For large output which is not able to fit in a single window, scrolling the results can skip data while it looks messy as well. to get rid of scrolling, you can use the command “set pause on”. With pause ON, the output will come in small chunks and will continue only when you press enter. It’s output resembles that of a more command which we use in unix.
SQL> set pause on
SQL>
SQL> select * from SMON_SCN_TIME
2 ;
THREAD TIME_MP TIME_DP SCN_WRP SCN_BAS
———- ———- ——— ———- ———-
1 1301818161 03-APR-11 0 3498484333
1 1301818565 03-APR-11 0 3498484683
1 1301818967 03-APR-11 0 3498485031
1 1301819370 03-APR-11 0 3498485383
1 1301819772 03-APR-11 0 3498485730
1 1301820173 03-APR-11 0 3498486079
1 1301820574 03-APR-11 0 3498486430
1 1301820977 03-APR-11 0 3498486780
1 1301821379 03-APR-11 0 3498487132
1 1301821785 03-APR-11 0 3498487482
1 1301822187 03-APR-11 0 3498487851
[waiting for user to press enter]
To disable this function, you can use “set pause off”. A part from this discussion, you can always use help command to see all the SQL PLUS commands as shown below:
SQL> help index
Enter Help [topic] for help.
@ COPY PAUSE SHUTDOWN
@@ DEFINE PRINT SPOOL
/ DEL PROMPT SQLPLUS
ACCEPT DESCRIBE QUIT START
APPEND DISCONNECT RECOVER STARTUP
ARCHIVE LOG EDIT REMARK STORE
ATTRIBUTE EXECUTE REPFOOTER TIMING
BREAK EXIT REPHEADER TTITLE
BTITLE GET RESERVED WORDS (SQL) UNDEFINE
CHANGE HELP RESERVED WORDS (PL/SQL) VARIABLE
CLEAR HOST RUN WHENEVER OSERROR
COLUMN INPUT SAVE WHENEVER SQLERROR
COMPUTE LIST SET
CONNECT PASSWORD SHOW
SQL>
To explore a single command help use help followed by a command.
SQL> help PAUSE
PAUSE
—–
Displays the specified text then waits for the user to press RETURN.
PAU[SE] [text]
Not available in iSQL*Plus
SQL>