Author: user

Today I had one of those minor buzzes of excitement when I started to play around with Oracle’s hosted HTML DB environment. Without wanting to go into my current feelings about work, you could say things are a little quiet. I’m trying to find things to do but I’ve joined just when there’s a serious… Continue reading HTML DB

Over the past few months I’ve occasionally pondered what to do about the DECODE paper on this site. On the one hand, it was written 6 years ago when DECODE was more prevalent than CASE so it’s out of date. On the other, it’s popular and is the main reason by far that people visit… Continue reading DECODE paper

(Trying this one again to see if it appears on Orablogs) SQLLDR has the following command line option EXTERNAL_TABLE = GENERATE_ONLY which, when you give it an old-fashioned SQLLDR control file, will spit out the External Table equivalent in the log file. e.g.Control File LOAD DATAINFILE ‘test.txt’TRUNCATEINTO TABLE doug_testFIELDS TERMINATED BY “”(pk,test_value CHAR “TO_NUMBER(:test_value, ‘999,990.90’,’NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS… Continue reading Nice SQLLDR option for external tables

I noticed from Niall’s blog that he was having trouble with his feedburner feed that supplies Orablogs. Looks like there’s a problem with mine, too.

It’s unlikely that anyone reading this doesn’t have Tom Kyte’s blog higher on their blog tour, but just in case …. Tom’s talking about crucial and interesting stuff here. Part 1 of 3? Enjoy!

Well, it is and it isn’t. First, I’m finally coming out of the minor delirium of the cold I’ve had and the latest match in the Ashes cricket series. I’m looking forward to a little normality for a few days although I’m still very tired. Second, I hadn’t realised that Richie Benaud is due to… Continue reading Not about Oracle

I’ve caught a horrible cold or flu and, despite the fact all I can do is lie down and mess around on my laptop, it’s difficult to rustle up a strong opinion or feeling on anything. Bizarrely, I have been able to play around with the newer example schemas (i.e. SH, HR etc.) in my… Continue reading Laid low

Mmmm, I noticed an earlier posting didn’t appear on Orablogs and I almost missed one of Niall’s too, so I reckon Orablogs doesn’t like the word verification feature that helps to avoid spam. So I’m switching it off for now and will delete any nonsense that turns up …

I noticed a comment on Tom Kyte’s blog from Gabe with a solution to the spam comments that keep appearing against blog entries. It means you’ll need to go through a word verification process when posting a comment, which is a bit of a pain, but hopefully it will stop the spam. Let me know… Continue reading Fighting Spam

http://angrydba.com/ There’s more to it than meets the eye and the purpose it serves depends what mood I’m in … 1) Reminds me of the worst aspects of some DBAs I still come across. I’ll be able to point them to this from now on so that they can see how things must seem from… Continue reading I *love* this site!