Laurent Schneider

Cursor sharing transform strings in bind variable.

So if you do SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE ENAME='SCOTT'; it will be transformed in SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE ENAME=:sys_b0;

This sometimes improved performance of application that do not use binds, for instance.

Now let’s imagine your application generates trace files. The application generates a SELECT 'LSC-11.1011.000.1110.1.0100.000.110' FROM DUAL;
. Ok, let’s look for the string in trace files :

$ cd udump
$ grep LSC-11 *.trc
$
$ grep DUAL$ *.trc
LSC01_ora_8630490.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL
LSC01_ora_8630490.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL
LSC01_ora_8839288.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL
LSC01_ora_8839288.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL
LSC01_ora_8933560.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL
LSC01_ora_8933560.trc:SELECT :"SYS_B_0" FROM DUAL

WTF! The tracing mechanism of the application is no longer usable 😈

Another side effect is the length of the column and is described there : http://asktom…P11_QUESTION_ID:3696883368520

Did you ever think you could write something nobody can read ?

Submit your query before April 1st to the Oracle SQL Obfuscation Contest…

You can also vote there

My query : http://www.oraclecommunity…7305

While Linux x86_64 just came out, Unix Releases like HPUX, AIX and SunSolaris will probably not be available before third week of April.

While Linux x86_64 just came out, Unix Releases like HPUX, AIX and SunSolaris will probably not be available before third week of April.

I wrote about dba_users changes in 11g .

When spooling alter user commands in 11g, it is important to understand the mechanism. Oracle 11g supports both sensitive and insensitive passwords.

When issuing an CREATE/ALTER USER IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD, both the insensitive and the sensitive hashes are saved.
SQL> create user u identified by u;
User created.
SQL> grant create session to u;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> connect u/U
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE.
SQL> connect u/u
Connected.
Per default only the proper case works

SQL> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=false;
System altered.
SQL> connect u/U
Connected.
SQL> conn u/u
Connected.
When sec_case_sensitive_logon=false, both uppercase and lowercase passwords work (10g behavior).

When issuing a create user identified by values, you must chose if you want to have both passwords, only the case insensitive or only the case sensitive.

SQL> select password,spare4 from user$ where name='U';

PASSWORD
------------------------------
SPARE4
--------------------------------------------------------------
18FE58AECB6217DB
S:8B1765172812D9F6B62C2A2B1E5FEF203200A44B4B87F9D934DABBB809A4

The hashes are in USER$.

SQL> alter user u identified by values '18FE58AECB6217DB';
User altered.
SQL> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=true;
System altered.
SQL> conn u/u
Connected.
SQL> conn u/U
Connected.
When only the 10g oracle hash is used as a value, the password is case insensitive whatever the setting of sec_case_sensitive_logon is.

SQL> alter user u identified by values
'S:8B1765172812D9F6B62C2A2B1E5FEF203200A44B4B87F9D934-
DABBB809A4';
User altered.
SQL> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=false;
System altered.
SQL> conn u/u
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE.
SQL> conn u/U
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
When only the 11g oracle hash is used as a value, the password is case sensitive and if the setting of sec_case_sensitive_logon is on false, the login failed as there is no 10g string. This setting is probably the most secure setting as the 10g string is not saved in USER$.

SQL> alter user u identified by values
'S:8B1765172812D9F6B62C2A2B1E5FEF203200A44B4B87F9D934-
DABBB809A4;18FE58AECB6217DB';
SQL> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=true;
System altered.
SQL> conn u/u
Connected.
SQL> conn u/U
ERROR:
ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied
Warning: You are no longer connected to ORACLE.
SQL> conn / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> alter system set sec_case_sensitive_logon=false;
System altered.
SQL> conn u/u
Connected.
SQL> conn u/U
Connected.

When using both hashes, switching back and forth to 11g mechanism is possible.

I will be speaking about SQL Model at Baton Rouge Oracle User Group, Thursday, March 20, 2008 from 11:30am to 1:30pm.

Check http://www.broug.org for details

I just noticed today the Web 2.0 interface of metalink :

The URL is http://csm.oracle.com, like Coftware Sonfiguration Manager (or maybe Configuration Software Manager).
[edit: original name is: Configuration Support Manager]

It seems nice, you can customize the portal with drag and drop, their is a blog too http://blogs.oracle.com/supportportal and a feedback button I am going to use right now!

Enjoy the new interface to read and update your SR 🙂

I tried my chance at Le petit jeu des requêtes SQL and yesterday received my price at home.

Thanks to the author for organizing the competition 🙂

Next milestone : oraclecommunity.net obfuscation contest

Imagine this script (10gR2) :
set echo on
select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY -
BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

Run it and you would will get an expected result!

SQL> select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY -
> BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
----------------------
Inf
The issue in sqlplus is that – at the end of line means “query continues next line”. The correct answer of Inf-Inf is Nan.

SQL> select BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
-BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY from DUAL;

BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY-BINARY_DOUBLE_INFINITY
---------------------------------------------
Nan

18 is a nice age here. You can vote, you can watch movie or drink Gin-tonic. You also get married and go to jail !

Are you really 18 today?

select add_months(date '1990-02-28',18*12) from dual;
ADD_MONTHS(DATE'199
-------------------
29.02.2008 00:00:00


come back tomorrow 😈

or check an old post of mine How old are you 😀

Sven’s Technik-Blog » Blog Archive » Oracle 10.2.0.4 für Linux x86 ist verfügbar…

Patchset 6810189 is now available for Download on Metalink.

select * from v$version;

BANNER
----------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Prod
PL/SQL Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
CORE    10.2.0.4.0      Production
TNS for Linux: Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 10.2.0.4.0 - Production

I wrote it already :
Laurent Schneider » Blog Archive » TO_CHAR(…, ‘D’)

I thought the one I found out this night was fun
select to_char(sysdate,'DAY',
'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE=''numeric date language''')
from dual;
T
-
3

[edit]this feature is not documented, do not use in prod[/edit]

I first thought of adding Klingon. Well, finally I added Romansh, which is the fourth official language in my country.

Ok, here we go :

$ $ORACLE_HOME/nls/lbuilder/lbuilder &

The Oracle Locale Builder tool is started.

File –> New… –> Language

You specify the language, the spelling for January, for Monday, etc… Most fields are mandatory. If you do not know about one field, like EBCDIC, just find one in the “Show existing definition…” Dialog

File –> Save as…

You save your nlt file

File –> Tools –> Generate NLB

Three NLB files are generated.
$ ls -l *.nl*
-rw-r--r-- 1 lsc users 934 2008-02-19 18:17 lx003eb.nlb
-rw-r--r-- 1 lsc users 3843 2008-02-19 18:17 lx003eb.nlt
-rw-r--r-- 1 lsc users 128 2008-02-19 18:17 lx0boot.nlb
-rw-r--r-- 1 lsc users 428 2008-02-19 18:17 lx0boot.nlt
-rw-r--r-- 1 lsc users 22528 2008-02-19 18:17 lx1boot.nlb


Copy all your the NLB files to your ORACLE_HOME/data/nls.

Restart your instance.

Let’s test it 😉


select
to_char(
sysdate,
'fmday dd month yyyy','NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE=romansch'
)
from dual;
TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'FMDAYDDMONTHYY
-------------------------------
mardis 19 favrer 2008


In Oracle11g the alert log is an XML file. The old style alertSID.log is created out of the log.xml for backward compatibility only. However, some exciting enhancement are not noticable in the old one.

$ tail -3 alert*.log
Mon Feb 04 15:52:38 2008
ALTER SYSTEM SET recyclebin='OFF' SCOPE=SPFILE;
ALTER SYSTEM SET recyclebin='ON' SCOPE=SPFILE;

If I check in the xml file, I get more info about the execution time, which contains milliseconds
$ adrci exec="show alert -term"|tail -4
2008-02-04 15:52:38.366000 +01:00
ALTER SYSTEM SET recyclebin='OFF' SCOPE=SPFILE;
2008-02-04 15:52:42.101000 +01:00
ALTER SYSTEM SET recyclebin='ON' SCOPE=SPFILE;


This timestamp could be really usefull !

There is also a command -tail for adrci, but it outputed the whole log for some unkown reason

using trunc and round I cannot get lower than -4800 nor higher than 10001 😈

SQL> select trunc(date '-4712-1-1','CC') from dual;
TRUNC(DATE'-4712-1-1','CC')
----------------------------------
Thursday 1st January 4800 B.C.

SQL> select round(date '9999-01-01','CC') from dual;
ROUND(DATE'9999-01-01','CC')
----------------------------------
Monday 1st January 10001 A.D.


Is there any rule where you can use scalar subquery?
You can use a scalar subquery expression in most syntax that calls for an expression (expr).

Well, you cannot use it as the second argument of sys_connect_by_path
select sys_connect_by_path(ename,
(select '/' from dual)) from emp
connect by prior empno=mgr;
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-30003: illegal parameter in SYS_CONNECT_BY_PATH
function

You cannot use it in the ITERATE or in the RULES clause of model
SQL> select * from dual model
dimension by (0 x) measures (0 y)
rules iterate ( (select 1 from dual) ) (y[0]=0);
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32607: invalid ITERATE value in MODEL clause
SQL> select * from dual model
dimension by (0 x) measures (0 y)
(y[0]=(select 1 from dual));
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-32620: illegal subquery within MODEL rules


Also impossible is in the DATAOBJ_TO_PARTITION function that is used in System Partitioning :
SQL> insert into t partition (
dataobj_to_partition("T",
(select :partition_id from dual) ))
values ('x') ;
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-14198: rowid column must refer to table
specified in 1st parameter


Another documented limitation is the GROUP BY clause :


SQL> SELECT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM EMP),
COUNT(*) FROM DEPT ;
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00937: not a single-group group function

SQL> SELECT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM EMP), COUNT(*)
FROM DEPT GROUP BY (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM EMP);
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-22818: subquery expressions not allowed here

SQL> SELECT (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM EMP),
COUNT(*) FROM DEPT GROUP BY ();

(SELECTCOUNT(*)FROMEMP) COUNT(*)
----------------------- ----------
14 4


I made a funny typo today 🙂
SQL> select * from t1;

X
0

SQL> select 1.x from t1;

X
1

Should not I get ORA-904 invalid identifier 😕 ?

The 11g OCP certification should be available this year. You can register for the production exam 1Z0-050 New Features on Prometrics and pass the exam on Mon Feb 18th or later, the OCA exams 1Z1-051 SQL Fundamentals and 1Z1-052 Admin I are in beta and the OCP exam 1Z1-053 Admin II is planned for early 2008 (well, the OCA exams are planned for late 2007, so do not rely on this timeframe).
Check the official page :
Oracle Education 11g certification

The 11g OCM is planned for a later date (whatever that means). Well, I am no longer going to wait for the 10g OCM upgrade for 9i OCM… I am not going to do a certification for an older release since 11g exams are available. I will rather do the 11g ocp this year. As I wrote earlier, the 10g OCM was planned for late 2004…

This morning I had to solve an ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file and it was not as straightforward as usual…

There is a note 69642.1 on Metalink, [edit]which is now up to date for 10gR2[/edit].

1) AUDIT_FILE_DEST is not writable

$ env
_=/usr/bin/env
ORACLE_SID=FOO
TERM=dtterm
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_3
PWD=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_3
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"
SQL> startup
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 2: No such file or directory
Additional information: 9925
$ grep -i audit_file_dest $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/*$ORACLE_SID.ora
audit_file_dest=/bar
$ ls -lad /bar
/bar not found
$ su -
root's Password:
# mkdir /bar
# exit
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"
SQL> startup
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
Additional information: 9925
$ su -
root's Password:
# chown oracle /bar
# exit
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"
SQL> startup quiet nomount
ORACLE instance started.
SQL> shutdown abort
ORACLE instance shut down.


2) $ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/adump exists and is not writable ❗

$ ls -lad $ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/adump
drwxr-xr-x 2 root dba .../admin/FOO/adump
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 -
Production on Mon Dec 17 09:02:29 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

ERROR:
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
Additional information: 9925
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
Additional information: 9925

SP2-0751: Unable to connect to Oracle. Exiting SQL*Plus
$ su -
root's Password:
# chown oracle /bar/admin/FOO/adump
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 -
Production on Mon Dec 17 09:02:48 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL> quit


3) $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit is not writable

$ cat $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init$ORACLE_SID.ora
db_name=FOO
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -L "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 -
Production on Mon Dec 17 08:48:09 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

ERROR:
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
Additional information: 9925
ORA-09925: Unable to create audit trail file
IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
Additional information: 9925

SP2-0751: Unable to connect to Oracle. Exiting SQL*Plus
$ ls -lad $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit
drwxr-x--- 2 root dba ... $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME; su
root's Password:
# chown oracle ./rdbms/audit
# exit
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.3.0 -
Production on Mon Dec 17 08:49:12 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2006, Oracle. All Rights Reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL> quit


I read a user question on forums.oracle.com this morning :
As we know NOT EQUAL operations by pass indexes and cause full table scans in queries

I did not know that. Do I need to use hints?

set autotrace traceonly explain
create table t as
select
sign(rownum-1) r, rpad(rownum,4000,'.') t
from dual connect by level<10000/*00*/; create index i on t(r); exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'T',cascade=>true)

select /*+ INDEX(T,I) */ r,t from t where r!=1;

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 3993571787

--------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------

| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | C
ost (%CPU)| Time |

--------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------

| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 4004 |
1979 (2)| 00:00:24 |

| 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| T | 1 | 4004 |
1979 (2)| 00:00:24 |

|* 2 | INDEX FULL SCAN | I | 1 | |
1979 (2)| 00:00:24 |

--------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

1 - filter("R"<>1)

SQL> select r,t from t where r!=1;

Execution Plan
----------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 2153619298

--------------------------------------------------------------
------------

| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)
| Time |

--------------------------------------------------------------
------------

| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 4004 | 271K (1)
| 00:54:18 |

|* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| T | 1 | 4004 | 271K (1)
| 00:54:18 |

--------------------------------------------------------------
------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

1 - filter("R"<>1)


Online Patching : you can apply or roll back online patches while the RDBMS instance is running

1) download an interim patch for 11g, f.ex. dummy patch 6198642
2) unzip p6198642_111060_LINUX.zip
3) cd 6198642
4) $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch apply -silent -connectString LSC08 -runSql
Invoking OPatch 11.1.0.6.0

Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 11.1.0.6.0
Copyright (c) 2007, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Oracle Home : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4
Central Inventory : /opt/oracle/oraInventory
from : /etc/oraInst.loc
OPatch version : 11.1.0.6.0
OUI version : 11.1.0.6.0
OUI location : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/oui
Log file location : /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cfgtoollogs/
opatch/opatch2007-12-05_21-23-42PM.log

RollbackSession rolling back interim patch '6198642' from OH
'/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4'

Running prerequisite checks...

OPatch detected non-cluster Oracle Home from the inventory
and will patch the local system only.

Please shutdown Oracle instances running out of this
ORACLE_HOME on the local system.
(Oracle Home = '/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4')

Is the local system ready for patching? [y|n]
Y (auto-answered by -silent)
User Responded with: Y
Backing up files affected by the patch '6198642' for restore.
This might take a while...
Execution of 'sh /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/.patch_storage/
6198642_May_07_2007_00_50_36/original_patch/custom/
scripts/pre -rollback 6198642 ':

Return Code = 0

Patching component oracle.rdbms, 11.1.0.6.0...
Copying file to "/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cpu/CPUDummy2007/
catcpu.sql"
RollbackSession removing interim patch '6198642' from inventory

---------------------------------------------------------------
This is a dummy patch for testing only
---------------------------------------------------------------
Execution of 'sh /opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/.patch_storage/
6198642_May_07_2007_00_50_36/original_patch/custom/scripts/
post -rollback 6198642 ':

Return Code = 0

Running the "apply" sql script "/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/cpu/
CPUDummy2007/catcpu.sql" with reference to 'patchmd.xml' file
for the patch "6198642"...

The local system has been patched and can be restarted.

OPatch succeeded.


OPatch did run the necessary script (catcpu for Dummy2007) on the various instances (LSC08). It needed only one step and 34 seconds on my notebook. This patch is a dummy patch, let’s wait for CPU January to see if it is online applicable 😉

If I need to generate 3 rows called AAA, BBB, CCC, I could use dual and union all. Another method is to use Extensibility Types

select * from table
(sys.ODCIVarchar2List('AAA','BBB','CCC'));

COLUMN_VALUE
------------
AAA
BBB
CCC

« Ask Tom Live » European Tour 2008

City	Date	Price	Register
Madrid 28 – 29 January € 924 ** Click here London 25 – 26 February £1,101 * Click here Berlin 6 – 7 May € 1,474 ** Click here * This price is valid until 31 January 2008 only ** This price is valid until 29 February 2008 only

Note that if you register after Feb 29th for the Madrid event (which is in January), the price is no longer valid 😈

I am also surprised to see such a price difference for the same course between the different events.

One may pretend bigfile tablespace is bad, because you cannot backup/restore in parallel.


SQL> create bigfile tablespace big datafile size 1g;

Tablespace created.

RMAN> configure device type disk parallelism 4;

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
old RMAN configuration parameters:
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 4 BACKUP TYPE
TO COMPRESSED BACKUPSET;
new RMAN configuration parameters:
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 4 BACKUP TYPE
TO COMPRESSED BACKUPSET;
new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

RMAN> backup tablespace big section size 100m;

Starting backup at 30.11.2007 07:23:30
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=44 device type=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_2
channel ORA_DISK_2: SID=42 device type=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_3
channel ORA_DISK_3: SID=41 device type=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_4
channel ORA_DISK_4: SID=40 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 1 through 12800
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 30.11.2007 07:23:37
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_2: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 12801 through 25600
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting piece 2 at 30.11.2007 07:23:41
channel ORA_DISK_3: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_3: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 25601 through 38400
channel ORA_DISK_3: starting piece 3 at 30.11.2007 07:23:45
channel ORA_DISK_4: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_4: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 38401 through 51200
channel ORA_DISK_4: starting piece 4 at 30.11.2007 07:23:48
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 30.11.2007 07:23:49
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_1_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:12
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 51201 through 64000
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 5 at 30.11.2007 07:23:53
channel ORA_DISK_2: finished piece 2 at 30.11.2007 07:23:53
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_2_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_2: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:12
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_2: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 64001 through 76800
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting piece 6 at 30.11.2007 07:23:57
channel ORA_DISK_3: finished piece 3 at 30.11.2007 07:23:57
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_3_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_3: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:12
channel ORA_DISK_3: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_3: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 76801 through 89600
channel ORA_DISK_3: starting piece 7 at 30.11.2007 07:24:01
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 5 at 30.11.2007 07:24:01
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_5_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:08
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 89601 through 102400
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 8 at 30.11.2007 07:24:05
channel ORA_DISK_2: finished piece 6 at 30.11.2007 07:24:05
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_6_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_2: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:08
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_2: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 102401 through 115200
channel ORA_DISK_2: starting piece 9 at 30.11.2007 07:24:09
channel ORA_DISK_4: finished piece 4 at 30.11.2007 07:24:09
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_4_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_4: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:21
channel ORA_DISK_4: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_4: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 115201 through 128000
channel ORA_DISK_4: starting piece 10 at 30.11.2007 07:24:13
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 8 at 30.11.2007 07:24:13
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_8_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:08
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00007
name=/oradata/LSC08/datafile/o1_mf_big_3nzbd7h5_.dbf
backing up blocks 128001 through 131072
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 11 at 30.11.2007 07:24:18
channel ORA_DISK_2: finished piece 9 at 30.11.2007 07:24:18
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_9_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_2: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:09
channel ORA_DISK_3: finished piece 7 at 30.11.2007 07:24:18
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_7_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_3: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:17
channel ORA_DISK_4: finished piece 10 at 30.11.2007 07:24:18
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_10_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_4: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:05
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 11 at 30.11.2007 07:24:19
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_4/dbs/01j2avjk_11_1
tag=TAG20071130T072332 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 30.11.2007 07:24:19


This works fine 😉

SECTION SIZE requires 11gR1 or later

In 2006, I blogged about 11g new features part II. At that time 11g was in alpha or early beta stage.

One of the new feature announced at OpenWorld 2006 was multiversioning. Like you have multiple versions of your packages running at the same time.

Unfortunately, the feature has not been implemented in 11g Release 1.

As you can see, the CREATE EDITION command does not work :
SQL> create edition v1;
create edition v1
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00901: invalid CREATE command

SQL> alter session set edition=v1;
ERROR:
ORA-38802: edition does not exist
The error messages ORA-38801 to ORA-38816 refer to EDITIONS.

SQL> select * from dba_editions;
EDITION_NAME PARENT_EDITION_NAME USABLE
------------ ------------------- ------
ORA$BASE YES

SQL> alter session set edition=ora$base;

Session altered.

Apparently the feature is implemented, but not ready to be used. Be patient …

I blogged here that 10.2.0.4 was announced for 2007Q4. Well, I have rechecked metalink and the tentative date for Linux is now 2008Q1 😕

Lutz posted about some 10.2.0.4 Beta tests, I did not even know that some customers got beta version of the metalink patchsets 😈

I played the Chinese Chess Championship in Zurich today. It was a all-play-all tournament with Siegfried Huber (2nd with 1.5/3), Luca Rusconi (2nd with 1.5/3) and Beat Sprenger (4th with 0/3). I finished first with 3 wins out of 3 games.

It was an intense day, thanks to Beat for the organization and to Luca for providing the Trophy.

I read the ultimate excuse database and checked if I can use model to do generate random statements:


with t as (
select '%E and %E are travelling to %L.' fmt
from dual union all
select 'About %N employees live in %L.'
from dual)
select str from t
model
reference
dept on (
select loc,count(*) over () c,rownum r
from dept)
dimension by (r) measures (loc,c)
reference
emp on (
select ename,count(*) over () c, rownum r
from emp)
dimension by (r) measures (ename, c)
partition by (fmt)
dimension by (1 x)
measures (cast(fmt as varchar2(4000)) str)
rules
iterate (1000)
until str[1] not like '%/%%' escape '/'
(str[1]=substr(str[1],1,
decode(instr(str[1],'%'),0,4000,
instr(str[1],'%')-1))||
decode(substr(str[1],nullif(
instr(str[1],'%'),0)+1,1),
'N',to_char(trunc(
dbms_random.value(0,1+emp.c[1]))),
'E',initcap(emp.ename[trunc(
dbms_random.value(1,1+emp.c[1]))]),
'L',initcap(dept.loc[trunc(
dbms_random.value(1,1+dept.c[1]))]))||
substr(str[1],nullif(
instr(str[1],'%'),0)+2))
/
STR
----------------------------------------
James and Ward are travelling to Dallas.
About 1 employees live in Chicago.
/
STR
--------------------------------------------
King and Blake are travelling to New York.
About 3 employees live in Dallas.


Is rownum=1 the first row returned? well, it depends :

select rownum, ename
from emp
order by ename;
ROWNUM ENAME
---------- ----------
11 ADAMS
2 ALLEN
6 BLAKE
7 CLARK
13 FORD
12 JAMES
4 JONES
9 KING
5 MARTIN
14 MILLER
8 SCOTT
1 SMITH
10 TURNER
3 WARD


The ROWNUM is evaluated before the order by

select rownum
from emp
group by rownum
having rownum between 3 and 6;
ROWNUM
----------
6
5
3
4


the rownum is selected before the GROUP BY and before the HAVING.

select
rownum,
sal,
median(sal) over ()
from emp;
ROWNUM SAL MEDIAN(SAL)OVER()
---------- ---------- -----------------
1 800 1550
12 950 1550
11 1100 1550
3 1250 1550
5 1250 1550
14 1300 1550
10 1500 1550
2 1600 1550
7 2450 1550
6 2850 1550
4 2975 1550
8 3000 1550
13 3000 1550
9 5000 1550


The optimiser may chose to resort the result, here as a WINDOW SORT operation for the MEDIAN analytic function

you want to BIT_OR multiple rows. For example you have a table with 3 rows that you want to aggregate with BIT_OR

1010 (10)
1100 (12)
0110 (6)
=========
1110 (14)


Let’s try

with t as (
select 10 n from dual union all
select 12 from dual union all
select 6 from dual)
select
utl_raw.cast_to_binary_integer(
sys.mvaggrawbitor(
utl_raw.cast_from_binary_integer(
n
)
)
) N
from t;
N
---
14


It is that easy !

disclaimer: mvaggrawbitor is not documented

I have enjoyed speaking at the unconference very much. I chose not to use anything else than a SQL file to demonstrate the capabilities.

Thanks to the audience for coming. Here is the SQL file I used for the demo

SQLMODEL.SQL