Oracle SQL*Plus The Definitive Guide- P1 docx

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Page iii
Oracle SQL*Plus
The Definitive Guide
Jonathan Gennick
Beijing Cambridge Famham Köln Paris Sebastopol Taipei Tokyo

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Page iv
Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide
by Jonathan Gennick
Copyright © 1999 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
Editor: Deborah Russell

Production Editor: Ellie Fountain Maden
Printing History:
March 1999: First Edition.
ORACLE, Oracle, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Personal Edition, Oracle Procedure Builder, Oracle Server,
Oracle Server Manager, Oracle Version 6, Oracle7, Oracle8, Oracle 8i, Net8, SQL*Loader, SQL*Net, and SQL*Plus
are trademarks of Oracle Corporation.
PowerBuilder is a trademark of PowerSoft.
SQL Station is a trademark of Platinum Technology.
Clear Access is a trademark of Sterling Software.
Microsoft and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. was aware of the trademark claim, the
designations have been printed in caps or initial caps.
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc. The use of the moving leaf image in association with Oracle SQL*Plus is a trademark of O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors
or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
ISBN: 1-56592-578-5 [2/00]
[M]

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Page v
I dedicate this book to my wife Donna, who, in spite of
all my crazy dreams and ambitions, continues to stand
with me.
Jonathan Gennick

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Page vii
Table of Contents
Preface xi
1. Introduction to SQL*Plus 1
What Is SQL*Plus
1
History of SQL*Plus
6
Why Master SQL*Plus
8
Creating and Loading the Sample Tables
9
2. Interacting with SQL*Plus 18
Starting SQL*Plus
18
Some Basic SQL*Plus Commands
26
Running SQL Queries
33
Working with PL/SQL
35
The SQL Buffer
40
Line Editing
40
Executing the Statement in the Buffer
51
Saving and Retrieving the Buffer
54

The Edit
Command
57
Executing a Script
61
The Working Directory
62
3. Generating Reports with SQL*Plus 65
Following a Methodology
65
Saving Your Work
66
Designing a Simple Report
66
Advanced Report Formatting
86


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Page viii
Totals and Subtotals
97
Other Reporting Topics
106
4. Writing SQL*Plus Scripts 122
Why Write Scripts?
122
Using Substitution Variables
123

Prompting for Values
132
Cleaning Up the Display
137
Packaging Your Script
139
The DEFINE and UNDEFINE Commands
144
Controlling Variable Substitution
146
Commenting Your Scripts
151
5. Extracting and Loading Data 155
Types of Output Files
156
Limitations of SQL*Plus
157
Extracting the Data
158
Reloading the Data
167
6. Exploring Your Database 175
The DESCRIBE Command
175
Oracle's Data Dictionary Views
180
Tables
193
Table Constraints
200

Indexes
207
Triggers
214
Synonyms
218
Table Security
222
Finding More Information
225
7. Advanced Scripting 227
Bind Variables
228
Branching in SQL*Plus
243
Looping in SQL*Plus
254
Validating and Parsing User Input
262
Error Handling
270
8. Tuning and Timing 277
Using SQL*Plus Timers
277
Using EXPLAIN PLAN
283


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Page ix
Using AUTOTRACE
292
Improving on EXPLAIN PLAN Results
297
Where to Find More Tuning Information
308
9. The Product User Profile 309
What Is the Product User Profile?
309
Using the Product User Profile
316
10. Administration with SQL*Plus 326
Connecting for Administrative Purposes
326
Starting and Stopping a Database
330
Looking at Your Database
337
Database Backup and Recovery
340
11. Customizing Your SQL*Plus Environment 357
SQL*Plus Settings You Can Control
357
The Site and User Profiles
358
Environment Variable Settings
360
The SET Command
367

The SHOW Command
418
A. SQL*Plus Command Reference 423
B. SQL*Plus Format Elements 470
Index 479


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