Syntax

VAR[IABLE] [variable [type [=value]]]

Declares a bind variable that can be referenced in PL/SQL, or lists the current display characteristics for a single variable or all variables.

type represents data types. These data types are listed in the Terms section.

VARIABLE without arguments displays a list of all the variables declared in the session. VARIABLE followed only by a variable name lists that variable.

To free resources used by CLOB and NCLOB bind variables, you may need to manually free temporary LOBs with:

EXECUTE DBMS_LOB.FREETEMPORARY(:cv)

See About Using Bind Variables for more information on bind variables. See your Oracle Database PL/SQL Language Reference for more information about PL/SQL.

Terms

variable

Represents the name of the bind variable you wish to create.

value

Allows you to assign a value to a variable for input binding.

NUMBER

Creates a variable of type NUMBER with fixed length.

CHAR

Creates a variable of type CHAR (character) with length one.

CHAR (n[CHAR | BYTE])

Creates a variable of type CHAR with length n bytes or n characters. The maximum that n can be is 2000 bytes, and the minimum is 1 byte or 1 character. The maximum n for a CHAR variable with character semantics is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen character set, with an upper limit of 2000 bytes. The length semantics are determined by the length qualifiers CHAR or BYTE, and if not explicitly stated, the value of the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS environment variable is applied to the bind variable. Explicitly stating the length semantics at variable definition stage will always take precedence over the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS setting.

NCHAR

Creates a variable of type NCHAR (national character) with length one.

NCHAR (n)

Creates a variable of type NCHAR with length n characters. The maximum that n can be is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen national character set, with an upper limit of 2000 bytes. The only exception to this is when a SQL*Plus session is connected to a pre Oracle9i server, or the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY system variable is set to a version less than 9.0.0. In this case, the length n can be in bytes or characters depending on the chosen national character set, with the upper limit of 2000 bytes still retained.

VARCHAR2 (n[CHAR | BYTE])

Creates a variable of type VARCHAR2 with length of up to n bytes or n characters. The maximum that n can be is 32k bytes (see note), and the minimum is 1 byte or 1 character. The maximum n for a VARCHAR2 variable with character semantics is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen character set, with an upper limit of 32k bytes. The length semantics are determined by the length qualifiers CHAR or BYTE, and if not explicitly stated, the value of the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS environment variable is applied to the bind variable. Explicitly stating the length semantics at variable definition stage will always take precedence over the NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS setting.

NVARCHAR2 (n)

Creates a variable of type NVARCHAR2 with length of up to n characters. The maximum that n can be is determined by the number of bytes required to store each character for the chosen national character set, with an upper limit of 32k bytes (see note). The only exception to this is when a SQL*Plus session is connected to a pre Oracle9i server, or the SQLPLUSCOMPATIBILITY system variable is set to a version less than 9.0.0. In this case the length n can be in bytes or characters depending on the chosen national character set, with the upper limit of 32k bytes still retained.

CLOB

Creates a variable of type CLOB.

NCLOB

Creates a variable of type NCLOB.

REFCURSOR

Creates a variable of type REF CURSOR.

BINARY_FLOAT

Creates a variable of type BINARY_FLOAT. BINARY_FLOAT is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

BINARY_DOUBLE

Creates a variable of type BINARY_DOUBLE. BINARY_DOUBLE is a floating-point number that conforms substantially with the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, IEEE Standard 754-1985.

BOOLEAN

Creates a variable of type BOOLEAN.

VECTOR

While inserting or updating a value in a VECTOR data type column using a VECTOR bind variable, if the vector text assigned to the bind variable does not match the VECTOR data type column defined in the database table, an error is displayed.

Usage

Bind variables may be used as parameters to stored procedures, or may be directly referenced in anonymous PL/SQL blocks.

To display the value of a bind variable created with VARIABLE, use the PRINT command. See PRINT for more information.

To automatically display the value of a bind variable created with VARIABLE, use the SET AUTOPRINT command. See SET AUTOP[RINT] {ON | OFF} for more information.

Bind variables cannot be used in the COPY command or SQL statements, except in PL/SQL blocks. Instead, use substitution variables.

When you execute a VARIABLE ... CLOB or NCLOB command, SQL*Plus associates a LOB locator with the bind variable. The LOB locator is automatically populated when you execute a SELECT clob_column INTO :cv statement in a PL/SQL block. SQL*Plus closes the LOB locator when you exit SQL*Plus.

To free resources used by CLOB and NCLOB bind variables, you may need to manually free temporary LOBs with:

EXECUTE DBMS_LOB.FREETEMPORARY(:cv)

All temporary LOBs are freed when you exit SQL*Plus.

SQL*Plus SET commands, such as SET LONG and SET LONGCHUNKSIZE, and SET LOBOFFSET can be used to control the size of the buffer while PRINTing CLOB or NCLOB bind variables.

SQL*Plus REFCURSOR bind variables may be used to reference PL/SQL 2.3 or higher Cursor Variables, allowing PL/SQL output to be formatted by SQL*Plus. For more information on PL/SQL Cursor Variables, see Cursor Variables.

When you execute a VARIABLE ... REFCURSOR command, SQL*Plus creates a cursor bind variable. The cursor is automatically opened by an OPEN ... FOR SELECT statement referencing the bind variable in a PL/SQL block. SQL*Plus closes the cursor after completing a PRINT statement for that bind variable, or on exit.

SQL*Plus formatting commands, such as BREAK, COLUMN, COMPUTE and SET may be used to format the output from PRINTing a REFCURSOR.

A REFCURSOR bind variable cannot be PRINTed more than once without re-executing the PL/SQL OPEN ... FOR statement.

Examples

The following example illustrates creating a bind variable, changing its value, and displaying its current value.

To create a bind variable, you can use the VARIABLE command:

VARIABLE ret_val NUMBER

To change this bind variable in SQL*Plus, you must use a PL/SQL block:

BEGIN
 :ret_val:=4;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

To display the value of the bind variable in SQL*Plus, you can use the PRINT command:

PRINT ret_val

The following output is displayed:

   RET_VAL
----------
         4

The following example illustrates creating a bind variable, and then setting it to the value returned by a function:

VARIABLE id NUMBER
BEGIN
  :id := EMP_MANAGEMENT.HIRE
  ('BLAKE','MANAGER','KING',2990,'SALES');
END;
/

The value returned by the stored procedure is being placed in the bind variable, :id. It can be displayed using the PRINT command or can be used in the subsequent PL/SQL subprograms.

The following example illustrates displaying a bind variable automatically using the SET AUTOPRINT command :

SET AUTOPRINT ON
VARIABLE a REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :a FOR SELECT LAST_NAME, CITY, DEPARTMENT_ID
  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  WHERE SALARY > 12000
  ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_ID;
END;
/

There is no need to issue a PRINT command to display the variable.

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
LAST_NAME                  CITY                            DEPARTMENT_ID
-------------------------  ------------------------------  -------------
Hartstein                  Toronto                                    20
Russell                    Oxford                                     80
Partners                   Oxford                                     80
King                       Seattle                                    90
Kochhar                    Seattle                                    90
De Haan                    Seattle                                    90

6 rows selected.

The following example illustrates creating some variables:

VARIABLE id NUMBER
VARIABLE txt CHAR (20)
VARIABLE abc BOOLEAN
VARIABLE var1 VECTOR
VARIABLE myvar REFCURSOR

You can execute the VARIABLE command without arguments to list the defined variables:

VARIABLE

The following output is displayed:

variable   id
datatype   NUMBER

variable   txt
datatype   CHAR(20)

variable   abc
datatype   BOOLEAN

variable   var1
datatype   VECTOR

variable   myvar
datatype   REFCURSOR

The following example illustrates listing a single variable:

VARIABLE txt

The following output is displayed:

variable txt
datatype CHAR(20)

The following example illustrates assigning a value to a variable for input binding:

VARIABLE tmp_var VARCHAR2(10)=Smith

The following example illustrates an alternate method to achieve the same result as the previous example:

VARIABLE tmp_var VARCHAR2(10)    
VARIABLE tmp_var=Smith    
EXECUTE DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(:tmp_var)

The following example illustrates producing a report listing individual salaries and computing the departmental salary cost for employees who earn more than $12,000 per month:

VARIABLE rc REFCURSOR
BEGIN
  OPEN :rc FOR SELECT DEPARTMENT_NAME, LAST_NAME, SALARY
  FROM EMP_DETAILS_VIEW
  WHERE SALARY > 12000
  ORDER BY DEPARTMENT_NAME, LAST_NAME;
END;
/

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

You can set the page size to display the output:

SET PAGESIZE 100 FEEDBACK OFF
TTITLE LEFT '*** Departmental Salary Bill ***' SKIP 2
COLUMN SALARY FORMAT $999,990.99 HEADING 'Salary'
COLUMN DEPARTMENT_NAME HEADING 'Department'
COLUMN LAST_NAME HEADING 'Employee'
COMPUTE SUM LABEL 'Subtotal:' OF SALARY ON DEPARTMENT_NAME
COMPUTE SUM LABEL 'Total:' OF SALARY ON REPORT
BREAK ON DEPARTMENT_NAME SKIP 1 ON REPORT SKIP 1
PRINT rc

The following output is displayed:

*** Departmental Salary Bill ***

DEPARTMENT_NAME                Employee                  Salary
------------------------------ ------------------------- ------------
Executive                      De Haan                     $17,000.00
                               King                        $24,000.00
                               Kochhar                     $17,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $58,000.00

Marketing                      Hartstein                   $13,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $13,000.00

Sales                          Partners                    $13,500.00
                               Russell                     $14,000.00
******************************                           ------------
Subtotal:                                                  $27,500.00

                                                         ------------
Total:                                                     $98,500.00

The following example illustrates creating an input bind to insert CLOB data into a CLOB column:

SQL> CREATE TABLE xyz (col1 CLOB);
Table created.

SQL> VARIABLE abc VARCHAR2(100)="This is a clob input"
SQL> INSERT INTO xyz VALUES (:abc);
1 row created.

The following example illustrates producing a report containing a CLOB column, and then displaying it with the SET LOBOFFSET command.

Assume you have already created a table named clob_tab, which contains a column named clob_col of type CLOB. The clob_col contains the following data:

Remember to run the Departmental Salary Bill report each month. This report
contains confidential information.

You can produce a report listing the data in the col_clob column:

VARIABLE T CLOB
BEGIN
  SELECT CLOB_COL INTO :T FROM CLOB_TAB;
END;
/
PL/SQL PROCEDURE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED

You can print 200 characters from the column clob_col using the following command:

SET LINESIZE 70
SET LONG 200
PRINT T

T
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember to run the Departmental Salary Bill report each month This report 
contains confidential information.

You can set the printing position to the 21^st character using the following command:

SET LOBOFFSET 21
PRINT T

T
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Departmental Salary Bill report each month This report contains 
confidential information.

VARIABLE abc BOOLEAN
BEGIN 
  :abc := 'TRUE';
END;
/

You can display the referenced bind variable using a SELECT or a PRINT command:

SELECT :abc FROM DUAL;

:ABC
---------
TRUE 

PRINT :abc

:ABC
---------
TRUE

You can insert data into BOOLEAN columns:

VARIABLE var1 BOOLEAN='TRUE'
VARIABLE var2 BOOLEAN='FALSE'
INSERT INTO my_table Values (:var1, :var2);

You can use a SELECT command to display the BOOLEAN column data:

SELECT * FROM my_table;

The following output is displayed:

COL1      COL2
------   ------  
TRUE      FALSE

VARIABLE var1 VECTOR='[2,3]'
INSERT INTO my_vector1 VALUES(:var1);
1 row created

SELECT * FROM my_vector1;

INT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.0E+000,3.0E+000]

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON;
VARIABLE plsql_flt32 VECTOR='[8.4,9.6]'
BEGIN
  INSERT INTO myvector_2 VALUES(:plsql_flt32);
END;
/
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SELECT * FROM my_vector2;

FLT32
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[8.39999962E+000,9.60000038E+000]