Changes in This Release for SQL*Plus

This preface lists changes in the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference

Changes in SQL*Plus Release 12.2.0.1.0

The following are changes in the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference for SQL*Plus release 12.2.0.1.0

New Features

The following features are new in this release:

  • Support for command history

    SQL*Plus now supports command history. The command history feature enables users to run, edit, or delete previously used SQL*Plus, SQL, or PL/SQL commands from the history list in the current session.

    See HISTORY

    See SET HIST[ORY] {ON | OFF | n}

    See SHOW HISTORY

  • Support for long identifiers

    SQL*Plus now supports object lengths of 128 bytes. In previous releases, the object length limit was 30 bytes.

  • Commands to improve performance

    SQL*Plus has new commands that improve performance in certain cases. The new commands enable users to control row and LOB prefetching, as well as statement caching.

    See SET LOBPREFETCH {0 | n}

    See SET ROWPREFETCH {1 | n}

    See SET STATEMENTC[ACHE] {0 | n}

  • New Administrative Privilege

    The SQLPLUS and CONNECT commands now support the new user privilege SYSRAC as well as the existing SYSBACKUP |SYSDG | SYSKM |SYSASM |SYSDBA |SYSOPER privileges.

    See SQLPLUS Program Syntax

    See CONNECT

    See Administrative User Accounts

  • Support for input binding by using the VARIABLE command. The VARIABLE command now supports input binding which can be used in SQL and PL/SQL statements.

  • Support for CSV format data. The SET MARKUP command now has a CSV option to output data in CSV format.

  • The SET FEEDBACK command has an ONLY option to display the number of rows selected. No data is displayed.

  • SQL*Plus command-line option –AC sets the Application Continuity flag for the session. For more information about Application Continuity, see the Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide.

  • SQL*Plus command-line option –F[ast] changes the values of the following default settings:

    • ARRAYSIZE = 100

    • LOBPREFETCH = 16384

    • PAGESIZE = 50000

    • ROWPREFETCH = 2

    • STATEMENTCACHE = 20

    These settings improve general performance.

Desupported Features

Some features previously described in this document are desupported in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2). See Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for a list of desupported features.