Obsessed with Oracle PL/SQL

Got this email Monday from a fellow new to PL/SQL and Oracle:
I have been in I.T. for a couple of years but always had this feeling that I could do better. I lost that hunger when the company I had worked for 10 years plucked me from the warehouse as a kind of internal promotion program. I guess you could say I slowly settled into a rut. I discovered your site recently and I am in the process of reviewing your tutorial videos (I have also started to read newer technical books). I am sure you have been told before but your tutorial videos are great! My problem is that I think the lessons would "stick" with me more if I had the chance to work with them and "play" around.I have very low self esteem (which I am also working on) so please don't laugh but is there a place that I can download a condensed or tutorial version of Oracle 11g? First, I am always excited to hear from people who are just getting into Oracle Database, SQL and PL/SQL. Our part of the technology…

Last week, I posted this on Twitter:

What code can be removed w/o changing text shown after execution?

































Who Said What?

evrocs_nl putting data in collection before the select, because the bulk collect will clear the collection first (unless really old oracle)

Yes! A BULK COLLECT always empties the target collection. If the query returns no data, the collection remains empty. Otherwise its contents are replaced by the result set of the query.

MDWidlakeAll of it as you forgot to turn serveroutput on anyway. Where do I collect my Kewpie doll?

Oh, Martin, you clever fellow. There's always one in a crowd. But sort of good point. This exercise was taken from the PL/SQL Challenge, whose PL/SQL quiz assumptions include that SERVEROUTPUT is always on.

ddfdbaindx pls_integer:=100; l_empty objects_t; := l_empty

Yes! There is no need to declare a variable for the iterator used in a FOR loop; it is declared implicitly by PL/SQL. There is, furthermore, need to assign an "empty" collection t…

Oracle Database Insider newsletter asked me to do another round of resolutions for the coming year. Since I love it when other people act as though they are interested in what I have to say, I told my manager I would have to clear my calendar for a couple of days and get this done. He agreed - so long as I did it during my week off between Christmas and New Years.

Oh, OK.

Before getting to the resolutions, I encourage you to subscribe to this very interesting and useful newsletter.

Here goes....

1. Finish what I and we started. 

I have a long-standing and bad habit of getting all excited about new stuff: new programs, new applications, new websites, new programs…go, go go! But I am not so good at making sure that all the existing and really great stuff is “finished” (as useful and usable as it could be).

So for 2016, I resolve to consolidate what is already in place and make sure our users can get the most out of it. I am thinking about websites like Ask Tom, LiveSQL, PL/SQL Challenge, O…