Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• Making Monday the start of the week in Oracle SQL

  One reader asks how to set up a report in Oracle SQL so that Monday is the first day of the week.  Continue Reading

• Does storing documents in a database hinder performance?

  One reader asks if it is the best practice to store a document inside an Oracle database.  Continue Reading

• Improve the Media Recovery Process (MRP) in Oracle Data Guard

  One reader asks expert William Cullen why the Media Recovery Process (MRP) in Oracle Data Guard shouldn't be used in multi-node Real Application Clusters (RAC) environments.  Continue Reading

• Working with binary large objects (BLOBs)

  One reader asks how to create and retrieve a binary large object (BLOB), and SQL expert Karen Morton gives some comprehensive advice and tips.  Continue Reading

• Creating a virtual SQL table for date values

  One reader asks how to use SQL to track his company employees' absentee days, and expert Dan Clamage suggests creating a virtual table.  Continue Reading

• Oracle SQL: Using the analytic rank function

  Expert Karen Morton explains how to use a simple analytic rank function to sort through a group of golf scores.  Continue Reading

• Oracle licensing with logical partitions (LPARs)

  One reader asks about what Oracle licensing his organization must have if they have an environment with two LPARs with one active node.  Continue Reading

• Itanium's core factor affects Oracle DR licensing

  One reader asks about licensing Oracle Database 11g on the company's Itanium-based HP servers, and a discussion on Oracle's processor core factor table ensues.  Continue Reading

• Using inline view to better query joined tables

  One reader asks how to best query data from two joined Oracle tables.  Continue Reading

• Oracle license requirements in disaster recovery scenarios

  One reader asks whether they need an Oracle license to back up their database to tape.  Continue Reading

• SQL query for sorting through ID columns

  A reader asks Oracle expert Karen Morton how to query a group of rows based on their text columns.  Continue Reading

• Replacing text strings in an employee name column

  One reader asks how he can change occurrences of "LL" to "LX" in an employee name column.  Continue Reading

• Avoiding and fixing mutating table errors

  PL/SQL expert Daniel Clamage tells one reader why her merge statement is creating a mutating table error.  Continue Reading

• Oracle temporary tablespace too large

  One reader asks how he can adjust a query to prevent his temporary tablespace file from getting too large.  Continue Reading

• Mirroring in Oracle RAC and Data Guard

  A reader asks a question about mirroring on Oracle RAC using Data Guard.  Continue Reading