CSV Files from Oracle - why won't this work?

Question

Hi all, I copied and pasted in the code at the bottom of this post
into Oracle 8 - it's copied from asktom so it should be fine.
I got Function created at the end.
However, when I try to run
exec dump_csv( 'SELECT Defer_Date, Defer_Time, User_Id, Start_Date, Group_Name,Employee_Id, PROCESS_STATUS, REQUEST_PARAMSX1 FROM msf080 ORDER BY Defer_Date DESC;',',','/ellipse/el5.2.3.2_tb_sup/work','billy.txt');
I get
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PLS-00221: 'DUMP_CSV' is not a procedure or is undefined
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored
The same thing happens when I remove the exec from the beginning of the
command.
I know it's probably something stupid that I have neglected. Any help
appreciated. Also, being able to escape single quotes would be nice,
as in WHERE Prog_Name = 'MyString' - is it
WHERE Prog_Name = '''MyString''' - i.e. triple-single quote?
Paul...
create or replace function dump_csv( p_query in varchar2,
p_separator in varchar2 default ',',
p_dir in varchar2 ,
p_filename in varchar2 )
return number
is
l_output utl_file.file_type;
l_theCursor integer default dbms_sql.open_cursor;
l_columnValue varchar2(2000);
l_status integer;
l_colCnt number default 0;
l_separator varchar2(10) default '';
l_cnt number default 0;
begin
l_output := utl_file.fopen( p_dir, p_filename, 'w' );
dbms_sql.parse( l_theCursor, p_query, dbms_sql.native );
for i in 1 .. 255 loop
begin
dbms_sql.define_column( l_theCursor, i, l_columnValue, 2000 );
l_colCnt := i;
exception
when others then
if ( sqlcode = -1007 ) then exit;
else
raise;
end if;
end;
end loop;
dbms_sql.define_column( l_theCursor, 1, l_columnValue, 2000 );
l_status := dbms_sql.execute(l_theCursor);
loop
exit when ( dbms_sql.fetch_rows(l_theCursor) <= 0 );
l_separator := '';
for i in 1 .. l_colCnt loop
dbms_sql.column_value( l_theCursor, i, l_columnValue );
utl_file.put( l_output, l_separator || l_columnValue );
l_separator := p_separator;
end loop;
utl_file.new_line( l_output );
l_cnt := l_cnt+1;
end loop;
dbms_sql.close_cursor(l_theCursor);
utl_file.fclose( l_output );
return l_cnt;
end dump_csv;
/

Answer 1

mkdir admin - permission denied. I guess that's the end of that so?I'm afraid so...
Shouldn't that be /usr/oracle/admin/m52ora/ - i.e. without the utl_file at the end?No, from your posts it's part of the path.
...but there could be another way. Not sure if it works on your version (it surely works on 9i onwards), I don't have your version on hands to do tests, so you'll do the test :-)
As sysdba create a directory object, say MYDIR (you can name it as you want) :
SQL> create or replace directory mydir as '/ellipse/el5.2.3.2_tb_sup/work'; -- here you can use any OS directory on which you have write access.
SQL> grant read,write on directory mydir to <your user>;
then, as your user
select dump_csv( 'SELECT Defer_Date, Defer_Time, User_Id, Start_Date, Group_Name,Employee_Id, PROCESS_STATUS, REQUEST_PARAMSX1 FROM msf080 ORDER BY Defer_Date DESC;',',','MYDIR','billy.txt')
from dual;
here MYDIR must be uppercase.
Good luck...