# ORACLE SQL QUESTIONS Answers

1 What is a DBA? A DBA is a Database Administrator responsible for tuning,

maintenance, setup, and design of a database.
2 What is dual? Dual is a table with one column called dummy whose data type
is VARCHAR2(1). Dual acts like a parrot; If you select user
from dual; it will give you the ORACLE user you are logged in
as. If you select a number from dual you will get the same
number back. If you select a character array from dual, you
get the same character array back.

sqlplus bob/bob
SQL> select 40 from dual; [40]
SQL> select 'polly want a cracker' from dual; [polly want a
cracker]
SQL> select user from dual; [BOB]
SQL> select SYSDATE from dual; [15-APR-98]
SQL> exit
3 What is an object in ORACLE? An object in ORACLE can be a table, view, package, package
body, index, constraint, sequence, etc . . .
4 a)How do you see what tables a)select * from user_tables;
are owned by the user_id you b)select * from cat;
logged onto ORACLE with? select * from user_objects;
b) How can I see other things? select * from user_sequences;
c) Can I see other user's select * from all_tables where user = 'BOB'
objects? select * from user_views;
c) In most cases you can see other peoples items. Sometimes if
information is not being shared you will not be able to tell what
is in another person's account.
select * from all_tables;
select * from all_objects;
5 What is a VIEW? A view is a query which when called looks like a table. It is not
a table. To see what views exists you can issue the following
SQL statement:
select * from user_views;. Or
select * from all_views where owner = 'BOB'; user_views,
all_tables, user_tables, all_sequences, user_sequences,
user_tab_columns, all_tab_columns etc. . . are all VIEWS.
6 How do I tell what the columns desc view_or_table_name;
in a view or a table are?
7 What is a schema? The set of objects owned by a user account is called the user's
schema.
8 What is an index? An index is used on one or more columns on a table to decrease
the time it takes to find certain value(s).
9 Why might an index increase An index may increase the time it takes to do an insert, update,
the amount of time it takes to do or delete if the index itself needs to be updated because of the
an insert, update, or delete. DML (data manipulation language) issued.
10 What is a constraint? When a constraint is applied to a table, every row in the table
must satisfy the conditions specified in the constraint
definition. Examples of types of constraints are NOT NULL,
UNIQUE, DEFAULT, and CHECK.
11 How do you see what table select index_owner, index_name, column_name,
fields are used in indexes or column_position from all_ind_columns where table_name =
constraints? 'MLOAN'; select owner, table_name, constraint_name,
column_name, position from all_cons_columns; The position
indicates what order the column_name appears in the index or
constraint. The position is important because the order of the
columns determines how SQL statements should be written. It
is important to note that the positions of columns in an index
can change (the DBA may decide to do this).
12 What is all_tab_columns or All_tab_columns is a view that has an entry for every column
user_tab_columns? of every table of every users schema. User_tab_columns is a
view that has an entry for every column of every table in a
certain user's schema. When you use desc on a table to show
the columns of that table the order of the columns shown is
determined by the position that you can see when you look at
the column_id in all_tab_columns and/or user_tab_columns.
The DBA may change the order of these columns. It is very
important not to assume that the columns are in a certain order
and will stay that way.
13 Why do indexes and constraints select * from all_constraints c, all_indexes i where i.owner
have the same names? = c.owner and i.table_owner = c.owner and index_name =
constraint_name and i.table_name = c.table_name; A
UNIQUE CONSTRAINT, or NOT NULL CONSTRAINT by
definition is an index; even though it is enforcing referential
integrity, it also provides a fast method of looking up certain
values in certain columns in a table.
14 What does it mean if an It means that this index or constraint is on one or more columns
index_name or constraint_name of a table and it represents the primary key(s).
has a "_PK_" in it?
15 What is a primary key? The primary key of a table is the column or set of columns that
makes every row in that table unique.
16 What is a foreign key? A foreign key from one table references a primary key in
another table.
17 a) What is a sequence? a)A sequence is like a ticket dispenser in a bakery. It usually
b) How do you obtain the next dispense tickets starting with 1 and progressing with 2 , 3 , 4
value from a sequence? and so on. This progression can either be ascending or
c) How do you create a descending. In the above example the increment is 1. Like the
 sequence?
d) Can you modify a sequence
once you have created it?
e) How do I get rid of a
sequence.
18 What is a trigger?
19 Is there an ORACLE command Yes, on UNIX you can use the command: oerr ora #. Although
available through the operating ORACLE errors sometimes appear to be negative numbers,
system can tell you the meaning they are positive numbers!
of an error number. What is it?
20 What can you tell me about
EXP and IMP commands?
21 What are some basic Data
Manipulation Commands
dispenser, a sequence will not give the same number to one or
more people. (okay, Dispensers get new tapes and start over
again with 1).
b) So, you want the next value from a sequence? The SQL
command is
SELECT sequence_name.nextval from dual; Once you have
called for the next value from a sequence, you can use get the
current value;
SELECT sequence_name.currval from dual; CURRVAL can
not be used before NEXTVAL in any session.
c)create sequence ticket_giver; Go ahead try it!!! If you want
to see where your sequence information is kept you can query
the VIEW user_sequences or all_sequences:
select * from user_sequences;
d) In most cases the answer to this question is No. You would
have to drop the sequence and recreate it with the new
attributes. ; In ORACLE versions greater than 7.3.3 you may
use the alter sequence sql statement to change some attributes
of a sequence.
e) In most cases your Database Administrator would not want
you dropping sequences that he or she has created. However, if
you create a sequence you may drop it. Drop sequence
ticket_giver; or Drop sequence sequence_name;.
A trigger is like a bomb. It is specified to go off when certain
events happen. A trigger may be set to check values for an
insert into a row of data and alter them or cause an error. A
trigger may be specified to log changes to tables or user logons,
just about anything.
You can call exp and imp respectively from the AIX command
line to export and import data from the database. For more
information about these commands type either
exp help=y or imp help=y. These commands are extremely
useful for saving data sets for testing certain conditions (like
proving that an error in a program has been fixed.) Exports
include sequences, privledges, views, tables, packages,
indexes, constraints, grants, database links, and table_data. You
can choose to export a table definition and not the table data or
to export all the tables or just one. Imports can be used to
transfer tables, etc. from one user to another.
INSERT UPDATE TRUNCATE DELETE CREATE DROP,
etc . . .
 (DML)?
22 What does DROP do? It removes an object from the database such as a table,
sequence, view, package, etc. . . Syntax: drop table
table_name; drop sequence sequence_name;
23 What does ALTER do? Alter allows you to add to or modify a database object.
24 Is ORACLE SQL case sensitive Trick question. When you access views you have to give field
or not? values in uppercase like
select * from all_tables where table_name =
'TICKET_TAKER';. When you are issuing a data modification
language command you can reference a table in any case that
you want. Data is case sensitive.
25 What is the difference between select variables are retrieved and bind variables are certain
a select and a bind variable? values you specifiy in the where clause.
26 How do you tell what date and select sysdate from dual;
time an ORACLE system thinks
it is?
27 If you have a large number of select distinct (some_column) from some_table;
rows in a table and you just
need to know the unique values
of a column what SQL
statement would you use?
28 What query would you execute select some_column, count(*) from some_table group by
if you wanted to know some_column;
how many times each value
appears in the database?
29 What if you just wanted to select some_column, count(*) from some_table group by
know what value appeared count(*) desc where rownum < 2;
the most times in a specific field
in the database?
30 What if you wanted to know select some_column, count(*) from some_table group by
what values appear count(*) having count(*) > 15;
more than 15 times in a table?
31 What is something very Your group by items must be in the exact order of the select
important to remember about items.
using GROUP BY?
32 What query would you use if select min(some_column) from some_table;
you wanted the minimum data
value in a select field in a table?
33 What is wrong with the The value in the some_other_column field may not come from
following query: the same row as the minimum value.
select min(some_column),
some_other_column from
 some_table where something =
:something;
34 What about There is nothing wrong with this query.
select min(some_column),
max(some_other_column)
from some table where
something = something;
35 If you wanted to convert the to_date('23-JAN-98','DD-MON-YY')
character string '23-JAN-98'
into an ORACLE variable of
type DATE what command
would you use?
36 If you wanted a get a date from To_char(date,'YYYYMMDD:HH.MI.SS A.M.')
the database in a character array
format what command would
you use? Specifically the format

Year month day hour min sec

and am or pm.
37 What if you wanted to some all select sum(some_field) from some_table where some_field >
of the positive integer values 0;
from some column on some
table
38 What is an outer join and how is To select columns from two or more tables whether or not data
it used? exists in one of the tables you are querying against.
39 What is dynamic SQL? Is it Dynamic SQL is good only if it does not fill up the SQLAREA.
good or bad? Why is it good or If bind variables are stored as :variable it is okay.
bad?
40 Why do we give a table another This is done for many reasons:
name like One reason is that we may use a table more than once in a
select * from mloan m? query and the references may be distinguished by assigning
different letters to them:
select a.ltv_ratio, b.ltv_ratio from mloan a, mloan b where . . .
.
Another reason is that we may need to reference a table in the
SELECT portion in an EXISTS clause:
select a.sale_typ from mloan a where exists (select 'X' from
loan l where l.account_nbr = a.account_nbr.)
But the third reason is the most important, we do not want to
fill up the SQLAREA.
41 What is the SQLAREA and The SQLAREA is an important part of the database. Every
why is it so important? time a query is issued it is stored in the SQLAREA unless it
matches exactly to a query already in the SQLAREA letter by
letter case-sensitively. The only way to clear the SQLAREA is

42 What keyword do you need to
drop a table when other tables
rely on it.
43 Do null values in certain
columns in a table effect query
performance times?
44 How do you concatenate two || (double pipes) concat is not valid.
values in SQL?
45 What is rownum?
46 What is the best manner to
delete A LARGE NUMBER OF number of rows at one time takes up ORACLE resources and
ROWS from a table?
47 What is commit? Why do we Commit saves the current database state. When you issue
to flush it (The DBA does this.)
Using a one character letter to reference a table takes up less
room in the SQLAREA.
Why do we want to use the least amount of letters possible?
Because if a query is already in the SQLAREA it can be re-
used and it will take less time to execute because it has already
been run and because it has already been parsed and stored in
the SQLAREA. It is ideal to have as many re-usable queries in
the SQLAREA as possible. When the SQLAREA fills up,
newer queries start writing over older queries.
ORACLE version 7.3 will CRASH if the SQLAREA is
constantly getting written over and over again and
consequently becomes fragmented; flushing the area on a
regular basis will not help. It is ORACLE's position that if the
SQLAREA is written over too often, let us say by issuing
50,000 almost identical SQL queries that this is not a bug, but a
bad program design.
Cascade
YES - they increase the time it takes to perform a query!!
select user || sysdate from dual; [BOB15-APR-98]
select user || ' foofoo ' || sysdate from dual; [BOB foofoo 15-
APR-98]
ROWNUM can be used to select , delete, update some number
of rows minus one from a table. An order by clause may not be
used with ROWNUM. ROWNUM must always be specified as
being greater than 1. You can not where rownum > 3; It will
not work. Update mloan set sale_typ = 'C' where rownum <
500; Updates 499 rows in no specific order. Sometimes the
order will be the order that the rows were entered into the
database.
In small portions using rownum if necessary. Deleting a large
can increase the time it takes to delete the rows (as compared to
the time it would take to delete 500 rows at a time). Issuing a
commit statement after every delete will free up some of the
ORACLE resources and make further deletes faster.
 use it? certain ORACLE commands other users can not see the
changes until you issue the commit command or exit the SQL
session you have opened.
If you do not issue a commit and you make a mistake, (as long
as you do not truncate or drop a table) you can issue a rollback
command and the database will be restored to the point it was
at when you started the SQL session or issued the last commit.
To restore the database to this state, use the rollback command:
rollback;
You can also specify a commit point to rollback to by doing
commit savepoint1; then if you need to you can issue the
command rollback savepoint1;
48 a)What is the fastest way to a)Truncate table some_table; This command is
delete ALL OF THE ROWS in unrecoverable. It removes all rows from a table.
a table? b) NO.
b)Is this recoverable? (rollback)
49 What is the fastest query you select 'X' from dual where exists (select 'X' from some_table
can execute for just checking to where some_column = :some_value)
see if a value exists in a certain
column on a certain table?
50 What is that 'X' thing? 'X' represents TRUE or FALSE. You could replace 'X' with
'apple' or 'foobar' or some other entity as long as it has single
quotes around it and it is not an ORACLE keyword.
51 Why do you select that 'X' thing You select 'X' from dual when you already have all of the table
from dual? values selected that you need.
52 When is it appropriate to use the It is only appropriate to use the ORACLE keyword UNIQUE if
ORACLE keyword UNIQUE? you are creating a unique index; one that will only allow the
use of different values in a column on a table. DO NOT USE
UNIQUE in place of DISTINCT!
53 Can you use GROUP BY and NO. There is not reason to. I say SIMPLE query because you
DISTINCT in the same can use the terms in different sub-clauses in the same query
SIMPLE query?