Frequently Asked Questions

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Back Row (L to R): Matt, Greg, Brad, John B.

Front Row: Mike, John D, Melanie, Lenka, Mark

Picture taken April 2010

• What is Toad for Oracle?
• What are Toad's system requirements?
• Licensing and Add-on Modules
• Product and Pricing Information
• Quest Support
• Getting TOAD
• How do I learn about the latest features?
• What are least privileges for using Toad?
• Is there a way to run Toad off a USB Flash Disk?
• Can you run Toad on an Apple Macintosh?
• Toad Version History - which one should I use?

• Can I use the TOAD command line options with the Quest Central TOAD plugin?
• How do I use the command line options to make TOAD do something every night?
• What if I am using the command line with a network install?
• Which windows can be run from the command line?

• Can TOAD connect using 16 bit Oracle SQL*Net?
• Can one connect to Toad for Oracle using ODBC?
• Sometimes when I start toad it does not start at all, it just hangs, I don't get the logo even after restarting the PC. What could be wrong? I am using toad 7.2.0 under window 2000.
• When should I use the advanced connection options?
• I keep getting ORA-12154! I'm sure my Oracle client is set up correctly. What could the problem be?
• Connecting to a database is slow
• Access violation when connecting with a 10g Oracle client

• Why can Toad sometimes seem to run slower on Oracle 10g?
• What version Oracle SQL*Net client should be used with Toad?
• What version Oracle database servers does Toad support?
• How quickly does Toad offer new Oracle version support?
• Does Toad support Oracle 10g Express Edition?
• Does Toad support Oracle RDB, Times Ten, or Berkeley DB?
• Under 10g I cannot see the SQL running when I look in V$SESSION

• How can I limit TOAD's object altering capabilities?
• I hid both toolbars on my SQL Editor or Procedure Editor, and now I can't get them back! What do I do?
• Why can't I customize my toolbar? The "Customize" item on the Tools menu is grayed out, and when I right-click over the toolbar, there is no "Customize" menu item like there used to be.
• Why can't I find my favorite window in my menu or toolbars anymore?

• Does DBMS Output display while the PL/SQL executes?

• How can I see TIMESTAMP and INTERVAL data?
• How can I see nested object data?
• How can I see the data in nested tables?
• How can I view the Chinese and Japanese character sets through Toad?
• How do I copy a whole row or multiple rows of data?
• How do I delete a record?
• My string data is all coming out as question marks!
• What is the Clone Cursor Options for on the SaveAs dialogs in the Schema Browser and SQL Editor?
• What is the OCI Buffer Array Size option for in the View - Options - Oracle - General section?
• Why can't I add a new record by hitting the down arrow key in the data tab?
• Why can't I add an entry via the grid for a table containing a CLOB column?
• Why can't I edit the results of a query in the SQL Editor?
• Why can't I set a style in my XLS SaveAs exports of DataGrid data?
• Why does saving to XLS instance not work sometimes?
• How do I name the tabs when I run a script?
• How do I change the grid popup editor font?

• Where can I get a copy of the TOAD help?
• Why can't I find a specific word in the HELP index?
• Acronyms used in Toad
• How can I find the latest features in Toad?

• How to change the editor font in Toad 9.0?
• How do the Toad 9.0 Editor execution buttons compare with those of 8.6?
• "Format Code" isn't working. It corrupts my code, or it doesn't use any of my Formatting Options. What's going on?
• "Load in External Editor" isn't doing anything.
• How do I set editor options for the memo editor [text editor]? For example, I would like to set the word wrapping options...
• How do i configure TOAD to highlight multi-line strings?
• How do you jump to a previously defined bookmark in SQL Edit/Procedure Edit windows?
• I'm having problems with tab stops. They're not consistent, and when I open a file created in TOAD in another editor, the spacing is all uneven.
• My clipboard keys (cut Ctrl+X, copy Ctrl+C, paste Ctrl+V) don't work. What happened?
• The backspace, up, and down arrow keys don't work in my TOAD. What's going on?
• When I click in the editor, I keep getting the message "Object xxx not found".
• When I describe a table (say hit F4 on the table name in a SQL query) I often like to copy and paste Column Names from the Columns tab into a SQL statement - however when i do paste it, the column name, id, type etc get pasted as well. Is there any option to revert to the old way where the column name was simply copied without the datatype etc. ? I know i can drag and drop it, but I'd prefer to copy and paste it
• How do I disable the block indicator lines in the editor?
• How do I search for special characters (metacharacters) in the editor?
• Why are strings in my code no longer highlighted in red in TOAD 9.1?
• How can I use TOAD to create and run dynamic SQL?
• My script output is truncating at 80 characters. How do I fix this?
• What does the execution time in the sql editor actually represent? What I'm trying to pin down is how accurate the execution time displayed in TOAD is. For some complex queries, the time displayed may be 1 second. If I trace the query using TKPROF it reports about 4 seconds. I assume TOAD is populating the grid as fast as it can and continuing to run the query in the background?
• When I upgraded from 7.2 to 7.3, my Code Statistics tab disappeared in the SQL Editor. What's going on?
• Why are tabs no longer recognized as valid whitespace in a query?
• What's the deal with dates?
• What's With With?
• How do I run very large scripts?
• Does TOAD support VSS Microsoft Visual Source Safe, version 5 and version 6?
• Every time I try to step into my procedure, it opens another tab. What is going on?
• I have a developer trying to debug using TOAD. He is getting a "probe timeout" error. The debug package is loaded correctly. What should I look at to fix the issue??
• When I try to run my procedure through the debugger, I get an error that says "PLS-00201: identifier ... must be declared".
• When debugging (stepping through an object, set break points,) a package, procedure, or function, TOAD displays "debugger is not responding" or TOAD does not respond and the user has to exit TOAD by CTRL + ALT and Delete to exit the application.
• Why is the bug icon and my debugger toolbar disabled?
• Why is the debugger highlighting the wrong code lines when debugging my package? It looks like it is going through the comment lines.
• In the debugger, when stepping through code with Shift-F7/F8 and then halting the execution, TOAD does not respond any more
• How do I debug PL/SQL when connected to a RAC?
• Preventing users compiling database objects under version control

• My partition information and parallel information is missing in TOAD 7.4
• Why do I get an "ORA-00904 Invalid column name" when I run an explain plan?

• Can I export a report to PDF or HTML or some other format?
• How can I add my own style to the report wizard?
• How can I make a calculated field in a report?
• How can I use FastReports to make a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, or some other kind of chart?
• I was working on a report and clicked off Toad, now I can't find my report! Where did it go?
• What is FastReports?
• Where can I get more information documentation for FastReports?
• Where can I use FastReports?

• I've just upgraded to Toad 8.6 and I don't see the new connection colors.
• How do I change my connection color?
• The Window menu no longer shows my list of open windows. The Window menu now only has the icon arrangement items.
• Under the "Shows windows by connection" icon, all the choices are greyed out. Why?

• How do I start using Toad?
• What are the newest features?
• Can I restrict users from using free TOAD in my oracle environment?
• Does anyone know how to import data from an Excel file into a table?
• How can I get synonyms and views to show up in the SQL Modeler?
• I can no longer perform a Trace Start/Trace Stop, either through Oracle or through TOAD's Session Browser.
• I have a flat file (.csv, tab delimited, etc.) and I want to import the data to a table. What is the best way to do that using TOAD?
• I keep getting the error, "ORA-01460: unimplemented or unreasonable conversion requested"
• In the Session Browser, on the Waits tab, I'm seeing a "-2" as the value of WAIT_TIME for "SQL*Net message from client".
• My procedure editor toolbar icon is grayed out, and there are some other things on the Create menu that are grayed out. I can't edit any of the data grids, either. What's going on?
• Why am I getting "File not found" when using certain Toad options?
• What configuration files need to be copied from one system to another to preserve preferences for the Editor,Files to launch at startup, connections to make etc?
• What is the Project Manager? What is it good for? How do I start using it?
• When I FTP, why are my filenames blank or corrupted?
• When I connect to an Oracle 9.0.1.4 database using the Database Browser the values in the SGA area of the Overview tab are sometimes way off. For example, on one instance the max value in the graph is 16,000,000,000,000 MB! This appears to occur only for Oracle 9.0.1.4 instances which I connect to using a shared session (MTS)
• When I login to Toad, the SQL Editor Window screen will open partially, and Toad displays an error message 'Member not Found.'
• When I try to FTP a file or even list a directory, i get a 'RETR command not understood' error message. What's the problem?
• Where did auto-open on startup of various windows go?
• Why are my toolbar icons faded?
• Why does TOAD have problems loading large packages/procs over my VPN?
• Why does TOAD suddenly put itself first on the Z-lists? The last time for me was when I looked at the properties for a printer.
• Why does the Export Utility Wizard fail when using a 10g client?
• QSR (Quest Script Runner) says it is expired?
• Why am I getting an error message that says "IN is not a valid integer" when I try to look at the source of a procedure?
• What V$ tables are required in order to use the various windows in Toad?

• What is the significance of the SqlNetCalls setting in Toad.ini?
• Where do all my toad settings get stored?
• Where do my Editor Options settings get stored?

• Does TOAD work with Citrix Terminal Server?
• How do I install the Beta?
• Why doesn't Toad 9.5 install where I expect it to?
• How do I upgrade to a new version of TOAD?
• I get the error message, "Could not locate OCI DLL". Now what?
• We are already license holders of the standard edition of TOAD, but I would like to evaluate the Professional edition, specifically for the debugger. I have downloaded it, but when I try and run using the keys sent to me via e-mail, they are all listed as invalid?
• How can i transfer all autocorrect substitutions from the old version (8.6.1) to a new one (9.0.1.8)
• Avoiding the loss of 8.5 connection settings when upgrading to 9.1
• Why is the 9.1 installer so huge?
• Why does Toad not run on Windows Vista unless run as administrator?
• What is Code Site Client Tools and Raize Development Tools?
• Why after a recent upgrade attempt is Toad now giving access violation read errors?
• Why does Toad not uninstall completely?
• The Best Way to Save/Import Toad Settings

• How do I configure my network connection to my Oracle Database?
• Network Problems connecting with Toad?

• How can I pass parameters to an external application?

• Escaping the '_' Character: How do I escape out the '_' character in a query?
• How can I cancel long running queries?
• I'm getting the error "A query with LOBs requires Net8, which is not detected on this PC". But I have Net8!
• TOAD is prompting me for a substitution whenever my query contains an '&' sign. But the '&' is part of a string I'm inserting. How do I get TOAD to stop prompting me?
• What does the View - Options - Oracle - Transactions - Execute Queries in Threads option do, and why should I use it or not?
• What is the maximum value the Database Probe can handle?
• Why am I receiving an ORA-01406 (fetched column value was truncated) error when attempting to query a table with a TIMESTAMP datatype?
• Why does Database Probe take so long to refresh?

• It is hard to find the tab I want in the schema browser. What can I do about it?
• TOAD is taking a long time to load a large number of objects. What can I do about it?
• What do the icons next to the lists in the schema browser mean?
• When I create script I get something like that: CREATE TABLE TEST_ ( KEY1 NUMBER(3), KEY2 NUMBER(5), F1_VARCHAR2 VARCHAR2(100 BYTE), F2_VARCHAR2 VARCHAR2(100 BYTE), F3_NUMBER NUMBER(10)); How to getrid of the word "BYTE"? What the settings I should change?
• Why can't I see package bodies from another schema on the Procs tab?
• Why can't I see the jobs that belong to another schema?
• HELP my Schema Browser Right Hand Side is missing
• The schema browser is giving me the wrong results. How do I change the query it is running to fix it?
• Finding Roles WIth Grants

• How does the tablespace map work?
• I am getting a "ora-06532 subset outside of limit" error when I try to set the dictionary file on my 8.1.7 db in LogMiner.
• Some people have had issues with getting TOAD's Xpert component to work with Oracle 9i - both release 1 and 2.
• What happened to my favorite Kill/Trace window? I don't like the Session Browser, how can I make it look like Kill/Trace?
• Where did the Database > Privileges window go?
• Why do members of a redo log show up red in the redo log manager? I show no Oracle errors in the alert log and I do see that oracle is using the log.
• Why do newline characters show up as funny 'box' characters in my Compare Schemas/Compare Files output?
• Why don't I see any jobs for Space Manager?

• Does the Unix Monitor support the Tru64 OS?
• I'm trying to use the Unix Monitor and when trying to connect I get a message "Unable to obtain server time".

• How are "execution time" and "timestamp" computed in the SQL Monitor?
• How Do I Start Tracing An App Before It Starts Running?

• How Do I edit or copy the sync script created by database compare?

• Does TOAD make entries into the Windows Registry?

• EXECUTE IMMEDIATE or DBMS_SQL - which should I use and why?

• Unicode support in Toad 10

Mark Lerch, on his birthday, proposed a small competition whereby the following image had to be given a new lower half.

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After numerous entries, Ed Klinger was voted the winner. Ed's "borg" is shown below.

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