Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide

Preface

Every day, computer professionals the world over wake up, travel to the office, sit down in front of a computer, and begin another day working with that database called Oracle. Programmers write queries and stored procedures. Database administrators monitor performance, make database changes, and perform other maintenance tasks. Operations people may need to back up or recover a database. Analysts may need to explore the structure of a database to answer the question “What’s out there?” Testers may work on developing and loading test data. A wide variety of people perform a wide variety of tasks, yet the vast majority of them are likely to have one thing in common — SQL*Plus.

SQL*Plus is the command-line interface to the Oracle database. It’s a client-server application that allows you to enter and execute SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks. One of the most common uses for SQL*Plus is as an ad hoc query tool. You type in a SELECT statement, execute it, and see what results come back from the database. Programmers do this all the time when developing queries and when experimenting with Oracle’s built-in functions. Database administrators sometimes issue queries against Oracle’s data dictionary tables in order to see what objects are “out there” in the database.

One important capability of SQL*Plus is its ability to format and paginate query results. You can enter a SELECT statement, execute it, and have the results formatted so you can print them and produce a credible-looking ...