Re: Writing to a text file from PL/SQL

Álvaro Palma Aste <queria_direccion_at_el.perla.invalid> writes:

> Andrew Hardy escribió:
> >Jasna,
>
> >> I'm trying to retrive data from an Oracle table into a text file by the
> >sql
> >> procedure wich is atached to this mail but I get following declaration
> >> mistakes:
> >>
>
> Or you can do it using dbms_output instructions. You only have to
> put the lines:
>
>

True, but don't forget DBMS_OUTPUT has some major restrictions -

1. Lines cannot be longer than 255 charcters
2. The total amount of data cannot exceed 1Mb
3. Nothing is output until after the script/block has executed and if there is an exception, you may not see any data at all, plus you must use the size option to the set serveroutput or DBMS_OUTPUT.ENAMBLE() procedure to set it to the maximum 1Mb size.

From memory, I think DBMS_OUTPUT may also trim leading/trailing white space - so any formatting may get modified/lost - not sure about this though, I just recall something I encountered where the output was modified by DBMS_OUTPUT.

I think DBMS_OUTPUT is really only useful as a debugging tool and you are much better off using UTL_FILE.

Tim

-- 
Tim Cross					E-Mail: tcross_at_pobox.une.edu.au
Analyst/Programmer                               Phone: 6773 3210
Applications Group			        Mobile: 0412 969193
University of New England
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