Oracle Questions

The UTL_FILE database package can be used to read and write operating system files. You need to have read /write access rights in that directory before the package can be used.

Example to write file:

Fhandler is a variable of type UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE

UTL_FILE.PUTF(fHandler, 'Im writing to a file\n');

Example to read file:

UTL_FILE.GET_LINE(fHandler, buf);

Oracle NOT NULL is used on a column to ensure that the value for that column can never be NULL.
Example:
Below, the constraint is that the id should never be NULL. If it is, oracle throws an error.
create table employee ( id number NOT NULL, Name varchar(200) );

Cursors help you manipulate the information retrieved by select statements. This can be done by assigning a name to the cursor.

Example:

CURSOR emp_cur 

IS 

SELECT emp_number from employee_tbl where employee_name = name_in;

Types of Cursors:

Implicit cursors- These cursors are not declared by the programmer. They are issued when the SQL statement is executed. The open, close and fetching is done by itself.

Example:

UPDATE employee SET salary = salary * 2.1;

Here, an implicit cursor is issued to identify the set of rows in the table which would be affected by the update.

Explicit cursors- These cursors are defined by programmer. They are used in queries that return multiple rows.

Example:

CURSOR emp_cur 

IS 

SELECT emp_number from employee_tbl where employee_name = name_in;

A record data type represents a data type for that row in a database table. It lets u define your own records and not your own fields.

1) START- Used to run a SQL script.
2) ACCEPT- Accepts input from user.
3) GET- Gets the sql file from user to place in buffer.
4) LIST- Displays the last command executed.
5) RUN- Used to list and run the command in buffer
6) SHOW- Shows the environment settings. Example: SHOW PAGESIZE

New column can be added using the ALTER TABLE command as shown below:
Example:
ALTER TABLE employee ADD DateOfBirth date