sqlplus statement from command line

Question

Is it possible to do something like this?

$ sqlplus -s user/pass \"select 1 from dual\" or
$ echo \"select 1 from dual\" | sqlplus -s user/pas

Answer 1

I'm able to execute your exact query by just making sure there is a semicolon at the end of my select statement. (Output is actual, connection params removed.)

echo "select 1 from dual;" | sqlplus -s username/password@host:1521/service 

Output:

         1
----------
         1

Note that is should matter but this is running on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Oracle 11g.