A question that comes up fairly frequently revolves around how to see your errors when working with PL/SQL in SQL Developer. Most folks are probably working in the worksheet – this is the default editor for your connection. Let’s take a look at this sample program 206220506867b4e0752fb67_000000 If we were to create this procedure, we would probably expect some errors. So let’s run this in the Worksheet. I’m using Ctrl+Enter to execute this single statement.…
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most people who use SQL Developer do not realize it has a fully-baked data modeling tool built into it. It’s not like we hide it, but we kind of hide it. To open the Data Modeler inside of SQL Developer, navigate to the View menu, and activate the Data Modeler Browser, like so – Once opened, you’ll see a new ‘Browser’ panel beneath your…
DBMS_SCHEDULER is awesome. It’s flexibility is remarkable. From setting up execution windows to remote execution to automatic notifications, there is a LOT to like. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. For developers and DBAs, it can be a real pain to type out 2000+ characters to simply create a job. Being able to have such a fine level of control over the execution of a job has led to a very complex mechanism and infrastructure. This…
Binary Large Objects – otherwise known as BLOBs. You’ve also got large objects which are composed of text – that would be a CLOB. If you hear people talk about LOB storage, they are referring to how the data in these fields are stored – outside the space reserved for the regular segments (table data.) BLOBs are frequently used to store data such as pictures in the database. You can pretty much store anything in…
I’m lazy. If I can drive a screw with my cordless drill in 5 seconds vs 60 seconds, but have to walk to the garage to get it, I’ll pick the drill over the screwdriver every time. Probably because after I’m finished with that screw, my foreman will walk over and decide she wants the wall ornament moved a few micrometers to the left. I think the best developers are lazy. I say this, but…
Update for version 4.2 and higher. As often happens, my ideas for blog posts are provided by end users asking for help. Sometimes I know the answer, sometimes I don’t. This is one of the latter cases. Chet AKA @oraclenerd asked me: ‘Tell me how to find the preference in sqldev to make a tab 2 spaces?’ I knew it had to be in there somewhere. This is a pretty basic setting for any word…
Ever seen a table with so many columns you wonder if the designer had fallen out of the de-normalization tree and had hit every branch on the way down? Oracle currently allows a max of 1,000 columns per table. Please do not test this limit. Maybe you do need that many columns, but I doubt it. If you were to visualize this data model, imagine how easily you might be overwhelmed with all the white-noise,…
If you’re here to read another pro or con Klout rant, then please go somewhere else. I consider Mark Schaefer’s blog series to be the definitive take on the whole Klout business. I like Klout, and I use Klout. If you fall into this camp, please continue. Did you know that Klout has lists? You may have ignored them. And I wouldn’t blame you one bit. See, we’ve been trained to think that lists are…
So you’re in Tweetdeck and someone mentions you in Portuguese or Swedish. You have no idea what it says, but you’re pretty sure it’s not a compliment. Thank goodness there’s the one-click ‘translate’ feature to bail you out. It’s often saved me from my elementary Spanish. How many times have you used Google’s translation services for help getting something from Korean to English? I have many times. Now, how nice would it be if you…
Spatial data in its raw format is ugly. The shapes and places it represents can be very enlightening. Here’s some raw spatial data followed by their visualization. If you worked with spatial data, what would you prefer? You can probably figure out what you’re looking at, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a visual confirmation? 206220506867b4e0752fb67_000003 To see the shapes, just right-click Map View, What’s that? Do you remember the kid’s game,…