Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Name

SET ECHO

Synopsis

The ECHO setting tells SQL*Plus whether you want the contents of script files to be echoed to the screen as they are executed.

Syntax

SET ECHO {OFF | ON}

Parameters

OFF

Keeps commands from being echoed to the screen while a script file is being executed. This is the default setting.

ON

Causes commands from a script file to be echoed to the screen as they are being executed.

Examples

SET ECHO is one of the few debugging tools SQL*Plus has. It often helps to turn on command echoing while you are developing and testing a new script file. The following example shows the same script file being executed, once with ECHO on and once with it off:

SQL> @c:\a\echo_test
D
-
X
SQL> SET ECHO ON
SQL> @c:\a\echo_test
SQL> SELECT * FROM dual;
D
-
X

For the second execution of the script, ECHO had been turned on, so the SELECT statement was displayed on the screen when SQL*Plus executed it.

Tip

If you are writing a script that spools data to a file, you will almost certainly want to leave ECHO off. Otherwise, the commands in your script would be spooled to the file along with the data.