I am getting passed comma separated values to a stored procedure in oracle. I want to treat these values as a table so that I can use them in a query like:
select * from tabl_a where column_b in (<csv values passed in>)
What is the best way to do this in 11g?
Right now we are looping through these one by one and inserting them into a gtt which I think is inefficient.
Any pointers?
This solves exactly same problem
Ask Tom
Oracle does not come with a built-in tokenizer. But it is possible to roll our own, using SQL Types and PL/SQL. I have posted a sample solution in this other SO thread.
That would enable a solution like this:
select * from tabl_a
where column_b in ( select *
from table (str_to_number_tokens (<csv values passed in>)))
/
In 11g you can use the "occurrence" parameter of REGEXP_SUBSTR to select the values directly in SQL:
select regexp_substr(<csv values passed in>,'[^,]+',1,level) val
from dual
connect by level < regexp_count(<csv values passed in>,',')+2;
But since regexp_substr is somewhat expensive I am not sure if it is the most effective in terms of being the fastest.
Related
I'm running Apex 19.2 and I would like to create a classical or interactive report based on dynamic query.
The query I'm using is not known at design time. It depends on an page item value.
-- So I have a function that generates the SQL as follows
GetSQLQuery(:P1_MyItem);
This function may return something like
select Field1 from Table1
or
Select field1,field2 from Table1 inner join Table2 on ...
So it's not a sql query always with the same number of columns. It's completely variable.
I tried using PL/SQL function Body returning SQL Query but it seems like Apex needs to parse the query at design time.
Has anyone an idea how to solve that please ?
Cheers,
Thanks.
Enable the Use Generic Column Names option, as Koen said.
Then set Generic Column Count to the upper bound of the number of columns the query might return.
If you need dynamic column headers too, go to the region attributes and set Type (under Heading) to the appropriate value. PL/SQL Function Body is the most flexible and powerful option, but it's also the most work. Just make sure you return the correct number of headings as per the query.
New to SQL. Pardon me if this question is a basic one. Is there a way for me to do this below
SELECT COLUMN1 as CUSTOM_NAME, <wildcard for remaining columns as is> from TABLE;
I only want COLUMN1 appear once in the final result
There is no way to make that kind of dynamic SELECT list with regular SQL*.
This is a good thing. Programming gets more difficult the more dynamic it is. Even the simple * syntax, while useful in many contexts, causes problems in production code. The Oracle SQL grammar is already more complicated than most traditional programming languages, adding a little meta language to describe what the queries return could be a nightmare.
*Well, you could create something using Oracle data cartridge, or DBMS_XMLGEN, or a trick with the PIVOT clause. But each of those solutions would be incredibly complicated and certainly not as simple as just typing the columns.
This is about as close as you will get.
It is very handy for putting the important columns up front,
while being able to scroll to the others if needed. COLUMN1 will end up being there twice.
SELECT COLUMN1 as CUSTOM_NAME,
aliasName.*
FROM TABLE aliasName;
In case you have many columns it might be worth to generate a full column list automatically instead of relying on the * selector.
So a two step approach would be to generate the column list with custom first N columns and unspecified order of the other columns, then use this generated list in your actual select statement.
-- select comma separated column names from table with the first columns being in specified order
select
LISTAGG(column_name, ', ') WITHIN GROUP (
ORDER BY decode(column_name,
'FIRST_COLUMN_NAME', 1,
'SECOND_COLUMN_NAME', 2) asc) "Columns"
from user_tab_columns
where table_name = 'TABLE_NAME';
Replace TABLE_NAME, FIRST_COLUMN_NAME and SECOND_COLUMN_NAME by your actual names, adjust the list of explicit columns as needed.
Then execute the query and use the result, which should look like
FIRST_COLUMN_NAME, SECOND_COLUMN_NAME, OTHER_COLUMN_NAMES
Ofcourse this is overhead for 5-ish columns, but if you ever run into a company database with 3 digit number of columns, this can be interesting.
First off, my background is in SQL Server. Using CTEs (Common Table Expressions) is a breeze and converting it to a stored procedure with variables doesn't require any changes to the structure of the SQL other than replacing entered values with variable names.
In Oracle PL/SQL however, it is a completely different matter. My CTEs work fine as straight SQL, but once I try to wrap them as PL/SQL I run into a host of issues. From my understanding, a SELECT now needs an INTO which will only hold the results of a single record. However, I am wanting the entire recordset of multiple values.
My apologies if I am missing the obvious here. I'm thinking that 99% of my problem is the paradigm shift I need to make.
Given the following example:
NOTE: I am greatly over simplifying the SQL here. I do know the below example can be done in a single SQL statement. The actual SQL is much more complex. It's the fundamentals I am looking for here.
WITH A as (SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES WHERE DEPARTMENT = 200),
B as (SELECT * FROM A WHERE EMPLOYEE_START_DATE > date '2014-02-01'),
C as (SELECT * FROM B WHERE EMPLOYEE_TYPE = 'SALARY')
SELECT 'COUNTS' as Total,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM A) as 'DEPT_TOTAL',
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM B) as 'NEW_EMPLOYEES',
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM C) as 'NEW_SALARIED'
FROM A
WHERE rowcount = 1;
Now if I want to make this into PL/SQL with variables that are passed in or predefined at the top, it's not a simple matter of declaring the variables, popping values into them, and changing my hard-coded values into variables and running it. NOTE: I do know that I can simply change the hard-coded values to variables like :Department, :StartDate, and :Type, but again, I am oversimplifying the example.
There are three issues I am facing here that I am trying to wrap my head around:
1) What would be the best way to rewrite this using PL/SQL with declared variables? The CTEs now have to go INTO something. But then I am dealing with one row at a time as opposed to the entire table. So CTE 'A' is a single row at a time, and CTE B will only see the single row as opposed to all of the data results of A, etc. I do know that I will most likely have to use CURSORS to traverse the records, which somehow seems to over complicate this.
2) The output now has to use DBMS_OUTPUT. For multiple records, I will have to use a CURSOR with FETCH (or a FOR...LOOP). Yes?
3) Is there going to a big performance issue with this vs. straight SQL in regards to speed and resources used?
Thanks in advance and again, my apologies if I am missing something really obvious here!
First, this has nothing to do with CTEs. This behavior would be the same with a simple select * from table query. The difference is that with T-SQL, the query goes into an implicit cursor which is returned to the caller. When executing the SP from Management Studio this is convenient. The result set appears in the data window as if we had executed the query directly. But this is actually non-standard behavior. Oracle has the more standard behavior which might be stated as "the result set of any query that isn't directed into a cursor must be directed to variables." When directed into variables, then the query must return only one row.
To duplicate the behavior of T-SQL, you just have to explicitly declare and return the cursor. Then the calling code fetches from the cursor the entire result set but one row at a time. You don't get the convenience of Sql Developer or PL/SQL Developer diverting the result set to the data display window, but you can't have everything.
However, as we don't generally write SPs just to be called from the IDE, it is easier to work with Oracle's explicit cursors than SQL Server's implicit ones. Just google "oracle return ref cursor to caller" to get a whole lot of good material.
Simplest way is to wrap it into an implicit for loop
begin
for i in (select object_id, object_name
from user_objects
where rownum = 1) loop
-- Do something with the resultset
dbms_output.put_line (i.object_id || ' ' || i.object_name);
end loop;
end;
Single row query without the need to predefine the variables.
I read somewhere that 99% of time you don't need to use a cursor.
But I can't think of any other way beside using a cursor in this following situation.
Select t.flag
From Dual t;
Let's say this return 4 rows of either 'Y' or 'N'. I want the procedure to trigger something if it finds 'Y'. I usually declare a cursor and loop until %NOTFOUND. Please tell me if there is a better way.
Also, if you have any idea, when is the best time to use a cursor?
EDIT: Instead of inserting the flags, what if I want to do "If 'Y' then trigger something"?
Your case definitely falls into the 99%.
You can easily do the conditional insert using insert into ... select.... It's just a matter or making a select that returns the result that you want to insert.
If you want to insert one record for each 'Y' then use a query with where flag = 'Y'. If you only want to insert a single record depending on whether there are at least one 'Y', then you can add distinct to the query.
A cursor is useful when you make something more complicated. I for example use a cursor when need to insert or update records in one table, and also for each record insert or update one or more records into several other tables.
Something like this:
INSERT INTO TBL_FLAG (col)
SELECT ID FROM Dual where flag = 'Y'
You will usually see a performance gain when using set based instead of procedural operations because most modern DBMS are setup to perform set based operations. You can read more here.
well the example doesnt quite make sense..
but you can always write an insert as select statement instead of what i think you are describing
Cursors are best to use when an column value form one table will be used repeatedly in multiple queries on different tables.
Suppose the values of id_test column are fetched from MY_TEST_TBL using a cursor CUR_TEST. Now this id_test column is a foreign key in MY_TEST_TBL. If we want to use id_test to insert or update any rows in table A_TBL,B_TBL and C_TBL, then in this case it's best to use cursors instead of using complex queries.
Hope this might help to understand the purpose of cursors
I've heard people referring to this table and was not sure what it was about.
It's a sort of dummy table with a single record used for selecting when you're not actually interested in the data, but instead want the results of some system function in a select statement:
e.g. select sysdate from dual;
See http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/misc/dual.html
As of 23c, Oracle supports select sysdate /* or other value */, without from dual, as has been supported in MySQL for some time already.
It is a dummy table with one element in it. It is useful because Oracle doesn't allow statements like
SELECT 3+4
You can work around this restriction by writing
SELECT 3+4 FROM DUAL
instead.
From Wikipedia
History
The DUAL table was created by Chuck Weiss of Oracle corporation to provide a table for joining in internal views:
I created the DUAL table as an underlying object in the Oracle Data Dictionary. It was never meant to be seen itself, but instead used
inside a view that was expected to be queried. The idea was that you
could do a JOIN to the DUAL table and create two rows in the result
for every one row in your table. Then, by using GROUP BY, the
resulting join could be summarized to show the amount of storage for
the DATA extent and for the INDEX extent(s). The name, DUAL, seemed
apt for the process of creating a pair of rows from just one. 1
It may not be obvious from the above, but the original DUAL table had two rows in it (hence its name). Nowadays it only has one row.
Optimization
DUAL was originally a table and the database engine would perform disk IO on the table when selecting from DUAL. This disk IO was usually logical IO (not involving physical disk access) as the disk blocks were usually already cached in memory. This resulted in a large amount of logical IO against the DUAL table.
Later versions of the Oracle database have been optimized and the database no longer performs physical or logical IO on the DUAL table even though the DUAL table still actually exists.
I think this wikipedia article may help clarify.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUAL_table
The DUAL table is a special one-row
table present by default in all Oracle
database installations. It is suitable
for use in selecting a pseudocolumn
such as SYSDATE or USER The table has
a single VARCHAR2(1) column called
DUMMY that has a value of "X"
It's the special table in Oracle. I often use it for calculations or checking system variables. For example:
Select 2*4 from dual prints out the result of the calculation
Select sysdate from dual prints the server current date.
A utility table in Oracle with only 1 row and 1 column. It is used to perform a number of arithmetic operations and can be used generally where one needs to generate a known output.
SELECT * FROM dual;
will give a single row, with a single column named "DUMMY" and a value of "X" as shown here:
DUMMY
-----
X
Kind of a pseudo table you can run commands against and get back results, such as sysdate. Also helps you to check if Oracle is up and check sql syntax, etc.
The DUAL table is a special one-row table present by default in all Oracle database installations. It is suitable for use in selecting a pseudocolumn such as SYSDATE or USER
The table has a single VARCHAR2(1) column called DUMMY that has a value of "X"
You can read all about it in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUAL_table
DUAL is necessary in PL/SQL development for using functions that are only available in SQL
e.g.
DECLARE
x XMLTYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT xmlelement("hhh", 'stuff')
INTO x
FROM dual;
END;
More Facts about the DUAL....
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:1562813956388
Thrilling experiments done here, and more thrilling explanations by Tom
DUAL we mainly used for getting the next number from the sequences.
Syntax : SELECT 'sequence_name'.NEXTVAL FROM DUAL
This will return the one row one column value(NEXTVAL column name).
another situation which requires select ... from dual is when we want to retrieve the code (data definition) for different database objects (like TABLE, FUNCTION, TRIGGER, PACKAGE), using the built in DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL function:
select DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL('TABLE','<table_name>') from DUAL;
select DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL('FUNCTION','<function_name>') from DUAL;
in is true that nowadays the IDEs do offer the capability to view the DDL of a table, but in simpler environments like SQL Plus this can be really handy.
EDIT
a more general situation: basically, when we need to use any PL/SQL procedure inside a standard SQL statement, or when we want to call a procedure from the command line:
select my_function(<input_params>) from dual;
both recipes are taken from the book 'Oracle PL/SQL Recipes' by Josh Juneau and Matt Arena
The DUAL is special one row, one column table present by default in all Oracle databases. The owner of DUAL is SYS.
DUAL is a table automatically created by Oracle Database along with the data functions. It is always used to get the operating systems functions(like date, time, arithmetic expression., etc.)
SELECT SYSDATE from dual;
It's a object to put in the from that return 1 empty row. For example:
select 1 from dual;
returns 1
select 21+44 from dual;
returns 65
select [sequence].nextval from dual;
returns the next value from the sequence.