Introduction to Oracle9i for

Experienced SQL Users

Student Guide • Volume 1

40059GC10
Production 1.0
January 2002
D34327
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Contents

Preface

Introduction
Objectives I-2
Oracle Database Overview I-3
Oracle9i I-5
Oracle9i Application Server I-7
Oracle9i Database I-8
Oracle Architectural Components I-9
Oracle Database Files I-11
Other Key Physical Structures I-12
Oracle Instance I-13
Processing a SQL Statement I-15
Connecting to an Instance I-16
Using SQL to Communicate with an RDBMS I-18
SQL Statements I-19
Tables Used in the Course I-20
Summary I-21

1 The Oracle SELECT Statement

Objectives 1-2
Oracle SELECT Statement 1-3
Using the WHERE Clause 1-5
Defining and Using a Column Alias 1-7
SQL Operators 1-8
Arithmetic Expressions 1-10
Using Parentheses 1-11
Defining a Null Value 1-12
Null Values in Arithmetic Expressions 1-13
Using the NVL2 Function 1-14
Using the Concatenation Operator 1-15
Using Pseudocolumns 1-16
ORDER BY Clause 1-18
Joining Tables Using Oracle Syntax 1-20
Retrieving Records with Equijoins 1-21
Qualifying Ambiguous Column Names 1-22
Non-Equijoins 1-24
Outer Join Syntax 1-25

iii
 Using Outer Joins 1-26
Self Joins 1-27
Joins: Comparing SQL:1999 to Oracle Syntax 1-28
SQL and iSQL*Plus Interaction 1-29
SQL Statements versus iSQL*Plus Commands 1-30
Overview of iSQL*Plus 1-31
Logging In to iSQL*Plus 1-32
The iSQL*Plus Environment 1-34
Interacting with Script Files 1-35
Saving Output to a File 1-37
Displaying Table Structure 1-38
Data Types 1-39
Oracle9i DateTime Support 1-42
DateTime Data Types 1-44
INTERVAL Data Types 1-46
Identification of Nonstandard SQL 1-49
Summary 1-50
Practice 1 Overview 1-51
2 Single-Row Functions
Objectives 2-2
SQL Functions 2-3
Two Types of SQL Functions 2-4
Single-Row Functions 2-5
Character Functions 2-6
Case Manipulation Functions 2-8
Character Manipulation Functions 2-10
Number Functions 2-12
Using the ROUND and TRUNCATE Functions 2-13
Working with Dates 2-15
RR Date Format 2-16
Arithmetic Operators with Dates 2-17
Date Functions 2-18
Using Date Functions 2-19
Conversion Functions 2-21
Explicit Data Type Conversion 2-23
The TO_CHAR Function with Dates 2-24
Date Format Model Elements 2-25
Using the TO_CHAR Function with Dates and Numbers 2-27
TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE Functions 2-29
TO_LOB Functions 2-30
Using the COALESCE Function 2-31
Conditional Expressions 2-33
The CASE Expression 2-34

iv
 DECODE Function 2-35
Using the DECODE Function 2-37
Nesting Functions 2-39
Practice 2, Part 1: Overview 2-41
Time Zones 2-42
TZ_OFFSET 2-43
CURRENT_DATE 2-45
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP 2-46
LOCALTIMESTAMP 2-47
DBTIMEZONE and SESSIONTIMEZONE 2-48
EXTRACT 2-49
TIMESTAMP Conversion Using FROM_TZ 2-50
STRING to TIMESTAMP Conversion Using TO_TIMESTAMP and
TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ 2-51
Time Interval Conversion with TO_YMINTERVAL 2-52
Summary 2-53
Practice 2 2-54

3 Enhancements to the GROUP BY Clause

Objectives 3-2
Review of Group Functions 3-3
Review of the GROUP BY and HAVING Clauses 3-4
GROUP BY with ROLLUP and CUBE Operators 3-6
ROLLUP Operator 3-7
ROLLUP Operator: Example 3-8
CUBE Operator 3-9
CUBE Operator: Example 3-10
GROUPING Function 3-11
GROUPING Function: Example 3-12
GROUPING SETS 3-13
GROUPING SETS: Example 3-15
Composite Columns 3-17
Composite Columns: Example 3-19
Concatenated Groupings 3-21
Concatenated Groupings: Example 3-22
Summary 3-23
Practice 3 Overview 3-24

4 Using Set Operators

Objectives 4-2
The Set Operators 4-3

v
 Tables Used in This Lesson 4-4
The UNION Set Operator 4-7
Using the UNION Operator 4-8
The UNION ALL Operator 4-10
Using the UNION ALL Operator 4-11
The INTERSECT Operator 4-12
Using the INTERSECT Operator 4-13
The MINUS Operator 4-14
Set Operator Guidelines 4-16
The Oracle Server and Set Operators 4-17
Matching the SELECT Statements 4-18
Controlling the Order of Rows 4-20
Summary 4-21
Practice 4 Overview 4-22

5 Advanced Subqueries
Objectives 5-2
Subqueries 5-3
Using a Subquery 5-5
Multiple-Column Subqueries 5-6
Column Comparisons 5-7
Pairwise Comparison Subqueries 5-8
Nonpairwise Comparison Subqueries 5-9
Using a Subquery in the FROM Clause 5-11
Scalar Subquery Expressions 5-12
Correlated Subqueries 5-15
Using the EXISTS Operator 5-18
Using the NOT EXISTS Operator 5-20
Correlated UPDATE Operations 5-21
Correlated DELETE Operations 5-23
The WITH Clause 5-25
WITH Clause: Example 5-26
Summary 5-28
Practice 5 Overview 5-29

vi
6 Hierarchical Retrieval
Objectives 6-2
Hierarchical Queries 6-3
Sample Data from the EMPLOYEES Table 6-4
Natural Tree Structure 6-5
Hierarchical Queries 6-6
“Walking” the Tree 6-8
Walking the Tree: From the Bottom Up 6-10
Walking the Tree: From the Top Down 6-11
Ranking Rows with the LEVEL Pseudocolumn 6-12
Formatting Hierarchical Reports Using LEVEL and LPAD 6-13
Pruning Branches 6-15
Summary 6-16
Practice 6 Overview 6-17
7 Creating and Managing Tables and Constraints
Objectives 7-2
What Is a Schema? 7-3
Referencing Another User’s Tables 7-5
The CREATE TABLE Statement 7-6
Creating a Table by Using a Subquery 7-8
The ALTER TABLE Statement 7-10
Adding a Column 7-11
Modifying and Dropping Columns 7-12
SET UNUSED Option 7-13
Data Integrity 7-14
Types of Constraint 7-16
Defining Constraints 7-17
Guidelines for Defining Constraints 7-20
Adding a Constraint 7-22
Disabling and Enabling Constraints 7-23
Constraint Checking 7-26
Changing the Enforcement of Constraints 7-27
Primary and Unique Key Enforcement 7-28
Foreign Key Considerations 7-29
Dropping a Constraint 7-31
Cascading Constraints 7-32
Changing the Name of an Object 7-34
Truncating a Table 7-35
Dropping a Table 7-36
Adding Comments to a Table 7-37
Tables in the Oracle Database 7-38
Querying the Data Dictionary 7-40
Viewing Constraints 7-41
Summary 7-42
Practice 7 Overview 7-47

vii
8 Other Oracle Database Objects
Objectives 8-2
Database Objects 8-3
Overview of Views 8-4
Simple Views and Complex Views 8-5
Creating a View 8-6
Creating a Simple View 8-7
Creating a Complex View 8-9
Querying a View 8-11
Modifying a View 8-12
Rules for Performing DML Operations on a View 8-13
Using the WITH CHECK OPTION Clause 8-14
Denying DML Operations 8-16
Removing a View 8-17
Inline Views 8-18
Top-N Analysis 8-19
Example of Top-N Analysis 8-20
What Is a Sequence? 8-21
The CREATE SEQUENCE Statement 8-22
Confirming Sequences 8-24
Using a Sequence 8-25
Using a Sequence: Example 8-27
Caching Sequence Values 8-28
Altering a Sequence 8-29
Guidelines for Modifying Sequences 8-30
Removing a Sequence 8-31
What Is an Index? 8-32
How Are Indexes Created? 8-34
Creating an Index 8-35
Guidelines for Creating an Index 8-36
Confirming Indexes 8-37
Function-Based Indexes 8-38
The CREATE INDEX Clause with the CREATE TABLE Statement 8-39
Removing an Index 8-40
Synonyms 8-41
Creating and Removing Synonyms 8-42
Summary 8-43
Practice 8 Overview 8-45
9 Controlling Transactions
Objectives 9-2
Database Transactions 9-3
COMMIT and ROLLBACK Statements 9-5
Controlling Transactions 9-7

viii
 State of the Data Before COMMIT or ROLLBACK 9-8
State of the Data after COMMIT 9-9
State of the Data after ROLLBACK 9-10
Rolling Back Changes to a Marker 9-11
Statement-Level Rollbacks 9-12
Read Consistency Without Locking 9-13
Implementation of Read Consistency 9-14
Read Consistency: Example 9-16
Implicit Locking 9-17
Explicit Locking 9-18
Summary 9-19
Practice 9 Overview 9-20
10 Controlling User Access
Objectives 10-2
Controlling User Access 10-3
System Privileges 10-4
Creating Users 10-5
User System Privileges 10-6
Granting System Privileges 10-7
What Is a Role? 10-8
Creating and Granting Privileges to a Role 10-9
Changing Your Password 10-10
Object Privileges 10-11
Granting Object Privileges 10-13
Using the WITH GRANT OPTION and PUBLIC Keywords 10-14
Confirming Privileges Granted 10-15
Revoking Object Privileges 10-16
Database Links 10-17
Summary 10-20
Practice 10 Overview 10-21
11 Oracle9i Extensions to DML and DDL Statements
Objectives 11-2
Overview of Multitable INSERT Statements 11-3
Types of Multitable INSERT Statements 11-5
Multitable INSERT Statements 11-6
Unconditional INSERT ALL 11-8
Conditional INSERT ALL 11-9
Conditional FIRST INSERT 11-11
Pivoting INSERT 11-13
External Tables 11-16
Creating an External Table 11-17
Example of Creating an External Table 11-18

ix
 Querying External Tables 11-21
Summary 11-22
Practice 11 Overview 11-23
Appendix A: Practice Solutions
Appendix B: Table Descriptions and Data
Appendix C: iSQL*Plus
Appendix D: Using SQL to Generate SQL
Appendix E: ANSI Joins
Additional Practices
Additional Practice Solutions