The source code for stored procedures, functions and packages are stored in the Oracle Data Dictionary. One can detect code changes by looking at the TIMESTAMP and LAST_DDL_TIME column in the USER_OBJECTS dictionary view. Example:
SELECT OBJECT_NAME, TO_CHAR(CREATED, 'DD-Mon-RR HH24:MI') CREATE_TIME, TO_CHAR(LAST_DDL_TIME, 'DD-Mon-RR HH24:MI') MOD_TIME, STATUS FROM USER_OBJECTS WHERE LAST_DDL_TIME > '&CHECK_FROM_DATE';
Note: If you recompile an object, the LAST_DDL_TIME column is updated, but the TIMESTAMP column is not updated. If you modified the code, both the TIMESTAMP and LAST_DDL_TIME columns are updated.
The following query is handy if you want to know where certain tables, columns and expressions are referenced in your PL/SQL source code.
SELECT type, name, line FROM user_source WHERE UPPER(text) LIKE UPPER('%&KEYWORD%');
If you run the above query from SQL*Plus, enter the string you are searching for when prompted for KEYWORD. If not, replace &KEYWORD with the string you are searching for.
Both%TYPE and%ROWTYPE are used to define variables in PL/SQL as it is defined within the database. If the datatype or precision of a column changes, the program automatically picks up the new definition from the database without having to make any code changes.
The%TYPE and%ROWTYPE constructs provide data independence, reduces maintenance costs, and allows programs to adapt as the database changes to meet new business needs.
%TYPE
%TYPE is used to declare a field with the same type as that of a specified table's column. Example:
DECLARE v_EmpName emp.ename%TYPE; BEGIN SELECT ename INTO v_EmpName FROM emp WHERE ROWNUM = 1; DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Name = ' || v_EmpName); END; /
%ROWTYPE
%ROWTYPE is used to declare a record with the same types as found in the specified database table, view or cursor. Examples:
DECLARE v_emp emp%ROWTYPE; BEGIN v_emp.empno := 10; v_emp.ename := 'XXXXXXX'; END; /
One can make use of cursors to loop through data within tables. Look at the following nested loops code example.
DECLARE CURSOR dept_cur IS SELECT deptno FROM dept ORDER BY deptno; -- Employee cursor all employees for a dept number CURSOR emp_cur (v_dept_no DEPT.DEPTNO%TYPE) IS SELECT ename FROM emp WHERE deptno = v_dept_no; BEGIN FOR dept_rec IN dept_cur LOOP dbms_output.put_line('Employees in Department '||TO_CHAR(dept_rec.deptno)); FOR emp_rec in emp_cur(dept_rec.deptno) LOOP dbms_output.put_line('...Employee is '||emp_rec.ename); END LOOP; END LOOP; END; /
Contrary to popular belief, one should COMMIT less frequently within a PL/SQL loop to prevent ORA-1555 (Snapshot too old) errors. The higher the frequency of commit, the sooner the extents in the undo/ rollback segments will be cleared for new transactions, causing ORA-1555 errors.
To fix this problem one can easily rewrite code like this:
FOR records IN my_cursor LOOP ...do some stuff... COMMIT; END LOOP; COMMIT;
... to ...
FOR records IN my_cursor LOOP ...do some stuff... i := i+1; IF mod(i, 10000) = 0 THEN -- Commit every 10000 records COMMIT; END IF; END LOOP; COMMIT;
If you still get ORA-1555 errors, contact your DBA to increase the undo/ rollback segments.
NOTE: Although fetching across COMMITs work with Oracle, is not supported by the ANSI standard.
Issuing frequent commits is bad, bad, BAD! It’s the WORST thing you can do… just don’t do it! In the following example I will create around 7 million rows and then attempt to update a portion of them serially. In addition, I will issue a commit every thousandth row.
Example 1.1: Creating a somewhat large table
SQL> create table big_employee_table 2 as 3 select rownum as eid 4 , e.* 5 from hr.employees e 6 , dba_objects do; Table created. Elapsed: 00:00:12.23 SQL> select count(*) 2 from big_employee_table; COUNT(*) ---------- 7838713 Elapsed: 00:00:08.11
Before I go on, notice that Oracle’s “Create Table As” (CTAS) method blazed thru table creation. That’s 7.84 Million rows in 12.23 seconds. Sometimes, this is the very best method of updating large data sets. The following block updates 100,000 rows, serially, committing every 1000 rows:
Example 1.2: Updating serially
SQL> declare 2 cursor c is 3 select * 4 from big_employee_table 5 where rownum <= 100000; 6 begin 7 for r in c loop 8 update big_employee_table 9 set salary = salary * 1.03 10 where eid = r.eid; 11 12 if mod ( r.eid, 1000 ) = 0 then 13 commit; 14 end if; 15 end loop; 16 end; 17 /
Observe that the update took more time than I have patience for;). At 20 minutes I killed the session. It is painfully slow and should never be done. Moreover, it chewed up an entire CPU core for the duration. If you’re only updating a few rows, why do it in PL/SQL at all? I like Tom Kyte’s approach (paraphrasing):
1. Do it in SQL. 2. If SQL can’t do it, do it in PL/SQL. 3. If PL/SQL can’t do it, do it in Java. 4. If Java can’t do it ask yourself if it needs to be done.
The following block does the same work in bulk:
Example 1.3: Updating in bulk and committing at the end
SQL> declare 2 type obj_rowid is table of rowid 3 index by pls_integer; 4 5 lr_rowid obj_rowid; 6 lr_salary dbms_sql.number_table; 7 8 cursor c is 9 select rowid rid 10 , salary 11 from big_employee_table 12 where rownum <= 100000; 13 begin 14 open c; 15 loop 16 fetch c bulk collect 17 into lr_rowid 18 , lr_salary 19 limit 500; 20 21 for a in 1 .. lr_rowid.count loop 22 lr_salary ( a ) := lr_salary ( a ) * 1.03; 23 end loop; 24 25 forall b in 1 .. lr_rowid.count 26 update big_employee_table 27 set salary = lr_salary ( b ) 28 where rowid in ( lr_rowid ( b )); 29 30 exit when c%notfound; 31 end loop; 32 close c; 33 commit; -- there! not in the loop 34 exception 35 when others then 36 rollback; 37 dbms_output.put_line ( sqlerrm ); 38 end; 39 / PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Elapsed: 00:00:02.11 SQL>
Notice that the update completed in 2 seconds! I’ve seen faster but my two-gerbil sandbox machine doesn’t have the power that our newer servers do. The point is that the update was incredibly fast and chewed up only 10% of one core. So, in answer to the question of “how often should I commit?” I say don’t until you absolutely have to