Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages

13.8. Displaying File Contents

Use the display procedures (overloaded for file name and file handle) to display the contents of an operating system file from within a PL/SQL program. The headers for these procedures are:

PROCEDURE display 
   (file_in IN UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE, 
    header_in IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
    start_in IN INTEGER := 1,
    end_in IN INTEGER := NULL);

PROCEDURE display
   (file_in IN VARCHAR2, 
    header_in IN VARCHAR2 := NULL,
    start_in IN INTEGER := 1,
    end_in IN INTEGER := NULL);

where file_in is the file name or the handle, header_in is an optional header for the display, and the start_in and end_in arguments specify the rows which you wish to display. If the end_in argument is NULL (the default value), then all lines from the starting line number to the end of the file will be displayed.