SELECT * FROM ALL_DIRECTORIES;

The query above will display all the directories accessible to the current user. They are folders in the server where you can write your output files. For some reason, I forgot about this twice already and had to scour the web to find it. The problem is, I also forgot the keywords. So, I’m writing it now.

To register new directories, you can follow the example below.

Example
create or replace directory mydir as 'c:\mydirectory';

To use, run the code below.

declare
f utl_file.file_type;
begin
f := utl_file.fopen('MYDIR', 'myfilename.txt', 'w');
utl_file.put_line(f, 'just another line text 1');
utl_file.put_line(f, 'just another line text 2');
utl_file.fclose(f);
end;

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• utf_file
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whereby
m is the base.
n is the exponent.

Example

power(36,5);

will return 1679616

Take note that this function returns NUMBER as the data type. That means the maximum value can only be 1.0 x 10^126. Later versions (10g onwards) can use binary_double as the base which makes the function output binary_double. I don’t know where you would need that large number, though. Also, if m is negative, then n must be an integer.

In case you are asking where I need it, there’s this code conversion whereby I needed to use the power function to get the value of a particular character. The exponent(n) is not fixed so I needed this function. To be specific, the function involves the pl/sql version of RowIdToRowIdNum of Siebel. I’ll post the code later.

References:

http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:1594387900346571874

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simple as below:

DELETE FROM my_table
WHERE mycolumn = 'mysearch';

v_rec_count := SQL%ROWCOUNT;


On this case, SQL%ROWCOUNT will return the number of affected records in the immediate preceding statement. It is the

equivalent command for @@rowcount in Sybase/SQL Server.

However in my friend’s case, the DELETE statement is part of the dynamic SQL. Obviously, we cannot use the approach

above as it is. Here’s how to capture the affected records in dynamic SQLs.


vSQL := 'DELETE FROM ' || v_SchemaName || '.' || v_TableName || ' WHERE ' || v_Conditions || ‘;’;
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE ‘BEGIN ’ || vSQL || ‘ :z := sql%rowcount; END; ’ USING OUT nRecCount ;


Basically, we have to capture the rowcount from within the dynamic sql. That means you have to pass the variable via “OUT” parameter to flow the value out of the execute immediate. You can’t just fire nRecCount := sql%rowcount after the execute immediate because with that, the last command that ran is the execute immediate. It will return 1 instead of the actual value from the dynamic sql.

Source :

https://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::NO::P11_QUESTION_ID:497908700346519628

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ALTER SEQUENCE MY_SEQUENCE_NAME
INCREMENT BY 1;


Explanation

The first SQL modifies increment number to 300. That means the next time I call the NEXTVAL, I’ll get the current number + 300. In that way, I can skip some numbers. And after achieving the purpose, I set back the increment to just 1.

This is a crudge workaround, actually. I needed to come up with a solution to a problem in production wherein the sequence number is no longer in-synch with the actual current max number in the table (due to manual insert/update).

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To be clear, here’s the screenshot.


Source : http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3594805

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MERGE INTO tstg_idl_approach a
USING tmdb_idl_approach b
ON (a.approach_id = b.approach_id)
WHEN MATCHED THEN
UPDATE SET a.approach_code = b.approach_code ,
a.current_ind = b.current_ind
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT (approach_id ,
approach_code,
current_ind )
VALUES (b.approach_id ,
b.approach_code,
b.current_ind );

For further reading, I recommend visiting http://www.oracle-developer.net/display.php?id=203.

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Below is the example.

SQL> DECLARE
2 x NUMBER := 0;
3 BEGIN
4 LOOP — After CONTINUE statement, control resumes here
5 DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (‘Inside loop: x = ‘ || TO_CHAR(x));
6 x := x + 1;
7
8 IF x < 3 THEN
9 CONTINUE;
10 END IF;
11
12 DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE
13 ('Inside loop, after CONTINUE: x = ' || TO_CHAR(x));
14
15 EXIT WHEN x = 5;
16 END LOOP;
17
18 DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (' After loop: x = ' || TO_CHAR(x));
19 END;
20 /

As our Siebel CRM here in the office still uses 10g, I have no choice but to use some other ways(i.e., logic change, big if-endif, etc.) There’s a lot of critics of this function with some saying it’s like using GOTO statement in BASIC. I find it handy, though. And I don’t think those critics ever encountered such kind of situations or have programmed a large pl/sql program in the real world.

The statement allows me to make my codes more readable and easily understandable. On top of that, it allows shorter program and easily traceable code. And so I’m happy that Oracle has added it their RDBMS starting from 11g.

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SET SERVEROUTPUT ON


There’s quite a misconception between DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE and SERVEROUTPUT directives. The SERVEROUTPUT tells Oracle to dump the buffer(i.e, sent via DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE) while the DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE starts the buffer messages which you may access by GET_LINE/GET_LINES.

SERVEROUTPUT directive does two things:

1. Issue DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE command
2. Tells SQLPLUS to dump the output after each statement

Relevant discussion is at AskTom’s question and answer page
here.

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XMLAGG (Available since Oracle 9i)


select rtrim (xmlagg (xmlelement (e, email_add || ',')).extract ('//text()'), ',') email_add
from email_groups
where email_group = '1-A945-9';

In that example, I needed to display all the email addresses in an email group. The output should be separated by comma so that I can pass it onto the email client without any problem nor any additional codes.

There’s more at Burleson Consulting in case you want other techniques.

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Syntax


set define off


Oh yes, that’s just one line that will solve my misery. Well, it’s all about my ignorance. To turn back on, then do the opposite as below.

Syntax


set define on


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