Four Secrets for Success
More than a few people think that I am pretty good at what I do, that I am successful. I respect their judgement and thought about what contributed to my success. I came up with four that form a...
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A Handwritten Message or Why It Paid to Write a Book (and homage to Richard...
A month ago, Miguel ordered a signed copy of my book from my website. So I wrote him a message, signed it, and shipped it off.I soon after received the following handwritten letter:Dear Steven,I spent...
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Latest Addition to Oracle Database Evangelist Team: Chris Saxon, focus on SQL
Last year (well, last month to be more specific), I announced three new members of the Oracle Database Evangelist Team: Todd Trichler, Natalka Roshak and Dan McGhan.Today, I have the pleasure of...
View ArticleLooking for one more evangelist: Oracle Database for Open Source
The Oracle Database Evangelist team currently has two evangelists focused on SQL, one on PL/SQL, and another on Javascript/HTML5. Overall, our mission is to show how powerful Oracle Database is as a...
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Meet (See) the Oracle Database Evangelist Team
We are all out at Oracle Headquarters for meetings this week and yesterday at the BIWA Summit, I was fortunate enough to:Do a YesSQL presentation for the NoCOUG user group.Have Tom Kyte share his...
View ArticleWhat's in a name? As in, my team's name.
Over the past several months, I have put together a team of expert technologists whose job is to…well…back to that in a moment.I have been calling this team Oracle Database Evangelists.And now we are...
View ArticleDealing with "PLS-306: Wrong number or types of arguments" across schemas
The PLS-306 compile error can be a real pain in the you know what. There are many possible causes, including typo in name with named notation, wrong datatype, wrong number of arguments....you know:...
View ArticleShould I take that Oracle Forms 6.0 PL/SQL job, Steven?
I received this note from a reader from Brazil:I am a PL/SQL developer for 6 years now. I recently received a job offer to develop in Oracle Forms 6.0, Reports and HTMLDB. I think these are older...
View ArticlePractically Perfect PL/SQL - A new video channel for PL/SQL developers!
Let this post serve as the official, groundbreaking, ground-shaking launch of (drum roll).....Practically Perfect PL/SQLThis is a new Youtube/Oracle Learning Library channel that will feature my latest...
View ArticleNever open up access to code protected by ACCESSIBLE BY?
In my Oracle Magazine article, When Packages Need to Lose Weight, I step through the process of breaking up a large package body into "sub" packages whose access is restricted through use of the...
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Sample code for 6th edition of Oracle PL/SQL Programming
O'Reilly Media published the 6th edition of my favorite book in the whole world:Oracle PL/SQL ProgrammingIt's my favorite because it has had more (and more positive) impact on my life than any other...
View ArticleIs the Function Result Cache operative on my database?
At a very fine RMOUG Training Days 2015 conference this week (about which I will post later...soon...promise!), an attendee complained that:1. He'd learned about the function result cache and was...
View ArticleReflections from RMOUG Training Days 2015 (part 1) - enough with the shoulds,...
I spent most of last week in Denver at RMOUG’s Training Days 2015. Some highlights and reflections follow.Love Those Two Hour Deep DivesI signed up to do a two-hour deep dive on error management...
View ArticleMining the Oracle Database for Cool Appdev Features
One of the key missions of the Oracle Developer Advocate (ODA) is to make sure our users realize how many great features for application developers are packed into Oracle Database.Sure, there's SQL and...
View ArticleOh those tricky exception sections! Why won't it handle my error?
Fielded a question the other day from a frustrated PL/SQL developer. He included an exception handler for an exception that was being raised in his program, but the exception propagated out unhandled...
View ArticleLooking for Another Oracle Developer Advocate for SQL
The Oracle Developer Advocates team is responsible for helping users fully leverage their investment in Oracle Database and to promote the use of Oracle Database technologies for application...
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27 Hours of Free PL/SQL Video Training at PL/SQL Channel
A few years ago, I recorded roughly twenty-seven (27) hours of training on the Oracle PL/SQL language and made them available via subscription on the PL/SQL Channel.Just a little under a year ago, I...
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Recommendations for unit testing PL/SQL programs
I have recently received a couple of requests for recommendations regarding unit testing of PL/SQL programs. I thought I would share with you what I told them.First, some background: unit testing...
View ArticleDon't Want to Remember No Stinking Error Codes
Programmers need to keep lots of information in their heads: about the language(s) with which they are writing code, the data model of their application, requirements, etc. So they tend to not remember...
View ArticleCode cleanup: post-authentication in Application Express
Recently ran across this procedure, defined in the Post Authentication field in an Appliation Expression application. I encourage you to look it over and come up with your list of things you'd want to...
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