13.8 Displaying File Contents

Chapter 13
PLVfile: Reading and Writing Operating System Files

 

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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.