bob watkins

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A change management primer for IT consultants

Determining the ability of the client organization to cope with a major IT project can help consultants find the most appropriate solution. Learn how evaluating the client's roles, resistance, and resilience can help you gauge their capacity for change. by Bob Watkins

Tags: Project, Change Management, Consultant, Information Technology, Change, Strategy, Recruitment & Selection, Management, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Bob Watkins

Blog posts 2008-07-04

What does a DBA do all day?

Data integrity is a DBA's number one responsibility, but do you know what else they do all day? Bob Watkins outlines some of the basic duties of a DBA. by Bob Watkins

Tags: Database Administrator, Data Integrity, Data, Storage, Databases, Hardware, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Bob Watkins

Blog posts 2008-06-26

Practice using Oracle's Remote Diagnostic Agent before you need it

Although the DBA can resolve most problems that arise with Oracle databases, there are times when you need to file a Service Request SR with Oracle Support. (The old term Technical Assistance Request, or TAR, is still used by many DBAs to refer to SRs). Once an engineer has been assigned...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Agent, Bob Watkins

Blog posts 2007-08-07

Avoiding TOO_MANY_ROWS errors in PL/SQL

Oracle's PL/SQL language has two basic mechanisms for getting data from the database: SELECT and cursors. SELECT is designed to return a single row into local variables; cursors give you the ability to select multiple rows (i.e., a "rowset") and process them one at a time.When you use SELECT in...

Tags: oracle, databases

Blog posts 2007-07-31

SolutionBase: Configuring a simple database in MySQL 5.0

Even if you've never used SQL before, MySQL makes setting up a database fairly simple. In this article, Bob Watkins walks you through the procedure necessary to create databases in MySQL 5.0. by Bob Watkins

Tags: screenshots, Database, MySQL, MySQL 5.0, Bob Watkins

Image galleries 2007-07-30

Round and truncate dates in Oracle

We usually think of rounding as applying only to numeric values: If the digit to the right of where you want to round is 0-4, round down; if it's 5-9, round up. In Oracle, the ROUND function is used for this: The expression ROUND(12.34, 1) evaluates to 12.3, and the...

Tags: oracle, databases

Blog posts 2007-07-24

SolutionBase: Migrating a SQL Server database to MySQL 5.0

Making the jump from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL 5.0 might sound like an intimidating process, but it's not as bad as it may seem. In this article, Bob Watkins shows you how to migrate SQL Server databases to MySQL 5.0. by Bob Watkins

Tags: screenshots, Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MySQL 5.0, Bob Watkins

Image galleries 2007-07-23

Compute the percentage of a total with Oracle's RATIO_TO_REPORT

Many reports include a percentage of the report total on each line, in addition to the detail data being reported. For example, what percentage does each customer contribute to all of the orders placed in a month, or what percentage does each sales rep contribute to the total sales?The traditional...

Tags: oracle, databases

Blog posts 2007-07-17

Copy Oracle's Automatic Storage Management files with DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER

Oracle's Automatic Storage Management ASM, introduced in Oracle 10g, provides an alterative to raw disk devices for storing Oracle-related files. Like raw disks, ASM volumes called diskgroups have no filesystem and cannot be browsed directly at the operating system level. This makes maintenance a challenge because you cannot use the...

Tags: storage, oracle, databases

Blog posts 2007-07-10

Multi-dimensional modeling in Oracle SQL

A spreadsheet is often used as an example of a relational table. Its rows and columns are similar to the rows and columns in a database table. At the intersection of each row and column is a value.The difference is that, in spreadsheets, each cell can also contain a formula...

Tags: databases, oracle, SQL

Blog posts 2007-06-26

Control null data in Oracle using the ORDER BY clause

NULL data, which is sometimes called "absent" data, can be difficult to work with in relational databases. When a query contains the ORDER BY clause to sort the output, NULL data will sort to the bottom if the sort is in ascending order ASC and to the top if the...

Tags: oracle, databases

Blog posts 2007-06-19

Explore Oracle 10g's updated sample schemas

Each new release of Oracle database brings with it new features to explore. It can be a challenge to create adequate sample tables to play with a given feature. But since Oracle 9i, Oracle has had a robust set of sample schemas you can use to learn new features. The...

Tags: databases, oracle

Blog posts 2007-06-12

Avoid the @ symbol in Oracle passwords

Password complexity is one of many things that IT auditors examine to see whether a system is secure. IT policies usually state that a password must be a minimum length and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.One special character to avoid with Oracle is...

Tags: Security, Pl/sql, Passwords, Oracle

Blog posts 2007-06-05

Use multiple dump files for large Oracle exports

Even as far back as Oracle 8i, the Export utility could handle large exports by splitting them into multiple output files. Bob Watkins reviews how this is done prior to Oracle 10g and what changes are necessary for 10g and later. Oracle's Export utility exp is a useful part...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Storage, Databases, Bob Watkins, database, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Export, FILE Parameter, Application Servers, Hardware, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management

Technical articles 2007-05-29

Render SQL*Plus output in HTML

Oracle's SQL*Plus query tool can create output as HTML tables in addition to plain text. The output format is controlled by the SET MARKUP command. Bob Watkins offers more details in this Oracle tip. SQL*Plus has traditionally been thought of as a plain text SQL query tool. But...

Tags: HTML, Bob Watkins, Render SQL*Plus, markup, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Oracle Corp., SQL*Plus

Technical articles 2007-05-23

Understanding roles in Oracle stored procedures

Permissions in Oracle granted indirectly via roles are not available when compiling stored procedures, functions, and packages. Direct grants are required when creating these objects in the database. Learn more details in this Oracle tip. One of the trickiest parts of Oracle's security model is the way that...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Advertising & Promotion, Bob Watkins, Abel, permission, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Database, Role, Marketing

Technical articles 2007-05-15

Encrypt backups using Oracle 10gR2's RMAN

No IT pros want their company to make headline news because of a data breach. You can make your data less vulnerable to theft by using a new feature in Oracle 10g Release 2 that lets you make encrypted backups via Recovery Manager. A spate of recent news stories...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Backups, Bob Watkins, password option, password, backup, RMAN, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Wallet

Technical articles 2007-05-08

Three ways to avoid Case Not Found errors in PL/SQL

Unlike some languages, PL/SQL's CASE statement generates an error if none of the cases are matched. Bob Watkins presents three ways to code around this error. PL/SQL has a rich CASE functionality. The selector CASE statement lets you test the value of an expression (much as the DECODE...

Tags: Oracle Corp., PL/SQL, Databases, Bob Watkins, Programming languages, PL/SQL CASE, CASE statement, clause, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Solution, Statement, Listing B, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management

Technical articles 2007-05-01

Copy legacy Oracle tables with SQL*Plus

Tables with a LONG datatype cannot be copied via the CREATE TABLE AS SELECT syntax. They can, however, be copied with the SQL*Plus COPY command. Bob Watkins shows you how in this Oracle tip. You may be running Oracle 10g Release 2, but the applications you're supporting may...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Bob Watkins, LONG RAW, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Downside, Corporate Communications, Storage, Databases, Marketing, Hardware, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management

Technical articles 2007-04-24

Don't overlook STATSPACK in Oracle 10g

Bob Watkins passes along a tip from a local Oracle Users Group seminar: don't ignore STATSPACK in Oracle 10g. It's still there, and it has some great new measurements. I had the privilege last month of hearing Rich Niemiec of TUSC speak about performance tuning at the Dallas...

Tags: Oracle Corp., Oracle Application Server 10g, Bob Watkins, Application servers, Statspack, Oracle Tips Newsletter, Enterprise Software, Software

Technical articles 2007-04-17