Use PL/SQL to automate standards compliance

Lewis Cunningham Data Architect and ACE Director

Introduction
Oracle ACE Director Author Consultant Data Architect Blogger, An Expert's Guide to Oracle Technology
2

My books

Authors
John Beresniewicz, Adrian Billington, Martin Buchi, Melanie Caffery, Ron Crisco, Lewis Cunningham, Dominic Delmolino, Sue Harper, Torben Holm, Connor McDonald, Arup Nanda, Stephan Petit, Michael Rosenblum, Robyn Sands, Riyaj Shamsudeen

Standards and Compliance

Standards Coding Standards Naming Standards Performance Standards Testing Standards Compliance Code Reviews Test Scripts and Results

Source Code Analysis

Static Analysis
What you know at compile time

Dynamic Analysis
What you learn from running the code

Instrumentation
What you should make your code tell you

When to analyze
2 AM on the day before vacation?
After implementation? After testing?

After coding?
During Coding?

I vote for during coding.

Know Your Code Data Dictionary - Static PL/Scope - Static Profilers - Dynamic Source Code Static Logging - Instrumentation

The Data Dictionary

USER_SOURCE
ALL_SOURCE DBA_SOURCE Viewable source code

Manual Code Reviews

The Data Dictionary

USER_DEPENDENCIES
ALL_DEPENDENCIES DBA_DEPENDENCIES View dependencies between code and database objects

(including other code units)

Who calls who

The Data Dictionary

USER_PROCEDURES
ALL_PROCEDURES DBA_PROCEDURES View information about code (aggregate,

deterministic) Identify program units in packages and type bodies

The Data Dictionary

USER_ARGUMENTS ALL_ARGUMENTS DBA_ARGUMENTS
View argument names and data types

Used with user_procedures it is a starting point for

automated code reviews

Naming Data Types

The Data Dictionary

USER_TYPES and USER_TYPE_METHODS
ALL_TYPES and ALL_TYPE_METHODS DBA_TYPES and DBA_TYPE_METHODS Combine with USER_PROCEDURES and

USER_ARGUMENTS for information about types

For reviewing code related to types

The Data Dictionary

PL/Scope USER_IDENTIFIERS ALL_IDENTIFIERS DBA_IDENTIFIERS
Everything discussed and more Great for Automating Code Reviews

PL/Scope
Introduced in 11g
Need to turn it on for it to work
SQL Developer turns it on for you
SQL*Plus: ALTER SESSION SET

PLSCOPE_SETTINGS = 'IDENTIFIERS:ALL'; Compile the code

PL/Scope
Works with identifiers Almost everything is an identifier Data types and subtypes used (including collections) Cursors and ref cursors Procedures Functions Packages and package bodies Triggers Object types and type bodies Parameters Function return values Variables, iterators, constants Exceptions Synonyms

PL/Scope
Data Gathered on every
Declaration procedures, variables, etc Definition the implementation of an identifier

(such as a procedure within a package) Assignment Reference Calls

PL/Scope
Can validate naming standards of variables as well as

parameters Identifies scoping issues Change impact analysis Find unused identifiers Validate data types

Dynamic Analysis
DBMS_PROFILER Code Profiling Timing between calls DBMS_TRACE Code Call Context Who called who DBMS_HPROF Code profiling and context

Dynamic Analysis
Run a baseline profile
Save timings Run a new profile after changes are made

Can be mostly automated

Validate the original timings and only worry if later

times go beyond defined criteria

Code Coverage
Make sure all executable lines are executed during

testing Doesn't validate the logic, just makes sure the line was run Proves that for a certain scenario, the code will execute successfully Does not prove that the code is correct Does not prove that the code will execute correctly for a different data set

Code Coverage
Combines Static Analysis with Dynamic Analysis
Static analysis (PL/Scope) knows what lines are

executable Dynamic Analysis shows what actually is executed Subtract dynamic from static and whats left are those lines of code not executed

Code Coverage
Code Coverage is not 100%
Doesn't account for all lines of SQL (because

PL/Scope doesn't track SQL) I'm hoping for additional information from PL/Scope in the future

Summary
Create standards
Follow standards

Test for standards compliance

Automate when possible Be creative with the data dictionary

Buy the book

Use PL/SQL to automate standards compliance

Lewis Cunningham Data Architect and ACE Director