Oracle Architecture

Overview

Oracle terms
Schema logical collection of users
objects
Tablespace logical space used for
storage
Datafile physical file used for
storage
Extent group of contiguous blocks
Block unit of physical storage

Oracle Architecture
database vs. instance

Database

Instance

Parameter files*
Control files**
Data files
Redo Log files

System Global Area (SGA)

Background Processes

Disk

Memory

* Parameter files include the init<SID>.ora and config<SID>.ora files. These

are used to set options for the database.
** Control files contain information about the db in binary form. They can be
backed up to a text file however.

Oracle vs. Access and MySQL

Access
One .mdb file contains all objects
Limited roles/permissions

MySQL
Three files per table
Permissions based on user, database, and host

Oracle
Many files
Many roles/permissions possible

The Oracle Data

Dictionary
Collection of tables and views that show the
inner workings and structure of the db
static data dictionary views
owned by SYS
created by catalog.sql script at db creation
contain DDL info

dynamic data dictionary views

also referred to as V$ views
based on virtual tables (X$ tables)
provide info about the instance

More Data Dictionary

Create table samples (
ID number(3) primary key,
Type varchar2(5),
Constraint type_ck check (type in (photo,swatch))
);

1. Samples table created in users schema

2. Primary key index created in users schema (SYS_C984620)
3. Data dictionary is also updated, with rows being inserted into
tables underlying the following data dictionary views:
User_objects
User_constraints
User_cons_columns
And lots more

Oracle Odds and

Ends
Dual table
SELECT 1+1*400 FROM DUAL;

% - the SQL wildcard

SELECT ename FROM emp WHERE ename like %neil%;

inserting apostrophes
INSERT INTO emp (name) VALUES (ONeill);

Case sensitive string matching

UPDATE emp
SET ename=UPPER(ename) WHERE ename='O''Neill';

Sysdate
Sysdate returns current system date AND time
use trunc function to remove time piece
Example:
select to_char (adate, dd-mon-yy hh24:mi:ss)
TO_CHAR(ADATE, DD-MON-YY:HH24:MI:SS)
17-feb-00 23:41:50

select adate from samples where trunc(adate)=17-feb-00;

ADATE
17-FEB-00

ROWID
ROWID is an internal number Oracle uses to
uniquely identify each row
NOT a primary key! Is the actual location of a
row on a disk. Very efficient for retrieval.
Format specifies block, row, and file (and
object in 8)
Oracle 7: BBBBBBB.RRRR.FFFFF
Oracle 8: OOOOOO.FFF.BBBBBB.RRR

Called pseudo-column since can be selected

Outer joins in Oracle

Add (+) to table where nulls are
acceptable
SELECT *
FROM emp, dept
WHERE emp.deptno(+)=dept.id;

Oracle SQL functions

Upper(), lower()
Substr(), replace(), rtrim(), concat()
Length()
Floor(), sqrt(), min(), max(), stddev()
Add_months(), months_between(), last_day()
To_date(), to_char(), to_lob()

More functions
nvl()
If NULL, return this instead
Nvl(lastname,Anonymous)

decode()
Sort of like an If/Then statement
Decode(gender,0,Male,1,Female,Unknown)

Oracle error messages

Divided into groups by first three
letters (e.g. ORA or TNS)
Number gives more information
about error
Several messages may be related
to only one problem
oerr facility

Constraints
Primary key
Foreign key
Unique, not null
Check
CREATE TABLE

test (

id NUMBER(2),
col2 VARCHAR2(2),
col3 VARCHAR2(3),
CONSTRAINT test_pk PRIMARY KEY(id),
CONSTRAINT col3_ck CHECK (col3 IN ('yes','no'))
);

Name your constraints

User_constraints, user_cons_columns

SELECT
user_constraints.constraint_name name,
constraint_type type,
user_constraints.search_condition
FROM user_constraints, user_cons_columns
WHERE
user_constraints.table_name=user_cons_columns.table_name
AND user_constraints.constraint_name=user_cons_columns.constraint_name
AND user_constraints.owner=user_cons_columns.owner
AND user_constraints.table_name=TEST;

NAME

T SEARCH_CONDITION

--------------- - ------------------------COL3_CK

C col3 IN ('yes','no')

TEST_PK

Constraints
Oracle naming of constraints is NOT
intuitive!
enabling and disabling
disable constraint constraint_name;

the EXCEPTIONS table

run utlexcpt.sql to create EXCEPTIONS table
then
alter SQL statement:
SQL_query EXCEPTIONS into EXCEPTIONS;

More objects
Sequences
creating the sequence
create sequence CustomerID increment by 1
start with 1000;

selecting from the sequence

insert into customer (name, contact, ID)
values (TManage,Kristin
Chaffin,CustomerID.NextVal);
CurrVal is used after NextVal for related inserts

Synonyms
provide location and owner transparency
Can be public or private

PL/SQL Triggers

Executed on insert, update, delete

Use to enforce business logic that cant
be coded through referential integrity or
constraints
Types of triggers
row level (use FOR EACH ROW clause)
statement level (default)
Before and After triggers

Referencing old and new values

Trigger example
SQL> desc all_triggers;
Name
Null?
------------------------------- -------OWNER
TRIGGER_NAME
TRIGGER_TYPE
TRIGGERING_EVENT
TABLE_OWNER
BASE_OBJECT_TYPE
TABLE_NAME
COLUMN_NAME
REFERENCING_NAMES
WHEN_CLAUSE
STATUS
DESCRIPTION
ACTION_TYPE
TRIGGER_BODY

Type
---VARCHAR2(30)
VARCHAR2(30)
VARCHAR2(16)
VARCHAR2(75)
VARCHAR2(30)
VARCHAR2(16)
VARCHAR2(30)
VARCHAR2(4000)
VARCHAR2(128)
VARCHAR2(4000)
VARCHAR2(8)
VARCHAR2(4000)
VARCHAR2(11)
LONG

Trigger example

(cont.)

SQL> select trigger_name from all_triggers where owner='SCOTT';

TRIGGER_NAME
-----------------------------AFTER_INS_UPD_ON_EMP

set lines 120

col trigger_name format a20
col triggering_event format a18
col table_name format a10
col description format a26
col trigger_body format a35
select trigger_name, trigger_type, triggering_event,
table_name, status, description, trigger_body
from all_triggers
where trigger_name='AFTER_INS_UPD_ON_EMP';

Trigger example

(cont.)

SQL> /
TRIGGER_NAME
TRIGGER_TYPE
TRIGGERING_EVENT
TABLE_NAME STATUS
DESCRIPTION
-------------------- ---------------- ------------------ ---------- -------- ----------------------TRIGGER_BODY
----------------------------------AFTER_INS_UPD_ON_EMP BEFORE EACH ROW INSERT OR UPDATE
EMP
ENABLED
scott.after_ins_upd_on_emp
before insert or update
on scott.emp
for each row
begin
:new.ename := upper(:new.ename);
end;

The above trigger was created with the following statement:

create or replace trigger scott.after_ins_upd_on_emp
before insert or update on scott.emp
for each row
begin
:new.ename := upper(:new.ename);
end;

Remember those
views?
Query USER_TRIGGERS to get trigger info
Query USER_SOURCE to get source of
procedure, function, package, or package
body
Query USER_ERRORS to get error
information (or use show errors)
col name format a15
col text format a40
select name, type, text
from user_errors
order by name, type, sequence;

Query USER_OBJECT to get status info

Understanding Indexes
Index overhead
impact on inserts, updates and deletes
batch inserts can be slowed by indexes - may
want to drop, then recreate
rebuilding indexes

Use indexes when query will return less than

5% of rows in a large table
Determining what to index
All primary and foreign keys
Examine SQL and index heavily hit, selective
columns (columns often found in where clauses)

What not to Index

preferably
columns that are constantly updated
columns that contain a lot of null
values
columns that have a poor
distribution of data
Examples:
yes/no
true/false
male/female

B*-tree index
Miller
< Miller

> Miller

< Davis
Davis
Jones
Adams
Brown
Culver

Deal
Howard
Isis

Branch
blocks

Smith
Turner
Turner >
Jules
Klein
Main

Moss
Porter
Sikes

Deal ROWID
Howard ROWID Detail of
leaf node
Isis - ROWID

Sykes
Thomas
Topper

Vera
Wagner
Yanks

Leaf
blocks

Bitmap index
Parts table
partno
1
2
3
4

color

size

GREEN
RED
RED
BLUE

MED
MED
SMALL
LARGE

Bitmapped index on color

color = BLUE

0 0 0 1

color = RED

0 1 1 0

color = GREEN

1 0 0 0

Part number

1 2 3 4