The “best” tool
I had a question the other day that constantly pops up on my feed whether it’s on social media or people asking Q&A at a conference etc. And that...
2026-07-15 (first published: 2026-07-13)
39 reads
Tip: Expanding a SQL statement
In all recent versions of the database you can call DBMS_UTILITY.EXPAND_SQL_TEXT to get the “true” version of a SQL that the database will run. It takes your SQL as...
2026-07-03 (first published: 2026-07-02)
34 reads
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but I’d like to apply the Goldilocks principle to a database object-namely, a materialized view. You...
2026-06-30
28 reads
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation project. We were replacing an existing non-Oracle system with an entirely new Oracle database application...
2026-06-27 (first published: 2026-06-26)
42 reads
Keeping your tech ego in check
In my usual twitter doom scrolling, I came across this post the other day Now it’s pretty obvious to me that this is one of the standard “engagement bait”...
2026-06-07
19 reads
First dabblings with APEXlang
Obviously there are plenty of folks in the Oracle APEX team with waaaayy more experience in APEXlang than I have, so this isn’t an in-depth expose into all of...
2026-05-27
15 reads
Vanishing objects; hello ORA-08103
In the previous post we saw that even though we had done an exchange partition mid-flights through a query execution, the query kept on running to successful completion. The...
2026-05-13
41 reads
A very robust query
Some times I’m blown away by how the database will try very hard to save you from yourself :-). Consider the following example: I’ve got a table called T....
2026-05-12
25 reads
The secret APEX performance hack
Here’s a little secret APEX performance hack if you are running on the Autonomous database. As background, I’m running an Autonomous database with six CPUs and a terabyte of...
2026-05-08
31 reads
Signal to noise ratio – the AWR trap
Its never been easier to analyze an AWR report. With our new oracle skills repository, your favourite agent can do a respectable job giving some insights into the AWR...
2026-05-06
18 reads
Blogs
EightKB 2026: Registration is Open!
It’s that time of year again! EightKB is back on August 20th at 13:00...
TRY_PARSE Limitations: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I got a notification from a question I’d posted at SQL Server Central: Getting...
SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices
By SQLPals
SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices In...
Forums
Are You Working More Hours?
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Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 6 – Managing Changesets Over Time
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments...
A Limited Startup
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Limited Startup
Question of the Day
A Limited Startup
I add this parameter to SQL Server 2025 in the Configuration Manager:
-mDynamicsWhat does this do? See possible answers