Sidebar: SQL*Plus

SQL*Plus is the command-line interface to Oracle databases. The general syntax for connecting to an Oracle database using SQL*Plus is

sqlplus <DBUSERID>/<PASSWORD>@<DATABASE>

where

DBUSERID represents the database user-id with connect privileges to the database.

PASSWORD represents the password associated with the DBUSERID account.

@@DATABASE specifies the database to connect to (used in a networked environment to connect to a database that is remote to your workstation).

The SQL*Plus commands used in listings 1 and 2 fall into four primary categories:

set -- Formats the output from SQL*Plus (e.g., "set heading off" will suppress headers).

spool -- Directs output to the specified file.

select -- Queries the database for the specified fields.

desc -- Returns a description of database tables.

For more information on SQL*Plus, see McGraw-Hill's Oracle DBA Handbook, 1994.