Oracle

Table of contents

What is a database?
Fundamentals of database
Table management
Inserting data
Updating data
Deleting data
Query management

Simple queries
Aggregate functions
String manipulation
Date manipulation
Sub queries
Equi join
Outer join
Self join
Union, intersection, minus

View management
Sequence Management
Index Management
Constraints Management
Triggers
Stored procedures
Exceptions
Sequences
Constraints
DBA features

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Fundamentals of database
Applications are used by end users and they enter a
group of raw data
This data is later collated and used by management to
arrive at meaningful information
Before we first understand the technical aspects of
database, we must understand the business data clearly
Rule 1: In any application, first identify raw data
Rule 2: Group related data and associate data type and
size (summary and detail)
Rule 3: Create a set of samples for each of these groups
for better clarity
Rule 4: Identify unique and non-unique data
Rule 5: Identify the relationship between the data
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Raw Data and Grouping

Let us take railways reservation as the application
The raw data could be

Passenger name
Age
Date of journey
Train name
From station
To Station
PNR number
Route codes
Stations covered in the route

The data groups would be

Train related data train number, train name, route in which it is
running
Station related data station code, station name, station RMS
Pincode, station type (junction, station etc)
Ticket related data PNR Number, passenger name, date of
journey, set or berth, age, from station, to station, train code etc
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Unique and non-unique data

Unique data means a data that does not repeat
itself
Station code is unique across country
Train code is unique across country
PNR number is unique across country
Coach number is unique within a train, but not
unique across system
Seat number is unique within a coach and train
Passenger name is not unique
Ticket price is not unique
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Relationship between data

One PNR number is associated with one train
code
One PNR number is associated with one or
more passenger names
One train code is associated with one or more
stations
One train code is associated with one route code
All relationships will fall under one-to-one, oneto-many, many-to-one
Many-to-many is a combinations of the above
We need to identify the relationships between
the data to understand clearly the dependency
between data
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Components of database
A physical database installation in a machine
has the following logical entities

Database (group of tables)

Tables (that contain data)
Views
Index files
Triggers
Sequences
Stored procedures (packages, functions, procedures)
Users to access the tables

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Table Management

Create, alter and drop are the operations on a table

To create a table, we need to supply the table name, column names
and attributes, for each column whether it is a null or not null
column, what is the default value for that column, whether the
column is primary key or not
CREATE TABLE is the command to be used
When we want to add a column to a table or to change the attributes
of a column in a table, we use ALTER TABLE command
We cannot remove a column from a table
If we want to remove the table from the database, we need to use
DROP TABLE command
When a table is dropped, the data is also lost
Dual is a default built-in table to do any on the fly calculations
The usual column data types will be number, varchar2, char, date

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Inserting Data
INSERT operation into a table requires data to
be entered
We can insert all column values or selective
column values
When insert is successful, we will get a success
message
When we try to enter a duplicate value into a
table, we will get duplicate constraint violation
message
During insert, if we do not supply a value, the
default value for a column is used to fill up that
column
We can insert data only to one table at a time
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Update Operation
When we want to modify data in a table, we can use
UPDATE command
We can update only one table at a time
When we update we need to use the SET clause to set
the values for a particular column
During update also, if try to update a record, such that it
results in duplicate record, we will get a unique constraint
violation message
If we use update command without WHERE clause, it will
update all the records
It is not recommended to update, without giving a where
clause
Examples
Update employee set salary = 1000
Update employee set salary = 2000 where designation =
SALESMANAGER
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Delete Operation
When we want to remove data in a table, we can
use DELETE command
We can delete only one table at a time
We cannot delete a particular column; it is
always one row or multiple rows
If we use delete command without WHERE
clause, it will delete all the records
It is not recommended to delete, without giving a
where clause
Example
delete from employee
Delete from employee where designation =
HRMANAGER
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SELECT Queries
When we want to retrieve data from a table, we
use SELECT clause
Most of the times, testers use SELECT queries
only
SELECT has a lot of variations and clauses.
Hence SELECT is a must for all testers
SELECT queries can handle date and string
manipulation commands as well
SELECT helps to filter, search and sort data
SELECT helps to find out relationships in data
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Simple query
SELECT * from TRAINS
this will get all columns in the table

SELECT TRAIN_CODE, TRAIN_NAME from

TRAINS
this will return only 2 columns from the table

SELECT TRAIN_NAME from TRAINS WHERE

number_of_coaches > 15
This is a simple filter

SELECT TRAIN_NAME from TRAINS WHERE

number_of_coaches > 15 AND TRAIN_CODE <
100
This is a complex filter
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Aggregate functions
Aggregate functions work on the whole set of
records
SELECT max(salary) from EMPLOYEE
this will get the maximum salary data from the table

SELECT min(salary) from EMPLOYEE

this will get the minimum salary data from the table

SELECT avg(salary) from EMPLOYEE

this will get the average salary data from the table

SELECT count(*) from EMPLOYEE

this will get the number of records in the table

SELECT sum(salary) from EMPLOYEE

this will get the sum of all salary data from the table
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String/Numeric/Date Manipulation Functions

Lower this will convert to lower case

Upper this will convert to upper case
Substr this will return a portion of the string
Soundex will look for sounding matches
Floor will show the lower side value
Ceil will show the upper side value
Round will round off the number to the nearest value
Sysdate will show the current date
Current_timestamp will show the current timestamp
To_date and to_char to manipulate date formats

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Operators
We can use arithmetic operators like +, -, *, /
Logical operators are AND, OR, NOT
Open and close brackets are used to group
items
% is used along with LIKE operator
Where firstname LIKE %raj% will search for raj
anywhere in firstname column
Distinct is an operator on a column to fetch
distinct values present in all rows
IN operator is used to provide a set of values in
the WHERE clause
BETWEEN operator is used to provide a range
of values in the WHERE clause
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SubQuery
Sub query is query within a query
This is used to ensure that the WHERE condition is
further getting values from another query
Select employee_name, salary from employee where
designation = (select designation from positionmaster
where positioncategory like %MANAGER%)
The innermost select is executed first and then the outer
select is executed
In sub queries, if we use = in where condition, the
subquery must return only one value
In sub queries, if we use IN clause in where condition,
the subquery can return more than one values

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JOINs
Joins are nothing but a cross product of one or
more tables
Inner join is used to get records that match a
condition in all tables
In joins we use alias to denote table names
Outer join is used to get records from more than
one tables, irrespective of the condition match in
left or right table
Example
SELECT a.empname, b.projectname from employees
a, projects b where a.employeecode =
b.employeecode and b.projectstatus = Active

To create outer join we use + sign to the left table

or right table
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Union, Intersect, Minus

Union is used to combine many SELECT
queries. The result will be all records fetched by
all queries. If 2 records match in 2 different
queries, it is printed once in the result
Intersect is used to combine many SELECT
queries. The result will be the common records
between the 2 select queries
Minus is used to find out the difference between
2 SELECT queries
In all these cases, the columns selected must be
the same in all select statements
We can use all these to find the referential
integrity of the database
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Views
A view is a virtual table
A view is used to simplify a complex select
statement
A view can bring multiple data from many tables
For all query purposes, a view is treated as a
table
Create View SalesPeople As Select
employeename from employees where
designation like %SALES%
When we create views, our job to write complex
queries get reduced
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Index Files, Transactions

Index files are pointers to the exact location of a record
on the disk
These help us to search faster. Hence a query executes
faster
If we do not have index on a column, and we search
based on that column, it becomes sequential. The
performance will be poor
Index can be unique or non-unique
By using index files, search works as binary search
When we do insert or update or delete, we can make
that permanent by issuing a COMMIT statement
If we want to ignore the previous insert, update, delete
statements, we use ROLLBACK statement
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Triggers
Trigger is an automatic event that happens based on
insert or update or delete
We cannot pass parameters to triggers
A trigger can happen before or after the operation
Create or replace trigger is used to get the trigger in
database
:NEW.column or :OLD.column is used to retrieve internal
values when the triggers are fired
Drop trigger is used to remove the trigger
To test a trigger, first do the required insert or delete or
update operation on the primary table
Do a select query on the other tables on which the
trigger operated
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Stored Procedures

These are executable code written in PLSQL

These reside inside oracle
We can write loops, conditions etc including exception handling
This comes in 2 parts package header and package body
The package header contains procedures and function definitions
The package body contains actual executable code of functions and
procedures
Procedures and functions take parameters
They must be explicitly executed and they are not automatic
Before executing procedures, set serveroutput on
Functions must return a value to the left hand side
Usually functions are used when there is only one return value or
there is a true/false returns
Inside stored procedures, people write any database queries as
required by application logic
To execute, from the prompt, give
exec packagename.procedurename(paramaters)
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Exceptions
Exceptions must be handled inside stored
procedures or triggers
This will ensure that the code does not crash
When Others is the generic exception
SQLCODE and SQLERRM will hold the error
number and error text
Usually no_data_found and dup_val_on_index
are checked in most of the places
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Cursors
When a stored procedure needs to retrieve only one
record, we use into clause in the select statement
When the procedure needs to process a record set, we
use cursor
Declare the cursor and provide the select statement
Use OPEN, FETCH and CLOSE commands to access
the cursor
Cursorname%notfound will be set to true if there are no
more records to fetch
Cursorname%count will provide the number of records in
the cursor
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Sequences
Sequences are used to generate auto
increment values
Use Create sequence command and
provide minimum, maximum, start and
increment values
Sequcen.nextval will provide the next
sequence number
This can be used in any insert statements
subsequently
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Constraints
Not Null is a constraint while creating a
table
Primary Key is a constraint
Foreign Key is a constraint
Check is a constraint to ensure that a
column has only specified values
Unique index is also a constraing
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DBA Features
This list gives only the features and not detailed
information

Creating database
Creating users
Providing access rights to users across tables
Backup and restore
Crash recovery
Replication
Loading of bulk data
Partitioning of data across disks
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