Disqus - Latest Comments for Eddie Awad

Re: Oracle Blog World Exclusive

Eddie Awad — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:20:44 -0000

With Tom on board, I think the Oracle beard movement is starting to pick up steam.

Re: 5 Useful Links You Should Check Out Today (2007-10-05)

Eddie Awad — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:34:13 -0000

You're welcome Rajesh.

Re: Beware of Comments in SQL

Eddie Awad — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:25:55 -0000

I do not know if this applies to all versions. We have Oracle Forms version 6, EBS 11.5.10 and a 10gR1 database.

Re: Beware of Comments in SQL

Eddie Awad — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:30:53 -0000

Gary, right, it's better. The only disadvantage of the slash and asterisk commenting style is that it requires more typing than the double hyphen.

By the way, the stupid Markdown syntax ate the asterisks *. Sorry. I used the backslash \ to escape it.

Re: Oracle Blog World Exclusive

Eddie Awad — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:34:17 -0000

Thanks Joel. I'll be fixing this form soon.

Re: Beware of Comments in SQL

Eddie Awad — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:14:29 -0000

Matt, thanks for your tip too. I agree with you, hardcoding should be avoided. However, the query above is not the actual query that is used in the form. I just used a simple query here for demonstration purposes and to illustrate the problem that we faced.

Re: Beware of Comments in SQL

Eddie Awad — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:43:33 -0000

William, sure, if you want to be picky :) I can be even pickier: "Beware of double hyphen style comments in Oracle Forms LOV definitions".

But, I can think of at least a couple of situations that have nothing to do with LOVs in Oracle Forms and where double hyphen style comments inside SQL can cause problems.

While debugging ColdFusion web applications, the SQL used in these applications is logged, usually as a long string with no line breaks. Having a double hyphen comment in the middle of it will cause a problem when trying to execute it as is. I usually need to edit the SQL first, which is a hassle. I think this is indirectly related to Gary's comment above.

The second situation is, well, rather simple. For example:

<pre>

SQL> select * from dual;

D
-
X

SQL> select * -- comment here from dual;
select * -- comment here from dual
                                 *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected


SQL> select * /* comment here */ from dual;

D
-
X

</pre>

Powel also shared an interesting thing about comments in SQL*Plus.

Re: Oracle Technology Network Stats and a Tweet

Eddie Awad — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:22:01 -0000

Hi Pete,

Maybe Connect has features specific to Oracle and not available in other social networks like linked-in and Facebook. I do not know. But, I agree with you, why reinvent the wheel if they are the same.

Cheers

Re: Oracle Technology Network Stats and a Tweet

Eddie Awad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:43:28 -0000

Good catch Don. Based on this website, the number is 194. In any case, it's not 255 unless we count other planets and galaxies :)

Re: Beware of Comments in SQL

Eddie Awad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:53:33 -0000

Good one Coskan. By the way, Gary and William, I have fixed the formatting in the comments, so the line breaks and the /* */ are preserved.

Re: The Official Oracle Wiki is Here

Eddie Awad — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:29:03 -0000

I believe you can. You can try here.

Re: Oracle Database 11g for Windows Available for Download Now

Eddie Awad — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:04:14 -0000

As the saying goes: great minds think alike.

Re: FriendFeed Invites and Six Cool Twitter Applications

Eddie Awad — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:37:05 -0000

Julio, I have emailed you an invite.

Andy, I can quickly point out a couple of differences. FriendFeed generates a "smarter" feed. Here is an example feed item:

"shared How to Build a Credible Blog, iphone.pipes.yahoo.com: Access your mashup while mobile, and 1 other item on Google Reader"

Notice that instead of generating three items, it combined all three into one. Moreover, FriendFeed changes the verb "shared" based on the service. For example, "posted ... on Twitter", "shared ... on Google Reader", "published ... on Flickr".

Second, unlike Tumblr, you can actually comment on items shared on FriendFeed. I have also noticed that FriendFeed aggregates much faster than Tumblr. On the other hand, Tumblr is like a blog, you can post directly to it. You can not do that with FriendFeed.

These are the things that I can think of right now. Of course, FriendFeed is still in Beta, and you know what that means.

Re: FriendFeed Invites and Six Cool Twitter Applications

Eddie Awad — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:43:47 -0000

Thanks Jake. So far, I have been able to meet the demand.

Re: The Easy Way to Share Oracle OpenWorld Photos

Eddie Awad — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:28:49 -0000

@Ontario Emperor: I love the auto tagging feature of Flickr. In case you're wondering, the email address is auto-generated by Flickr. It has nothing to do with any future ideas. :)

@Dennis: Also, snapping and emailing pictures from the iPhone is a breeze.

@Tim: Thanks for triggering the idea in my head.

@Louis: As far as I know, there are no written restrictions. The "official" tag is openworld07.

Re: Different Ways to Follow Oracle OpenWorld 2007

Eddie Awad — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:33:24 -0000

Thanks guys. I have added your links to the post.

Re: Different Ways to Follow Oracle OpenWorld 2007

Eddie Awad — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:44:55 -0000

Sure, no problem Marius. In fact, it's a good idea.

Re: Available for Download Now: Oracle OpenWorld 2007 Presentations

Eddie Awad — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:39:53 -0000

Yes, for $150 USD you can purchase the Oracle OpenWorld 2007 DVD/CD Kit, which includes conference video keynotes, session presentations, and white papers. http://tinyurl.com/25s7o3

Re: Oracle in 3 Minutes: Multi-Versioning

Eddie Awad — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:35:33 -0000

Thanks guys. I appreciate your taking the time to watch the screencast.

Re: Oracle in 3 Minutes: Multi-Versioning

Eddie Awad — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:44:06 -0000

Thanks. Now the challenge is to produce 3 minutes every week. It sounds easy, but preparation takes much more than 3 minutes. The good thing is that I enjoy it.

Re: Log Buffer #73: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs

Eddie Awad — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:57:09 -0000

I'm aware. Thanks for the clarification Marco.

Re: Guess How Many Database Editions Oracle Has

Eddie Awad — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:19:40 -0000

@Laurent: duh! of course the fifth edition.
@John: Makes sense, and it's mainly used on mobile devices. Thanks.

Re: Guess How Many Database Editions Oracle Has

Eddie Awad — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:52:29 -0000

Thanks Justin. Yes this page is very useful too. In fact, I do link to it in my post above.

By the way, I forgot to mention that, by default, Oracle Lite is automatically installed and used as the dehydration database when installing the Oracle SOA suite using the basic configuration (Windows only).

Re: Oracle in 3 Minutes: A Ticking Bomb

Eddie Awad — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:21:09 -0000

@Patrick: Sure, if you can change the data model, that will be a very good solution. But, sometimes reality hurts and you're stuck with a model that you have no control over. I sometimes do find myself in such a situation, unfortunately, especially when I deal with FlexFields (varchar2 columns) in Oracle EBS.

Re: Oracle in 3 Minutes: A Ticking Bomb

Eddie Awad — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:29:50 -0000

@Justin: Good points.

One more thing, if the to_char is used in the WHERE clause, that will break the use of indexes which may impact performance. So, a function based index may be a good option here.

Re: The Value of Oracle Users Groups

Eddie Awad — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:27:14 -0000

@Nick: Thanks for the link. It's good to know there is a CF community site in general and a CF Oracle group in particular.

@Don: thanks for your questions. This gives me the opportunity to clarify a couple of things. The NWOUG is not for-profit. Its board of directors is a group of volunteers. Board members do not get paid for serving on the board or for any other services they provide to the UG. Like myself, they are driven by passion to serve the Oracle community.

Re: The Value of Oracle Users Groups

Eddie Awad — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:01:21 -0000

@joel: Very good comments, thanks.

By the way, Tom Kyte will be the keynote speaker during the upcoming NWOUG fall conference in Portland, Oregon on August 26, 2008.

Re: The Value of Oracle Users Groups

Eddie Awad — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:23:15 -0000

@Chris: Thanks for the tips mate. I appreciate it. Happy Holidays!

Re: Quick Posts from Twitter - 2007-12-18

Eddie Awad — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:53:51 -0000

Thanks John, fellow citizen.

Re: Twitter Updates for 2007-12-27

Eddie Awad — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:04:26 -0000

Yes, we picked the wrong time. We had fun nevertheless. It's all about breaking your daily routine and add some flavor to life. That's what vacations are supposed to accomplish. By the way, the Disney Fast Passes did help.

Re: 8 Things You May Not Know About This Blogger

Eddie Awad — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:08:35 -0000

Thanks for starting it Jake. The meme is spreading fast!

Re: 8 Things You May Not Know About This Blogger

Eddie Awad — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:45:28 -0000

@Steve: Looking forward to reading your 8 things.

@Patrick: What! You liked my video response! You mean I did not scare you away :) Thanks anyway. But wait, I hereby tag you as one of my victims. So feel free to tell us your 8 secrets.

Re: 8 Things You May Not Know About This Blogger

Eddie Awad — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:49:42 -0000

@Dan: Thanks for the congrats. It's a big step indeed. It took me 9 years to "cross over". I would not dare recording when my baby Julie is awake. I usually do my "blog stuff" late at night when every one is sleeping in the house.

Re: iPhone and iPod Touch Version of OraNA.info

Eddie Awad — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:45:12 -0000

Doug, thanks for checking it out on the iPod Touch. Maybe I should add one additional category: 8-things. Just kidding of course.

Re: Big Database Acquisitions Today

Eddie Awad — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:15:53 -0000

SOA/BPEL is the next big technology that I should be expanding my expertise in. Now, off to installing SOA Suite 11g Technology Preview.

Re: Available for Download Now: Oracle OpenWorld 2007 Presentations

Eddie Awad — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:19:49 -0000

The username/password works for me.

Re: Big Database Acquisitions Today

Eddie Awad — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:35:29 -0000

@Joel: That's a lot of $$millions$$ dude. Woohoo! indeed.

Re: Oracle Bubble News: Read, Vote and Submit Oracle Related News and Blogs

Eddie Awad — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:14:36 -0000

Sorry APC, maybe you had a brief unlucky moment. It indeed took me seconds to register, and a few minutes to create OBN.

Re: Oracle Blogs and Blog Posts Ranked

Eddie Awad — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:38:51 -0000

Eduardo, I have just added your blog to OraNA.info.

Re: Most Developers are Young and Clueless About Databases and SQL

Eddie Awad — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:58:35 -0000

@Tim: Based on your age and other factors, I can assume with a high degree of certainty that your *not* clueless.

I can say the same thing about the readers of this blog. Looking at the poll results so far, I see that about 88% of respondents, are 26 and older.

Re: Better SQL Formatter in Oracle SQL Developer, Finally a Reality

Eddie Awad — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:06:08 -0000

@Yas: Me too. I do not think that SQL Developer, even 1.5, has *all* the features of TOAD. But, as a developer, do you need or use all the features of TOAD? in other words, does SQL Developer 1.5 let us do everything that we need to do, with ease? We'll see.

Re: Most Developers are Young and Clueless About Databases and SQL

Eddie Awad — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:56:33 -0000

@Beth: I agree with you. By the way, I have just recovered your comment from the spam queue. For some reason, it was stuck there.

Re: Oracle Nose Job - Part 2

Eddie Awad — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:19:05 -0000

Hmmmm! Now you made me think...

Re: Do You Understand This Oracle Press Release? WSJ Does Not

Eddie Awad — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:46:07 -0000

Noons, the press release shows up in my Firefox and IE browsers almost instantly. Maybe it was a temporary glitch.

Re: Do You Understand This Oracle Press Release? WSJ Does Not

Eddie Awad — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:16:02 -0000

Hi Don, I did not know about the Oracle Universal Server (OUS). Thanks for sharing.

By the way, APC makes a good point over at David's blog: the real customers for a press release are journalists, and as such the release ought to be written in a language they understand. The hardcore jargon should be reserved for whitepapers.

Re: Now We Know What TOAD Means

Eddie Awad — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:44:45 -0000

Sure, TOAD is indeed still the leader and I have nothing against a tabbed layout. It's just I have not seen so many tabs in one layout before :)

I have used SQL Navigator (from Quest as well) and I am now (re)trying Oracle SQL Developer.

Re: Two Quick and Simple Tips That Will Help You Write Better PL/SQL

Eddie Awad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:49:02 -0000

Hi Brian,

using named notation is the best approach to invoking a subprogram, whether you overload or not. But, yes, if the goal is not to break existing code when adding new parameters, overloading the routine can accomplish this goal. Thanks for point this out.

Re: Two Quick and Simple Tips That Will Help You Write Better PL/SQL

Eddie Awad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:36:20 -0000

Hi Cristian,

I believe that named notation is not supported in 10g (and earlier releases) only when you call a function inside a SELECT statement. However, in 11g, this has been fixed.

Check out the link titled "11g New Features: Efficient PL/SQL Coding" in the post above. There is more information about this towards the end of the page.

Re: Two Quick and Simple Tips That Will Help You Write Better PL/SQL

Eddie Awad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:44:50 -0000

Valid points Chris, especially on writing meaningful parameter names, not to mention meaningful variables names, procedure names, function names, package names....

Maybe I should not have put "in general", "best practice" and "always" in the same sentence :)

Re: Two Quick and Simple Tips That Will Help You Write Better PL/SQL

Eddie Awad — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:20:04 -0000

By the way, as you've noticed from the example code above, I also like to add _in to the end of IN parameter names, _out for OUT parameters and _inout for IN OUT. This makes the named notation even more readable.

Re: Oracle SQL and PL/SQL Bad Practices Document

Eddie Awad — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:08:11 -0000

@Noons: You're right, some of them are about database and application design, which I think is indirectly related to SQL and PL/SQL as this is how you access and manipulate the application data.

@John: yes, it makes sense to use a tool to generate packages for API access to table data. I believe Quest CodeGen Utility http://qcgu.net/ can do that for you.

@gary: I agree with you. One approach is to wrap all SQL, complex or not, into separate functions.

Re: Oracle Blogs and Blog Posts Ranked

Eddie Awad — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:32:51 -0000

@John: It looks to me that your blog is no different than Oracle's own error messages documentation found at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/se...

Re: Yet Another Oracle Social Network in the Works

Eddie Awad — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:13:14 -0000

@raymond,

Each one has its own features: Oracle Mix is mainly about gathering and sharing ideas about Oracle products. Oracle Wiki enables collaborative writing about any Oracle related subject. I have not seen Knowledge Factory yet, but based on its description, it focuses on OAUG content and members.

And finally, OracleCommunity.net. It does not have the publicity that the others have, but its distinction is that it is not created or supported by Oracle Corporation or any of its affiliates. Members are free to submit technical and non-technical content. In addition to blogs, forums and groups, members have the option to upload photos, videos, podcasts and create their own events...

Whether you should join all of them is up to you, but, I say why not?

Re: 35+ Oracle Subdomains You May Not Know About

Eddie Awad — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:01:41 -0000

Hi John, in my mind, there is no difference between tahiti and docs :) and thanks for reminding me of edelivery and store. I have added them to the list. Cheers!

Re: 35+ Oracle Subdomains You May Not Know About

Eddie Awad — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:56:10 -0000

Thanks Colin and Kris, I have updated the post.

Re: 35+ Oracle Subdomains You May Not Know About

Eddie Awad — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:38:10 -0000

Thanks for the info Matt. I have updated the post.

Re: A Quick Update

Eddie Awad — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:15:48 -0000

I know for sure there is a discount for employees. I started to save a bunch on my two year old daughter.

Re: A Quick Update

Eddie Awad — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:37:05 -0000

@OE If Twitter goes down one more time, I'm giving up on it. But wait, I cannot imagine life without Twitter. Oh! Ok, I'll stick with it then, through its ups and downs.

@Paweł 13 is your favorite number, eh!. I'm not sure I have one. Maybe 30. It's getting better and better as I feel more comfortable in the new environment.

Re: The Lazy Developer’s Way to Populate a Surrogate Key

Eddie Awad — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:05:44 -0000

@Rob: Yes, I agree, it should be impossible to bypass the api.

@Mathias: Yes, developers should be educated, but also rules, standards and security should be enforced. I have wasted time figuring out what the reason was behind the ORA-00001, where it could have been avoided by simply having a trigger or enforcing security as Rob suggested or both. I do not like triggers either as I stated in the post above.

Re: The Lazy Developer’s Way to Populate a Surrogate Key

Eddie Awad — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:10:34 -0000

@Brian: You could have also added IF :NEW.ID IS NOT NULL in the trigger body, but in any case, this would have defeated the purpose of enforcing the use of a sequence.

@John:
> but we have a procedure to re-set the sequence to one higher than the maximum PK
That's what I did to fix the problem.
> And it isn’t really hidden
Right, if you know what tables have them and what events will trigger them.

Re: A Quick Update

Eddie Awad — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:18:03 -0000

Thanks David.

Re: A Quick Update

Eddie Awad — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:42:16 -0000

Thanks Amardeep.

Re: Cool Undocumented OVERLAPS Predicate

Eddie Awad — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:15:44 -0000

@Laurent: I'm assuming that the WM_OVERLAPS needs the Workspace Manager to be installed/enabled.

@John: OVERLAP_CNT seems useful. Feel free to share the link to the code on your website.

Re: Virtual Machines Are Your Friends

Eddie Awad — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:59:31 -0000

Hi Marco,

The browser search plugin for Oracle-realted forums (powered by Google) has proven to be very handy.

Re: Better SQL Formatter in Oracle SQL Developer, Finally a Reality

Eddie Awad — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:18:53 -0000

@NTamms: 1.5 is better than 1.2, that's for sure.

Re: XML Goodness in SQL - Part 1

Eddie Awad — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:25:15 -0000

@John yes, HTTPURIType is very handy. I wish it could handle basic HTTP authentication as well.

Re: 7 Useful Links for 2008-07-17

Eddie Awad — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:44:55 -0000

You're welcome Gareth and thanks for the hosting offer.

Re: How OraNA.info Aggregates Blogs.Oracle.com

Eddie Awad — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:09:04 -0000

@LewisC you're reading my mind :)

Re: How OraNA.info Aggregates Blogs.Oracle.com

Eddie Awad — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:18:33 -0000

@Gary what I can do is to add a new category to OraNA.info called "Recently Added" for example. This category will have a feed that you can subscribe to. Every time I add a new blog to the aggregator, I will also add a quick post to the "Recently Added" category on OraNA.info. I just have to remember doing that, though.

Re: How OraNA.info Aggregates Blogs.Oracle.com

Eddie Awad — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:37:10 -0000

@Fuad @Bradd thanks for your feedback.
@Bradd you should brush up on your math skills :)

Re: How OraNA.info Aggregates Blogs.Oracle.com

Eddie Awad — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:51:43 -0000

@Jake yes, I was thinking only of blogs whose URL starts with http://blogs.oracle.com. Employee blogs that are not on blogs.oracle.com will continue to be aggregated by OraNA.info. So, no need to buy me lunch, however, having a lunch with you is always a treat.

@Chris Hmm! In addition to the main feed, your blog is also aggregated under the category "Java Tools and Frameworks" http://orana.info/category/java/ (RSS http://feeds.feedburner.com/orana_java) I sure can see your latest blog post there. The RSS feed has the latest 20 entries at any time.

Blog on...

Re: How OraNA.info Aggregates Blogs.Oracle.com

Eddie Awad — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:50:19 -0000

OK guys, implementation done. OraNA now aggregates the blogs.oracle.com feed. I have also created the OraNA updates Twitter channel (RSS) to publish site news and recently added blogs.

Re: Simple Tips to Quickly Find Answers to Your Oracle-Related Questions and Keep Your Oracle Skills Up to Date

Eddie Awad — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:04:24 -0000

@joel Ah! The good old days... I agree that Usenet died. I have not posted to nor read any newsgroup for a long time.

Re: SQL Function Spotlight: TRIM

Eddie Awad — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:27:01 -0000

Indeed, if you want to trim more than one character on either or both ends of a string, TRIM is not the function to use.

Re: New Ubiquitous Ways to Search Oracle Documentation and More

Eddie Awad — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:49:24 -0000

Thanks Don. We are having fun with Ubiquity, aren't we? I know John has been interested in providing RSS feeds for Oracle documentation, but I'm not sure about any specific plans.

Re: New Ubiquitous Ways to Search Oracle Documentation and More

Eddie Awad — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:14:21 -0000

John, More RSS goodness is great! Looking forward to meeting with you at OOW.

Re: SQL Function Spotlight: TRIM

Eddie Awad — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:27:35 -0000

Hmm! What is the difference between trim(sysdate) and to_char(sysdate)?

Re: SQL Function Spotlight: TRIM

Eddie Awad — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:42:35 -0000

Thanks Brian. By the way, nice use of the DUMP function.

Re: Oracle OpenWorld 2008 - My Schedule

Eddie Awad — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:16:23 -0000

Indeed Brian :)

Re: The Naked Truth of Mogens

Eddie Awad — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:33:42 -0000

I hope so too, but you'll never know ;)

Re: Oracle Blogger Meetup and Oracle Ace Dinner Photos

Eddie Awad — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:52:47 -0000

It was nice meeting you again. Thanks for attending the meetup.

Re: 4 Useful Links for 2008-10-07

Eddie Awad — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:22:55 -0000

You're welcome Brian.

Re: 4 Useful Links for 2008-10-09

Eddie Awad — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:50:58 -0000

Karl, yes it is an excellent document and I read it with very much interest.

Re: My Oracle Support Community to Launch Soon

Eddie Awad — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:25:44 -0000

@Joel, You're right. How did I miss that?! I find it hard to believe that "sharing code" is under the Don'ts. Maybe they made a mistake, they meant to put it under the Do's. I'll send them an email to inquire about this.

Re: My Oracle Support Community to Launch Soon

Eddie Awad — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:01:24 -0000

Donald, you have a very interesting point of view. It should be fun to watch indeed.