I am new to DB2. I want to execute an anonymous black in toad.
BEGIN ATOMIC
DECLARE TEMP_SCHEMA VARCHAR(12) ;
SET TEMP_SCHEMA = 'SCHEMA1';
SELECT * FROM TEMP_SCHEMA.TABLE_NAME
WHERE 1=1
WITH UR;
END;
I am getting following error:
20159: [IBM][DB2/AIX64] SQL20159W The isolation clause is ignored because of the statement context.
Can you please help.
According to the documentation at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSMKHH_10.0.0/com.ibm.etools.mft.doc/ak04940_.htm?view=embed , "If ATOMIC is specified, only one instance of a message flow (that is, one thread) is allowed to execute the statements of a specific BEGIN ATOMIC... END statement (identified by its schema and label), at any one time. If no label is present, the behavior is as if a zero length label had been specified.
The BEGIN ATOMIC construct is useful when a number of changes need to be made to a shared variable and it is important to prevent other instances seeing the intermediate states of the data."
Using ATOMIC in a stored procedure means that your code will execute as a singleton, providing maximal isolation. That would be in direct conflict with your "WITH UR" isolation option. Even though you are using the ATOMIC keyword in a script, not in a stored procedure, DB2 still treats it as a single thread, so it will complain if you include query hints that attempt to lower the isolation level.
After removing the ATOMIC keyword, you are getting the token error because your SELECT * FROM TEMP_SCHEMA.TABLE_NAME
WHERE 1=1 statement is attempting to return a result set to Toad from inside a BEGIN block. Unfortunately, this is not possible in DB2. As soon as you have any procedural code, which forces you to utilize a BEGIN block, DB2 steadfastly refuses to return data to the client. The only way that I found to return results from inside a BEGIN block is to place the BEGIN block in a stored procedure, and then use a CURSOR to return the result set to Toad, e.g.,
BEGIN
DECLARE C1 CURSOR WITH RETURN WITH HOLD FOR SELECT * FROM .EMPLOYEE;
OPEN C1;
END;
Note that you must enclose the CURSOR code in an inner BEGIN block, which DB2 requires when sending a result set back to the client WITH HOLD.
If you want to return the value of a variable to Toad from your prototype stored procedure, you can use this approach:
BEGIN
DECLARE C1 CURSOR WITH RETURN WITH HOLD FOR
SELECT * FROM TABLE(SELECT * FROM (VALUES(<variable goes here>))
AS TEMP(<descriptive name for the variable goes here>)) AS TEMP1;
OPEN C1;
END;
To summarize, in order to use the Anonymous Block as a prototyping vehicle in a development tool such as Toad, you have to wrap it in a stored procedure if you want to return any results, and you must use a CURSOR embedded in an inner BEGIN block to do so. Its unfortunate that DB2 is so much more cumbersome than MS SQL Server in this regard.
Related
First, I want to make it clear that the question is not about the materialized views feature.
Suppose, I have a table function that returns a pre-defined set of columns.
When a function call is submitted as
SELECT col1, col2, col3
FROM TABLE(my_tfn(:p1))
WHERE col4 = 'X';
I can evaluate the parameter and choose what queries to execute.
I can either open one of the pre-defined cursors, or I can assemble my query dynamically.
What if instead of evaluating the parameter I want to evaluate the text of the requesting query?
For example, if my function returns 20 columns but the query is only requesting 4,
I can assign NULLs to remaining 16 clumns of the return type, and execute fewer joins.
Or I can push the filter down to my dynamic query.
Is there a way to make this happen?
More generally, is there a way to look at the requesting query before exuting the function?
There is no robust way to identify the SQL that called a PL/SQL object.
Below is a not-so-robust way to identify the calling SQL. I've used code like this before, but only in special circumstances where I knew that the PL/SQL would never run concurrently.
This seems like it should be so simple. The data dictionary tracks all sessions and running SQL. You can find the current session with sys_context('userenv', 'sid'), match that to GV$SESSION, and then get either SQL_ID and PREV_SQL_ID. But neither of those contain the calling SQL. There's even a CURRENT_SQL in SYS_CONTEXT, but it's only for fine-grained auditing.
Instead, the calling SQL must be found by a string search. Using a unique name for the PL/SQL object will help filter out unrelated statements. To prevent re-running for old statements, the SQL must be individually purged from the shared pool as soon as it is found. This could lead to race conditions so this approach will only work if it's never called concurrently.
--Create simple test type for function.
create or replace type clob_table is table of clob;
--Table function that returns the SQL that called it.
--This requires elevated privileges to run.
--To simplify the code, run this as SYS:
-- "grant execute on sys.dbms_shared_pool to your_user;"
--(If you don't want to do that, convert this to invoker's rights and use dynamic SQL.)
create or replace function my_tfn return clob_table is
v_my_type clob_table;
type string_table is table of varchar2(4000);
v_addresses string_table;
v_hash_values string_table;
begin
--Get calling SQL based on the SQL text.
select sql_fulltext, address, hash_value
bulk collect into v_my_type, v_addresses, v_hash_values
from gv$sql
--Make sure there is something unique in the query.
where sql_fulltext like '%my_tfn%'
--But don't include this query!
--(Normally creating a quine is a challenge, but in V$SQL it's more of
-- a challenge to avoid quines.)
and sql_fulltext not like '%quine%';
--Flush the SQL statements immediately, so they won't show up in next run.
for i in 1 .. v_addresses.count loop
sys.dbms_shared_pool.purge(v_addresses(i)||', '||v_hash_values(i), 'C');
end loop;
--Return the SQL statement(s).
return v_my_type;
end;
/
Now queries like these will return themselves, demonstrating that the PL/SQL code was reading the SQL that called it:
SELECT * FROM TABLE(my_tfn) where 1=1;
SELECT * FROM TABLE(my_tfn) where 2=2;
But even if you go through all this trouble - what are you going to do with the results? Parsing SQL is insanely difficult unless you can ensure that everyone always follows strict syntax rules.
I want to write pl/sql code which utilizes a Cursor and Bulk Collect to retrieve my data. My database has rows in the order of millions, and sometimes I have to query it to fetch nearly all records on client's request. I do the querying and subsequent processing in batches, so as to not congest the server and show incremental progress to the client. I have seen that digging down for later batches takes considerably more time, which is why I am trying to do it by way of cursor.
Here is what should be simple pl/sql around my main sql query:
declare
cursor device_row_cur
is
select /my_query_details/;
type l_device_rows is table of device_row_cur%rowtype;
out_entries l_device_rows := l_device_rows();
begin
open device_row_cur;
fetch device_row_cur
bulk collect into out_entries
limit 100;
close device_row_cur;
end;
I am doing batches of 100, and fetching them into out_entries. The problem is that this block compiles and executes just fine, but doesn't return the data rows it fetched. I would like it to return those rows just the way a select would. How can this be achieved? Any ideas?
An anonymous block can't return anything. You can assign values to a bind variable, including a collection type or ref cursor, inside the block. But the collection would have to be defined, as well as declared, outside the block. That is, it would have to be a type you can use in plain SQL, not something defined in PL/SQL. At the moment you're using a PL/SQL type that is defined within the block, and a variable that is declared within the block too - so it's out of scope to the client, and wouldn't be a valid type outside it either. (It also doesn't need to be initialised, but that's a minor issue).
Dpending on how it will really be consumed, one option is to use a ref cursor, and you can declare and display that through SQL*Plus or SQL Developer with the variable and print commands. For example:
variable rc sys_refcursor
begin
open :rc for ( select ... /* your cursor statement */ );
end;
/
print rc
You can do something similar from a client application, e.g. have a function returning a ref cursor or a procedure with an out parameter that is a ref cursor, and bind that from the application. Then iterate over the ref cursor as a result set. But the details depend on the language your application is using.
Another option is to have a pipelined function that returns a table type - again defined at SQL level (with create type) not in PL/SQL - which might consume fewer resources than a collection that's returned in one go.
But I'd have to question why you're doing this. You said "digging down for later batches takes considerably more time", which sounds like you're using a paging mechanism in your query, generating a row number and then picking out a range of 100 within that. If your client/application wants to get all the rows then it would be simpler to have a single query execution but fetch the result set in batches.
Unfortunately without any information about the application this is just speculation...
I studied this excellent paper on optimizing pagination:
http://www.inf.unideb.hu/~gabora/pagination/article/Gabor_Andras_pagination_article.pdf
I used technique 6 mainly. It describes how to limit query to fetch page x and onward. For added improvement, you can limit it further to fetch page x alone. If used right, it can bring a performance improvement by a factor of 1000.
Instead of returning custom table rows (which is very hard, if not impossible to interface with Java), I eneded up opening a sys_refcursor in my pl/sql which can be interfaced such as:
OracleCallableStatement stmt = (OracleCallableStatement) connection.prepareCall(sql);
stmt.registerOutParameter(someIndex, OracleTypes.CURSOR);
stmt.execute();
resultSet = stmt.getCursor(idx);
I have recently had some input from a colleague regarding committing in a stored function. Whether we use procedures or functions to execute offline / batch logic in an Oracle database is mostly a matter of taste in our application. In both cases, we return a code either as function result, or as procedure OUT parameter. We usually require those offline / batch routines to be called from PL/SQL, not from SQL:
-- good
declare
rc number(7);
begin
rc := our_function(1, 2, 3);
end;
-- less good
select our_function(1, 2, 3) from dual;
The reason why the latter is less good is because our_function may commit the transaction for performance reasons. This is ok for a batch routine.
The question is: Are there any best practices around this topic, or some special keywords that prevent such functions from being used in SQL statements on a compiler-level? Or should we avoid functions for batch operations and only use procedures?
You can use RESTRICT_REFERENCES to indicate that a function won't read/write package or database state.
CREATE PACKAGE t_pkg AS
FUNCTION showup (msg VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2;
PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES(showup, WNDS, RNDS);
END t_pkg;
/
-- create the package body
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY t_pkg AS
FUNCTION showup (msg VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
v_val varchar2(1);
BEGIN
select dummy into v_val from dual;
RETURN v_val;
END;
END t_pkg;
/
It used to be the case that SQL wouldn't allow you to call a function unless it made such a promise, but that restriction got dropped.
I'd prefer to make it a differentiator between a procedure and a function. It's worth bearing in mind that if a PL/SQL function raises a NO_DATA_FOUND exception, a calling SQL statement does not fail (as no data found isn't an SQL error). So I prefer to use procedures unless the object is specifically designed to be called from SQL.
Are there any best practices around this topic, or some special
keywords that prevent such functions from being used in SQL statements
on a compiler-level?
If you use a function that requires a transaction (and therefore a commit), AFAIK you will not be able to call it from a SELECT, unless the function uses an AUTONOMOUS TRANSACTION (otherwise you get a ORA-14551 cannot perform a DML operation inside a query).
See also: ORA-14551: cannot perform a DML operation inside a query
So, having a function that requires a transaction itself should prevent it from being called from a SELECT.
From my point of view there is no way to accomplish this.Although you can avoid runtime errors like "ORA-14551" by using PRAGMA RESTRICT_REFERENCES in "our_function(1, 2, 3)" to be sure that it is safe to use it the SQL query,but you can't prevent it from using in sql at the compiler-level
Here's a piece of Oracle code I'm trying to adapt. I've abbreviated all the details:
declare
begin
loop
--do stuff to populate a global temporary table. I'll call it 'TempTable'
end loop;
end;
/
Select * from TempTable
Right now, this query runs fine provided I run it in two steps. First I run the program at the top, then I run the select * to get the results.
Is it possible to combine the two pieces so that I can populate the global temp table and retrieve the results all in one step?
Thanks in advance!
Well, for me it depends on how I would see the steps. You are doing a PL/SQL and SQL command. I would rather type in those into a file, and run them in one command (if that could called as a single step for you)...
Something like
file.sql
begin
loop
--do stuff to populate a global temporary table. I'll call it 'TempTable'
end loop;
end;
/
Select *
from TempTable
/
And run it as:
prompt> sqlplus /#db #file.sql
If you give us more details like how you populate the GTT, perhaps we might find a way to do it in a single step.
Yes, but it's not trivial.
create global temporary table my_gtt
( ... )
on commit preserve rows;
create or replace type my_gtt_rowtype as object
( [columns definition] )
/
create or replace type my_gtt_tabtype as table of my_gtt_rowtype
/
create or replace function pipe_rows_from_gtt
return my_gtt_tabtype
pipelined
is
pragma autonomous_transaction;
type rc_type is refcursor;
my_rc rc_type;
my_output_rec my_gtt_rectype := my_gtt_rectype ([nulls for each attribute]);
begin
delete from my_gtt;
insert into my_gtt ...
commit;
open my_rc for select * from my_gtt;
loop
fetch my_rc into my_output_rec.attribute1, my_output_rec.attribute1, etc;
exit when my_rc%notfound;
pipe_row (my_output_rec);
end loop;
close my_rc;
return;
end;
/
I don't know it the autonomous transaction pragma is required - but I suspect it is, otherwise it'll throw errors about functions performing DML.
We use code like this to have reporting engines which can't perform procedural logic build the global temporary tables they use (and reuse) in various subreports.
In oracle, an extra table to store intermediate results is very seldom needed. It might help to make things easier to understand. When you are able to write SQL to fill the intermediate table, you can certainly query the rows in a single step without having to waste time by filling a GTT. If you are using pl/sql to populate the GTT, see if this can be corrected to be pure SQL. That will almost certainly give you a performance benefit.
This question is similar to a couple others I have found on StackOverflow, but the differences are signficant enough to me to warrant a new question, so here it is:
I want to obtain a result set from dynamic SQL in Oracle and then display it as a result set in a SqlDeveloper-like tool, just as if I had executed the dynamic SQL statement directly. This is straightforward in SQL Server, so to be concrete, here is an example from SQL Server that returns a result set in SQL Server Management Studio or Query Explorer:
EXEC sp_executesql N'select * from countries'
Or more properly:
DECLARE #stmt nvarchar(100)
SET #stmt = N'select * from countries'
EXEC sp_executesql #stmt
The question "How to return a resultset / cursor from a Oracle PL/SQL anonymous block that executes Dynamic SQL?" addresses the first half of the problem--executing dynamic SQL into a cursor. The question "How to make Oracle procedure return result sets" provides a similar answer. Web search has revealed many variations of the same theme, all addressing just the first half of my question. I found this post explaining how to do it in SqlDeveloper, but that uses a bit of functionality of SqlDeveloper. I am actually using a custom query tool so I need the solution to be self-contained in the SQL code. This custom query tool similarly does not have the capability to show output of print (dbms_output.put_line) statements; it only displays result sets. Here is yet one more possible avenue using 'execute immediate...bulk collect', but this example again renders the results with a loop of dbms_output.put_line statements. This link attempts to address the topic but the question never quite got answered there either.
Assuming this is possible, I will add one more condition: I would like to do this without having to define a function or procedure (due to limited DB permissions). That is, I would like to execute a self-contained PL/SQL block containing dynamic SQL and return a result set in SqlDeveloper or a similar tool.
So to summarize:
I want to execute an arbitrary SQL statement (hence dynamic SQL).
The platform is Oracle.
The solution must be a PL/SQL block with no procedures or functions.
The output must be generated as a canonical result set; no print statements.
The output must render as a result set in SqlDeveloper without using any SqlDeveloper special functionality.
Any suggestions?
The closest thing I could think of is to create a dynamic view for which permission is required. This will certainly involve using a PL/SQL block and a SQL query and no procedure/function. But, any dynamic query can be converted and viewed from the Result Grid as it's going to be run as a select query.
DEFINE view_name = 'my_results_view';
SET FEEDBACK OFF
SET ECHO OFF
DECLARE
l_view_name VARCHAR2(40) := '&view_name';
l_query VARCHAR2(4000) := 'SELECT 1+level as id,
''TEXT''||level as text FROM DUAL ';
l_where_clause VARCHAR2(4000):=
' WHERE TRUNC(1.0) = 1 CONNECT BY LEVEL < 10';
BEGIN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW '
|| l_view_name
|| ' AS '
|| l_query
|| l_where_clause;
END;
/
select * from &view_name;
You seem to be asking for a chunk of PL/SQL code that will take an arbitrary query returning result set of undetermined structure and 'forward/restructure' that result set in some way such that is can easily be rendered by some "custom GUI tool".
If so, look into the DBMS_SQL for dynamic SQL. It has a DESCRIBE_COLUMNS procedure which returns the columns from a dynamic SELECT statement. The steps you would need are,
Parse the statement
Describe the result set (column names and data types)
Fetch each row, and for each column, call the datatype dependent function to return that value into a local variable
Place those local variables into a defined structure to return to the calling environment (eg consistent column names [such as col_1, col_2] probably all of VARCHAR2)
As an alternative, you could try building the query into an XMLFOREST statement, and parse the results out of the XML.
Added :
Unlike SQL Server, an Oracle PL/SQL call will not 'naturally' return a single result set. It can open up one or more ref cursors and pass them back to the client. It then becomes the client's responsibility to fetch records and columns from those ref cursors. If your client doesn't/can't deal with that, then you cannot use a PL/SQL call.
A stored function can return a pre-defined collection type, which can allow you to do something like "select * from table(func_name('select * from countries'))". However the function cannot do DML (update/delete/insert/merge) because it blows away any concept of consistency for that query. Plus the structure being returned is fixed so that
select * from table(func_name('select * from countries'))
must return the same set of columns (column names and data types) as
select * from table(func_name('select * from persons'))
It is possible, using DBMS_SQL or XMLFOREST, for such a function to take a dynamic query and restructure it into a pre-defined set of columns (col_1, col_2, etc) so that it can be returned in a consistent manner. But I can't see what the point of it would be.
Try try these.
DECLARE
TYPE EmpCurTyp IS REF CURSOR;
v_emp_cursor EmpCurTyp;
emp_record employees%ROWTYPE;
v_stmt_str VARCHAR2(200);
v_e_job employees.job%TYPE;
BEGIN
-- Dynamic SQL statement with placeholder:
v_stmt_str := 'SELECT * FROM employees WHERE job_id = :j';
-- Open cursor & specify bind argument in USING clause:
OPEN v_emp_cursor FOR v_stmt_str USING 'MANAGER';
-- Fetch rows from result set one at a time:
LOOP
FETCH v_emp_cursor INTO emp_record;
EXIT WHEN v_emp_cursor%NOTFOUND;
END LOOP;
-- Close cursor:
CLOSE v_emp_cursor;
END;
declare
v_rc sys_refcursor;
begin
v_rc := get_dept_emps(10); -- This returns an open cursor
dbms_output.put_line('Rows: '||v_rc%ROWCOUNT);
close v_rc;
end;
Find more examples here. http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=886365&tstart=0
In TOAD when executing the script below you will be prompted for the type of v_result. From the pick list of types select cursor, the results are then displayed in Toad's data grid (the excel spreadsheet like result). That said, when working with cursors as results you should always write two programs (the client and the server). In this case 'TOAD' will be the client.
DECLARE
v_result sys_refcursor;
v_dynamic_sql VARCHAR2 (4000);
BEGIN
v_dynamic_sql := 'SELECT * FROM user_objects where ' || ' 1 = 1';
OPEN :v_result FOR (v_dynamic_sql);
END;
There may be a similar mechanism in Oracle's SQL Developer to prompt for the binding as well.