Executing Oracle stored procedure with TOAD

In this example, the stored procedure returns a ref_cursor based on some input parameters.  In a TOAD Editor window, have something like this: 

select MySchema.MyPackage.MyStoredProcedure('param1', 'param2') from dual

and click on .

You will get results as a 1 by 1 grid, a concatenation of all the results, created by TOAD.

Getting TOAD running without tnsnames.ora, etc.

1. Download/install TOAD
2. Download/install Oracle Instant Client
3. Know your database server's Host IP, Port number, and SID for desired database
4. When you attempt to connect using TOAD, fill in the "Direct" tab with the information from previous step and select to connect using Instant Client (may already be the default)

Additional note:  Although I am using 64-bit Windows 7, the 64-bit version of the Instant Client did not appear to work (an error about "unable to load oci.dll" within TOAD).  However, the 32-bit version worked fine.

Free TOAD versus SQuirreL SQL Client

One of the things that require me to use Windows is the lack of availability of TOAD on Linux.  I am evaluating the Java tool Squirrel SQL Client to see how it stacks up for Oracle development:

	Free TOAD	SQuirreL SQL Client
DDL	The Script tab shows referential integrity constraints, comments on columns, in addition to the usual CREATE TABLE DDL	Evaluating ...
Auto-completion of SQL	Doesn't work with usual Ctrl+space keyboard short-cut	Works well
"Bookmark favorite" tables	Evaluating ...	Evaluating ...
DDL	The Script tab shows referential integrity constraints, comments on columns, in addition to the usual CREATE TABLE DDL	Evaluating ...
<placeholder>	<placeholder>	<placeholder>

Getting comments on Oracle tables

If your Oracle tool doesn't support pulling the comments for tables you are accessing, try this SQL:

select COLUMN_NAME, COMMENTS
from ALL_COL_COMMENTS
where TABLE_NAME =