Oracle and PL/SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

1-6. Displaying Results in SQL*Plus

Problem

You want to display query results at the SQL*Plus prompt.

Solution

Use the DBMS_OUTPUT package to assist in displaying query results or lines of text. The following example depicts both of these use cases:

DECLARE                first        VARCHAR2(20);    last         VARCHAR2(25);  BEGIN   SELECT first_name, last_name   INTO first, last   FROM employees   WHERE email = 'VJONES';   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The following employee matches your query:');   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(first || ' ' || last);  END;

The previous example uses DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE to print a line of text as well as the values of the variables first and last.

How It Works

The DBMS_OUTPUT package contains several useful procedures. ...