Can you help me write a procedure in Oracle to spool data from a table to a CSV file?

Question

I am writing a procedure to create a CSV file with the data in an Oracle table. I used "spool filename;" but an error is coming. Can I use spool in PL/SQL?

Answer 1

spool is a sqlplus command. it cannot be used in pl/sql.

it seems that you have been trying a variety of ways to get oracle to do your formatting and file saving. why not have your program that is calling the proc do this work for you?

Answer 2

No, SPOOL is a SQL Plus command so you would have to do this in SQL Plus:

spool myfile.txt
exec myproc
spool off

You would probably also need to set some values before starting the process e.g.

set pagesize 0 linesize 1000 trimspool on

... to get the correct formatting.

Answer 3

Here are a couple of links you might find helpful:

A PL/SQL Tutorial and SQL*Plus User Guide (11g)

Answer 4

If you only need the data in a cvs file you can do this:

create a sql file with the query like this:

set feedback off verify off heading off pagesize 0
select field1 || ',' || field2 ...  from table;
quit;
/

then call sqlplus from a terminal like this:

sqlplus -S user/password @file.sql> cvsfile.cvs

Answer 5

Creating an ascii file: http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:459020243348 and http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:68212348056 and http://www.oracle-developer.net/display.php?id=425 .

Answer 6

I think that there are better ways to implement this on Oracle 10g/11g, but this should work fine on Oracle 9i or higher:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE prc_file_mult_column_generate(
p_file_dir         VARCHAR2, -- mandatory (Oracle directory name)
p_file_name  VARCHAR2, -- mandatory
p_sql_query        VARCHAR2, -- Multiple column SQL SELECT statement that needs to be executed and processed
p_delimiter  CHAR   -- column delimiter
)
AS

l_cursor_handle  INTEGER;
l_dummy        NUMBER;
l_col_cnt       INTEGER;
l_rec_tab         DBMS_SQL.DESC_TAB;
l_current_col      NUMBER(16);
l_current_line   VARCHAR2(2047);
l_column_value   VARCHAR2(300);

l_file_handle      UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;
l_print_text       VARCHAR2(100);
l_record_count   NUMBER(16) := 0;

BEGIN

   /* Open file for append*/
   l_file_handle := UTL_FILE.FOPEN(p_file_dir, p_file_name, 'a', 2047); --Append Mode, 2047 chars per line max, possibly increasable

   l_cursor_handle := DBMS_SQL.OPEN_CURSOR;
   DBMS_SQL.PARSE(l_cursor_handle, p_sql_query, DBMS_SQL.native);
   l_dummy := DBMS_SQL.EXECUTE(l_cursor_handle);

   /* Output column names and define them for latter retrieval of data */
   DBMS_SQL.DESCRIBE_COLUMNS(l_cursor_handle, l_col_cnt, l_rec_tab); -- get column names

   /* Append to file column headers */
   l_current_col := l_rec_tab.FIRST;
   IF (l_current_col IS NOT NULL) THEN
      LOOP
         DBMS_SQL.DEFINE_COLUMN(l_cursor_handle, l_current_col, l_column_value, 300);
         l_print_text := l_rec_tab(l_current_col).col_name || p_delimiter;
         UTL_FILE.PUT (l_file_handle, l_print_text);
         l_current_col := l_rec_tab.NEXT(l_current_col);
         EXIT WHEN (l_current_col IS NULL);
      END LOOP;
   END IF;
   UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE (l_file_handle,' ');

   /* Append data for each row */
   LOOP
      EXIT WHEN DBMS_SQL.FETCH_ROWS(l_cursor_handle) = 0; -- no more rows to be fetched

      l_current_line := '';
      /* Append data for each column */
      FOR l_current_col IN 1..l_col_cnt LOOP
         DBMS_SQL.COLUMN_VALUE (l_cursor_handle, l_current_col, l_column_value);
         l_print_text := l_column_value || p_delimiter;

      l_current_line := l_current_line || l_column_value || p_delimiter;
      END LOOP;
      l_record_count := l_record_count + 1;
      UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE (l_file_handle, l_current_line);
   END LOOP;

   UTL_FILE.FCLOSE (l_file_handle);
   DBMS_SQL.CLOSE_CURSOR(l_cursor_handle);

EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS THEN

   -- Release resources
   IF DBMS_SQL.IS_OPEN(l_cursor_handle) THEN
      DBMS_SQL.CLOSE_CURSOR(l_cursor_handle);
   END IF;

   IF UTL_FILE.IS_OPEN (l_file_handle) THEN
      UTL_FILE.FCLOSE (l_file_handle);
   END IF;

   --RAISE ;
   DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(DBMS_UTILITY.format_error_stack);

END;
/

Answer 7

prc_file_mult_column_generate is a good idea, but usually ad-hoc query is very complicated, will this procedure be able to handle it?