Tip of the Month - Enabling Oracle client and server tracing in SQLNET.ORA

This is very useful tool to see detailed data on the communication between Oracle and your application/users. In the sqlnet.ora file place the following settings:

For server side tracing:

trace_level_server=16
trace_directory_server=folder
trace_file_server=filename

For client side tracing:

trace_level_client=16
trace_directory_client=folder
trace_file_client=filename
trace_file_unique_client=on

Under New Management

The original ownership group of Shawn Teeters and John Rose has reacquired Maxim Consulting, Inc. They are excited to continue the exceptional service that Maxim Consulting has been known for and to lead the company along new avenues for growth and expansion.

Tip of the Month - Oracle Union and Union All

To combine multiple queries into a single result set, Oracle has the UNION and UNION ALL commands. Each query to be combined must have the same number and type of data elements. The UNION command eliminates duplicates and the UNION ALL retains them.

Tip of the Month - Oracle Null Replacement (NVL/NVL2)

Oracle offers two very useful functions for replacing a NULL with a value easier to work with. This is particularly useful when evaluating columns using CASE or IF statements that would otherwise require multiple conditions.

To replace a NULL value with another use NVL. In the example below, if a spouse exists, the name will be reported and if NULL, it will instead report 'Not Married'.

SELECT NVL(employee_spouse,'Not Married') FROM employees;

To assign one value for a NULL value and another for a non-NULL value, use NVL2. The same query will be reworked to return 'Yes' if married and 'No' if not. The non-NULL option is listed first.

SELECT NVL2(employee_spouse,'Yes','No') FROM employees;