Is it possible to use a shell script to login to a database (using SQLPLUS), run a query and assign the query result to a local variable defined in the shell? I know it's possible to run SQLPLUS through a shell script if Oracle is installed on the machine but what I want to do is to assign a value to a variable while at the SQL prompt. Thanks!

Yes thats verz well possible. Use sql execution in following manner. sqlplus /nolog << END_SQL connect $OPR_USER/$OPR_PASS @db_changes.sql exit END_SQL And you can put ur command in db_changes.sql which is generate in the script itself with all the variable values. Hope its not required to explain how u have to create this sql script. Or if u have to call one or two sql command then u can directly in between "connect $OPR_USER/$OPR_PASS" and exit . trust this will help u . :) Mukesh Kesharwani CISSP, CCNA, SCSA,CUA,CNA, MCSE,MCP+I,CCNSE,Certified HIPPA Security http://www.keekar.com