All articles have been reprinted with the written consent of their respective authors.

ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR IOUG LIVE! 2002 APRIL 14-18 IN SAN DIEGO IS NOW OPEN.

Print_CSV Procedure
By Barbara Boehmer

In response to a recent post asking for a "procedure to print any cursor passed to it via DBMS_OUTPUT and, write out a comma-delimited file", I suggested an alternative print_csv procedure.  This procedure would do the same thing for any query passed to it, rather than any cursor passed to it.  

The initial version of the print_csv procedure was a modification of a dump_csv function by Tom Kyte that uses utl_fle to actually output the results of any query to a file.  I simply modified it to use DBMS_OUTPUT instead of UTL_FILE and changed it from a function to a procedure.

Following some suggestions from James Padfield and Solomon Yakobson (Pipeline SYSOPs), I made some additional modifications regarding the handling of the date format and exception section.  Click Here for the print_csv procedure.
  

Tuning Packaged Software and Production Applications
By Eyal Aronoff, Quest Software

One of the major benefits of the open systems environment is the ability to integrate third-party packaged solutions into the enterprise automation scheme.  Packaged solutions have many attractions: they are cheap when compared with in-house development; the cost of continuous support and enhancement is divided between all the users; and the vendor shoulders the responsibility for keeping up with government regulations.  On the other side are the in-house solutions and the customized code.  Ironically, after just one year of production support for either an off-the-shelf package or an aging customized application, we face very similar challenges.  Click Here for the article.

Oracle Applications: Checking the Internal Concurrent Manager Status
By: Shankar Govindan

A common practice performed by most Oracle Applications DBAs is to check the Unix Process of the Internal Concurrent Manager.  Although output may indicate that the Internal Concurrent Manager is up, it might not necessarily be running or active.  The goal of this paper is to find out not only if the background process is alive, but also to find out if the Internal Manager is really active and to find the same across releases.  Note different releases have different ways of addressing this problem, which you will see as we go along.  Click Here for the paper. 

Programs and Packages, Plans and Collections
By: Robert Catterall, Checkfree Corporation 

If you are a DB2 for OS/390 systems programmer, DBA, or application developer (or a consultant who works with such folks), you are probably very familiar with the terms package, collection, and plan.  But could you explain these elements of program preparation and execution to a DB2 newbie?  And, do you know how something as seemingly innocuous as a plan's package list can affect a program's performance?  This stuff really is more interesting than you might think.  Don't believe me?  Read on and see for yourself!

Architectural Differences Between DB2 on OS/390 vs. Unix/NT
By: Jim Wankowski, Quest Software

Click Here to access an excellent 49 slide presentation detailing the architectural differences between DB2 on OS/390 and DB2 on Unix/NT platforms.  This presentation was written by Jim Wankowski, Product Marketing Manager for Quest Central for DB2, a tightly integrated set of tools that allows users to identify, diagnose, and resolve database problems seamlessly across multiple platforms.
 

Using Dynamic SQL for Updates with Bind Variables
By Chris Weiss, Chief Scientist, PureCarbon

The following article represents an efficient way of using dynamic SQL and stored procedures for performing updates using the EXECUTE IMMEDIATE...USING statement.  This method is useful even when the bind list is not known in advance.  Click Here for the paper.

Using INSTR as an Alternative to Using the IN and NOT IN Operators
By Grant Daley and Brahmaiah Koniki

From Australia, Pipeliners Grant Daley and Brahmaiah Konika have supplied a few tips for using INSTR as an alternative to using the IN and NOT IN operators.  Click Here for the tips.  
 

Finding if a Date Falls on a Business Day
By Vakhtang Pavliashvili 

In many business applications it is a common requirement to determine whether a particular date falls on a business day. The business rules utilizing this fact could vary: Some employees get paid overtime for working on non-business days; certain organizations only allow transactions on business days, and so forth. Figuring out whether a date is a business day can be fairly straightforward in Transact SQL code (which is the SQL Server flavor of the Structured Query Language). However, you need to be aware of how regional settings work in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This article teaches you some of the built-in date related functions and settings available in SQL Server. I will demonstrate how to build a user-defined function, which lets us determine whether a given date falls on a business day.  Click Here for the article.

SQL Server Locking Mechanisms
Topic from the Quest's Knowledge Xpert for SQL Server

In order to become a good T-SQL programmer, you need to know how SQL Server manages resources to guarantee data integrity.  There are several different kinds of locks SQL Server can use.  Certain locks are compatible with others, for instance, the shared locks, acquired with the SELECT statement are compatible with other shared locks - multiple readers can read the data at the same time.  Some other types of locks restrict the rest of the users from reading and/or modifying the data.  Click Here for the topic.

Product Update: The new Knowledge Xpert for SQL Server v1.1 fully integrates with Microsoft's Visual Studio suite, including Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual InterDev.  Click Here for the announcement.

TOAD User Groups in 20 Cities - Sign Up Today!
 

Quest Software is proud to present the 2002 TOAD User Groups, where TOAD and his entourage are hitting the road and coming to a city near you.  That's right, we are bringing you a series of free, full-day local user groups to help you get more out of your favorite development tool and exchange ideas with the real TOAD experts -- users like you!  Click Here to register.

Atlantic Oracle Training Conference - April 25 & 26
Washington Convention Center - Washington D.C.
 

Early registration ends February 28. Come join top industry authors and experts for this 2-day extensive training conference.  Speakers include Mike Ault, Steven Feuerstein, Dan Hotka, Tom Kyte, Kevin Loney, Bert Scalzo, Megh Thakkar, and many others.  Click Here for the complete speaker list and conference abstracts.
This conference is the ONLY major Oracle conference in the Eastern United States this year.  Over 1,500 attendees are expected for the premier event.  Register now for the early-bird registration fee of just $250 (save $150).

• "Object Type Inheritance" - Thursday, Feb 28, 11:00 - 12:00PST
• "Autonomous Transactions and Invoker Rights" - Wednesday, Mar 20, 11:00 - 12:00PST
• "That's Ridiculous! Great Advice Well Disguised" - Thursday, Apr 11, 11:00 - 12:00PST

"If Dr. Seuss Were a Technical Writer"

Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say:

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, And the bus
is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!

Click Here for more of this month's humor!

We love getting white papers, tips, articles, and code examples/archives from our readers around the world.  Send your submission to campbell.white@quest.com.  If your article is published, we will mail you a FREE gift from Quest as a gesture or our appreciation.

Our mission at Quest Software - RevealNet Labs is to anticipate the daily responsibilities and challenges faced by database professionals.  Our products help thousands of people solve problems and implement solutions every day.  This newsletter is designed to help facilitate the sharing of information among database professionals.  It is currently circulated to 24,000 readers.

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