4.3 PL/SQL Editor

This tool provides you with an advanced editor for developing PL/SQL objects.

Elements of the editor window

On the top of the screen is the toolbar for the editor.

Below that are two panes. The left one "Objects" contains the available objects in the selected schema. The schema is selectable through the toolbar. Select the code object you want to edit in this list or start a new object before starting to edit the code.

The right pane contains more widgets: Contents, Message Log, and the editor itself. In the Contents list you can find declared methods of packages and also variables or even anonymous blocks in your code. Selecting a line in this pane will move the cursor to where the element is in your code, for instance where a variable or method is declared.

The Message Log contains all errors and optional warnings for given PL/SQL code. Clicking the log items will take you to the exact place in the editor.

Toolbar & menu

The toolbar and menu contain pretty much the same commands with a few exceptions.

Refresh object list

Update the Object list to the left of the screen. This is first on the toolbar and close to the end in the menu. The keyboard shortcut for this is F5. Observe that this list is read from the object cache and will not be updated unless you reread the object cache as well (Available from the File menu.

Select schema

In the toolbar this is a combobox listing the available schemas. Changing the schema will change the objects displayed in the Object list. Selecting it in the menu (Close to the end) or selecting the ALT+S keyboard shortcut will move the keyboard focus to the toolbar combobox.

New sheet

Start editing a new object.

Compile

Compile the current editor. This will compile the procedure with the debug option, if you don't have the debug options you need to recompile it in order to be able to see watches. The keyboard shortcut for this is F9.

Compile with Warnings

Compile the current editor with suggested Oracle's PL/SQL Warnings (PLW). Fixing these warnings can speed up your code.

Static Check

Runs external static checker and displays result along with oracle errors and warnings. This button is only visible if static checker has been set up in preferences.

Next error

Move the cursor to the next syntax error in the current editor. For more information about syntax errors in editors see the editor section. The keyboard shortcut for this is CTRL+N.

Previous error

Move the cursor to the previous syntax error in the current editor. For more information about syntax errors in editors see the editor section. The keyboard shortcut for this is CTRL+P.

Static check

Running static check will create a temporary file containing currently open code tab. Then external program will be called with name of temporary file (with full path) given as parameter. Result from that external program should be in specific format in order to be interpreted by TOra.

TOra expects one line of output (written to stdout) to contain one message from static checker. This line should start with number of line followed by semicolon and then text of message.

Note: in future TOra should be able to interpret linenumber, code of static message and then message itself. Code of static message will be used to open automatically generated URL descibing static checker message.

Example of output from static checker:

     72:STC-0100:Comment describing function/procedure and it's parameters is missing
     107:STC-0200:Name of procedure "my_procedure" does not comply with naming standard