Things I used to do in TOAD for Oracle but can't in Data Point (3.7) - call remote procedures & scan defined variables

So for years and years, I’ve been able to run my SQL clients (originally Navigator then TOAD for Oracle and some other TOAD variant (not “For Data Analysts”)) and I had been able to do two critical things through many different client versions:

  1. EXEC a basic remote procedure - it doesn’t really matter what it does bottom line is I can’t EXEC something

  2. DEFINE a parametric variable value inline in the code. Typically I’d do this at the start of the code like:

DEFINE ChosenDate=‘31-May-2016’;

and then subsequent references to that variable like "where MonthDate=’&&ChosenDate’ would use that defined variable. If I chose a setting called “SCAN DEFINES” I wouldn’t need to be prompted when running the script.

^ The beauty of this is I can change values right in the script, run it and then save the script as a bona fide record of what was run for that month. When you are prompted for inputs, you don’t retain the values and should something go amiss you have no record of what was actually run unless you build up a logging table but that’s overkill for the more-ad-hoc analytics and reporting environment I’m in.

Seems like TDP has no support for either of these?? I suspect there may be some things that can get me close but not exactly but there’s also the daunting task of migrating a huge amount of code that had gone for years painlessly through many versions of Quest / TOAD products.

Those are SQLPlus commands that you want to use. We bundle the ScriptRunner with TDP and it supports SQLPlus. To use this app, open your SQL editor in TDP with script you want to run. From the menu choose “Execute Sql Script in External App”

Thx Debbie. I saw Script Runner as an option based on at least one similar question raised. I tried running it and realized it was going to try to run the ENTIRE script I had open as opposed to just some selected SQL I had highlighted in the window. The attempt to run the whole thing is a problem only because my scripts have pre-amble SQL that is for scratch work and then later on the real / cleaner script begins. (And I’m not the only person who works this way!) But it might be an option if it can solve both those issues with no other snags.

I wish there was a way to “SCRIPT RUN” just a selected code block, maybe using a background / temp / invisible / disposable code file that I don’t even know exists. I can imagine right clicking on a selected code block and there’s a “Send this Block to Script Runner” option or something.

The help file says there are menu options for these.

Run Menu

The Run menu includes the following commands for running the script.

Script execution can be cancelled by pressing <ESC>.

Execute Entire/Highlighted Script
This runs the entire script that has been loaded into the Editor, or the highlighted portion of that script.

Run from Cursor
This runs the script from cursor point to end of the script.

Run to Cursor
This runs the script from the beginning of the script to the cursor point.

Run Current Statement
This runs only the statement where the cursor is located.

Execute Script Step by Step
This lets you step through the script.

Step through script from cursor
This lets you step through the script, starting at the location of your cursor.

Connect
This command lets you open a new connection to an Oracle database.