Hi,

I've noticed two variations of embedded sqlplus 'here' documents used as input to sqlplus. Most examples seem to use the following format with EOF (or some other unique identifier) directly appended to the << as shown below.

sqlplus -s /nolog <<EOF
connect username/password@mydatabase

select.........
.................
/
EOF

Another variation is almost identical except that << is separated from EOF by a '-', as in <<-EOF.

I've been searching the documentation and other threads and cannot find the significance of one vs. the other. Is there any functional difference between <<- and << ? is one better than the other?

Thanks!

From the ksh man page: "If - is appended to <<, all leading tabs are stripped from word and from the document."

Perderabo, care to post a 'for example' ? Sorry for my ignorance, but sometimes my english is not as good as it should be when reading stuff.

hi did u get the reason for that?

not only that,i have tried out diff possibilities and i find that you can use any string consisting of one or more letters and numbers...

i tried to ask pepl but didnt get any a satisfactory answer

also in

-------------------<< X
statements...
....

Y

kind of blocks that u just mentioned....it is also not necessary that X be equal to Y....

i hope ur gettin what i mean to convey..

ok then...wil wait for ur reply...
bye

An example of here document in the <<-WORD form :

$ sqlplus <<-EOD_SQL
        connect username/password@mydatabase
        select ........
        EOD_SQL
$

The value of this feature becomes more clear when the here-doc is moved to an inner block...

#! /usr/bin/ksh

i=0
while ((i<4)) ; do
        cat <<-EndOfData
                Attention: some important message
                that goes to several lines
                like this
                EndOfData
        ((i=i+1))
done
exit 0


#! /usr/bin/ksh

i=0
while ((i<4)) ; do
        cat <<EndOfData
Attention: some important message
that goes to several lines
like this
EndOfData
        ((i=i+1))
done
exit 0

hi thanks for the examples..

but there is one more thing that stumps me...
how does a 'here' block conceptually work...?

i mean what is the control flow and why does it so happen that the thing written within the here block is executed by that coresspong application..

also can u pls give an example for the bash shell?

thanks agai...