newbie having woes with dbms_output in functions

Hello,

I have the following function:

create or replace function seanFunc1(val varchar2) return varchar2 is
begin

    dbms_output.enable(1000000);
    dbms_output.put_line('hello');
    return 'at the end';
end;
/

When I call this function from the sqlplus command line, it does not print 'hello'.
i.e.
select seanFunc1('the') from dual;

But when I call the function in a code block as shown below, it then prints.

declare
var varchar2(50);
begin

    select seanFunc1('the') into var from dual; end;
/

Why is this? What's the simplest way to get output from a function? Received on Mon Feb 26 2007 - 15:22:36 CST