William Robertson articles

PL/SQL Developer Setup, part 1

2008-07-14T15:09:00.002+01:00

PL/SQL Developer is one of several integrated development environments (IDEs) that are available for Oracle, and it happens to be my favourite. One of the things I like about it is how configurable it is - you can change almost anything, and with
downloadable plug-ins such as Browser Extender you can add your own functionality.

After moving PCs several times and having to reinstall PL/SQL Developer afresh each time, I have found that there are some customisations I couldn't live without,
and the basic out-of-the-box settings now seem a bit, well, basic by comparison. This article documents what I consider the best PL/SQL Developer tweaks.
Part One will cover preferences such as fonts and screen layout, with code customisations such as the Sessions window and Browser Extender items in a separate document.

You Probably Don't Need VARRAYs

2007-07-29T20:06:00.000+01:00

I often see questions on technical forums about arrays in PL/SQL, which type to use and what the differences are.
Although the documentation has quite a lot to
say on the subject, I personally think it tries to introduce too many concepts at once and ends up
being confusing, especially when it comes to choosing between VARRAYs and Nested Table collections, where most of the "which to use"
advice is about collection columns of database tables (which you probably don't need), and not about PL/SQL at all.
The documentation may give the impression that "array" means "VARRAY", without mentioning the limitations of VARRAYs. This could be one
reason why I often see VARRAYs used where Nested Table collections would have been a better choice.

This article therefore sets out what I consider the main points of each type, from the point of view of a PL/SQL programmer.

How to configure an NFS share from Mac OSX to CentOS

2007-01-24T16:56:00.000+01:00

If you install CentOS or another free Linux on your Mac in a Parallels VM (for example as a platform for Oracle), you will notice early on that there is no way to share files between the host Mac and the VM. This functionality is provided for those rich fat-cat Windows VMs, but not for the likes of us. However, help is at hand in the form of NFS (Network File System), which is included as standard in both Mac OSX and CentOS.

How to install Oracle 10g on Apple Mac

2006-12-12T15:31:00.000+01:00

Currently there is no Oracle RDBMS product for Intel Macs. However, using Parallels you can have it running in a CentOS virtual machine, and access it through your Mac's web browser or even SQL*Plus on the Terminal command line. Here's how...

How to set up SQL*Plus

2005-10-20T00:15:00.000+01:00

Despite living in the era of GUI tools such as PL/SQL Developer, there are times when a simple text browser is all you want. Here's how to get the most from SQL*Plus.

Database scripting considered harmful

2005-10-17T10:10:00.000+01:00

This article is an attempt to explain why I believe that scripting is in general unsuitable for database applications. It is written with Oracle and shell scripts in mind, but I believe it applies to just about any database and scripting language.

Comma-separated output

2005-10-15T18:11:00.000+01:00

What is it with comma-separated lists? Anyway, here are some techniques for generating one comma-separated list from multiple rows in SQL.

Comma-separated input

2005-10-09T14:00:00.000+01:00

After "How do I display values from multiple columns in one comma-separated row", one of the next most-asked Oracle questions on the web is the opposite one (sort of): "I have a comma-separated list. How do I use it in SQL queries?"