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Archive for February, 2010

Debugging MySQL Procedures

with 2 comments

In my second database class we focus on PL/SQL but we’ve begun highlighting the alternatives in MySQL and SQL Server. A student asked how they could debug runtime variable values in a MySQL Stored Procedure (or subroutines according to some documentation). You can see this post for how to create an equivalent solutions for MySQL functions.

In Oracle, we debug with the DBMS_OUTPUT package. Packages, like DBMS_OUTPUT hold related functions and procedures, and are a corollary to System.out.println() in Java.

Before you can see the output at the command-line in Oracle (that is if you’re not using SQL*Developer or Toad), you must set a SQL*Plus environment variable. These variables don’t exist in MySQL or SQL Server command-line tools because they never served the function of a report writer like SQL*Plus.

You enable output display in Oracle by setting this in SQL*Plus:

SQL> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000

You can test your anonymous or named block. Since MySQL doesn’t support anonymous named block, the examples using a trivial procedure that prints Hello World! (orginal, right ;-)).

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-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE hello_world IS
BEGIN
  -- Print a word without a line return.
  DBMS_OUTPUT.put('Hello ');
  -- Print the rest of the phrase and a line return.
  DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line('World!');
END;
/
 
-- Call the procedure.
EXECUTE hello_world;

It’s seems useless to print the output because it should be evident. MySQL procedures are a bit different because there’s no OR REPLACE syntax. The equivalent to calling the DBMS_OUTPUT package procedures in MySQL is to simply select a string. Now you can do this with or without the FROM dual clause in MySQL, don’t we wish we could do the same thing in Oracle. 🙂

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'DROP PROCEDURE hello_world' AS "Statement";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS hello_world;
 
-- Reset the delimiter to write a procedure.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE PROCEDURE hello_world()
BEGIN
  -- Print the phrase and a line return.
  SELECT 'Hello World!';
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter back to a semicolon to work again.
DELIMITER ;
 
-- Call the procedure.
SELECT 'CALL hello_world' AS "Statement";
CALL hello_world();

Originally, I tried to keep this short but somebody wanted an example in a loop. Ouch, loops are so verbose in MySQL. Since I was modifying this post, it seemed like a good idea to put down some guidelines for successful development too.

Guidelines for Development of Procedures

Declaration Guidelines

The sequencing of components in MySQL procedures is important. Unlike, PL/SQL, there’s no declaration block, declarations must be at the top of the execution block. They also must appear in the following order:

  1. Variable declarations must go first, you can assign initial values with the DEFAULT keyword. While not required, you should:
  • Consider using something like lv_ to identify them as local variables for clarity and support of your code.
  • Consider grouping local variables that relate to handlers at the bottom of the list of variables.
  1. After local variables and before handlers, you put your cursor definitions. You should note that MySQL doesn’t support explicit dynamic cursors, which means you can’t define one with a formal signature. However, you do have prepared statements and they mimic dynamic cursor behaviors.
  2. Last in your declaration block, you declare your handler events.

Execution Guidelines

  1. Variable assignments are made one of two ways:
  • You should start each execution block with a START TRANSACTION and then a SAVEPOINT, which ensures the procedure acts like a cohesive programming unit.
  • You assign a left_operand = right_operand; as a statement.
  • You use the SELECT column INTO variable; syntax to filter a value through SQL functions and assign the resulting expression to a local variable.
  • You assign a single row cursor output to variables using a SELECT column INTO variable FROM ....
  1. You must assign values from cursors called in a loop into local variables when you want to use the results in nested SQL statements or loops.
  2. You must reset looping variables, like the fetched control variable at the end of the loop to reuse the handler variable in subsequent loops.
  3. You must assign values to local variables if you want to use them in the exception handler.
  4. If you’ve started a transaction, don’t forget to COMMIT your work.

Exception Guidelines

  1. Leave out the exception handler until you’ve tested all outcomes, and make sure you document them and add them as potential handlers.
  2. When you deploy exception blocks, they’re the last element at the bottom of the exception block.
  3. You should consider explicit exception handlers for each error unless the action taken is the same.
  4. You should consider grouping all exception handlers when the action taken is the same.
  5. You should include a ROLLBACK whenever you’ve performed two or more SQL statements that may modify data.

Below is an example for putting debug code inside a loop.

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-- Conditionally drop a sample table.
SELECT 'DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sample' AS "Statement";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS sample;
 
-- Create a table.
CREATE TABLE sample
( sample_id    INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, sample_msg   VARCHAR(20));
 
-- Insert into sample.
INSERT INTO sample (sample_msg) VALUES
 ('Message #1')
,('Message #2')
,('Message #3');
 
-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'DROP PROCEDURE debug_loop' AS "Statement";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS debug_loop;
 
-- Reset the delimiter to write a procedure.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- Create a procedure in Oracle.
CREATE PROCEDURE debug_loop()
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare a counter variable. */
  DECLARE lv_counter INT DEFAULT 1;
 
  /* Declare local control loop variables. */
  DECLARE lv_sample_id  INT;
  DECLARE lv_sample_msg VARCHAR(20);
 
  /* Declare a local variable for a subsequent handler. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE fetched INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor fabricated from local variables. */  
  DECLARE sample_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT * FROM sample;
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
 
  /* Declare a not found record handler to close a cursor loop. */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET fetched = 1;
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT all_or_none;
 
  /* Open a sample cursor. */
  OPEN sample_cursor;
  cursor_sample: LOOP
 
    /* Fetch a row at a time. */  
    FETCH sample_cursor
    INTO  lv_sample_id
    ,     lv_sample_msg;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_sample; END IF;
 
    -- Print the cursor values.
    SELECT CONCAT('Row #',lv_counter,' [',lv_sample_id,'][',lv_sample_msg,']') AS "Rows";
 
    -- Increment counter variable.
    SET lv_counter = lv_counter + 1;
 
  END LOOP cursor_sample;
  CLOSE sample_cursor;
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT all_or_none;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter back to a semicolon to work again.
DELIMITER ;
 
-- Call the procedure.
SELECT 'CALL debug_loop' AS "Statement";
CALL debug_loop();

This post certainly answers the student question. Hopefully, it also helps other who must migrate Oracle skills to MySQL. Since IBM DB2 has introduced a PL/SQL equivalent, wouldn’t it be nice if Oracle did that for MySQL. That is, migrate PL/SQL to MySQL. Don’t tell me if you think that’s a pipe dream, I’d like to hope for that change.

Written by maclochlainn

February 27th, 2010 at 11:01 pm

MySQL Boolean Data Type

with 11 comments

Somebody posted a quick question about the outcome of defining a table with a bool data type in PHPMyAdmin. They were subsequently surprised when they checked the MySQL database and found that it was actually a tinyint(1). The natural question they had was: “What do you enter – true/false or 1/0?”

I promised to post an answer tonight, and morning counts too. You can enter a true or false because they’re synonyms for a 1 or 0 respectively. TINYINT is the supported data type, and BIT, BOOL, and BOOLEAN are synonyms for the base data type.

Here’s an example in MySQL:

mysql> CREATE TABLE data_type (TYPE bool);
 
mysql> DESCRIBE data_type;
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| FIELD | TYPE       | NULL | KEY | DEFAULT | Extra |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| TYPE  | tinyint(1) | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
+-------+------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
 
mysql> INSERT INTO data_type VALUES (TRUE),(FALSE);
 
mysql> SELECT * FROM data_type;
+------+
| TYPE |
+------+
|    1 |
|    0 |
+------+

The comment below raises the question of what happens with values in the valid range of TINYINT that aren’t 0 or 1, like 5. The simple answer is they’re not valid when compared against the true and false constants, as you can see by creating the following example.

-- Create a test table.
CREATE TABLE verify
( verify_id  INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, range_1    tinyint UNSIGNED
, range_2    tinyint );
 
-- Insert test values.
INSERT INTO verify
VALUES
 (NULL, 0, 0)
,(NULL, 1, 1)
,(NULL, 1,-1)
,(NULL, 2, 2);
 
-- Query results.
SELECT range_1 AS "Value"
,      CASE
         WHEN range_1 = TRUE THEN 'True'
         WHEN range_1 = FALSE THEN 'False'
         ELSE 'Invalid'
       END AS "Unsigned"
,      range_2 AS "Value"
,      CASE
         WHEN range_2 = TRUE  THEN 'True'
         WHEN range_2 = FALSE THEN 'False'
         ELSE 'Invalid'
       END AS "Signed"
FROM   verify;

The results of the test demonstrate that only a 0 or 1 value validates against the false or true constants, as shown:

+-------+----------+-------+---------+
| Value | Unsigned | Value | Signed  |
+-------+----------+-------+---------+
|     0 | False    |     0 | False   |
|     1 | True     |     1 | True    |
|     1 | True     |    -1 | Invalid |
|     2 | Invalid  |     2 | Invalid |
+-------+----------+-------+---------+

Based on the comment, the 256 value range of TINYINT is found here.

Written by maclochlainn

February 26th, 2010 at 2:32 am

Posted in MAMP,MySQL,PHPMyAdmin,sql

SQL Aggregation Tutorial

without comments

I’ve been working on a Basic Aggregation tutorial for my students. I think this might be close to what may benefit them. However, I thought it would be great to put it out there and solicit ideas. If you have some on improving this post, please let me know.

My first take at the post …

This is a lesson on basic aggregation in SQL. Aggregation in SQL means counting, adding, and grouping by results of counts or sums. Aggregation is a critical part of using the SQL language. At a basic level, aggregation includes the COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, and MIN aggregation functions; and the ORDER BY, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses.

You’ll find the setup scripts for these examples at the bottom of this blog page. The best way to use this page is to copy the setup code, run it in your database, and then test the examples as you work though them.

Written by maclochlainn

February 26th, 2010 at 1:29 am

Multi-row Merge in MySQL

with 3 comments

After I wrote the post for students on the multiple row MERGE statement for an upload through an external table in Oracle, I thought to check how it might be done with MySQL. More or less because I try to keep track of how things are done in several databases.

MySQL’s equivalent to a MERGE statement is an INSERT statement with an ON DUPLICATE KEY clause, which I blogged about a while back. You may also use the REPLACE INTO when you want to merge more than one row. At the time that I wrote this, I thought there wasn’t support for an INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY clause statement with a subquery but I found that I was wrong. Fortunately, somebody posted a comment to remind me about this and now both solutions are here for anybody that would like them.

The workaround with a VALUES clause was to write a stored procedure with two cursor loops, explicitly pass the values from the cursor to local variables, and then put the local variables in the VALUES clause. I’ll post the other with a subquery soon. On parity, clearly Oracle’s MERGE statement (shown here) is far superior than MySQL’s approach.

Demonstration

Here are the steps to accomplish an import/upload with the INSERT statement and ON DUPLICATE KEY clause. In this example, you upload data from a flat file, or Comma Separated Value (CSV) file to a denormalized table (actually in unnormalized form). This type of file upload transfers information that doesn’t have surrogate key values. You have to create those in the scope of the transformation to the normalized tables.

Step #1 : Position your CSV file in the physical directory

After creating the virtual directory, copy the following contents into a file named kingdom_mysql_import.csv in the C:\Data\Download directory or folder. If you have Windows UAC enabled in Windows Vista or 7, you should disable it before performing this step.

Place the following in the kingdom_mysql_import.csv file. The trailing commas are meaningful in MySQL and avoid problems when reading CSV files.

Narnia, 77600,'Peter the Magnificent',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Edmund the Just',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Susan the Gentle',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 77600,'Lucy the Valiant',12720320,12920609,
Narnia, 42100,'Peter the Magnificent',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Edmund the Just',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Susan the Gentle',15310412,15310531,
Narnia, 42100,'Lucy the Valiant',15310412,15310531,
Camelot, 15200,'King Arthur',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Lionel',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Bors',06310310,06351212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Bors',06400310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Galahad',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Gawain',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Tristram',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Percival',06310310,06861212,
Camelot, 15200,'Sir Lancelot',06700930,06821212,

Step #2 : Connect as the student user

Disconnect and connect as the student user, or reconnect as the student user. The reconnect syntax that protects your password is:

mysql -ustudent -p

Connect to the sampledb database, like so:

mysql> USE sampledb;

Step #3 : Run the script that creates tables and sequences

Copy the following into a create_mysql_kingdom_upload.sql file within a directory of your choice. Then, run it as the student account.

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-- This enables dropping tables with foreign key dependencies.
-- It is specific to the InnoDB Engine.
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0; 
 
-- Conditionally drop objects.
SELECT 'KINGDOM' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KINGDOM;
 
SELECT 'KNIGHT' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KNIGHT;
 
SELECT 'KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT' AS "Drop Table";
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT;
 
-- Create normalized kingdom table.
SELECT 'KINGDOM' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE kingdom
( kingdom_id    INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, kingdom_name  VARCHAR(20)
, population    INT UNSIGNED) ENGINE=INNODB;
 
-- Create normalized knight table.
SELECT 'KNIGHT' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE knight
( knight_id             INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT
, knight_name           VARCHAR(24)
, kingdom_allegiance_id INT UNSIGNED
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE
, CONSTRAINT fk_kingdom FOREIGN KEY (kingdom_allegiance_id)
  REFERENCES kingdom (kingdom_id)) ENGINE=INNODB;
 
-- Create external import table in memory only - disappears after rebooting the mysqld service.
SELECT 'KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT' AS "Create Table";
CREATE TABLE kingdom_knight_import
( kingdom_name          VARCHAR(20)
, population            INT UNSIGNED
, knight_name           VARCHAR(24)
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE) ENGINE=MEMORY;

Step #4 : Load the data into your target upload table

There a number of things that could go wrong but when you choose LOCAL there generally aren’t any problems. Run the following query from the student account while using the sampledb database, and check whether or not you can access the kingdom_import.csv file.

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LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE 'c:/Data/kingdom_mysql_import.csv'
INTO TABLE kingdom_knight_import
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
ESCAPED BY '\\'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n';

Step #5 : Create the upload procedure

Copy the following into a create_mysql_upload_procedure.sql file within a directory of your choice. You should note that unlike Oracle’s MERGE statement, this is done with the ON DUPLICATE KEY clause and requires actual values not a source query. This presents few options other than a stored routine, known as a stored procedure. As you can see from the code, there’s a great deal of complexity to the syntax and a much more verbose implementation than Oracle’s equivalent PL/SQL.

Then, run it as the student account. As you look at the structure to achieve this simple thing, the long standing complaint about PL/SQL being a verbose language comes to mind. Clearly, stored procedures are new to MySQL but they’re quite a bit more verbose than PL/SQL.

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'UPLOAD_KINGDOM' AS "Drop Procedure";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS upload_kingdom;
 
-- Reset the execution delimiter to create a stored program.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- The parentheses after the procedure name must be there or the MODIFIES SQL DATA raises an compile time exception.
CREATE PROCEDURE upload_kingdom() MODIFIES SQL DATA
 
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare local variables. */
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_id            INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_name          VARCHAR(20);
  DECLARE lv_population            INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_knight_id             INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_knight_name           VARCHAR(24);
  DECLARE lv_kingdom_allegiance_id INT UNSIGNED;
  DECLARE lv_allegiance_start_date DATE;
  DECLARE lv_allegiance_end_date   DATE;
 
  /* Declare a handler variables. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE foreign_key   INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE fetched       INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Cursors must come after variables and before event handlers. */
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor with a left join on the natural key. */  
  DECLARE kingdom_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT   DISTINCT
             k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.kingdom_name
    ,        kki.population
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki LEFT JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population; 
 
  /* Declare a SQL cursor with a join on the natural key. */  
  DECLARE knight_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn 
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date; 
 
  /* Event handlers must always be last in the declaration section. */
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1216 SET foreign_key = 1;
 
  /* Declare a not found record handler to close a cursor loop. */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET fetched = 1;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  /* Open a local cursor. */  
  OPEN kingdom_cursor;
  cursor_kingdom: LOOP
 
    FETCH kingdom_cursor
    INTO  lv_kingdom_id
    ,     lv_kingdom_name
    ,     lv_population;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_kingdom; END IF;
 
    INSERT INTO kingdom
    VALUES
    ( lv_kingdom_id
    , lv_kingdom_name
    , lv_population ) 
    ON DUPLICATE KEY
    UPDATE kingdom_name = lv_kingdom_name;
 
  END LOOP cursor_kingdom;
  CLOSE kingdom_cursor;
 
  /* Reset the continue handler to zero. */
  SET fetched = 0;  
 
  /* Open a local cursor. */  
  OPEN knight_cursor;
  cursor_knight: LOOP
 
    /* Fetch records until they're all read, and a NOT FOUND SET is returned. */  
    FETCH knight_cursor
    INTO  lv_knight_id
    ,     lv_knight_name
    ,     lv_kingdom_allegiance_id
    ,     lv_allegiance_start_date
    ,     lv_allegiance_end_date;
 
    /* Place the catch handler for no more rows found
       immediately after the fetch operation.          */
    IF fetched = 1 THEN LEAVE cursor_knight; END IF;
 
    INSERT INTO knight
    VALUES
    ( lv_knight_id
    , lv_knight_name
    , lv_kingdom_allegiance_id
    , lv_allegiance_start_date
    , lv_allegiance_end_date ) 
    ON DUPLICATE KEY
    UPDATE knight_name = lv_knight_name;
 
  END LOOP cursor_knight;
  CLOSE knight_cursor;
 
  /* Reset the continue handler to zero. */
  SET fetched = 0;  
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 OR foreign_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  ELSE
 
    /* This commits the writes. */
    COMMIT;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter to the default.
DELIMITER ;

Here’s the better option with an embedded query:

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-- Conditionally drop the procedure.
SELECT 'UPLOAD_KINGDOM' AS "Drop Procedure";
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS upload_kingdom;
 
-- Reset the execution delimiter to create a stored program.
DELIMITER $$
 
-- The parentheses after the procedure name must be there or the MODIFIES SQL DATA raises an compile time exception.
CREATE PROCEDURE upload_kingdom() MODIFIES SQL DATA
 
BEGIN
 
  /* Declare a handler variables. */
  DECLARE duplicate_key INT DEFAULT 0;
  DECLARE foreign_key   INT DEFAULT 0;
 
  /* Declare a duplicate key handler */
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1062 SET duplicate_key = 1;
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR 1216 SET foreign_key = 1;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* Start transaction context. */
  START TRANSACTION;
 
  /* Set savepoint. */  
  SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  /* Using subqueries update the targets. */  
  INSERT INTO knight
  ( SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date )
  ON DUPLICATE KEY
  UPDATE knight_id = kn.knight_id;
 
  INSERT INTO knight
  ( SELECT   kn.knight_id
    ,        kki.knight_name
    ,        k.kingdom_id
    ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
    ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
    FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
    ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
    AND      kki.population = k.population LEFT JOIN knight kn
    ON       k.kingdom_id = kn.kingdom_allegiance_id
    AND      kki.knight_name = kn.knight_name
    AND      kki.allegiance_start_date = kn.allegiance_start_date
    AND      kki.allegiance_end_date = kn.allegiance_end_date )
  ON DUPLICATE KEY
  UPDATE knight_id = kn.knight_id;
 
  /* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 
  /* This acts as an exception handling block. */  
  IF duplicate_key = 1 OR foreign_key = 1 THEN
 
    /* This undoes all DML statements to this point in the procedure. */
    ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT both_or_none;
 
  ELSE
 
    /* This commits the writes. */
    COMMIT;
 
  END IF;
 
END;
$$
 
-- Reset the delimiter to the default.
DELIMITER ;

Step #6 : Run the upload procedure

You can run the file by calling the stored procedure built by the script. The procedure ensures that records are inserted or updated into their respective tables.

CALL upload_kingdom;

Step #7 : Test the results of the upload procedure

You can test whether or not it worked by running the following queries.

-- Check the kingdom table.
SELECT * FROM kingdom;
SELECT * FROM knight;

It should display the following information:

+------------+--------------+------------+
| kingdom_id | kingdom_name | population |
+------------+--------------+------------+
|          1 | Narnia       |      77600 |
|          2 | Narnia       |      42100 |
|          3 | Camelot      |      15200 |
+------------+--------------+------------+
 
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+
| knight_id | knight_name             | kingdom_allegiance_id | allegiance_start_date | allegiance_end_date |
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+
|         1 | 'Peter the Magnificent' |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         2 | 'Edmund the Just'       |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         3 | 'Susan the Gentle'      |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         4 | 'Lucy the Valiant'      |                     1 | 1272-03-20            | 1292-06-09          |
|         5 | 'Peter the Magnificent' |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         6 | 'Edmund the Just'       |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         7 | 'Susan the Gentle'      |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         8 | 'Lucy the Valiant'      |                     2 | 1531-04-12            | 1531-05-31          |
|         9 | 'King Arthur'           |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        10 | 'Sir Lionel'            |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        11 | 'Sir Bors'              |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0635-12-12          |
|        12 | 'Sir Bors'              |                     3 | 0640-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        13 | 'Sir Galahad'           |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        14 | 'Sir Gawain'            |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        15 | 'Sir Tristram'          |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        16 | 'Sir Percival'          |                     3 | 0631-03-10            | 0686-12-12          |
|        17 | 'Sir Lancelot'          |                     3 | 0670-09-30            | 0682-12-12          |
+-----------+-------------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+

You can rerun the procedure to check that it doesn’t alter any information, then you could add a new knight to test the insertion portion.

Written by maclochlainn

February 24th, 2010 at 9:15 am

Merge Statement for ETL

with 2 comments

While working through examples for my students on uploading data, I thought it would be interesting to demonstrate how to create a re-runnable upload. Especially when chatting with a friend who was unaware that you could use joins inside the source element of a MERGE statement. Naturally, the MERGE statement seemed like the best approach in an Oracle database because with my criteria:

  • The source file would not include any surrogate key values.
  • The source file would have denormalized record sets with data that should belong to parent and child tables, technically unnormalized form (UNF).
  • Primary and foreign key values would be determined on load to the tables.
  • There could be a one-to-many relationship between the parent and child tables in the original source.
  • Subsequent data sets may replicate data already seeded or not in the tables.
  • Avoid any complex PL/SQL structures.

Step #1 : Create a Virtual Directory

You can create a virtual directory without a physical directory but it won’t work when you try to access it. Therefore, you should create the physical directory first. Assuming you’ve created a C:\Data\Download file directory on the Windows platform, you can then create a virtual directory and grant permissions to the student user as the SYS privileged user. The syntax for these steps is:

CREATE DIRECTORY download AS 'C:\Data\Download';
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY download TO student;

If you want more detail on these steps, check this older post on the blog.

Step #2 : Create the Target and External Tables

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-- Conditionally drop tables and sequences.
BEGIN
  FOR i IN (SELECT TABLE_NAME
            FROM   user_tables
            WHERE  TABLE_NAME IN ('KINGDOM','KNIGHT','KINGDOM_KNIGHT_IMPORT')) LOOP 
    EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP TABLE '||i.table_name||' CASCADE CONSTRAINTS';
  END LOOP;
  FOR i IN (SELECT sequence_name
            FROM   user_sequences
            WHERE  sequence_name IN ('KINGDOM_S1','KNIGHT_S1')) LOOP 
    EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SEQUENCE '||i.sequence_name;
  END LOOP;
END;
/
 
-- Create normalized kingdom table.
CREATE TABLE kingdom
( kingdom_id    NUMBER
, kingdom_name  VARCHAR2(20)
, population    NUMBER);
 
-- Create a sequence for the kingdom table.
CREATE SEQUENCE kingdom_s1;
 
-- Create normalized knight table.
CREATE TABLE knight
( knight_id             NUMBER
, knight_name           VARCHAR2(24)
, kingdom_allegiance_id NUMBER
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE);
 
-- Create a sequence for the knight table.
CREATE SEQUENCE knight_s1;
 
-- Create external import table.
CREATE TABLE kingdom_knight_import
( kingdom_name          VARCHAR2(20)
, population            NUMBER
, knight_name           VARCHAR2(24)
, allegiance_start_date DATE
, allegiance_end_date   DATE)
  ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
  ( TYPE oracle_loader
    DEFAULT DIRECTORY download
    ACCESS PARAMETERS
    ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE CHARACTERSET US7ASCII
      BADFILE     'DOWNLOAD':'kingdom_import.bad'
      DISCARDFILE 'DOWNLOAD':'kingdom_import.dis'
      LOGFILE     'DOWNLOAD':'kingdom_import.log'
      FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
      OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY "'"
      MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL )
    LOCATION ('kingdom_import.csv'))
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;

Step #3 : Create a Procedure to ensure an all or nothing transaction

The procedure ensures that an all or nothing transaction occurs to both tables. Inside the procedure you have two MERGE statements.

The first MERGE statement uses a LEFT JOIN to ensure that any new kingdom_name will be added to the kingdom table. The kingdom_name and population columns are the natural key in this model. The second MERGE statement uses an INNER JOIN to ensure that knight rows are only inserted when they belong to an existing kingdom_name. Naturally, the primary key capture occurs in this statement and it maps the primary key to the foreign key column in the knight table.

The complete procedure code follows:

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-- Create a procedure to wrap the transaction.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE upload_kingdom IS 
BEGIN
  -- Set save point for an all or nothing transaction.
  SAVEPOINT starting_point;
 
  -- Insert or update the table, which makes this rerunnable when the file hasn't been updated.  
  MERGE INTO kingdom target
  USING (SELECT   DISTINCT
                  k.kingdom_id
         ,        kki.kingdom_name
         ,        kki.population
         FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki LEFT JOIN kingdom k
         ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
         AND      kki.population = k.population) SOURCE
  ON (target.kingdom_id = SOURCE.kingdom_id)
  WHEN MATCHED THEN
  UPDATE SET kingdom_name = SOURCE.kingdom_name
  WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
  INSERT VALUES
  ( kingdom_s1.nextval
  , SOURCE.kingdom_name
  , SOURCE.population);
 
  -- Insert or update the table, which makes this rerunnable when the file hasn't been updated.  
  MERGE INTO knight target
  USING (SELECT   k.kingdom_id
         ,        kki.knight_name
         ,        kki.allegiance_start_date AS start_date
         ,        kki.allegiance_end_date AS end_date
         FROM     kingdom_knight_import kki INNER JOIN kingdom k
         ON       kki.kingdom_name = k.kingdom_name
         AND      kki.population = k.population) SOURCE
  ON (target.kingdom_allegiance_id = SOURCE.kingdom_id)
  WHEN MATCHED THEN
  UPDATE SET allegiance_start_date = SOURCE.start_date
  ,          allegiance_end_date = SOURCE.end_date
  WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
  INSERT VALUES
  ( knight_s1.nextval
  , SOURCE.knight_name
  , SOURCE.kingdom_id
  , SOURCE.start_date
  , SOURCE.end_date);
 
  -- Save the changes.
  COMMIT;
 
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    ROLLBACK TO starting_point;
    RETURN;
END;
/

Step #4 : Test the Process

You can test it by calling the procedure. Rerunning it will demonstrate that it doesn’t violate any of the rules.

EXECUTE upload_kingdom;

As always, I hope this is useful to somebody besides me.

Written by maclochlainn

February 23rd, 2010 at 2:28 am

PHP Binding a Wildcard

with 8 comments

Somebody asked me about how you bind a parameter in mysqli when a multiple character wildcard needs to be next to the variable value. They’d found that it worked when creating a SQL statement by concatenation (string gluing), like this:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE '%".$title."%'";

However, they tried to bind the variable following the same pattern, and found that it failed. They used the following type of syntax:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE '%?%'";

It raised the following error:

Warning: mysqli_stmt_bind_param() [function.mysqli-stmt-bind-param]: Number of variables doesn't match number of parameters in prepared statement in program_name on line #

The reason is the parser, it expects variables to be independent tokens in the SQL string. You can’t bind a string into the shell of an apostrophe delimited string. You could naturally, make an assignment to the local PHP variable before binding it to the variable, like this:

$title = '%'.$title.'%';

It’s actually a better idea to concatenate the multiple character wildcard operator inside the SQL statement. The correct syntax requires that you use the CONCAT() function. You could reset to use piped concatenation but generally you should avoid that on the MySQL platform (see this post for an explanation of SQL concatenation on Oracle, MySQL, and SQL Server).

This is the required statement when using a MySQL database:

$sql = "SELECT item_title FROM item WHERE item_title LIKE CONCAT('%',?,'%')";

Written by maclochlainn

February 21st, 2010 at 1:13 am

Posted in LAMP,MAMP,MySQL,PHP

Mac OS X Limits for Oracle

with 2 comments

A couple months ago, I tried to install Oracle Database 10g, Release 2 for Mac OS X on Intel x86-64 on a MacBook running generic Snow Leopard. It didn’t work because you must have the Mac OS X Server. Somebody asked me to post more of what I found when I tried to hack the installation. Oracle’s documentation Oracle™ Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Apple Mac OS X (Intel), B25286-01 clearly states that the installation requires Mac OS X Server edition. By the way, this is one of the best installation guides I’ve seen from Oracle because it is very complete.

You can determine which version of Mac OS X you’re running with the following:

# sw_vers

It won’t work when you’re on a generic Snow Leopard release, like this:

ProductName:	Mac OS X
ProductVersion:	10.6.2
BuildVersion:	10C540

The first place you’ll get stopped cold is during the installation. You can specify the kern.sysv.shmmni value in the sysctl.conf file at the required 4096 but it won’t allow reconfiguration from the default value of 32. The inability to override this value stops the Oracle installer. You can see the default value of the shared memory parameters by running this command in a terminal session:

# /usr/sbin/sysctl -a | grep \\.shm

You should see the following:

kern.sysv.shmmax: 4194304
kern.sysv.shmmin: 1
kern.sysv.shmmni: 32
kern.sysv.shmseg: 8
kern.sysv.shmall: 1024

I haven’t tested it on the Mac OS X Server edition yet. I’ve a hunch that it’ll work like a charm. When I do get to that, I’ll update the post. Here’s the Apple support note on kern.sysv.shmmni for the Server version.

Written by maclochlainn

February 15th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

Posted in Mac,Mac OS X,Oracle

PL/SQL Workbook Code

with 3 comments

I got a request Saturday for me to post code for the Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming Workbook. You can download the book code here. It should also be on the McGraw-Hill web site tomorrow.

The irony for me is the timing of the request. I didn’t get it until late Saturday night when I had to make an early plane to Dallas, Texas on Sunday morning. It teaches me once again, that I should keep my book updates in one place and backup in a convenient carry-anywhere location.

I also found out that the Bulletin Board I’d set up wasn’t accessible. At least, accessible to anybody but bots. I uninstalled and re-installed it, and configured it. Now I’ll start maintaining it.

Written by maclochlainn

February 10th, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Posted in Oracle,Oracle XE,pl/sql

What a VMWare Thrill …

with 2 comments

I’d upgraded from VMWare Fusion 2 to 3 and taken care of most instances. A NASTY surprise awaited me when I tried to upgrade my Linux installations this morning.

You MUST to uninstall VMWare tools from your repository of Linux operating systems before upgrading your VMWare Fusion or ESX server. If you don’t, you can’t access the console because the drivers make the console look like this:

Perhaps I missed this note when, as an early adopted I opted to move straight to VMWare Fusion 3. I would have complied with these instructions to avoid this headache.

All that’s required now, is that: (a) I export 500 GBs worth of virtual machines to another machine running VMWare Fusion 2; (b) Individually start each machine and run the uninstall VMWare Tools command individually; and, (c) Shutdown and reposition all virtual machines on the original server.

As stated in the note, the command to remove it is:

/usr/bin/vmware-tools-uninstall.pl

Click on the note in the event the link fails to resolve, which would mean the note vanishes into oblivion some day in the future …

While I’ve another machine that’s not yet upgraded, this is a major inconvenience. It’s a shame that the Linux components don’t install automatically. It’s a shame that the install didn’t say something like, “Don’t do this if you’ve Linux virtual machines, unless you’ve removed their VMWare Tools installation.”

Another word to the wise, you don’t get the Linux Tools automatically when you download the product. The software prompts you to download the additional components when you attempt to launch a Linux environment. A cruel irony since by the time you see the prompt, you can’t! This is a change from the prior upgrade process.

Yes, haste makes waste but now I know. In the future, treat all VMWare upgrades like those from Microsoft test, re-test, re-authenticate in a small way before upgrading. Do you think VMWare really want to send that message to its customer base?

I got back to this tonight, and thanks to Red Hat’s Session Manager I was able to fix the Red Hat VMs. Launching it, I simply switched to the Failsafe Terminal and ran the following command, as per the note:

# /usr/bin/vmware-uninstall.pl

After that, I rebooted. Then, installed (mounted the VMWare Tools disk) from the VMWare Fusion menu. Opening a terminal as root, I then re-installed and configured VMWare Fusion. Those are done. As more time allows, I’ll update about the others.

I’m now reconfiguring the network since the VMWare Fusion 2 bridged at a 172.16.153 subdomain and VMWare Fusion 3 bridges at a 172.16.123 subdomain.

Written by maclochlainn

February 6th, 2010 at 11:49 am

My author’s copies came

with 4 comments

My co-author got his author copies about a week before me. The technical editor got his complementary book too the same day. I was wondering where mine got routed but now I’ve got mine, a few days after it was available on Amazon.

I think the new book looks good. John and I were probably a real pain during the editing process because we kept asking for more control during the proof copy to get things fixed. I think we messed up the release schedule by a couple weeks.

John and I think that the mastery questions in each chapter work well. My students who’ve seen it think it’s great because of the review sections and its smaller size. I’m re-verifying the code now, and it should be on McGraw-Hill’s website next week.

Written by maclochlainn

February 1st, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Posted in Oracle,pl/sql