Oracle in a Nutshell

Calls

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.DISABLE;

Disables output from the package and purges the DBMS_OUTPUT buffer.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE (buffer_size IN INTEGER DEFAULT 20000);

Enables output from the package and sets to buffer_size the maximum number of bytes that can be stored in the buffer.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.GET_LINE (line OUT VARCHAR2, status OUT INTEGER);

Gets the next line from the buffer and places it in line. A status of 0 means successful retrieval; 1 means failure.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.GET_LINES (lines OUT DBMS_OUTPUT.CHARARR, numlines IN OUT INTEGER);

Gets numlines number of lines from the buffer and places them in the lines PL/SQL table.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.NEW_LINE;

Writes a newline character to the DBMS_OUTPUT buffer. New with Oracle8i.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT (a IN DATE|NUMBER|VARCHAR2);

Puts the data contained in a in the DBMS_OUTPUT buffer and does not append a newline character.

PROCEDURE DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (a IN DATE|NUMBER|VARCHAR2);

Puts the data contained in a in the DBMS_OUTPUT buffer and then appends a newline character.