The WbConfirm command pauses the execution of the current script and displays a message. You can then choose to stop the script or continue.

WbConfirm can be called in three different ways:

When using WbConfirm in console (or interactive batch) mode, the check if the "Yes" choice was typed by the user is done by testing if the "Yes" value starts with the text the user enters (ignoring upper/lowercase differences). So if the "Yes text" is set to "Continue", the user can enter c, co, cont and so on. Because of that, the "No" text should not start with the same letters as the "Yes" text. When using -yesText=Continue and -noText=Cancel and the user enters C, this would be regarded as a "Yes".

This command can be used to prevent accidental execution of a script even if confirm updates is not enabled.

This command has no effect in batch mode unless the -interactive parameter was specified.

The WbMessages command pauses the execution of the current script and displays a message and waits until the dialog is closed. Unlike WbConfirm the script will always continue once the message dialog is closed.

WbMessage can be called in two different ways:

This command has no effect in batch or console mode.

The command WbEcho can be used to print messages. The following statement:

WbEcho The answer is: 42

will print the text "The answer is: 42" to the message pane in GUI mode, or to the console in batch or console mode.

If WbEcho is used in a script that is executed with WbInclude and the -verbose=false option, the message will not be displayed. To display a message even if verbose mode is disabled, prefix the text with two exclamation marks: !!, e.g.:

WbEcho !! Dropping all tables!

If you want to run a stored procedure that has OUT parameters, you have to use the WbCall command to correctly see the returned value of the parameters.

Consider the following (Oracle) procedure:

CREATE OR REPLACE procedure return_answer(answer OUT integer)
IS
BEGIN
  answer := 42;
END;
/

To call this procedure you need to supply a placeholder indicating that a parameter is needed.

SQL> WbCall return_answer(?);
PARAMETER | VALUE
----------+------
ANSWER    | 42

(1 Row)
Converted procedure call to JDBC syntax: {call return_answer(?)}
Execution time: 0.453s
SQL>

CREATE PROCEDURE ref_cursor_example(pid number, person_result out sys_refcursor, addr_result out sys_refcursor) is
BEGIN
    OPEN person_result FOR
      SELECT *
      FROM person
      WHERE person_id = pid;

    OPEN addr_result FOR
      SELECT a.*
      FROM address a JOIN person p ON a.address_id = p.address_id
      WHERE p.person_id = pid;
END;
/

WbCall ref_cursor_example(42, ?, ?);

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION refcursorfunc()
  RETURNS refcursor
AS
$$
DECLARE
    mycurs refcursor;
 BEGIN
    OPEN mycurs FOR SELECT * FROM PERSON;
    RETURN mycurs;
 END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
/

WbCall refcursorfunc();

With the WbInclude command you run SQL scripts without actually loading them into the editor, or call other scripts from within a script. The format of the command is WbInclude -file=filename;. For DBMS other then MS SQL, the command can be abbreviated using the @ sign: @filename; is equivalent to WbInclude -file=filename;. The called script way may also include other scripts. Relative filenames (e.g. as parameters for SQL Workbench/J commands) in the script are always resolved to the directory where the script is located, not the current directory of the application.

The reason for excluding MS SQL is, that when creating stored procedures in MS SQL, the procedure parameters are identified using the @ sign, thus SQL Workbench/J would interpret the lines with the variable definition as the WbInclude command. If you want to use the @ command with MS SQL, you can configure this in your workbench.settings configuration file.

	If the included SQL script contains SELECT queries, the result of those queries will not be displayed in the GUI unless -displayResult=true is used.

The long version of the command accepts additional parameters. When using the long version, the filename needs to be passed as a parameter as well.

Only files up to a certain size will be read into memory. Files exceeding that size will be processed statement by statement. In this case the automatic detection of the alternate delimiter will not work. If your scripts exceed the maximum size and you do use the alternate delimiter you will have to use the long version of the command using the -file and -delimiter parameters.

WbInclude supports conditional execution

The command supports the following parameters:

select *
from person
/

select *
from person/

@my_script.sql;

WbInclude -file="my_script.sql" -continueOnError=false;

WbInclude -file=create_tables.sql -searchFor="oldschema." -replaceWith="new_schema."

WbInclude -file=insert_10million_rows.sql -delimiter='/';

The following SQL Workbench/J commands support conditional execution based on variables:

Conditional execution is controlled using the following parameters:

WbRunResult can be used to execute the result of a query as a SQL script. Each row in the result is assumed to be a single statement. This is e.g. useful to generate scripts dynamically without having to use dynamic SQL in a procedural language like PL/pgSQL or PL/SQL.

From the result of the generating script, only the first column will be used. If the statement generated more columns, the additional columns are ignored. Each generated statement should end with a ; character.

WbRunResult supports conditional execution

The command supports the following parameters:

The following script will drop all tables that end with _backup:

WbRunResult -showProgress -showTiming;
SELECT concat('DROP TABLE ', table_schema, '.', table_name, ';') as ddl
FROM information_schema.tables
WHERE table_name LIKE '%\_backup' ESCAPE '\';

If you manage your stored procedures in Liquibase ChangeLogs, you can use this command to run the necessary SQL directly from the XML file, without the need to copy and paste it into SQL Workbench/J. This is useful when testing and developing stored procedures that are managed by a Liquibase changeLog.

This is NOT a replacement for Liquibase. WbRunLB will only extract SQL statements stored in <sql> or <createProcedure> tags or scripts referenced through the <sqlFile> tag. It will not convert any of the Liquibase tags to "real" SQL. WbRunLB will NOT update the Liquibase log table (DATABASECHANGELOG) nor will it check if the specified changeSet(s) have already been applied to the database. It is merely a convenient way to extract and run SQL statements stored in a Liquibase XML file!

The attribute splitStatements for the sql tag is evaluated. The delimiter used to split the statements follows the usual SQL Workbench/J rules (including the use of the alternate delimiter).

WbRunLB supports the following parameters:

The default fetch size for a connection can be defined in the connection profile. Using the command WbFetchSize you can change the fetch size without changing the connection profile.

The following script changes the default fetch size to 2500 rows and then runs a WbExport command.

WbFetchSize 2500;
WbExport -sourceTable=person -type=text -file=/temp/person.txt;

WbFetchSize will not change the current connection profile.

To send several SQL Statements as a single "batch" to the database server, the two commands WbStartBatch and WbEndBatch can be used. All statements between these two will be sent as a single statement (using executeBatch()) to the server.

Note that not all JDBC drivers support batched statements, and the flexibility what kind of statements can be batched varies between the drivers as well. Most drivers will not accept different types of statements e.g. mixing DELETE and INSERT in the same batch.

To send a group of statements as a single batch, simply use the command WbStartBatch to mark the beginning and WbEndBatch to mark the end. You have to run all statements together either by using "Execute all" or by selecting all statements (including WbStartBatch and WbEndBatch) and then using "Execute selected". The following example sends all INSERT statements as a single batch to the database server:

WbStartBatch;
INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, lastname) VALUES (1, 'Arthur', 'Dent');
INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, lastname) VALUES (2, 'Ford', 'Prefect');
INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, lastname) VALUES (3, 'Zaphod', 'Beeblebrox');
INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, lastname) VALUES (4, 'Tricia', 'McMillian');
WbEndBatch;
COMMIT;

To save the contents of a BLOB or CLOB column into an external file the WbSelectBlob command can be used. Most DBMS support reading of CLOB (character data) columns directly, so depending on your DBMS (and JDBC driver) this command might only be needed for binary data.

The syntax is very similar to the regular SELECT statement, an additional INTO keyword specifies the name of the external file into which the data should be written:

WbSelectBlob blob_column
INTO 'c:/temp/image.bmp'
FROM theTable
WHERE id=42;

Even if you specify more then one column in the column list, SQL Workbench/J will only use the first column. If the SELECT returns more then one row, then one output file will be created for each row. Additional files will be created with a counter indicating the row number from the result. In the above example, image.bmp, image_1.bmp, image_3.bmp and so on, would be created.

WbSelectBlob is intended for an ad-hoc retrieval of a single LOB column. If you need to extract the contents of several LOB rows and columns it is recommended to use the WbExport command.

You can also manipulate (save, view, upload) the contents of BLOB columns in a result set. Please refer to BLOB support for details.

Normally SQL Workbench/J prints the results for each statement into the message panel. As this feedback can slow down the execution of large scripts, you can disable the feedback using the WbFeedback command. When WbFeedback OFF is executed, only a summary of the number of executed statements will be displayed, once the script execution has finished. This is the same behaviour as selecting "Consolidate script log" in the options window. The only difference is, that the setting through WbFeedback is temporary and does not affect the global setting.

WbFeedback traceOn can be used to enable printing of every executed statement to the screen. The SQL statement printed will be the one after variable substitution and macro expansion. WbFeedback traceOff will turn tracing of statements off.

The WbSetSchema command will use the JDBC driver's API to change the current schema.

Whether this command works and actually changes the current schema depends on the JDBC driver and the underlying DBMS. The driver is free to ignore the call to setSchema() API call.

The WbSwitchDB can be used to switch the current catalog (or database) if the DBMS supports this. The details on what is done in the background depend on the DBMS.

The SET command is passed on directly to the driver, except for the parameters described in this chapter because they have an equivalent JDBC call which will be executed instead.

Oracle does not have a SQL set command. The SET command that is available in SQL*Plus is a specific SQL*Plus command and will not work with other client software. Most of the SQL*Plus SET commands only make sense within SQL*Plus (e.g. formatting of the results). To be able to run SQL scripts that are intended for Oracle SQL*PLus, any error reported from the SET command when running against an Oracle database will silently be ignored and only logged as a warning.

The following options for the SET command are only available when being connected to an Oracle database.

In the connection profile two options can be specified to define the behavior when running commands that might change or update the database: a "read only" mode that ignores such commands and a "confirm all" mode, where you need to confirm any statement that might change the database.

These states can temporarily be changed without changing the profile using the WbMode command.

	This changes the mode for all editor tabs, not only for the one where you run the command.

Parameters for the WbMode command are:

The following example will turn on read only mode for the current connection, so that any subsequent statement that updates the database will be ignored

WbMode readonly;

To change the current connection back to the settings from the profile use:

WbMode reset;

This command retrieves the row counts for several tables at once. If called without parameters the row counts for all tables accessible to the current user are counted.

The command supports the following parameters to specify the tables (or views) to be counted.

If none of the above parameters are used, WbRowCount assumes that a list ot table names was specified. WbRowCount person,address,ordersis equivalent to WbRowCount -objects=person,address,orders. When called without any parameters the row counts for all tables accessible to the current user will be displayed.

Unlike the Count rows item in the DbExplorer, WbRowCount displays the result for all tables once it is finished. It does not incrementally update the output.

With the WbConnect command, the connection for the currently running script can be changed.

When this command is run in GUI mode, the connection is only changed for the remainder of the script execution. Therefor at least one other statement should be executed together with the WbConnect command. Either by running the complete script of the editor or selecting the WbConnect command together with other statements. Once the script has finished, the connection is closed and the "global" connection (selected in the connect dialog) is active again. This also applies to scripts that are run in batch mode or scripts that are started from within the console using WbInclude.

When this command is entered directly in the command line of the console mode, the current connection is closed and the new connection is kept open until the application ends, or a new connection is established using WbConnect on the command line again.

There are three different ways to specify a connection:

If none of the parameters is supplied when running the command, it is assumed that any value after WbConnect is the name of a connection profile, e.g.:

WbConnect production

will connect using the profile name production, and is equivalent to

WbConnect -profile=production

This command is primarily intended for console mode to show the statements that have been executed. In console mode the number of any of the listed statements can be entered to re-execute that statement from the history directly.

Transforms an XML file via a XSLT stylesheet. This can be used to format XML input files into the correct format for SQL Workbench/J or to transform the output files that are generated by the various SQL Workbench/J commands.

Parameters for the XSLT command:

To run an operating system command use WbSysExec followed by a valid command for your operating system.

To run the program ls the following call can be used:

WbSysExec ls

To run Windows^® commands that are internal to cmd.exe such as DIR, you must call cmd.exe with the /c switch to make sure cmd.exe is terminated:

WbSysExec cmd /c dir /n

If you need to specify a working directory for the program, or want to specify the command line arguments individually, a second format is available using the standard SQL Workbench/J parameter handling:

WbSysExec supports conditional execution

To run an internal Windows^® command using the second format, use the following syntax:

WbSysExec -program='cmd.exe' -argument='/c' -argument='dir /n' -dir='c:\temp\'

To define multiple environment variables for the process, repeat the -env parameter for each variable e.g. -env="var_one=value_one" -env="var_two=value_two"

WbSyOpen can be used to open a file with the default application of the operating system.

WbExport -file=c:/temp/person.txt -sourceTable=person -type=text -header=true;
WbSysOpen c:/temp/person.txt;

	Due to limitations of the Java console mode, neither WbSysExec nor WbSysOpen can be used to run a text editor (vi, vim) in console mode (and putting SQL Workbench/J into the background).

Not all configuration parameters are available through the Options Dialog and have to be changed manually in the file workbench.settings. Editing the file requires to close the application.

When using WbSetConfig, configuration properties can be changed permanently without restarting SQL Workbench/J.

WbSetProp is an alias for WbSetConfig with the difference that the change will not be saved permanently. Any property set through WbSetProp is lost when the SQL Workbench/J is closed.

Any value that is changed through this command will be saved automatically in workbench.settings when the application is closed.

If you want to e.g. disable the use of Savepoints in the SQL statements entered interactively, the following command will turn this off for PostgreSQL:

WbSetConfig workbench.db.postgresql.sql.usesavepoint=false

For a list of configuration properties that can be changed, please refer to Advanced configuration options

If you supply only the property key, the current value will be displayed. If no argument is supplied for WbSetConfig all properties are displayed. You can also supply a partial property key. WbSetConfig workbench.db.postgresql will list all PostgreSQL related properties. You can directly edit the properties in the result set.

The value [dbid] inside the property name will get replaced with the current DBID to change database specific settings.

The following command changes the property named workbench.db.postgresql.ddlneedscommit if the current connection is against a PostgreSQL database:

WbSetConfig workbench.db.[dbid].ddlneedscommit=true