User defined spoolfile name at run time.

Question

Hi all,
What I want to run in SQLPlus is
PROMPT Enter a spoolfile name
SPOOL &SpFile
SELECT * FROM Scott.emp
SPOOL OFF
When I run this as a script - i.e. @foo.sql, it works fine - i.e. it prompts the
user for a name for the SpFile. However, when I copy and paste the text into
SQLPlus and try and run it, it fails - it runs through the PROMPT/SPOOL bit
of the script with the message
apps@WHITE> SPOOL &SpFile;
Enter value for spfile:
not spooling currently
apps@WHITE>
and produces no output. If I put SPOOL '&SpFile'; it produces a file
called ''.lst - yes two single quotes.lst.
Can anyone explain what is going on and how I can get the
behaviours to match in the interactive and batch modes?
TIA.
Paul...

Answer 1

SQL> spool off
SQL> spool &a
Enter value for a: c:\abc.txt
SQL> select count(*) from user_objects where
rownum<=1;Thanks for your interest, but you have slightly misunderstood me.
It will work fine if I have the spool &xyz in my_script.sql and then do
SQL> @my_script
but it does not* work if I copy and paste the contents of my_script.sql
at the SQL> prompt - i.e. all in one go.
This puzzles me, because it works fine if I copy and paste a multiline sql
statement which has an & in the SELECT part of the statement. I think it's
related to an issue I noticed recently whereby if you copy and paste an
SQL script into the buffer which contains non-SQL (i.e. column blah format a30),
for example, SQLPlus throws an error when you try to run what's in the
edit buffer by typing / and return.
This is why I started copying and pasting at the prompt in the first place,
but this is the first time I've tried to input a "non-SQL" variable name in
this fashion.
This is where I'm having the issue. Hope this is clearer now.
Paul...