Ad-Hoc SQL

Question

I'm adding ad-hoc SQL capabilities for Oracle to my application (the application is a database development tool). Essentially, the user has a text editor that they use to type what ever SQL they want. I need to give them a way to execute it. What they execute may consist of 1 individual SQL statement or it may contain many. For example, they may run this all at the same time:
SELECT * FROM TABLEA;
SELECT * FROM TABLEB;
INSERT INTO SOMETABLE
SELECT * FROM ANOTHERTABLE;
DECLARE
Var NUMBER;
BEGIN
Var := 1;
END;
and so on.
I would need to execute this and produce 4 distinct set of results for the user. Can I pass all of this to Oracle? Will Oracle know what to do with this? Will Oracle give me results for the 4 individual statements? Do I need to parse each statement on my own and send them to Oracle one at a time?
I'm trying to figure out how to go about developing this solution. I'm doing this in a PowerBuilder application if that makes any difference.
Thanks,
Brad

Answer 1

Hi Brad,
Like you I am a PB user and I guess new to Oracle, most of my past experience has been with MS SQL Server. But there is nothing like a kick up the bottom to get you thinking again and changing from SQL Server to Oracle does that job quite well.
The code below is executed when the user hits the "GO" button, in my app I wanted the SQL stored in a file so that I could send this out to the users and they could EXEC it with this routine, anyway here goes:
String     ls_file_name, ls_line, ls_sql
Integer     li_handle, li_err = 0
ls_file_name     = sle_enter_filename.text
if (f_empty(ls_file_name)) then
     messageBox("STOP!", "MUST Enter a filename", stopSign!)
     return
end if
li_handle     = fileOpen(ls_file_name, lineMode!)
if (li_handle < 0) then return
ls_sql     = ''
do while (li_err >= 0)
     li_err     = fileRead(li_handle, ls_line)
     if (li_err >= 0) then
          if (lower(ls_line) = 'go') then // go is like / in oracle
               f_execSQL(ls_sql)
               ls_sql     = ''
          else
               ls_sql     += char(13) + char(10) + ls_line // need to put whitespace as fielRead removes CR/LF in affect.
          end if
     end if
loop
fileClose(li_handle)
f_execSQL() is:
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE :as_sql;
f_dispSqlErrors('f_ExecSql - Executing: ' + as_sql)
return(SQLCA.SQLCode)
f_dispSqlErrors() - simply checks sqlcs.sqlCode and if it's not kosher (ie < 0) then reports and terminates.
of_close()
return
Hope this helps.
Bill