What does # mean in sqlplus? – Laurent Schneider

The script used to be
shutdown abort

it has been replaced by
#shutdown abort shutdown immediate

Let’s try !

SQL> #shutdown abort ORACLE instance shut down. SQL> shutdown immediate ORA-01012: not logged on

sqlplus ~~just silently ignored the # symbol and~~ executed the first statement.

Thanks to Maxim comment, here is a new case to explain the sql prefix #
SQL> sho sqlpre sqlprefix "#" (hex 23) SQL> select 2 #prompt hello world hello world 2 * from dual;

D - X

While within (or outside of) an sqlplus block, you can tell sqlplus to immediately run a sqlplus statement

The correct syntaxes to put comment are documented in Placing Comments in Scripts
SQL> remark shutdown abort SQL> rem shutdown abort SQL> -- shu abort SQL> /* shutdown abort */

5 thoughts on “What does # mean in sqlplus?”

Maxim June 11, 2012 at 11:55

Slightly disagree with your ‘silently ignored the # symbol’ – in opposite, it has done exactly that, what sqlprefix stands for
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e16604/ch_twelve040.htm#i2679105

Best regards

Maxim

Laurent Schneider Post authorJune 11, 2012 at 12:28

Thank you Maxim ! I enhanced my post with your comment

Oleksanndr June 21, 2012 at 15:48

Nice feature! 😉
another interesting usage of this “comment”

SQL> select owner,count(*)
2 from dba_objects
3 #shutdown abort
ORACLE instance shut down.
3 group by owner;
select owner,count(*)
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
Process ID: 26848
Session ID: 143 Serial number: 2467

Gary Pennington July 11, 2012 at 16:52

Hi, I tend to use #desc when I am halfway through writing a select but have forgotten a column name. Then I can just carry on with the rest of my select. Very useful.

Laurent Schneider Post authorJuly 11, 2012 at 18:30

Really, I will think about it.
I used to
.[ENTER] desc bla[ENTER] i[ENTER]

but why not #desc 😉 it is actually much shorter to type !!!

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