Difference between ';' and '/' in the SQL scripts

Question

Hi All,
Could anyone please let me know the difference between placing ';' and '/' in the sql scripts.
I am placing couple of insert statements in a textfile with .sql extension and running it from the sql prompt.
Which one( ';' or '/') should be keep at the end of each statement in the script.
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL;
SYSDATE
12-MAY-13
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL
  2  /
SYSDATE
12-MAY-13Thanks,

Answer 1

968217 wrote:
My doubt is how it understands or the difference b/w the below two view statements one with ';' and another one with '/'. Sorry if i am unclear.They are identical in SQL*Plus. These characters mean "+send entered/buffered text to Oracle to parse and execute+".
So - SQL*Plus sends "+create or replace view ev1 as select ename , sal from emp+" to the server (via a cursor execute):
create or replace view ev1 as select ename , sal from emp
/And again, SQL*Plus sends "+create or replace view ev1 as select ename , sal from emp+" to the server (via a cursor execute):
create or replace view ev2 as select ename , sal from emp;These are identical statements.
As I mentioned in the post I referred you to. Oracle also uses the ";" character in the PL/SQL language. So when you enter PL/SQL code in SQL*Plus, you do not want SQL*Plus to send each line of PL/SQL code to the server. Instead, you want it to wait till the last statement has been entered and then send the the whole block to the server to be parsed and executed,
SQL*Plus has a basic parser itself. It uses that to figure out what you have entered, and whether a ";" you enter is an instruction from you to it, to send the text to the server - or when you enter a ";", it is part of the text for the server and that it should not react to it.
Thus when you enter the following, SQL*Plus recognises that you are using the SQL language, and as this language does not use ";" characters, a ";" character when entered means that it needs to send the text to the server to be parsed and executed:
SQL> select * from emp;
// ; character instructs SQL*Plus to create and execute cursor "select * from emp"When you enter PL/SQL code, SQL*Pus recognises that and knows that ";" characters entered indicates end-of-statement for PL//SQL and that it should not act on that,
SQL> begin
  2    null;
  3  end;
  4  /
// SQL*Plus ignores the ";" character - and the "/" character is used to
// instruct SQL*Plus to create and execute cursor"begin<LF>null;><LF>end;"