Writing a Stored Procedure

Question

Okay - I am new to PLSQL & stored procedures. This will be something that I shall be learning. I am not new to SQL, however.
And so: as a sql command I am able to execute a command to get data from our production database and 'migrate' the data to a different database (using db links):
let's say the table in production is table1. Let's say this table already exists in this DB as well.
In the second db, I am executing the following:
DROP table db2.table1;
CREATE TABLE db2.table1 (table1_id, table1_code, table1_field3, table1_field4)
AS
SELECT "TABLE1_ID", "TABLE1_CODE", "TABLE1_FIELD3", "TABLE1_FIELD4"
FROM table1@productionDB;
The above command executes successfully. However, now I would like to create a stored procedure that I can create a job for - so as to execute the procedure weekly.
I am also new to toad. However, see that toad provides the ability to create & schedule jobs.
I decided to take the above SQL and 'write' a stored procedure:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE p_table1_to_db2 IS
BEGIN
DROP table db2.table1;
CREATE TABLE db2.table1 (table1_id, table1_code, table1_field3, table1_field4)
AS
SELECT "TABLE1_ID", "TABLE1_CODE", "TABLE1_FIELD3", "TABLE1_FIELD4"
FROM table1@productionDB;
END p_table1_to_db2;
When running the above stored procedure, I get errors (what seem to be syntactical errors).
I.e.: Oracle Error PLS-00103 -- Encountered the symbol "DROP" when expecting something else... etc.
Since I'm new to this, can someone please assist me in correctly 'formatting' the above stored procedure? What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

DROP is not a valid command for PL/SQL. Inside a procedure you must use PL/SQL. There is a way around this by using the EXECUTE IMMEDIATE command.
I would however prefere NOT to drop the table. If you just need to copy the data then
DELETE FROM db2.table1;
INSERT INTO db2.table1  (table1_id, table1_code, table1_field3, table1_field4)
SELECT "TABLE1_ID", "TABLE1_CODE", "TABLE1_FIELD3", "TABLE1_FIELD4"
FROM table1@productionDB;should be enough.
Instead of "DELETE FROM db2.table1;" "TRUNCATE db2.table1;" is possible and faster, but does commit everything before this statement.
Message was edited by:
Sven Weller