Is there an Oracle equivalent for the T-SQL PRINT statement? I want to show script progress

Question

I have searched and not found any answers that address this directly. I just want to display that I have successfully completed script blocks while executing an implementation script that does multiple things.

PRINT 'Start script'
PRINT 'Insert A'
    INSERT INTO Customers (CustomerName, City, Country)
    VALUES ('Cardinal', 'Stavanger', 'Norway');
PRINT 'Update B'
    UPDATE Customers
    SET ContactName='Alfred Schmidt', City='Hamburg'
    WHERE CustomerName='Alfreds Futterkiste';
PRINT 'End script'

So, when done, the output should look something like:

Start script
Insert A
4 rows inserted
Update B
1 row updated
End script

Answer 1

Oracle has a database output buffer called DBMS Output, which has a PUT_LINE() function. However, most Oracle tools (SQL*Plus and SQL Developer) do not have the output buffer enabled, by default, in a session.

To turn on this output buffer in SQL Developer, do the following:

1. Go to View | DBMS Output to enable the DBMS Output window
2. Push the green plus icon to enable DBMS Output for a particular session.

To turn on this output buffer on in SQL*Plus!, you need to set the SERVEROUTPUT value via the command prompt, like this:

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON [SIZE N|UNLIMITED]

Example:

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON 50000

Note: The 50000 is a length limit, in bytes.

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Now you can use the PUT_LINE() function to actually write status messages, like this:

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Status message goes here.');

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Here is the documentation for SET SERVEROUTPUT PL-SQL command.

Here is the documentation for DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE() function.