why this error in SQL*Plus worksheet ??

From: KK <moditha_at_yahoo.com>
Date: 1 Dec 2001 17:43:56 -0800
Message-ID: <469d2479.0112011743.6c7bf78c_at_posting.google.com>


I am a newbie to Oracle, so pardon if these questoins seems to be stupid.
I connected to my database using SQL*Plus tool and issued the following sql statements..

for num in 1..500 loop
  insert into mydb.message(messageid,message)    values(mydb.db_sq_counter.nextval,'test'); end loop;   

it should add 500 rows to the message table. but the message i get is

SP2-0734: unknown command beginning "for num in..." - rest of line ignored.
1 row created.
SP2-0042: unknown command "end loop" - rest of line ignored.

only one row get inserted at a time... where i have gone wrong?

Regards
KK Received on Sun Dec 02 2001 - 02:43:56 CET

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