Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide

The EDIT Command

You don’t like line editing? SQL*Plus does not have a built-in full-screen editor, but it does have the EDIT command. The SQL*Plus EDIT command allows you to invoke the text editor of your choice to use in editing SQL statements. The specific editor invoked depends on the operating system, and on whether or not you’ve changed the default. The default editor under Windows NT/95 is Notepad, while under Unix it is vi. You may, however, configure SQL*Plus to use another editor of your choice. Do this by defining the user variable named _EDITOR to point to executable of the editor you want to use.

Invoking the Editor

You invoke the editor with the EDIT command. The syntax looks like this:

ED[IT] [filename]

where:

ED[IT]

May be abbreviated ED.

filename

Is an optional argument indicating a specific file you want to edit. The default extension is .SQL, but you may supply a different extension if you like.

The typical use of the EDIT command is to edit a statement currently contained in the buffer. The following example shows a query being entered and the editor being invoked:

SQL> SELECT project_name
  2    FROM projects
  3   WHERE project_id in (
  4           SELECT DISTINCT project_id
  5             FROM project_hours)
  6  
SQL> EDIT
Wrote file afiedt.buf

Upon entering the EDIT command, the contents of the buffer are written to a file named AFIEDT.BUF , and the editor is invoked. Figure 2.7 shows what your screen would now look like on a Windows 95 or NT system. On Unix systems, the filename is lowercase, ...