How to echo text during SQL script execution in SQLPLUS

Question

I have a batch file which runs a SQL script in sqlplus and sends the output to a log file:

sqlplus user/pw < RowCount.sql > RowCount.log

My log file contains this:

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production

SQL> SQL> 
  COUNT(*)
----------
     0

SQL> 
  COUNT(*)
----------
     0

etc. but it's several thousand lines of output and therefore hard to determine which results belong to which statement.

I would like to add some formatting to the output, so that I may discern what happened. Either an echo of the executed statement or manually inserting some "echo" statements into the script would be fine. Ideally it would look something like this:

SQL> select(*) from TableA;
  COUNT(*)
----------
     0

SQL> select(*) from TableB;
  COUNT(*)
----------
     0

Answer 1

You can use SET ECHO ON in the beginning of your script to achieve that, however, you have to specify your script using @ instead of < (also had to add EXIT at the end):

test.sql

SET ECHO ON

SELECT COUNT(1) FROM dual;

SELECT COUNT(1) FROM (SELECT 1 FROM dual UNION SELECT 2 FROM dual);

EXIT

terminal

sqlplus hr/oracle@orcl @/tmp/test.sql > /tmp/test.log

test.log

SQL> 
SQL> SELECT COUNT(1) FROM dual;

  COUNT(1)
----------
     1

SQL> 
SQL> SELECT COUNT(1) FROM (SELECT 1 FROM dual UNION SELECT 2 FROM dual);

  COUNT(1)
----------
     2

SQL> 
SQL> EXIT

Answer 2

The prompt command will echo text to the output:

prompt A useful comment.
select(*) from TableA;

Will be displayed as:

SQL> A useful comment.
SQL> 
  COUNT(*)
----------
     0

Answer 3

You can change the name of the column, therefore instead of "COUNT(*)" you would have something meaningful. You will have to update your "RowCount.sql" script for that.

For example:

SQL> select count(*) as RecordCountFromTableOne from TableOne;

Will be displayed as:

RecordCountFromTableOne
-----------------------
           0

If you want to have space in the title, you need to enclose it in double quotes

SQL> select count(*) as "Record Count From Table One" from TableOne;

Will be displayed as:

Record Count From Table One
---------------------------
            0