Extract table using utl_file

Question

Hi aces,
I'm trying to extract a table to a linux file.
This is the code I'm executing and the error I get :
create or replace directory repr_utl_dir AS '/home/oracle';
GRANT read, write ON DIRECTORY repr_utl_dir TO sys;
declare
f utl_file.file_type;
begin
f := utl_file.fopen('repr_utl_dir','repr.txt','W');
for s in (select * from repr)
loop
utl_file.put_line(f,s);
end loop;
utl_file.fclose(f);
end;
ERROR at line 7:
ORA-06550: line 7, column 1:
PLS-00306: wrong number or types of arguments in call to 'PUT_LINE'
ORA-06550: line 7, column 1:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored
Any ideas please ?

Answer 1

Hi,
if you want to do data extraction from procedure, you can try external tables. UTL_FILE will work too, but I expect it'll be slow because of writing line by line. It depends on your needs.
DECLARE
  f utl_file.file_type;
  l_delimiter varchar2(1) := ';';
BEGIN
  f := utl_file.fopen('repr_utl_dir', 'repr.txt', 'W') ;
  FOR s IN  (SELECT * FROM repr)
  LOOP
    utl_file.put_line(f, s.column1||l_delimiter||s.column2||...) ;
  END LOOP;
  utl_file.fclose(f) ;
END;
/Or create external table:
create table ext_repr
organization external
  type oracle_datapump
  default directory "repr_utl_dir"
  location( 'repr.txt' )
as
select * from repr
/