1. SQLcl: A Modern Command Line Interface to the Oracle Database
Galo Balda
September 18, 2016

3. About Me
Austin, TX
Ecuador

4. Agenda What is it? Getting started: JRE, download, install, connect
Show it!
Multi-line Editing
TAB Completion
Result Formatting
New Commands: History, Information, DDL, CTAS, Alias, Load, Script

5. What is it?
A command line interface for Oracle Database that combines the power of SQL*Plus and SQL Developer
Takes helpful GUI functionality to the CLI: Object name/Command completion, SQL/Command execution history and recall, query result formatting, user friendly text editing, etc…
It allows you to interactively or batch execute its own commands alongside with SQL, PL/SQL, operating system commands, and JavaScript

6. How do I get started?
SQLcl: Release requires JRE 1.8.0_50 or higher
Copying a specific JRE install to SQLCL_HOME\bin forces to use that JRE

7. How do I get started? Get the .ZIP from OTN Unzip it
No installer or setup

8. How do I get started? Start a terminal/cmd session
Run the SQL program in SQLCL_HOME/bin
No need for the Oracle client

9. Connecting to the Database
TNS: hr/oracle looks at the $TWO_TASK, $ORACLE_HOME, $TNS_ADMIN environment variables
EZConnect:
LDAP
SSH Tunnel
Wallet

10. I’m in, where’s the good stuff?
Supported commands available from the HELP command
New commands are highlighted

11. I’m in, where’s the good stuff?
HELP <command> prints the command’s description and examples
Help topics also available for system variables

12. Multi-line editing No need to jump to an external editor
Use the arrow keys to move through your query
The EDIT command is still available

13. Multi-line editing Ctrl-a Advance to beginning of current line
Ctrl-e Advance to end of current line
Ctrl-w Advance to beginning of the buffer
Ctrl-s Advance to end of the buffer
Ctrl-r Run your buffer from wherever you are in the editor
ESC Back to the SQL> prompt

14. TAB Completion
If you need a table, column, SQL command in a query, use the TAB key for assistance
SQLcl automatically completes the text using the lowest common match available

15. Result Formatting
Export a result-set in different formats using SET SQLFORMAT <format>
Supported formats include
CSV
Delimited
Insert statements
XML
JSON
Disable it with SET SQLFORMAT

16. Result Formatting
Use SET SQLFORMAT ANSICONSOLE to format your query output to fit your window
Each page of query results gets measured to establish the best size for each column before printing the output.

17. Format
Apply default SQL Developer formatting to the content of the buffer (FORMAT BUFFER) or the content of a file (FORMAT FILE)
FORMAT RULES loads a SQL Developer formatter rules file to use it in SQLcl

18. History (His)
Stores the last 100 statements/commands that have been executed
Can be accessed using the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ arrow keys
Can be accessed using the HISTORY command

19. History (His) Place a statement in the buffer with HISTORY <#>
Execute with /

20. History (His) Use HISTORY CLEAR to cleanup the history list
View the history including the number of executions for each statement/command with HISTORY USAGE

21. History (His)
View the observable client time spent executing each statement/command with HISTORY TIME

22. History (His)
Use HISTORY FAILS ON/OFF to configure whether failed statements/commands are saved. Disabled by default
Use SET HISTORY BLACKLIST to configure what commands should not be saved

23. Information (INFO) For a table displays:
Last analyzed date
Number of rows (from stats)
In-Memory column store status
Comments
PK indicated by a * next to the column(s)
Column default values
Column comments
Indexes
Referential integrity constraints
Output formatted to display as best as possible

24. Information (INFO)
Also supports PL/SQL objects. You can use it with an entire package or just individual procedures/functions
Prints a code stub that you can paste into your script to execute your PL/SQL

25. Information (INFO+)
For tables you can also run INFO+ and it displays column statistics instead of column comments

26. DDL
Issue the command with the name of an object, and SQLcl will go get the DDL script to create that object using the DBMS_METADATA package.
HELP SET DDL lists the various ways of influencing the DDL generation, but they are the same as the DBMS_METADATA.SET_TRAN SFORM_PARAM procedure

27. CTAS
Executes DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL to extract the DDL for the existing table and builds a create table as select * from command
The create table as select command does not run automatically. You have to execute with /

28. Alias Allows re-use frequently used statements or multi-line scripts
Bind variable can be used in the queries. They are defined in the order in which they appear

29. Script
SQLcl allows you to run JavaScript to do things that SQLcl does not already support

30. Resources
OTN
Kris Rice's Blog
Jeff Smith's Blog
Barry McGillin's Blog

31. Contact Information
@GaloBalda
galobalda.wordpress.com