SQLPlus Compatibility | TOAD Handbook (2nd Edition)

SQL*Plus Compatibility

SQL*Plus is used for a variety of things in the Oracle environment. In the early days (version 5 and before), SQL*Plus was also used as an administrative tool. Today, SQL*Plus has taken back the Server Manager role. SQL*Plus has always been a good character-mode reporting tool, a tool used to create SQL-creating-SQL ( next topic in this chapter), and so on. It is quite powerful with its formatting and file creation (spool commands) to perform a variety of tasks in the Oracle environment.

TOAD is an excellent tool for creating and maintaining these SQL*Plus scripts. The Script Output tab in the results panel is powerful in that you can see what the script has produced without having to leave TOAD and run the script in a separate window with SQL*Plus.

TOAD primarily supports the reporting features of SQL*Plus and not the administrative functions that have been given back to SQL*Plus.

Make sure to run any SQL*Plus script as a script!

TOAD supports these SQL*Plus commands:

 @ ("at" sign)  @@ (double "at" sign)  / (slash)  BREAK (BRE) partial support  CLEAR  COLUMN (partial support, including: ALIAS, NOPRINT/PRINT, NEW_VALUE)  COMPUTE (partial support including: SUM, MIN, MAX)  DEFINE  DESCRIBE  HEADING  JUSTIFY  SPOOL <  Filename  >, SPOOL OFF, and SPO. Non-qualified files are created in the <  TOAD Home   Directory  >\TEMPS\ directory. Relative-location file creation is supported.  SET AUTOTRACE  SET ECHO (ON/OFF)  SET ESCAPE (ON/OFF)  SET ESCAPE/ESC '\' (\ is any character)defaults to \  SET HEADING/HEA (ON/off)  SET FEEDBACK (ON/off)  SET LINESIZE  SET SERVEROUTPUT/SERVEROUT (ON/OFF)   SET TERM (ON/off)  DEFINE/DEF and UNDEFINE/UNDEF  PAUSE  EXIT/QUIT  PROMPT/PRO  CONNECT/CON and DISCONNECT/DISC.  REM/REMARK  RUN

TOAD simply ignores the following SQL*Plus commands:

 SET TAB  STORE SET  VERIFY  PAGESIZE

and any other SET commands not supported by TOAD.

The following SQL*Plus commands are NOT supported in TOAD:

 ACCEPT                   APPEND                   ARCHIVE  LOG  ATTRIBUTE                BTITLE/TTITLE  CHANGE                   COPY                     DEL  EDIT                     EXECUTE                  GET  HELP                     HOST                     INPUT  LIST                     PASSWORD  RECOVER                  REPHEADER/REPFOOTER  SAVE                     SHOW                     SHUTDOWN  START                    STARTUP  TIMING                   VARIABLE  WHENEVER OSERROR         WHENEVER SQLERROR