CREATE PFILE

CREATE PFILE

Purpose

Use the CREATE PFILE statement to export a binary server parameter file into a text initialization parameter file. Creating a text parameter file is a convenient way to get a listing of the current parameter settings being used by the database, and it lets you edit the file easily in a text editor and then convert it back into a server parameter file using the CREATE SPFILE statement.

Upon successful execution of this statement, Oracle creates a text parameter file on the server. In a Real Application Clusters environment, it will contain all parameter settings of all instances. It will also contain any comments that appeared on the same line with a parameter setting in the server parameter file.

See Also:

■CREATE SPFILE on page 14-94 for information on server parameter files

■Oracle9i Database Administrator’s Guide for information on pre-Oracle9i text initialization parameter files and Oracle9i binary server parameter files

■Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Administration for information on using server parameter files in a Real Application Clusters environment

Prerequisites

You must have the SYSDBA or the SYSOPER role to execute this statement. You can execute this statement either before or after instance startup.

Syntax

create_pfile::=

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CREATE PFILE

Semantics

pfile_name

Specify the name of the text parameter file you want to create. If you do not specify pfile_name, Oracle uses the platform-specific default initialization parameter file name.

spfile_name

Specify the name of the binary server parameter from which you want to create a text file.

■If you specify spfile_name, the file must exist on the server. If the file does not reside in the default directory for server parameter files on your operating system, you must specify the full path.

■If you do not specify spfile_name, Oracle looks in the default directory for server parameter files on your operating system, for the platform-specific default server parameter file name, and uses that file. If that file does not exist in the expected directory, Oracle returns an error.

See Also: Oracle9i Database Administrator’s Guide for Windows (or other appropriate operating system specific documentation) for default parameter file names

Examples

Creating a Parameter File: Example The following example creates a text parameter file my_init.ora from a binary server parameter file production.ora:

CREATE PFILE = ’my_init.ora’ FROM SPFILE = ’s_params.ora’;

Note: Typically you will need to specify the full path and filename for parameter files on your operating system. Please refer to your Oracle operating system documentation for path information.

SQL Statements: CREATE LIBRARY to CREATE SPFILE 14-63

CREATE PROCEDURE

CREATE PROCEDURE

Purpose

Use the CREATE PROCEDURE statement to create a standalone stored procedure or a call specification.

A procedure is a group of PL/SQL statements that you can call by name. A call specification ("call spec") declares a Java method or a third-generation language (3GL) routine so that it can be called from SQL and PL/SQL. The call spec tells Oracle which Java method to invoke when a call is made. It also tells Oracle what type conversions to make for the arguments and return value.

Stored procedures offer advantages in the areas of development, integrity, security, performance, and memory allocation.

See Also:

■Oracle9i Application Developer’s Guide - Fundamentals for more information on stored procedures, including how to call stored procedures and for information about registering external procedures

■CREATE FUNCTION on page 13-52 for information specific to functions, which are similar to procedures in many ways

■CREATE PACKAGE on page 14-52 for information on creating packages. (The CREATE PROCEDURE statement creates a procedure as a standalone schema object. You can also create a procedure as part of a package.)

■ALTER PROCEDURE on page 9-124 and DROP PROCEDURE on page 16-93 for information on modifying and dropping a standalone procedure

■CREATE LIBRARY on page 14-2 for more information about shared libraries

Prerequisites

Before creating a procedure, the user SYS must run a SQL script commonly called DBMSSTDX.SQL. The exact name and location of this script depends on your operating system.

To create a procedure in your own schema, you must have the CREATE PROCEDURE system privilege. To create a procedure in another user’s schema, you must have

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CREATE PROCEDURE

CREATE ANY PROCEDURE system privilege. To replace a procedure in another schema, you must have the ALTER ANY PROCEDURE system privilege.

To invoke a call spec, you may need additional privileges (for example, EXECUTE privileges on the C library for a C call spec).

To embed a CREATE PROCEDURE statement inside an Oracle precompiler program, you must terminate the statement with the keyword END-EXEC followed by the embedded SQL statement terminator for the specific language.

See Also: PL/SQL User’s Guide and Reference or Oracle9i Java Stored

Procedures Developer’s Guide for more information

Syntax

create_procedure::=

invoker_rights_clause::=

CURRENT_USER

AUTHID

DEFINER

call_spec::=

Java_declaration

LANGUAGE

C_declaration

SQL Statements: CREATE LIBRARY to CREATE SPFILE 14-65

CREATE PROCEDURE

Java_declaration::=

JAVA NAME ’ string ’

C_declaration::=

Semantics

OR REPLACE

Specify OR REPLACE to re-create the procedure if it already exists. Use this clause to change the definition of an existing procedure without dropping, re-creating, and regranting object privileges previously granted on it. If you redefine a procedure, Oracle recompiles it.

Users who had previously been granted privileges on a redefined procedure can still access the procedure without being regranted the privileges.

If any function-based indexes depend on the package, Oracle marks the indexes

DISABLED.

See Also: ALTER PROCEDURE on page 9-124 for information on recompiling procedures

schema

Specify the schema to contain the procedure. If you omit schema, Oracle creates the procedure in your current schema.

procedure

Specify the name of the procedure to be created.

If creating the procedure results in compilation errors, Oracle returns an error. You can see the associated compiler error messages with the SQL*Plus command SHOW ERRORS.

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CREATE PROCEDURE

argument

Specify the name of an argument to the procedure. If the procedure does not accept arguments, you can omit the parentheses following the procedure name.

IN Specify IN to indicate that you must specify a value for the argument when calling the procedure.

OUT Specify OUT to indicate that the procedure passes a value for this argument back to its calling environment after execution.

IN OUT Specify IN OUT to indicate that you must specify a value for the argument when calling the procedure and that the procedure passes a value back to its calling environment after execution.

If you omit IN, OUT, and IN OUT, the argument defaults to IN.

NOCOPY Specify NOCOPY to instruct Oracle to pass this argument as fast as possible. This clause can significantly enhance performance when passing a large value like a record, an index-by table, or a varray to an OUT or IN OUT parameter. (IN parameter values are always passed NOCOPY.)

■When you specify NOCOPY, assignments made to a package variable may show immediately in this parameter (or assignments made to this parameter may show immediately in a package variable) if the package variable is passed as the actual assignment corresponding to this parameter.

■Similarly, changes made either to this parameter or to another parameter may be visible immediately through both names if the same variable is passed to both.

■If the procedure is exited with an unhandled exception, any assignment made to this parameter may be visible in the caller’s variable.

These effects may or may not occur on any particular call. You should use NOCOPY only when these effects would not matter.

datatype Specify the datatype of the argument. An argument can have any datatype supported by PL/SQL.

Datatypes cannot specify length, precision, or scale. For example, VARCHAR2(10) is not valid, but VARCHAR2 is valid. Oracle derives the length, precision, and scale of an argument from the environment from which the procedure is called.

SQL Statements: CREATE LIBRARY to CREATE SPFILE 14-67

CREATE PROCEDURE

invoker_rights_clause

The invoker_rights_clause lets you specify whether the procedure executes with the privileges and in the schema of the user who owns it or with the privileges and in the schema of CURRENT_USER.

This clause also determines how Oracle resolves external names in queries, DML operations, and dynamic SQL statements in the procedure.

AUTHID CURRENT_USER

Specify CURRENT_USER to indicate that the procedure executes with the privileges of CURRENT_USER. This clause creates an invoker-rights procedure.

This clause also specifies that external names in queries, DML operations, and dynamic SQL statements resolve in the schema of CURRENT_USER. External names in all other statements resolve in the schema in which the procedure resides.

AUTHID DEFINER

Specify DEFINER to indicate that the procedure executes with the privileges of the owner of the schema in which the procedure resides, and that external names resolve in the schema where the procedure resides. This is the default and creates a definer-rights procedure.

See Also:

IS | AS Clause

pl/sql_subprogram_body

Declare the procedure in a PL/SQL subprogram body.

See Also: Oracle9i Application Developer’s Guide - Fundamentals for more information on PL/SQL subprograms

call_spec

Use the call_spec to map a Java or C method name, parameter types, and return type to their SQL counterparts.

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CREATE PROCEDURE

In Java_declaration, ’string’ identifies the Java implementation of the method.

See Also:

AS EXTERNAL The AS EXTERNAL clause is an alternative way of declaring a C method. This clause has been deprecated and is supported for backward compatibility only. Oracle Corporation recommends that you use the AS LANGUAGE C syntax.

Examples

Creating a Procedure: Example The following statement creates the procedure remove_emp in the schema hr (PL/SQL is shown in italics):

CREATE PROCEDURE remove_emp (employee_id NUMBER) AS tot_emps NUMBER;

BEGIN

DELETE FROM employees

WHERE employees.employee_id = remove_emp.employee_id; tot_emps := tot_emps - 1;

END;

/

The remove_emp procedure removes a specified employee. When you call the procedure, you must specify the employee_id of the employee to be removed. The argument’s datatype is NUMBER.

The procedure uses a DELETE statement to remove from the employees table the row of employee_id.

See Also: "Creating a Package Body: Example" on page 14-59 to see how to incorporate this procedure into a package

SQL Statements: CREATE LIBRARY to CREATE SPFILE 14-69

CREATE PROCEDURE

In the following example, external procedure c_find_root expects a pointer as a parameter. Procedure find_root passes the parameter by reference using the BY REFERENCE phrase (PL/SQL is shown in italics):

CREATE PROCEDURE find_root ( x IN REAL )

IS LANGUAGE C

NAME c_find_root

LIBRARY c_utils

PARAMETERS ( x BY REFERENCE );

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