Those seem to be valid, if not very helpful, instructions. I'll go over them, if that helps, cool, if not, we'll try something else. I'm going to assume nothing, so if you already know this, I apologize. I'm just trying to be a clear as possible. I'm also assuming you're on either a unix or a linux system, since your fellow student gave you instructions that included vi.
SQL> host vi
host is a sqlplus command that tells the sqlplus shell that your giving it an operating system command. vi is one of the more popular unix text editors.
So now your in vi, type ;
a
This puts you in edit mode, editing after where the cursor was.
<paste text>
usually a right in the editor window will do this.
<esc>
This takes you out of edit mode, and puts you back in command mode.
:w empquery.sql
The colon will kick you to the bottom of the screen, it says you're issuing a command. The 'w' is for write, or save, and, of course, the name of the file you're saving. If you edit more, and wish to save again, you can omit the file name, it will just save with the same name.
<ctrl>z This doesn't work on my system. I think the standard is
:q
for quit. And that will put you back at the SQL prompt.
You can find a vi quick command reference at http://drumlin.thehutt.org/vi/
After this, you will have empquery .sql in your current directory, and you can execute it using either:
SQL> start empquery.sql
or
SQL> @empquery.sql
I hope this helped in some small way. If not, we'll try again.
What class is this for? And what operating system are you working on?
Marty