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SQL Developer

Welcome to my resource page for Oracle SQL Developer. Instead of asking you to dig through 50+ archive posts, I have put together a small collection of my favorite topics here. SQL Developer is the IDE for the Oracle database. My goal is to make you more productive with our tools, and if I can, make it a FUN experience. Most of my posts are 500-800 words, meaning in just a few minutes you can pick up a new skill and apply it immediately in your everyday work.

So if you are a developer, DBA, analyst, or just a data jockey who works with Oracle – you are in the right place!

Feeling super-lazy? I’ve highlighted my favorite, must-read post for each topic in red.

Getting Started with SQL Developer

These posts are geared for the beginner and focus on how-to topics and will greatly shorten the learning curve. But don’t let the title scare you away! Would you be surprised to hear that most software users only take advantage of about 10% of a program’s capabilities? Make sure you know these ‘tricks’ before you move on to the ‘black diamond’ topics!

• Don’t like the tree navigational interface? Try drop down controls instead with the Schema Browser
• Simple mode – how to turn off the features you’ll probably never use
• Customizing the look-and-feel for SQL Developer
• Full Screen code editing
• Enabling line numbers in the editor
• Top 10 preferences and options to tweak before getting started
• How to extend SQL Developer’s functionality

It’s All About the Data, Silly!

You’re in the database for a reason, and odds are you’re trying to answer a question. The answer lies somewhere in the data. Don’t drive yourself nuts looking for the needle in the haystack when SQL Developer can point you in the right direction! These posts are all about making the data work for you!

• How to copy data out of the grids WITH the column headers
• Working with BLOBs
• How to visualize Oracle Spatial data
• Pretty up the data grids
• How to filter data in the grids
• Know NULLs when you see them

Hackers unite!

If you are all about the SQL or PLSQL, then these posts will turbo-charge your coding to new levels! Keyboard shortcuts, debugging, code re-use, and all the other stuff you expect to find in your IDE.

• Let the tool write your JOINs for you OR how to draw your queries
• Long running query and don’t want to wait? Spawn a new Worksheet!
• Accessing your previous SQL statements with the keyboard
• Why you should care about debuggers
• How to use SQL Developer’s debugger
• Code insight, completion, popups – how to use it and how to turn it off
• Side-by-side code editors
• Viewing PLSQL output and REF CURSORS
• Working with XML
• The worksheet vs the PLSQL editor and why you can’t see your code errors
• Code slow? How to compare explain plans
• Code still slow? See the plan as your query is running with Real Time SQL Monitoring

Reporting, or Using Pretty Pictures to Convince Your Boss That You Know What You’re Doing

Reporting is a huge component of SQL Developer’s feature set. The product ships with many pre-canned reports, but did you know you can create your own? These posts will show you how to add charts, interactive master-detail reports, and make your work product stand head and shoulders above the rest!

• How to build a Bar Chart
• Child reports – click on parent record for on-the-fly children records
• Adding gauges and object hyperlinks to your query result-sets
• Generating HTML Data Dictionary Reports