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Installing SQL*Plus Help and Demonstration Tables

This chapter provides information to help you install SQL*Plus components.

Specific topics discussed are:

Installing SQL*Plus

The CD-ROM insert that accompanies your product CD-ROM includes the following information about SQL*Plus:

System requirements
Installation instructions

Note:
Before installing SQL*Plus, refer to the generic SQL*Plus documentation on the CD-ROM, and to the Release Notes and Readme files on the CD-ROM for late-breaking information.

Installing SQL*Plus Online Help

Online help is available from the command line of either the graphical user interface or the command line interface while you are using SQL*Plus. The database administrator creates the SQL*Plus help tables and populates them with SQL*Plus help data.

Prerequisites

Before you can install SQL*Plus help, ensure that:

SQL*Plus is installed, otherwise, you cannot create and load the help tables.
The default tablespace for the SYSTEM user is large enough to accommodate the help system. You must have at least 48K of free space.
The SQL*Plus help script files are available in
```
%ORACLE_HOME%\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP\ 
```
The help script files are:
- HELPBLD.SQL - to drop and create new help tables.
- HELPUS.SQL - to populate the help tables with the help data.
- HELPDROP.SQL - to drop existing SQL*Plus help tables.
The Windows command file, HELPINS.BAT, is available in
```
%ORACLE_HOME%\BIN\ 
```

Installing SQL*Plus Help

SQL*Plus help is installed automatically during Oracle9i installation. There are also two ways to manually install SQL*Plus help:

Running a provided batch file from the command prompt

Set an environment variable, SYSTEM_PASS, to hold the SYSTEM user login with:
```
SET SYSTEM_PASS=SYSTEM/PASSWORD
```
where PASSWORD is the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user. The default SYSTEM user password is MANAGER.

The HELPINS utility reads this login from SYSTEM_PASS to run successfully.
Run the batch file, HELPINS.BAT, from a command line prompt with:
```
C:\> %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN\HELPINS US
```

Running a provided SQL script from SQL*Plus

Run SQL*Plus as the SYSTEM user with:
```
C:\> SQLPLUS SYSTEM/PASSWORD
```
where PASSWORD is the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user.
Run the SQL script, HELPBLD.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:
```
SQL> @%ORACLE_HOME%\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP\HELPBLD.SQL HELPPATH HELPUS.SQL
```
where HELPPATH is the path to the SQL*Plus help directory containing the file HELPUS.SQL. HELPPATH is usually:
```
%ORACLE_HOME%\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP
```

Accessing SQL*Plus Help

To access SQL*Plus help, enter the following command in SQL*Plus:

	SQL> HELP

If you know the topic for which you want help, enter the following command:

	SQL> HELP topic

where topic is a SQL*Plus help topic.

To display a list of available help topics, enter one of the following commands:

	SQL> HELP INDEX

	SQL> HELP TOPICS

Example

To get help for the COLUMN command, enter

SQL> HELP COLUMN

If you get a response that help is unavailable, check that you have correctly installed SQL*Plus help in the SYSTEM schema.

For more information about the HELP command, see Chapter 8, "Command Reference" in the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.

Accessing Sample Tables

Included with Oracle9i, are a number of sample schemas. The SQL*Plus tutorial and examples use the EMP_DETAILS_VIEW view of the Human Resources (HR) sample schema. This schema contains personnel records for a fictitious company. For information about unlocking and accessing the HR sample schema, see Chapter 1 of the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference. For further information about the sample schemas included with Oracle9i, see the Oracle9i Sample Schemas guide.

Note:
Dates in the sample schemas use four digit years. As the default date format in SQL*Plus is DD-MM-YY, dates displayed show only a two digit year. To control the way dates are displayed, either use ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT ='DD-MM-YYYY', or use the SQL TO_CHAR function in your SELECT statements .

2Installing SQL*Plus Help and Demonstration Tables