.4

SELECT command

and BREAK command, 6.2, 12, 12, 12

and COLUMN command, 12

and COMPUTE command, 6.2

and COPY command, B.1.1, B.2.1

and DEFINE command, 12

and ORDER BY clause, 6.2

disabling, 9.2

formatting results, 5.13

semicolon (;)

in PL/SQL blocks, 4.5

in SQL commands, 4.4, 4.4.1.2

in SQL*Plus commands, 4.6.1, 12

not stored in buffer, 5.2.1

SERVEROUTPUT variable, 12

service name

in COPY command, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.3

Session Editions, 12

SET AUTOTRACE, 8.1.1

SET clause, 12

SET command, 2.2.3, 4.7, 12

APPINFO variable, 8.5.2, 12

ARRAYSIZE variable, 8.5.3, 12, 12, B.2.3

AUTOCOMMIT variable, 12, 12

AUTOPRINT variable, 12, 12, 12

AUTORECOVERY variable, 12, 12

AUTOTRACE variable, 12, 12

BLOCKTERMINATOR variable, 12, 12

BUFFER variable, C.6

CLOSECURSOR variable, C.1, C.8

CMDSEP variable, 12, 12

COLSEP variable, 6.4.1, 12, 12

COMPATIBILITY variable, C.1, C.7

CONCAT variable, 5.9.4, 5.9.4, 12, 12

COPYCOMMIT variable, 12, 12, B.2.3

COPYTYPECHECK variable, 12, 12

DEFINE clause, 5.9.4

DEFINE variable, 12

DESCRIBE variable, 12, 12

DOCUMENT variable, C.1, C.9

ECHO variable, 12, 12

EDITFILE variable, 12, 12

EMBEDDED variable, 12, 12

ERRORLOGGING variable, 12

ESCAPE variable, 5.9.4, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

ESCCHAR variable, 12

EXITCOMMIT variable, 12

FEEDBACK variable, 12, 12

FLAGGER variable, 12, 12

FLUSH variable, 8.5.5, 12, 12

HEADING variable, 12

HEADSEP variable, 6.1.1.2, 12, 12

INSTANCE variable, 12, 12

LINESIZE variable, 6.3.1.1, 6.3.6, 12, 12

LOBOFFSET variable, 12, 12

LOGSOURCE variable, 12, 12

LONG variable, 12, 12, B.2.3

LONGCHUNKSIZE variable, 12, 12

MARKUP clause, 12

MAXDATA variable, C.1, C.10

NEWPAGE variable, 6.3.6, 12, 12

NULL variable, 12, 12

NUMFORMAT clause, 2.2.2.1

NUMFORMAT variable, 12, 12

NUMWIDTH variable, 6.1.2.1, 12, 12, 12

PAGESIZE clause, 2.2.2.1

PAGESIZE variable, 4.4, 6.3.6, 8.5.8, 12, 12

PAUSE variable, 12, 12

RECSEP variable, 6.1.7, 12, 12

RECSEPCHAR variable, 6.1.7, 12, 12

SCAN variable, C.1, C.11

SERVEROUTPUT variable, 12

SHIFTINOUT variable, 12, 12

SPACE variable, C.1, C.12

SQLBLANKLINES variable, 12

SQLCASE variable, 12, 12

SQLCONTINUE variable, 12, 12

SQLNUMBER variable, 12, 12

SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY variable, 12, 12

SQLPREFIX variable, 12, 12

SQLPROMPT variable, 8.5.10, 12, 12

SQLTERMINATOR variable, 12, 12

substitution variable, 12

SUFFIX variable, 12, 12

TAB variable, 8.5.11, 12, 12

TERMOUT variable, 8.5.12, 12, 12

TIME variable, 12, 12

TIMING variable, 12, 12

TRIMOUT variable, 12, 12

TRIMSPOOL variable, 12, 12

TRUNCATE variable, C.1, C.13

UNDERLINE variable, 12, 12

used to format a REFCURSOR variable, 12

VERIFY clause, 5.9.1

VERIFY variable, 5.9.4, 5.9.4, 12, 12

WRAP variable, 6.1.3.2, 12, 12

XMLOPTIMIZATIONCHECK variable, 12, 12

XQUERY BASEURI variable, 12

XQUERY CONTEXT variable, 12

XQUERY NODE variable, 12

XQUERY ORDERING variable, 12

SET CONSTRAINTS command

disabling, 9.2

SET MARKUP

BODY clause, 3.5.1.5

ENTMAP clause, 3.5.1.5, 7.1.3

HEAD clause, 3.5.1.5

HTML, 3.5.1.5

interactive HTML example, 7.1.1, 7.1.1

PREFORMAT clause, 3.5.1.5

TABLE clause, 3.5.1.5

SET ROLE command

disabling, 9.2

SET system variable summary, 12

SET TRANSACTION command

disabling, 9.2

SET variables, 4.7

See system variables

SET XQUERY BASEURI, 12

SET XQUERY CONTEXT, 12

SET XQUERY NODE, 12

SET XQUERY ORDERING, 12

SGA clause, 12

SHIFTINOUT variable, 12, 12

SHOW

schema parameter, 12, 12

SHOW clause, 12

SHOW command, 4.7, 12

ALL clause, 12

BTITLE clause, 12

ERRORS clause, 12

LABEL variable, C.1

listing current page dimensions, 6.3.6

LNO clause, 12

PNO clause, 12

RELEASE clause, 12

REPFOOTER clause, 12

REPHEADER clause, 12

SPOOL clause, 12

SQLCODE clause, 12

TTITLE clause, 12

USER clause, 12

XQUERY clause, 12

SHOWMODE variable, 12, 12

SHUTDOWN command, 12, 12

ABORT, 12

IMMEDIATE, 12

NORMAL, 12

TRANSACTIONAL LOCAL, 12

-SILENT option, 3.5.1.8, 7.1.2

site profile

glogin, 2.2, 2.2.1, 2.2.2.1, 3.5.1.7, 12, 12

SKIP clause

in BREAK command, 6.2.2, 6.2.3, 12

in REPHEADER and REPFOOTER commands, 12

in TTITLE and BTITLE commands, 6.3.1.1, 12

used to place blank lines before bottom title, 6.3.1.1

SKIP PAGE clause, 6.2.2, 6.2.3, 12

slash (/) command, 12

files loaded with GET command, 12

SPACE variable, C.1, C.12

SPOOL clause, 3.5.1.5, 12

SPOOL command, 6.3.6, 12

APPEND clause, 12

CREATE clause, 12

file name, 6.4.2, 12

OFF clause, 6.4, 12

OUT clause, 6.4.3, 12

REPLACE clause, 12

to HTML file, 3.5.1.5

turning spooling off, 6.4, 12

use with SET MARKUP, 7.1.1

SQL clause, 12

SQL DML statements

reporting on, 12, 12

SQL optimizer, 8.1.2

SQL*Plus

command prompt, 3.3.1

command summary, 12

configuring globalization support, 11.1

configuring Oracle Net, 2.2.5

database administration, 10.1

environment variables, 2.1

error messages, 13.1

execution plan, 8.1.2

exiting, 3.4, 12, 12

limits, A

obsolete command alternatives, C.1

setting up environment, 2.2

starting, 3.3, 3.3.1, 3.5

statistics, 8.1.3

system variables affecting performance, 8.5

tuning, 8.1

who can use, Preface

SQL*Plus and OCI packages, D.1

SQL*Plus command-line vs SQL*Plus Instant Client, D

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D, D, D.1, D.1, D.2, D.2.1, D.2.2, D.3, D.3.1, D.3.2

basic, D.1.1

installation, D

lightweight, D.1.2

NLS_LANG, D.1.2

NLS_LANG charset parameter, D.1.2

NLS_LANG language parameter, D.1.2

NLS_LANG territory parameter, D.1.2

required files in packages, D.2.3

unsupported charset error, D.1.2.1

SQLBLANKLINES variable, 12, 12

SQLCASE variable, 12, 12

SQLCODE clause, 12

SHOW command, 12

SQLCONTINUE variable, 12, 12

SQL.PNO, referencing in report titles, 6.3.2

SQLNUMBER variable, 12, 12, 12, 12

SQLPATH

environment variables, 2.1

registry entry, 2.1, 2.1.1

SQLPLUS command, 3.3.1

- clause, 3.5.1.1

-? clause, 3.5.1.2

and @ (at sign), 3.5

and EXIT FAILURE, 3.4

Application Editions, 3.5.2

BODY option, 3.5.1.5

commands

SQLPLUS, 3.5

connect identifier, 3.5.2

display syntax, 3.5.1.1

edition, 3.5.2

ENTMAP option, 3.5.1.5

HEAD option, 3.5.1.5

HTML option, 3.5.1.5

-MARKUP clause, 3.5.1.5

-MARKUP option, 3.5.1.5

/NOLOG clause, 3.5.2

PREFORMAT option, 3.5.1.5

RESTRICT, 3.5.1.7, 9.4

service name, 3.5.2

-SILENT clause, 3.5.1.8

-SILENT option, 3.5.1.8, 7.1.2

SPOOL clause, 3.5.1.5

syntax, 3.5

SYSDBA clause, 3.5.2

TABLE option, 3.5.1.5

unsuccessful connection, 3.4

username/password, 3.3.1, 3.5.2

SQLPREFIX variable, 12, 12

SQLPROMPT variable, 8.5.10, 12, 12

SQL.SQLCODE

using in EXIT command, 12

SQLTERMINATOR variable, 12, 12, 12, 12

STANDBY DATAFILE clause, 12

STANDBY TABLESPACE clause, 12

START clause, 12

START command, 5.4, 12

arguments, 5.10

passing parameters to a script, 5.10

script, 5.4, 12

similar to @ (at sign) command, 5.4, 12, 12

similar to @@ (double at sign) command, 12

starting

SQL*Plus, 1.1, 3.3, 3.3.1

STARTUP command, 12

FORCE clause, 12

MOUNT clause, 12

NOMOUNT clause, 12

OPEN clause, 12

PFILE clause, 12

RECOVER clause, 12

RESTRICT clause, 12

specifying a database, 12

statistics, 8.1.3

collecting TIMING statistics, 8.2

STOP clause, 12

stop query, 4.8

STORE command, 2.2.3, 12

SET clause, 12

stored functions, 5.13

stored procedures

creating, 4.5.1

subkey, registry, 2.1.1

substitution variables, 5.7, 5.9, 5.9.4, 12, 12

_EDITOR, 12

appending characters immediately after, 5.9.1

avoiding unnecessary prompts for value, 5.9.2

concatenation character, 12, 12

DEFINE command, 12

defining, 5.7, 5.9.2, 12

deleting, 5.7, 12

displaying in headers and footers, 12

displaying in titles, 12

in ACCEPT command, 5.11.1, 12

listing definitions, 5.7, 5.7, 12, 12

parsing, 8.5.4

prefixing, 12, C.1

related system variables, 5.9.4

restrictions, 5.9.3

single and double ampersands, 5.9.2

system variables used with, 5.9.4

undefined, 5.9.1

where and how to use, 5.9.1

SUFFIX variable, 12, 12

used with EDIT command, 12

used with GET command, 12

used with SAVE command, 12

used with START command, 12

SUM function, 6.2.6

summary lines

computing and printing, 6.2.6, 12

computing and printing at ends of reports, 6.2.7

computing same type on different columns, 6.2.8

printing grand and sub summaries (totals), 6.2.7

printing multiple on same break column, 6.2.8

syntax

COPY command, B.2.1

syntax rules

SQL commands, 4.4.1

SQL*Plus commands, 4.6.1

SYSDBA clause, 12

SYSOPER clause, 3.5.2, 12

system variables, 4.7, 12

affecting SQL*Plus performance, 8.5

affecting substitution variables, 5.9.4

listing current settings, 4.7, 12

listing old and new values, 12, 12

storing and restoring, 2.2.3

summary of SET commands, 12

system-maintained values

displaying in headers and footers, 12

displaying in titles, 6.3.2, 12

formatting in titles, 6.3.2

T

TAB clause, 12, 12

TAB variable, 8.5.11, 12, 12

TABLE clause, 3.5.1.5

TABLE option, 3.5.1.5

tables

access to sample, Preface

controlling destination when copying, B.1.1, B.2.2

copying values between, B.2, B.3

listing column definitions, 4.2, 12

referring to another user's when copying, B.2.4

TABLESPACE clause, 12

tablespaces, recovering, 12

tag, HTML, 7.1

TERMOUT variable, 8.5.12, 12, 12

using with SPOOL command, 12

territory

SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.1.2

text, 3.5.1.5, 3.5.1.5

adding to current line with APPEND, 5.2.3, 12

changing old to new with CHANGE, 5.2.2, 12

clearing from buffer, 5.2, 12

text editor

operating system, 5.1.1, 12

TIME variable, 12, 12

TIMING clause, 12

TIMING command, 8.2, 12

deleting all areas created by, 12

deleting current area, 12

SHOW clause, 12

START clause, 12

STOP clause, 12

TIMING variable, 12, 12

titles

aligning elements, 6.3.1.1, 12

displaying at bottom of page, 6.3, 12, C.1, C.1

displaying at top of page, 6.3, 12, C.1

displaying column values, 6.3.4, 12, 12

displaying current date, 6.3.5, 12, 12

displaying page number, 6.3.2, 12

displaying system-maintained values, 6.3.2, 12

formatting elements, 12

formatting system-maintained values in, 6.3.2

indenting, 6.3.1.2, 12

listing current definition, 6.3.3, 12, 12

restoring definition, 6.3.3

setting at start or end of report, 6.3

setting lines from top of page to top title, 6.3.6, 12, 12, C.1

setting lines from top title to end of page, 8.5.8, 12, 12

setting top and bottom, 6.3, 12, 12, C.1, C.1, C.1

spacing between last row and bottom title, 6.3.1.1

suppressing definition, 6.3.3, 12

TNS_ADMIN

environment variables, 2.1

TO clause, B.2.1

tracing queries, 8.3, 8.4

tracing statements

for performance statistics, 8.1.3

for query execution path, 8.1.3

with parallel query option, 8.3

TRIMOUT variable, 12, 12

TRIMSPOOL variable, 12, 12

TRUNCATE command

disabling, 9.2

TRUNCATE variable, C.1, C.13

TRUNCATED clause, 6.1.3.2, 12

TTITLE clause, 12

TTITLE command, 6.3.1, 12

aligning title elements, 6.3.1.1, 12

BOLD clause, 12

CENTER clause, 6.3.1.1, 12

COL clause, 6.3.1.2, 12

FORMAT clause, 6.3.2, 12

indenting titles, 6.3.1.2, 12

LEFT clause, 6.3.1.1, 12

listing current definition, 6.3.3, 12

OFF clause, 6.3.3, 12

old form, C.14

ON clause, 6.3.3

referencing column value variable, 6.3.4, 12

restoring current definition, 6.3.3

RIGHT clause, 6.3.1.1, 12

SKIP clause, 6.3.1.1, 12

suppressing current definition, 6.3.3, 12

TAB clause, 12

tuning

SET APPINFO OFF, 8.5.2

SET ARRAYSIZE, 8.5.3

SET DEFINE OFF, 8.5.4

SET FLUSH OFF, 8.5.5

SET TRIMOUT ON, 8.5.13

SET TRIMSPOOL ON, 8.5.13

SQL*Plus, 8.1

system variables, 8.5

TWO_TASK

environment variables, 2.1

U

UNDEFINE command, 5.7, 12

and DEFINE command, 12

UNDERLINE variable, 12, 12

unicode

UNIX

ed, 12

installing SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.2.2

SQL*Plus Instant Client files to copy, D.3.1

unlocking sample tables, Preface

UNTIL CANCEL clause, 12

UNTIL CHANGE clause, 12

UNTIL CONTROLFILE clause, 12

UNTIL TIME clause, 12

UPDATE command, disabling, 9.2

USER clause, 12

user profile, 2.2.2

glogin.sql, 2.2.2

login.sql, 2.2.2, 2.2.2.1

See also site profile

user variable

See substitution variable

username, 3.1

connecting under different, 3.1, 12

in CONNECT command, 3.1, 12

in COPY command, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.3

in SQLPLUS command, 3.3.1, 3.5.2

USING BACKUP CONTROL FILE clause, 12

USING clause, B.1.1, B.2.1

UTF-8

V

V$SESSION virtual table, 12

V$SQLAREA virtual table, 12

VALIDATE command

disabling, 9.2

VARCHAR columns

default format, 6.1.3.1

VARCHAR2

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

VARCHAR2 clause

VARIABLE command, 12

VARCHAR2 columns

changing format, 12

default format, 6.1.3.1

VARIABLE command, 12

BFILE clause, 12

BINARY_DOUBLE clause, 12

BINARY_FLOAT clause, 12

BLOB clause, 12

CHAR clause, 12

CLOB clause, 12

NCHAR clause, 12

NCLOB clause, 12

NUMBER clause, 12

REFCURSOR clause, 12

VARCHAR2 clause, 12

variable clause, 12

variables

bind variables, 5.12

substitution variables, 12

system variables, 4.7

VERIFY clause, 5.9.1

VERIFY variable, 5.9.4, 5.9.4, 12, 12

W

WARNING clause, 12

web browser, 7.1.1

web, outputting reports, 7.1

WHENEVER OSERROR command, 12

COMMIT clause, 12

CONTINUE clause, 12

EXIT clause, 12

NONE clause, 12

ROLLBACK clause, 12

WHENEVER SQLERROR command, 12

COMMIT clause, 12

CONTINUE clause, 12

EXIT clause, 12

NONE clause, 12

ROLLBACK clause, 12

Windows

installing SQL*Plus Instant Client, D.2.2

notepad, 12

SQL*Plus Instant Client files to copy, D.3.2

WORD_WRAPPED clause, 6.1.3.2, 6.1.7, 12

WRAP variable, 6.1.3.2, 12, 12

WRAPPED clause, 6.1.3.2, 12, 12

X

XMLOPTIMIZATIONCHECK variable, 12, 12

XMLType

column definition from DESCRIBE, 12

column formatting, 6.1.3.2

column width, 6.1.3.1

creating, 6.1.3.2

formatting in reports, 6.1.3

inserting values, 6.1.3.2

selecting data, 6.1.3.2

setting column retrieval size, 8.5.7, 12

setting maximum column width, 12

XQUERY clause, 12

XQUERY command, 12

XQUERY options

BASEURI, 12

CONTEXT, 12

NODE, 12

ORDERING, 12

The markup.gif image shows the employee.html spool file displayed in a web browser. Employee.html is the output file resulting from the example of a Markup interactive session. It is described in the text prior to this image The heading row of the three column HTML table contains the labels:

FIRST_NAME

LAST_NAME

SALARY

There are 6 more rows containing the query results. The HTML table is followed by the SQL*Plus statement, 6 rows selected.

The dept.gif image shows the results of the depart.sql script displayed in a web browser. The depart.sql script is described in the text prior to the image. The heading row of the two column table contains the labels:

DEPARTMENT

CITY

There are six more rows containing the query results. The Department column values are HTML hyperlinks identified by underlines.

The selectout.gif image shows a HTML table of two columns, generated from iSQL*Plus. It contains the output from the previous SELECT command described in the text prior to the image. The heading row has renamed column headings of First Name and Family Name. There are 6 rows of data found by the SELECT.

The cmdline2.gif image shows command-line SQL*Plus starting. The normal starting information, the date and time, the SQL*Plus version and copyright information, is displayed. The last line shows the default SQL*Plus prompt, SQL>, waiting for you to enter SQL, PL/SQL or SQL*Plus commands.

The report.gif image shows report.html displayed in a web browser. Report.html is the output from the previous query.

The query is displayed at the top of the report, followed by the output from the query in a HTML table. The heading row of the two column table contains the labels:

DEPARTMENT

CITY

There are six more rows containing the query results. The Department column values are HTML hyperlinks identified by underlines.

The describe.gif image shows a HTML table of three columns, generated from iSQL*Plus. It contains the output from the DESCRIBE command in the text prior to this image. The heading row has column headings of Name, Null? and Type. There are 16 rows of output for the EMP_DETAILS_VIEW table view.

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