Oracle Basics.

By Shiva Chindam
 Introduction
 Oracle has grown from its humble beginnings as
one of a number of databases available in the
1970s to the overwhelming market leader of
today.
 In its early days, Oracle Corporation was known
as an aggressive sales and promotion
organization.
 Over the years, the Oracle database has grown in
depth and quality, and its technical capabilities
now match its early hype.
 With the Oracle8, Oracle8i, Oracle9i etc
releases,Oracle has added more power and
features to its already solid base.
 Before we dive into the specific foundations of these new
releases, we must spend a little time describing some
Oracle basics--how databases evolved to arrive at the
relational model, a brief history of Oracle Corporation, and
an introduction to the basic features and configurations of
the database.
The Evolution of the Relational
Database
 The concept of the relational database was first
described around 1970 by Dr. Edgar F. Codd in an
IBM research publication entitled "System R4
Relational." Initially, it was unclear whether any
system based on these concepts could achieve
commercial success. Nevertheless, Relational
Software, Incorporated (RSI) was founded in 1979
and released Oracle V.2 as the world's first
relational database. By 1985, Oracle could claim
more than 1,000 relational database customer
sites. IBM itself would not embrace relational
technology in a commercial product until the
Query Management Facility in 1983.
 Database management systems were first
defined in the 1960s to provide a common
organizational framework for what had
been data stored in independent files.
 The relational database uses the concept
of linked two-dimensional tables consisting
of rows and columns, as shown in Figure 1
Relational model with two
tables  
 Terminology Used in a Relational Database
 A relational database can contain one or many tables. A table is the basic storage
structure of an
 RDBMS. A table holds all the data necessary about something in the real world, such
as employees,
 invoices, or customers.
 The slide shows the contents of the EMPLOYEES table or relation. The numbers
indicate the
 following:
 1. A single row or table representing all data required for a particular employee. Each
row in a
 table should be identified by a primary key, which allows no duplicate rows. The
order of rows
 is insignificant; specify the row order when the data is retrieved.
 2. A column or attribute containing the employee number. The employee number
identifies a
 unique employee in the EMPLOYEES table. In this example, the employee number
column is
 designated as the primary key. A primary key must contain a value, and the value
must be
 unique.
 3. A column that is not a key value. A column represents one kind of data in a table;
in the
 example, the salary of all the employees. Column order is insignificant when storing
data;
 specify the column order when the data is retrieved.
 4. A column containing the department number, which is also a foreign key. A foreign
key is a
 column that defines how tables relate to each other. A foreign key refers to a primary
key or a
 unique key in another table. In the example, DEPARTMENT_ID uniquely
 identifies a department in the DEPARTMENTS table.
 5. A field may have no value in it. This is called a null value. In the EMPLOYEES table,
only
 Writing SQL Statements

 • SQL statements are not case sensitive.

 • SQL statements can be on one or more lines.
 • Keywords cannot be abbreviated or split across
lines.
 • Clauses are usually placed on separate lines.
 ‘Select’ --DML Statements

Basic SELECT Statement

SELECT *|{[DISTINCT] column|expression
[alias],...}
FROM table;
• SELECT identifies what columns
• FROM identifies which table

Ex: Select * from EMP;

Select Distinct ename from EMP

 ‘Insert’ --DML Statements
 insert into a values (1);
 insert into a values (42);
 insert into a values (100);
 commit;
 ‘UPDATE’ --DML Statements
 Update Table EMP set Ename=
‘RAGHU’ where EMP_ID=121213
 Update EMP set SAL=SAL+10 where
DOJ=’10-10-1998’
 Commit;
 ‘Delete’ --DML Statements
 Delete from EMP;
 Commit;

 Delete from EMP where

Ename=‘Raghu’
 Merge --DML Statements
 merge [ hints ] into table-name-1 | view-name-1
[ alias-1 ] using table-name-2 | view-name-2 |
subquery [ alias-2 ] on ( condition ) [
merge-update-clause ] [ merge-insert-clause ] [
error-logging-clause ];

 merge into table_dest d using table_source s on

(s.id = d.id) when matched then update set d.txt
= s.txt when not matched then insert (id, txt)
values (s.id, s.txt);
 Arithmetic Expressions

 You may need to modify the way in which data is displayed, perform calculations, or look at what-if
scenarios. These are all possible using arithmetic expressions. An arithmetic expression can contain
column names, constant numeric values, and the arithmetic operators.
DDL Statements
 DDL stands for data definition language.
 DDL statements are SQL Statements that
define or alter a data structure such as a
table.
 Hence, a typical DDL statement is create table
or alter table.
 CREATE
Simple Create Statement
create table t ( a number, b
varchar2(10)
 It is possible to create the constraints together with the
create statement. As a foreign key references a known
type, it is not necessary to specify the foreign key's column
type.
create table orders
( order_id number primary key
order_dt date,
cust_id references customers )
 ALTER
 alter table foo_table add bar_column
char(1);

 You can add a new column, drop a

new column, Rename a column, add
a FK, add constraint, disable
constarint
 DROP
 drop table table_name

 Table
 View
 PL_SQL object etc
 truncate
 Truncate table Table_name

 Destructive command
 Non recoverable