SYS_CONTEXT

Returns information about the current session.

The data type of the return value is VARCHAR2.

SQL syntax

SYS_CONTEXT('namespace', 'parameter' [, length ])

Parameters

SYS_CONTEXT has the parameters:

Parameter	'Description
`namespace`	Value: USERENV Other values result in a return of NULL.
`parameter`	Supported values: AUTHENTICATION_METHOD CURRENT_USER CURRENT_USERID IDENTIFICATION_TYPE LANG LANGUAGE NLS_SORT SESSION_USER SESSION_USERID
`length`	Number between 1 and 4000 bytes.

These are descriptions of the supported values for parameter:

Parameter	'Description
AUTHENTICATION_METHOD	Returns the method of authentication for these types of users: Local database user authenticated by password External user authenticated by the operating system
CURRENT_USER	The name of the database user whose privileges are currently active. This may change during the duration of a session to reflect the owner of any active definer's rights object. When no definer's rights object is active, CURRENT_USER returns the same value as SESSION_USER. When used directly in the body of a view definition, this returns the user that is executing the cursor that is using the view. It does not respect views used in the cursor as being definer's rights.
CURRENT_USERID	The identifier of the database user whose privileges are currently active
IDENTIFICATION_TYPE	Returns the way the user was created in the database. Specifically, it reflects the IDENTIFIED clause in the CREATE/ALTER USER syntax. In the list that follows, the syntax used during user creation is followed by the identification type returned: IDENTIFIED BY password: LOCAL IDENTIFIED EXTERNALLY: EXTERNAL
LANG	The ISO abbreviation for the language name, a shorter form than the existing 'LANGUAGE' parameter.
LANGUAGE	The language and territory currently used by your session, along with the database character set, in this form: `language_territory.characterset`
NLS_SORT	Binary or linguistic sort.
SESSION_USER	The name of the database user at logon. This value remains the same throughout the duration of the session.
SESSION_USERID	The identifier of the database user at logon.

Description

The data type of the return value is VARCHAR2.

Examples

SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'CURRENT_USER') FROM dual;
< TTUSER >
1 row found.

SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'LANGUAGE') FROM dual;
< AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8 >
1 row found.

SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV', 'IDENTIFICATION_TYPE') FROM dual;< EXTERNAL >1 row found.