Variable in shell scripting not printing the whole value - sh

Question

I want to echo the variable 'param2' value which is retrieved from oracle database and stored in variable. It just reads the 1st four characters and displays it whereas the value is of more than 20 characters. Why doesn't it print the whole value. Can any help to fix it? Below is my code.
{
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
select task_seq_no,task_action from dmf_readme_guide_param where task_seq_no = 1;
ENDOFSQL
} | while read line
do
if [ "$line" ] # Line not NULL
then
set $line
param1="$1"
param2="$2"
# param3="$3"
# Pass the parameters to a sql plus script
# sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDSQL
# insert into param_testing values($param1);
# commit;
#ENDSQL
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
insert into dmf_readme_guide_log(task_seq_no,start_date) values(($param1),sysdate);
ENDOFSQL
echo ($param2)
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
update dmf_readme_guide_log
set end_date = sysdate where task_seq_no = ($param1);
ENDOFSQL
fi
done

Answer 1

The problem comes from the parameters assignation with set $line. As the output of your SQL query is 1, -Get confirmation all applications, the set $line will affect each space/blank separated values of $line to each parameter indices ($1, $2, $3, etc.).
With the value 1, -Get confirmation all applications in $line, the set $line will then translate into :
set 1, -Get confirmation all applications
Which give :
$ echo $1 _ $2 _ $3
1, _ -Get _ confirmation
As you can see, the $2 parameter receives "-Get" and not "-Get confirmation all applications".
To fully get the second field of the SQL query in $param2, you have to do the parameters assignation with variable substitution and quote :
#set $line # We have no more use of parameter indices assignation
# We get param1 from the first word of $line
param1="${line%% *}"
# We get param2 from the remaining words of $line
param2="${line#* }"
echo param1=$param1
echo param2=$param2
This will output :
param1=1,
param2=-Get confirmation all applications
If you have to deal with a POSIX only shell, you can use parameters shifting to achieve this goal :
# We use parameter indices assignation to 'split' the output of the SQL query
set $line
# We get param1 from the first word of $line
param1="$1"
# We get param2 from the remaining parameters by shifting the first
shift
param2="$*"
echo param1=$param1
echo param2=$param2
This will output too :
param1=1,
param2=-Get confirmation all applications
With a POSIX shell, take care to escape special character like -,*,$,etc.

Answer 2

I have just fixed it by using another query inside the loop to retrieve that particular task_description based on the task_seq_no returns from the outer loop query and echo this variable only. It worked without disturbing other assignments of param1. below is the code.
{
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
select task_seq_no
from dmf_readme_guide_param where task_seq_no = 1;
ENDOFSQL
} | while read line
do
if [ "$line" ] # Line not NULL
then
set $line
param1="$1"
#shift
#param2="$*"
# param3="$param2"
# param3 = $param2
# Pass the parameters to a sql plus script
# sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDSQL
# insert into param_testing values($param1);
# commit;
#ENDSQL
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
insert into dmf_readme_guide_log(task_seq_no,start_date) values(($param1),sysdate);
commit;
ENDOFSQL
RETVAL=`sqlplus -s $UP <<EOF
set echo off term off feed off ver off pages 0
select task_description from dmf_readme_guide_param where task_seq_no = ($param1);
exit
EOF`
#sh file_1.sh > sh_file_1.log
echo $RETVAL
sqlplus -s $UP <<ENDOFSQL
SET HEADING OFF;
SET FEEDBACK OFF;
SET LINESIZE 300;
update dmf_readme_guide_log
set end_date = sysdate where task_seq_no = ($param1);
commit;
ENDOFSQL
fi
done