E.g.

var v_where_clause VARCHAR2(1024);

ACCEPT a_Where PROMPT ‘ Enter a valid WHERE clause: ‘

BEGIN
–
:v_where_clause := Q’[&a_Where]’;
:v_where_clause := RTRIM(:v_where_clause, ‘ ;’);
IF LTRIM(UPPER(:v_where_clause)) LIKE ‘WHERE%’
THEN
— Clip the ‘Where’ clause from the point after the ‘WHERE ‘ (if included)
:v_where_clause := SUBSTR(:v_where_clause, INSTR(UPPER(:v_where_clause), ‘WHERE ‘) + 6);
END IF;
–
END;
/

Prior to this, the where clause had to use double-quotes (or pairs of single-quotes) around literals, as I couldn’t ‘capture’ the value in a variable.

The whole script follows. Needless to say this is less useful with modern IDE tools, but in our Live environment it has proved invaluabl.

SET ECHO OFF

PROMPT vL2007/09/05.1
PROMPT 1) When prompted, enter the name of the TABLE for selection.
PROMPT 2) You may then add a simple WHERE clause, or to default.
PROMPT 3) You may then add a simple ORDER BY clause, or to default.
PROMPT 4) Note: DATE values should use the format DD-MON-YYYY.
PROMPT

SET HEADING OFF FEEDBACK OFF VERIFY OFF NUMWIDTH 12 TRIMSPOOL ON PAGESIZE 0 LINESIZE 200

ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = ‘DD-MON-YYYY’;

var v_table_name VARCHAR2(100);
var v_owner VARCHAR2(30);
var v_where_clause VARCHAR2(1024);
var v_order_by VARCHAR2(1024);
var v_dot_posn NUMBER;

ACCEPT a_Tab PROMPT ‘ Enter the name of the required TABLE: ‘
ACCEPT a_Where PROMPT ‘ Enter a valid WHERE clause: ‘
ACCEPT a_Order PROMPT ‘ Enter a valid ORDER BY clause: ‘

BEGIN
–
:v_table_name := NVL(’&a_Tab’, ‘Dual’);
:v_dot_posn := INSTR(:v_table_name, ‘.’);
–
IF NVL(:v_dot_posn, 0) > 0
THEN
:v_owner := SUBSTR(:v_table_name, 1, (:v_dot_posn - 1));
:v_table_name := SUBSTR(:v_table_name, (:v_dot_posn + 1));
ELSE
:v_owner := USER; — or whatever defaulkt is required
END IF;
–
:v_where_clause := Q’[&a_Where]’;
:v_where_clause := RTRIM(:v_where_clause, ‘ ;’);
IF LTRIM(UPPER(:v_where_clause)) LIKE ‘WHERE%’
THEN
— Clip the ‘Where’ clause from the point after the ‘WHERE ‘ (if included)
:v_where_clause := SUBSTR(:v_where_clause, INSTR(UPPER(:v_where_clause), ‘WHERE ‘) + 6);
END IF;
–
:v_order_by := Q’[&a_Order]’;
:v_order_by := RTRIM(:v_order_by, ‘ ;’);
IF LTRIM(UPPER(:v_order_by)) LIKE ‘ORDER %BY %’
THEN
— Clip the ‘Order By’ clause from the point after the ‘ BY ‘ (if included)
:v_order_by := SUBSTR(:v_order_by, INSTR(UPPER(:v_order_by), ‘ BY ‘) + 4);
END IF;
–
END;
/

SET TERMOUT OFF

SPOOL TabSpool.sql

SELECT ‘SET ECHO OFF’ || CHR(10) ||
‘SET HEADING OFF FEEDBACK OFF PAGESIZE 0′ || CHR(10) ||
‘SET LINESIZE 70 ARRAYSIZE 5′ || CHR(10) ||
‘ALTER SESSION ENABLE PARALLEL DML;’ || CHR(10) ||
‘PROMPT’
FROM Dual;

SELECT ‘SELECT /*+ APPEND PARALLEL(’ || :v_table_name || ‘, 7) */’
FROM Dual;

SELECT ”” || LPAD(RPAD(column_name, 30), 35) || ‘= [’ ||
”’ || ‘ || column_name || ‘ || ”]”,’
FROM all_tab_columns
WHERE table_name = UPPER(:v_table_name)
AND data_type IN (’CHAR’, ‘VARCHAR2′, ‘NUMBER’, ‘DATE’)
AND owner = UPPER(:v_owner)
ORDER BY column_id ASC;

SELECT ”’ ” FROM ‘ || :v_owner || ‘.’ || :v_table_name || ‘ WHERE ‘ ||
NVL(:v_where_clause, ‘1=1′) ||
DECODE(:v_order_by, NULL, NULL, ‘ ORDER BY ‘ || :v_order_by) || ‘;’
FROM Dual;

SELECT ‘SELECT CHR(32) FROM Dual;’
FROM Dual;

SELECT ‘SET HEADING ON FEEDBACK ON PAGESIZE 100 LINESIZE 120 ECHO ON ‘ ||
RPAD(’ ‘,60)
FROM Dual;

SPOOL OFF

UNDEFINE a_Tab
UNDEFINE a_Where
UNDEFINE a_Order

SET HEADING ON FEEDBACK ON VERIFY ON ARRAYSIZE 20 TRIMSPOOL OFF PAGESIZE 100 LINESIZE 120 TERMOUT ON ECHO ON

START TabSpool.sql

SET ECHO OFF

:

Our databases are all 10g but our Oracle client software ranges from 8.0 through to 10g R2. The guy from Oracle support said something along the lines of ” … as you know the parser used by the database matches the version of the oracle client used to connect.”

As we don’t actually use any 9i clients we couldn’t provide a business case for raising a bug.

SQL> connect hr/hr
Connected.
SQL> SELECT q'<'Data, he said, 'Make it so.'>'
  2   FROM DUAL
  3  /

Q'<'DATA,HESAID,'MAKEITSO.'>'
-----------------------------
'Data, he said, 'Make it so.'

However, it failed when I ran it in SQL Navigator.

SELECT q’<’Data, he said, ‘Make it so.’>’
FROM DUAL;

Cheers

Tim…