A function to insert SQL which creates insert SQL

Question

I realise this is a bit recursive, but my users are a demanding lot! We want to store in a table the instruction to check if AUDIT_SYS_OPERATIONS is TRUE and to store the result of that check in some sort of an audit table.
In other words, the basic SQL you'd run directly might be:
select case when value='TRUE' then 1 else 0 end as passfail
from v$parameter where upper(name)='AUDIT_SYS_OPERATIONS';But we want to convert this into something which will generate an INSERT statement and which itself can be inserted into a table full of these sorts of audit checks:
insert into myaudit_checks values ('select ''insert into myaudit_table values (''||case when value=''TRUE'' then 1 else 0 end ||'');'' as passfail
from v$parameter where upper(name)=''AUDIT_SYS_OPERATIONS'';');I find the rules for doing this to be quite easy:
1. Add 'insert into myaudit_test values ('|| before the original CASE keyword
2. Add ||');' before the original 'AS PASSFAIL' keywords
3. Wrap the whole lot in single quotes
4. Double up any quotes inside those new ones
5. Wrap the new statement inside a standard INSERT statement.
My users don't think that's easy, though. So I thought I'd write them a function which would return the double-quoted insert statement when fed the non-quoted basic select. It works OK, on the whole, except that calling it involves... doubling up the quotes. That is:
select create_insert_stmt('select case when value=''TRUE'' then 1 else 0 end as passfail
from v$parameter where upper(name)=''AUDIT_SYS_OPERATIONS'';') from dual;...works OK, but the parameter being passed to the CREATE_INSERT function requires the 'TRUE' and 'AUDIT_SYS_OPERATIONS' strings to be double-single-quoted up-front, which defeats the purpose a bit. I want them to be able to feed the completely original select statement, with single-quoted strings, into the function... but, syntactically, this looks impossible.
Anyone got any ideas on how to spit out the final 'select 'insert...'' given the original, single-quoted select statement, without requiring too much from my users by way of thought or effort?
The only thing I thought of was to have them store the original select in a text file and read it via UTL_FILE... but if anyone's got any better ideas, I'd be pleased to hear them.

Answer 1

>
Anyone got any ideas on how to spit out the final 'select 'insert...'' given the original, single-quoted select statement, without requiring too much from my users by way of thought or effort?
>
For anything that might include quotes use alternative quoting. See Text Literals in the SQL Language doc
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28286/sql_elements003.htm
>
In the bottom branch of the syntax:
•Q or q indicates that the alternative quoting mechanism will be used. This mechanism allows a wide range of delimiters for the text string.
•The outermost ' ' are two single quotation marks that precede and follow, respectively, the opening and closing quote_delimiter.
•c is any member of the user's character set. You can include quotation marks (") in the text literal made up of c characters. You can also include the quote_delimiter, as long as it is not immediately followed by a single quotation mark.
•quote_delimiter is any single- or multibyte character except space, tab, and return. The quote_delimiter can be a single quotation mark. However, if the quote_delimiter appears in the text literal itself, ensure that it is not immediately followed by a single quotation mark.
If the opening quote_delimiter is one of [, {, <, or (, then the closing quote_delimiter must be the corresponding ], }, >, or ). In all other cases, the opening and closing quote_delimiter must be the same character.
Here are some valid text literals:
'Hello'
'ORACLE.dbs'
'Jackie''s raincoat'
'09-MAR-98'
N'nchar literal'
Here are some valid text literals using the alternative quoting mechanism:
q'!name LIKE '%DBMS_%%'!'
q'<'So,' she said, 'It's finished.'>'
q'{SELECT * FROM employees WHERE last_name = 'Smith';}'
nq'ï Ÿ1234 ï'
q'"name like '['"'
{quote}