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Lint Checkers for PL/SQL
Received this question today: "Is there a commercial tool available for scanning PL/SQL code and providing feedback on adherence to coding standards, like say in much the same way ‘lint’ works on C...
View ArticlePL/SQL Now Available for Microsoft Excel, MongoDB, Cassandra and VoltDB!
In a surprise announcement today [April Fool's Day, I now point out on 2 April], Oracle Corporation announced that the PL/SQL language, its (formerly) proprietary database programming language, would...
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Meet Blaine Carter, new Oracle Developer Advocate for Open Source
I am very pleased to announce the latest member to my team of Oracle Developer Advocates: Blaine Carter.Blaine will focus on using open source application development technologies with Oracle Database....
View ArticleTable Functions: Introduction and Exploration, Part 1
Table functions - functions that can be called in the FROM clause of a query from inside the TABLE operator - are fascinating and incredibly helpful constructs.So I've decided to write a series of blog...
View ArticlePL/SQL Brain Teaser: compile procedure with two declarations with same name?
I posted my second PL/SQL brain teaser on Twitter today @sfonplsql:I can compile a procedure successfully even tho it contains two declarations with the same name for the identifier. Can you?But...
View ArticleTable Functions: Returning complex (non-scalar) datasets, part 2
In my introduction to table functions, I showed how to build and "query" from a table function that returns a collection of scalars (number, date, string, etc.).If that's all you need to do, well,...
View ArticlePL/SQL Brain Teaser: Raising NO_DATA_FOUND - let me count the ways
How Do I (or Oracle) Raise NO_DATA_FOUND? "Let me count the ways."The brain teaser is: what are any or all of the ways that the NO_DATA_FOUND exception can be raised in a PL/SQL block?Extra bonus...
View ArticlePL/SQL Brain Teaser: How can BULK COLLECT be used?
No sonnets, no songs, just a simple question that has mostly obvious answers, but maybe not completely:What are the different ways (essentially different kinds of statements) that BULK COLLECT can...
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Table Functions, Part 3a: table functions as parameterized views in the...
Waaaay back in April 2010, I decided (without really consciously deciding) that I wasn't busy enough. What I needed was the responsibility of support a 24x7 website that offered quizzes on SQL, PL/SQL...
View ArticleBest laid plans or why no new post on table functions this week
I was doing so well: 1 post in my series on table functions each week.I planned to complete a description of the table function I used in the PL/SQL Challenge rankings report, which I began here.But...
View ArticleTip for excellent presentations: don't be afraid to appear ridiculous!
End of last week, I recorded a series of videos offering tips for giving excellent presentations. I will, of course, let you all know when they are posted on YouTube.But one of those tips is:Don't be...
View ArticleTable Functions, Part 3b: implementing table functions for PL/SQL Challenge...
So the public-facing side of my function is done. Time to dive inside! Of course, as with almost any piece of code, most of the details are very application-specific and not all that critical to the...
View ArticleProgram doing the impossible? Check your assumptions!
Have you ever had one of those days when you run your program and it does the impossible?As in, you stare at the screen and say: "No way, that's impossible. My program couldn't have done that. Couldn't...
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Shameless, I know. But it feels so good...
We all like to get patted on the back, stroked, egos fed, right?I am no exception.And the very best kind of stroking for me is when a developer tells me things like:"Your book changed my life.""That...
View ArticleAbout terminating characters for SQL statements
I recently tweeted this link to an article you published in the November/December 2004 edition of Oracle Magazine.Bryn Llewellyn, PL/SQL Product Manager, followed up with a message I thought we might...
View ArticlePL/SQL Brain Teaser: when does a COMMIT not commit?
So your users make changes to tables (with great care and security, through your PL/SQL API), your app calls this procedure and that function. At some point along the way, a COMMIT statement is...
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Table Functions, Part 4: Streaming table functions
In my last post on table functions, I showed how I was able to reduce many Application Express interactive reports into one by pushing all the complexity into a table function, thereby reducing the...
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PL/SQL Challenge Website Joining Oracle!
When I (re)joined Oracle in March 2014, the PL/SQL Challenge website was also acquired by Oracle. I'd been thinking that in a few months or so, we'd have it up and running on an Oracle server,...
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Welcome, Connor McDonald, to the Oracle Developer Advocates team!
I am very pleased to announce that as of 15 June 2015, Connor McDonald, ACE Director extraordinaire, recognized worldwide for both his depth of knowledge on Oracle Database and his excellent...
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Checklist Driven Development: TDD on the cheap - VERY cheap
I've built (or helped build) two unit testing frameworks for PL/SQL over the years: utPLSQL (open source) and Code Tester for Oracle (Dell). I pushed long and hard with my audiences to follow test...
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