When I’m mucking around at home, it’s Linux all the way. Unfortunately, at work ( in desktop terms, at least) I’m still stuck with being a Microsofty.
This leaves me with Textpad as my program editor of choice.
As promised then, here’s the quick and dirty guide to enabling syntax highlighting for PL/SQL in Textpad ( works for versions 4 and 5) …
Step 1 – write a syntax definition file
This file is split into sections :
The first line tells textpad how the language in question is likely to be structured. In the case of PL/SQL, it’s a ‘C’ like language in this sense ( pretty standard 3GL), so we specify :
C=1
This is followed by the syntax section, most of which is fairly self-explainatory :
[Syntax] Namespace1 = 6 IgnoreCase = Yes InitKeyWordChars = A-Za-z_ KeyWordChars = A-Za-z0-9_ PreprocStart = SyntaxStart = SyntaxEnd = CommentStart = /* CommentEnd = */ CommentStartAlt = CommentEndAlt = SingleComment = -- SingleCommentCol = StringStart = ' StringEnd = ' StringAlt = StringEsc = CharStart = ' CharEnd = ' CharEsc =
Namespace1 is set to 6 because we’re going to divide our keywords into six different categories, each of which can – if we so wish – be highlighted using a different colour.
In this example, I’ve split the keywords into six categories :
- SQL keywords
- SQL functions
- Pseudo-columns
- PL/SQL keywords
- SQL*Plus formatting commands
- Other SQL*Plus commands.
The entire file looks like this :
C=1 [Syntax] Namespace1 = 6 IgnoreCase = Yes InitKeyWordChars = A-Za-z_ KeyWordChars = A-Za-z0-9_ PreprocStart = SyntaxStart = SyntaxEnd = CommentStart = /* CommentEnd = */ CommentStartAlt = CommentEndAlt = SingleComment = -- SingleCommentCol = StringStart = ' StringEnd = ' StringAlt = StringEsc = CharStart = ' CharEnd = ' CharEsc = [Keywords 1] (+) all and any as between cast commit connect by cube delete distinct exists explain plan for update from group by having in insert is null like lock table intersect multiset minus not or order by partition returning rollback rollup sample savepoint select set constraint set transaction some start with subpartition table the union update values where where current of with [Keywords 2] abs acos add_months ascii asin atan atan2 avg bfilename bitand ceil chartorowid chr concat convert cos cosh count dangling decode deref dump empty_blob empty_clob exists exp floor glb greatest grouping hextoraw initcap instr instrb last_day least length lengthb like ln log lower lpad ltrim make_ref max min mod months_between new_time next_day nls_charset_decl_len nls_charset_id nls_charset_name nls_initcap nls_lower nls_upper nlssort null nvl power rawtohex ref reftohex replace round rowidtochar rpad rtrim sign sin sinh soundex sqrt stddev substr substrb sum sys_context sys_guid sysdate tan tanh to_char to_date to_lob to_multi_byte to_number translate trim trunc uid upper user userenv variance vsize [Keywords 3] level currval nextval rownum rowid [Keywords 4] %found %isopen %notfound %rowcount %rowtype %type authid autonomous_transaction begin bulk collect bulk collect into call close constant count create function create package create package body create procedure create trigger create type create type body cursor declare delete else elsif end end if exception exception_init execute immediate exists exit extend fetch first for forall function goto if insert into label language last limit lock table loop map member next null open open for order pragma prior procedure raise raise_application_error record restrict_references return savepoint self serially_reusable set transaction sql sqlcode sqlerrm subtype table then trim type when where current of while varchar2 number boolean binary_integer integer char long blob clob [Keywords 5] / @ @@ accept attribute break btitle clear col column comp compute def define exit ho host pause prompt rem remark repf repfooter reph repheader run set spool start sta timi timing ttitle undef undefine var variable [Keywords 6] app appinfo array arraysize autocommit autop autoprint autotrace blo blockterminator cmds cmdsep colsep com compatibility con concat copyc copycommit copytypecheck echo esc escape feed feedback flu flush hea heading heads headsep lines linesize long longchunksize newpage numformat numwidth pages pause recsep recsepchar serveroutput show showmode sqlcase sqlcontinue sqlnumber sqlprefix sqlprompt suffix tab termout term time timing trim trimout underline verify wrap
Once we’re done, save the file under the Textpad Home system directory ( usually C:\Program Files\ Textpad n\System ( where n is the version of Textpad you’re using).
Step 2 – Setup a New Document Class
Open Textpad and select the Configure menu then New Document Class. You’ll then get a series of dialog boxes to step through.
Specify the class name as PL/SQL
Class members – the file extensions for which this definition file is to be used (*.sql, *.fnc, *.pkb, *.pks, *.prc, *.trg, *.tbl)
Check Enable Syntax Highlighting
Syntax Definition File :
select plsql.syn from the drop-down
Finally, hit Finish.
Step 3 – Configure the PL/SQL Class
Close and restart Textpad.
In the Configure menu, select Preferences
Select Document Classes from the Tree in the left hand pane
PL/SQL should be there.
In the Document class options, you can set further preferences, mine are usually :
Maintain indentation
Word wrapped text : Save with no breaks in lines
Default encoding : ANSI
Create new files as : PC
If the mood takes you, you can also specify the colours to be used for each class of keyword you specified in the definition file. I usually leave them at the default ( but then, I never was artistic).
When it comes to running code written in Textpad, I usually just run a command line from within Textpad( Tools/Run then cmd in the command dialog) and start a sqlplus session.
The command session starts in the same directory as the saved file in focus in Textpad, which is handy for making quick edits as you can just switch between Textpad and the command prompt.
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The Anti-Kyte 
I am so very with you on Textpad. I’m at my 5th job since discovering it, and it is an invaluable tool. It does exactly what I need it to do and keeps out of my way.
Personally, I just downloaded some syntax definitions and went through those til I found one I liked.
I also find the ‘find in files’ function to be VERY useful.
One of the things I do is load XML files through one of our applications. For each record in the file that generates an error, an XML file will be written out containing information about the error and the record.
Sometimes 20…50…or 100+ of these error files will be created.
Having Textpad do a find in files for the string ‘Error Is:’ allows me to quickly scan down the list of errors and make decisions without having to open each and every XML file.
And when 99% of those errors are identical, I can go to the one-offs quickly by double-clicking the result.
Very nice.
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Heyy this was very useful, thanks a ton for sharing the syntax code and the knowledge about it.
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It was really useful
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Hey U…Thanks for sharing this..this helps me lot
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Mike, this is very helpful. Very clear and very simple. Sharing is caring – thank you for caring and sharing! 😉
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Works with version 6 too. Thanks.
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THANKS A LOT!!
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i would like a third “string” identifier, specifically for PERL code. we can double quote and single quote, like any other language…but…what about “heredocs”?
EG: print <<END;
some stuff
here
END
I want <<END; to be the string start, and END to be the string end.
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