Execute immediate dbms_output.put_line

Question

I have code like this:

set serveroutput on

declare
v_str varchar2(200);
begin
v_str := q'!dbms_output.put_line('Hello world');!';
Execute immediate v_str;
end;

Oracle SQL Developer says that there's invalid SQL Statement, what's the problem?

Solution

declare
v_str varchar2(200);
begin
v_str := q'!begin dbms_output.put_line('Hello world'); end;!';
Execute immediate v_str;
end;
/

works...

Comments

[kmkaplan]

Use show err to print detail on the error.

[Jeffrey Kemp]

Is there a particular reason why you need to call dbms_output with dynamic PL/SQL?

[Ben]

Basically, the answer is that dbms_output is a procedure and so can only be executed within a PL/SQL block.

[Alex Poole]

@Ben - really a reply to a comment on your deleted answer, but still relevant here; the q syntax is in the documentation under text literals.