Learning is not a spectator sport

Complete listing of posts

  • "Big Mac and Size"..Handling large SQL Macros

    "Big Mac and Size"..Handling large SQL Macros

    Happy 2021 everyone! And what better way to start than a cheesy pun to make you groan and already to start looking forward to a better 2022 This post is just a quick one to kick off 2021 because officially I’m still on Christmas holidays. I had a question come in regarding the cool SQL… Read more

  • The APEX PSE christmas present!

    The APEX PSE christmas present!

    Its always nice to get fixes to bug just in time for christmas. A while ago I posted an example of using external tables to act as mechanism to check for patches on My Oracle Support. Using this table, I run a simple query every few days to see if new APEX patches are available,… Read more

  • 2020 in review

    2020 in review

    Well…its been quite a year!  I downloaded the Oxford “Words of the Year” report which came out with gems such as Bushfires Impeachment Coronavirus Lockdown Social Distancing Zoom Bombing Mask Shaming Black Lives Matter Cancel Culture Superspreader amongst others. “Covidiot” cracked a mention and remains a personal favourite , although reading the list above could… Read more

  • Solving a John Conway puzzle with SQL

    Solving a John Conway puzzle with SQL

    A cool little conundrum came across my email Inbox this week which I thought I’d share. Back in 2016, Pizza Hut ran a promotional competition with famous mathematician John Conway on Pi day. Sadly John Conway passed away this year from COVID19 – another great mind lost to the pandemic . His puzzle involved the… Read more

  • The invisible restore point

    The invisible restore point

    I regularly create and drop tablespace on my databases here at home, mainly because they are obviously not used in a “Production-like” manner.  Typically I’m tinkering with tablespaces to help answer customer questions on AskTOM about space allocation, reclaiming space and the like, so tablespaces come and go frequently. (Sidebar: If you’re regularly dropping/creating tablespaces… Read more

  • The AskTOM multimedia experience!

    The AskTOM multimedia experience!

    Most people know AskTOM as the go-to resource for getting answers to the most common and sometimes the most tricky questions on the Oracle Database. AskTOM runs on the robust Application Express architecture, which is a large part of the reason that it has been in operation for over 20 years without any problems in… Read more

  • The power of SQL macros

    The power of SQL macros

    Here is another example of what I’m sure will just become a plethora of such examples from the community on how the flexibility of SQL macros can solve problems that would normally take a lot of code in the form of DBMS_SQL and/or object types and/or pipelined functions and/or …well, you get the idea A… Read more

  • The missing multiplication aggregation in SQL

    The missing multiplication aggregation in SQL

    A few days back on Twitter, a cool little discussion arose out of the SQL Daily regular tip – the lack of an aggregate function that will return a aggregated product of a set of numbers. Taking a look at the Lukas Eder’s post, it has a nice build up of how one can exploit… Read more

  • SQL Macros = SQL Injection ?

    SQL Macros = SQL Injection ?

    In my recent post about SQL Macros and their availability in 19c, I had some comments about parameter passing, these comments being related to a more general discussion what typically comes down to: “Hmmmm … if we are changing the text of the SQL, and that change might be done based on user provided parameters,… Read more

  • Faster software installations

    Faster software installations

    Just a quick tip today thanks to the one of the readers on my blog. If you’re installing Oracle 12c with the standard database installer, you’re probably used to that moment when the installation is ever so close to finishing and we just need to sync up the installation inventory. You’ll typically see the following… Read more

  • Application Express – the PSE update

    Application Express – the PSE update

    I published a post a couple of days ago about how due to the architecture of PL/SQL and hence Application Express, we can rapidly deliver and deploy updates to the core APEX product to deliver timely fixes to the APEX community. Because a single patch may now evolve over time to contain additional fixes, long… Read more

  • Updating my APEX 20.2 installation

    Updating my APEX 20.2 installation

    One of (or should I say “another of”!) the very cool features of Application Express (APEX) is that by being a database-centric software installation, patching of the product can be done very efficiently and easily by simply loading fresh versions of the underlying PL/SQL source. The reason loading PL/SQL source is such a good thing… Read more