Introduction

PL/SQL (Procedural Language/Structured Query Language) is a programming language for managing and manipulating data in Oracle databases. In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of printing in PL/SQL.

Printing in PL/SQL

PL/SQL provides several ways to print or display output in the console. The most commonly used methods are:

1. DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE: This procedure is used to print a single line of text in the console.

BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Hello, World!');
END;

2. DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT: This procedure is used to print a string of text in the console without a newline at the end.

BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT('Hello');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT(', ');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT('World');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('!');
END;

3. HTP.PRINT : This procedure is used to print the string of text in the browser.

BEGIN
  HTP.PRINT('Hello, World!');
END;

Enabling Output

Before you can use any of the above methods to print output, you need to enable the output first. This can be done using the DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE procedure.

BEGIN
  DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE;
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Hello, World!');
END;

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have covered the basics of printing in PL/SQL using the DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE, DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT, and HTP.PRINT procedures. Remember to enable output before printing, and you can use any of these methods to display output in the console or browser.