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A tkprof Korn Shell

without comments

Reviewing old files, I thought posting my tkprof.ksh would be helpful. So, here’s the script that assumes you’re using Oracle e-Business Suite (Demo database, hence the APPS/APPS connection); and if I get a chance this summer I’ll convert it to Bash shell.

#!/bin/ksh
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Author:   Michael McLaughlin
# Name:     tkprof.ksh
 
# Purpose:  The program takes the following arguments:
#           1. A directory
#           2. A search string
#           3. A target directory
#           It assumes raw trace files have an extension of ".trc".
#           The output file name follows this pattern (because it is
#           possible for multiple tracefiles to be written during the
#           same minute).
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
# Function to find minimum field delimiter.
function min
{
  # Find the whitespace that preceeds the file date.
  until [[ $(ls -al $i | cut -c$minv-$minv) == " " ]]; do
    let minv=minv+1
  done
}
 
# Function to find maximum field delimiter.
function max
{
  # Find the whitespace that succeeds the file date.
  until [[ $(ls -al $i | cut -c$maxv-$maxv) == " " ]]; do
    let maxv=maxv+1
  done
}
 
# Debugging enabled by unremarking the "set -x"
# set -x
 
# Print header information
print =================================================================
print Running [tkprof.ksh] script ...
 
# Evaluate whether an argument is provide and if no argument
# is provided, then substitute the present working directory.
if   [[ $# == 0 ]]; then
  dir=${PWD}  
  str="*"
  des=${PWD}  
elif [[ $# == 1 ]]; then
  dir=${1}
  str="*"
  des=${1}
elif [[ $# == 2 ]]; then
  dir=${1}
  str=${2}
  des=${1}
elif [[ $# == 3 ]]; then
  dir=${1}
  str=${2}
  des=${3}
fi
 
# Evaluate whether the argument is a directory file.
if [[ -d ${dir} ]] && [[ -d ${des} ]]; then
 
  # Print what directory and search string are targets.
  print =================================================================
  print Run in tkprof from [${dir}] directory ...
  print The files contain a string of [${str}] ...
  print =================================================================
 
  # Evaluate whether the argument is the present working
  # directory and if not change directory to that target
  # directory so file type evaluation will work.
  if [[ ${dir} != ${PWD} ]]; then
    cd ${dir} 
  fi
 
  # Set file counter.
  let fcnt=0
 
  # Submit compression to the background as a job.
  for i in $(grep -li "${str}" *.trc); do
 
    # Evaluate whether file is an ordinary file.
    if [[ -f ${i} ]]; then
 
      # Set default values each iteration.
      let minv=40
      let maxv=53
 
      # Increment counter.
      let fcnt=fcnt+1
 
      # Call functions to reset min and max values where necessary.
      min ${i}
      max ${i}
 
      # Parse date stamp from trace file without multiple IO calls.
      # Assumption that the file is from the current year.
      date=$(ls -al ${i} | cut -c${minv}-${maxv}) 
      mon=$(echo ${date} | cut -c1-3)
      yr=$(date          | cut -c25-28)
 
      # Validate month is 10 or greater to pad for reduced whitespace.
      if (( $(echo ${date} | cut -c5-6) < 10 )); then
        day=0$(echo ${date}| cut -c5-5)
        hr=$(echo ${date}  | cut -c7-8)
        min=$(echo ${date} | cut -c10-11)
      else
        day=$(echo ${date} | cut -c5-6)
        hr=$(echo ${date}  | cut -c8-9)
        min=$(echo ${date} | cut -c11-12)
      fi
 
      fn=file${fcnt}_${day}-${mon}-${yr}_${hr}:${min}:${day}
 
      print Old [$i] and new [$des/$fn]
      tkprof ${i} ${des}/${fn}.prf explain=APPS/APPS sort='(prsela,exeela,fchela)'
 
      # Print what directory and search string are targets.
      print =================================================================
    fi
  done
 
else
  # Print message that a directory argument was not provided.
  print You failed to provie a single valid directory argument.
fi

I hope this helps those looking for a solution.

Written by maclochlainn

May 21st, 2023 at 2:25 am

MySQL PNG Files

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LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) Architecture is very flexible. All the components can be positioned on the same server or different servers. The servers are divided into two types. The types are known as the Application or database tiers. Generally, the application tier holds the Apache Server, any Apache Modules, and local copies of Server Side Includes (SSI) programs.

In many development environments, you also deploy the client to the same machine. This means a single machine runs the database server, the application server, and the browser. The lab for this section assumes these configurations.

Before you test an installation, you should make sure that you’ve started the database and Apache server. In an Oracle LAMP configuration (known as an OLAP – Oracle, Linux, Apache, Perl/PHP/Python), you must start both the Oracle Listener and database. MySQL starts the listener when you start the database. You must also start the Apache Server. The Apache Server also starts an Apache Listener, which listens for incoming HTTP/HTTPS requests. It listens on Port 80 unless you override that setting in the httpd.conf file.

The URI reaches the server and is redirected to an Apache Module based on configuration information found in the httpd.conf file. Spawned or child processes of the Apache Module then read programs into memory from the file system and run them. If you’ve uploaded a file the locally stored program can move it from a secure cache location to another local area for processing. The started programs can run independently or include other files as libraries, and they can communicate to the database server.

Working though PHP test cases against the MySQL database for my AlmaLinux installation and configuration, I discovered that the php-gd library weren’t installed by default. I had to add it to get my PHP programs to upload and display PNG files.

The log file for applying the php-gd packages:

The balance of this page demonstrates how to upload, store, and manage Text (Character Large Data Streams) and BLOBs (Binary Large Objects). It provides MySQL equivalent instructions to those for manaing LOBs in an Oracle database. As covered in Chapter 8 in my Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming book.

Before you begin these steps, you should have already installed Zend Server Community Edition. If you haven’t done so, please click here for instructions.

If you find any problems, please let me know. I’ll be happy to fix them.

Written by maclochlainn

December 28th, 2022 at 10:59 pm

AlmaLinux MySQL Workbench

without comments

AlmaLinux doesn’t natively support MySQL Workbench but these notes will help you install it. The great news is that MySQL Workbench works perfectly once you’ve installed all the dependent libraries. It’ll look like the following:

Disclaimer of sorts:

AlmaLinux is an open-source, community-driven project that intends to fill the gap left by the demise of the CentOS stable release. AlmaLinux is a 1:1 binary compatible fork of RHEL® 9 and it is built by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation as a standalone, completely free OS. The AlmaLinux OS Foundation will support future RHEL® releases by updating AlmaLinux. Ongoing development efforts are governed by the members of the community.

You can download MySQL Workbench from the following website:

https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench

When you open this page, select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 / Oracle Linux 9 (x86, 64-bit), RPM Package from the dropdown menu. Then, click the Download button. You may be prompted for your credentials or to create new credentials, but you can skip that by clicking on the No thanks, just start my download link.

When the download completes, open a terminal session as the student user. Navigate to the Downloads directory with the following command:

cd $HOME/Downloads

List the files in the $HOME/Downloads directory and you should see:

mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

As the sudoer user or root, run the following command (naturally, exclude sudo if you’re the root user):

sudo dnf install -y mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

It will most likely fail with an error message like this:

Last metadata expiration check: 2:50:04 ago on Thu 17 Nov 2022 09:33:15 AM EST.
Error: 
 Problem: conflicting requests
  - nothing provides gtkmm30-devel needed by mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.src
  - nothing provides libzip-devel needed by mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.src
  - nothing provides proj-devel needed by mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.src
  - nothing provides swig >= 3.0 needed by mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.src
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)

AlmaLinux doesn’t install these prerequisite packages. You’ll need to resolve these dependencies by installing them in the right order and groups before you can run the MySQL Workbench packages.

You can discover missing packages at the pkgs.org website. You need to resolve all four prerequisites before installing MySQL Workbench.

  1. Let’s start with the gtkmm30-devel package, which has eight separate dependencies. Assuming you’re still in your $HOME/Downloads directory, you can run the following command to get the gtkmm30-devel for AlmaLinux 9:

    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

    It downloads the following package:

    gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

    If you attempt to run it, the gtkmm30-devel package raises the following errors:

    sudo dnf install -y gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
    Last metadata expiration check: 0:41:13 ago on Thu 17 Nov 2022 02:39:59 PM EST.
    Error: 
     Problem: conflicting requests
      - nothing provides pkgconfig(atkmm-1.6) >= 2.24.2 needed by gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64
      - nothing provides pkgconfig(cairomm-1.0) >= 1.12.0 needed by gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64
      - nothing provides pkgconfig(giomm-2.4) >= 2.54.0 needed by gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64
      - nothing provides pkgconfig(pangomm-1.4) >= 1.12.0 needed by gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64
    (try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)

    While you only get four errors, there are more packages required. You need to use the wget utility to download these packages. I would recommend you create a temporary gtkmm30 subdirectory inside your $HOME/Downloads directory and change to that directory before downloading these files.

    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/atkmm-devel-2.28.2-2.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/cairomm-devel-1.14.2-10.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/gdk-pixbuf2-devel-2.42.6-2.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/glibmm24-devel-2.66.1-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/gtk3-devel-3.24.31-2.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/pangomm-devel-2.46.1-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/libsigc++20-devel-2.10.7-2.el9.x86_64.rpm

    You need to run these as a set of prerequisites, so from your gtkmm30 subdirectory use the following dnf command as the sudoer user:

    sudo dnf install -y *.rpm

    The log file for this is:

    Now return to your $HOME/Downloads directory and run the following command. You’ll notice that it installs and upgrades many more packages than you might expect.

    sudo dnf install -y gtkmm30-devel-3.24.5-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

    The log file for this is:

    All that done and you’ve only got the first of four dependencies resovled.

  2. Next, start with the libzip-devel package, which has a couple dependencies. Assuming you’re still in your $HOME/Downloads directory, you can run the following command to get the libzip-devel and its prerequisite packages for AlmaLinux 9:

    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/libzip-devel-1.7.3-7.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/cmake-filesystem-3.20.2-7.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/libzip-1.7.3-7.el9.x86_64.rpm

    You can run the prerequisites with the following command:

    sudo dnf install -y cmake*.rpm libzip-1.7.3*.rpm

    Now, you can run the libzip-devel package with this syntax:

    sudo dnf install -y libzip-devel*.rpm

    Having resolved the two dependencies, you can install the compression development kit. This completes the second step.

  3. Next, you need to apply the proj_devel package for AlmaLinux 9:

    wget https://download-ib01.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/9/Everything/x86_64/Packages/p/proj-devel-8.2.0-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

    Now, you can run the proj-devel package with this syntax:

    sudo dnf install -y proj-devel-8.2.0-1.el9.x86_64.rpm
  4. Next, you need to apply the swig packages for AlmaLinux 9:

    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/swig-4.0.2-8.el9.x86_64.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/swig-doc-4.0.2-8.el9.noarch.rpm
    wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/9/CRB/x86_64/os/Packages/swig-gdb-4.0.2-8.el9.x86_64.rpm
    sudo dnf install -y swig*.rpm
  5. Next, you need to apply the mysql-community-workbench packages for AlmaLinux 9. The download instructions where provided above. You apply the packages with the following command.

    sudo dnf install -y mysql-workbench-community-8.0.31-1.el9.x86_64.rpm

After applying the dependent and mysql-community-workbench packages, you can launch MySQL Workbench by clicking the Activities symbol in the upper left hand corner. That displays the nine-dots for Show Applications icon. Click the Show Applications icon and choose the MySQL Workbench icon to launch MySQL Workbench.

You’ll be prompted with the following dialog. Just click Don’t show this message again checkbox and the OK button to launch MySQL Workbench.

As always, I hope this helps those looking to solve a real problem.

Written by maclochlainn

November 20th, 2022 at 11:31 pm

AlmaLinux LAMP

without comments


After installing and configuring MySQL 8.0.30, I installed the Apache Web Server, PHP and the MySQLi packages. Here are the step-by-step instructions after installing and configuring the MySQL Server and provisioning a student user and the sakila and studentdb databases (blog for those steps). After installing the major components, I completed the HTTPS configuration steps for Apache 2.

The installation steps are:

  1. Install the Apache packages as the sudoer user with this command:

    sudo dnf install -y httpd
  2. Enable Apache as the sudoer user with this command:

    chkconfig httpd on

    This returns the following completion message:

    Note: Forwarding request to 'systemctl enable httpd.service'.
    Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.

    A quick Linux syntax note in the event you want to confirm the link or link target later. You can use the following syntax as a sudoer user to find the link:

    ls `find /etc -type l | grep httpd.service 2>/dev/null`

    and the following syntax as a sudoer user to find the link’s target:

    readlink `find /etc -type l | grep httpd.service 2>/dev/null`
  3. You still need to start the Apache service unless you reboot the operating system as the sudoer user with this command:

    apachectl start
  4. At this point, you need to check the firewall settings because Apache can’t even read localhost at this point. If you’re new to these firewall commands, you should consider reviewing Korbin Brown’s tutorial. As the sudoer user check the Apache available services with this command:

    firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-services

    It should return:

    cockpit dhcpv6-client ssh

    Add the following services and ports with these commands:

    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port 80/tcp --permanent
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port 443/tcp --permanent
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port 8080/tcp --permanent
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=http --permanent
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent

    Check the open ports with the following command:

    firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-ports

    It should return:

    80/tcp 443/tcp 8080/tcp

    Check the open services with the following command:

    firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-services

    It should return:

    cockpit dhcpv6-client http https ssh
  5. Create the hello.htm file in the /var/www/html directory as the root user:

    Restart the Apache service as the sudoer user:

    apache restart

    <html>
    <body>
    Hello World!
    </body>
    </html>

    Then, you can launch the Firefox browser and type the following:

    localhost/hello.htm

    It should print “Hello World!” in the browser.

  6. Install the php package as the sudoer user with the following command:

    sudo dnf install -y php

    Create the info.php file in the /var/www/html directory as the root user:

    <?php
      phpinfo();
    ?>

    apache restart

    Then, you can launch the Firefox browser and type the following:

    localhost/info.php

    It should return the following in the browser.

  7. Install the php_mysqli package as the sudoer user with the following command:

    dnf install -y php-mysqli

    Create the mysqli_check.php file in the /var/www/html directory as the root user:

    <html>
    <header>
    <title>Static Query Object Sample</title>
    </header>
    <body>
    <?php
      if (!function_exists('mysqli_init') && !extension_loaded('mysqli')) {
        print 'mysqli not installed.'; }
      else {
        print 'mysqli installed.'; }
      if (!function_exists('pdo_init') && !extension_loaded('pdo')) {
        print '<p>pdo not installed.</p>'; }
      else {
        print '<p>pdo installed.</p>'; }
    ?>
    </script>
    </body>
    </html>

    apache restart

    Then, you can launch the Firefox browser and type the following:

    localhost/mysqli_check.php

    It should print the following in the browser.

    mysqli installed.
     
    pdo installed.
  8. Check if the mod_ssl module is installed. You can use the following command::

    rpm -qa | grep mod_ssl

    Assuming it’s not installed, you install it like this:

    dnf install -y mod_ssl

    Recheck after installing mod_ssl with the following command::

    rpm -qa | grep mod_ssl

    It should print:

    mod_ssl-2.4.51-7.el9_0.x86_64
  9. AlmaLinux and Apache require you to resolve the ServerName values and the public and private keys. Run this command on AlmaLinux to begin verifying and configuring the ServerName values and the public and private keys:

    httpd -M | grep ssl

    Assuming a new installation consistent with were MySQL and Apache were just configured, you should get the following message:

    AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using localhost.localdomain. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
     ssl_module (shared)

    Recheck the failure for more detail with this command:

    sudo systemctl status httpd.service -l --no-pager

    It should print:

    ● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
         Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
        Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.d
                 └─php-fpm.conf
         Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-11-13 22:39:07 EST; 1h 37min ago
           Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
       Main PID: 1351 (httpd)
         Status: "Total requests: 0; Idle/Busy workers 100/0;Requests/sec: 0; Bytes served/sec:   0 B/sec"
          Tasks: 213 (limit: 23280)
         Memory: 43.1M
            CPU: 2.733s
         CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
                 ├─1351 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                 ├─1443 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                 ├─1452 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                 ├─1456 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                 └─1459 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
     
    Nov 13 22:39:06 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
    Nov 13 22:39:07 localhost.localdomain httpd[1351]: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using localhost.localdomain. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
    Nov 13 22:39:07 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
    Nov 13 22:39:07 localhost.localdomain httpd[1351]: Server configured, listening on: port 80

    It takes the next set of steps to fix the ServerName values.

    • Generically, on Linux you need to find the files to modify. You can use the following command from within the /etc directory to find the configuration files in the /etc directory that include ServerName in them. Their values will be proceeded by a # symbol because they’re comments by default.

      find /etc -type f | xargs grep -i ServerName

      It should return the following:

      ./httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf:#ServerName www.example.com:443
      ./httpd/conf/httpd.conf:# ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
      ./httpd/conf/httpd.conf:#ServerName www.example.com:80
      ./dnsmasq.conf:# tftp_servername (the third option to dhcp-boot) and in that
    • Add the following line to the ssl.conf file as the root user:

      ServerName localhost:443
    • Add the following line to the httpd.conf file as the root user:

      ServerName localhost:443
    • After adding the two values, restart Apache with the following command:

      sudo apachectl restart
    • Rerun the systemctl command to get the status of the httpd service with this command:

      sudo systemctl status httpd.service -l --no-pager

      It should print:

      ● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
           Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
          Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.d
                   └─php-fpm.conf
           Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-11-14 00:37:03 EST; 3min 23s ago
             Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
         Main PID: 53596 (httpd)
           Status: "Total requests: 0; Idle/Busy workers 100/0;Requests/sec: 0; Bytes served/sec:   0 B/sec"
            Tasks: 213 (limit: 23280)
           Memory: 34.0M
              CPU: 183ms
           CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
                   ├─53596 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                   ├─53597 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                   ├─53598 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                   ├─53599 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
                   └─53600 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
       
      Nov 14 00:37:03 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
      Nov 14 00:37:03 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
      Nov 14 00:37:03 localhost.localdomain httpd[53596]: Server configured, listening on: port 443, port 80
  10. Your next step requires setting up an SSL Certificate. Consistent with the design to build a standalone test system that uses a DHCP assigned IP address to resolve a localhost server name, you require the following two tasks to create an openssl self-signed certificate.

    • On the new instance, you create a private subdirectory with this command:

      sudo mkdir /etc/ssl/private

    • Then, you can build a self-signed certificate with this command:
      sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/apache-selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/apache-selfsigned.crt

      The openssl command will prompt you for these values to create a private key:

      You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
      into your certificate request.
      What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
      There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
      For some fields there will be a default value,
      If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
      -----
      Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:
      State or Province Name (full name) []:
      Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]:
      Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]:
      Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
      Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:
      Email Address []:
  11. Your last step requires three tasks to configure Apache to use SSL.

    • You need to create the following sites-available directory with the following command as the root user:

      mkdir /etc/httpd/sites-available

    • Add the following localhost.conf/etc/httpd/sites-available directory:
      <VirtualHost *:443>
         ServerName localhost
         DocumentRoot /var/www/html
       
         SSLEngine on
         SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/localhost.crt
         SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/apache-selfsigned.key
      </VirtualHost>

    • Restart Apache with the following command:

      sudo apachectl restart
  12. After configuring everything, let’s test our self-signed HTTPS skunkworks. Launch the default Firefox browser and enter the following URL, which uses the mysql_check.php file from step #7:

    https://localhost/mysqli_check.php

    It will raise a warning message about a potential security risk, which is caused by our self-signed certificate. Click the Advanced… button and will see the option to Accept the Risk and Continue. If you want to use the self-signed and contained AlmaLinux LAMP stack for developer testing, accept the risk.

    Having assumed the risk, the confirmation of the configuration will be displayed as follows:

As always, I hope this helps those looking to install MySQL, PHP, on AlmaLinux.

Written by maclochlainn

October 30th, 2022 at 11:16 pm

Node.js MySQL Error

without comments

While I blogged about how to setup Node.js and MySQL almost two years ago, it was interesting when a student ran into a problem. The student said they’d configured the environment but were unable to use Node.js to access MySQL.

The error is caused by this import statement:

const mysql = require('mysql')

The student got the following error, which simply says that they hadn’t installed the Node.js package for MySQL driver.

internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:638
    throw err;
    ^
 
Error: Cannot find module 'mysql'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:562:25)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:692:17)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:25:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/student/Data/cit325/oracle-s/lib/Oracle12cPLSQLCode/Introduction/query.js:4:15)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:778:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:789:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:653:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:593:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:585:3)

I explained they could fix the problem with the following two Node.js Package Manager (NPM) commands:

npm init --y 
npm install --save mysql

The student was able to retest the code with success. The issue was simply that the Node.js couldn’t find the NPM MySQL module.

Written by maclochlainn

June 12th, 2022 at 1:58 pm

Oracle Partitioned Tables

without comments

Oracle Partitioned Tables

Learning Outcomes

  • Learn about List Partitioning.
  • Learn about Range Partitioning.
  • Learn about Hash Partitioning.
  • Learn about Composite Partitioning.

Lesson Material

Partitioning is the process of breaking up a data source into a series of data sources. Partitioned tables are faster to access and transact against. Partitioning data becomes necessary as the amount of data grows in any table. It speeds the search to find rows and insert, update, or delete rows.

Oracle Database 21c supports four types of table partitioning: list, range, hash, and composite partitioning.

List Partitioning

A list partition works by identifying a column that contains a value, such as a STATE column in an ADDRESS table. Partitioning clauses follow the list of columns and constraints.

A list partition could use a STATE column, like the following (the complete example is avoided to conserve space, and the three dots represent the balance of partitions not shown):

CREATE TABLE franchise
( franchise_id    NUMBER CONSTRAINT pk_franchise PRIMARY KEY
, franchise_name  VARCHAR(20)
, city            VARCHAR(20)
, state           VARCHAR(20))
PARTITION BY LIST(state)
( PARTITION offshore VALUES('Alaska', 'Hawaii')
, PARTITION west VALUES('California', 'Oregon', 'Washington')
, PARTITION desert VALUES ('Arizona','New Mexico')
, PARTITION rockies VALUES ('Colorado', 'Idaho', 'Montana', 'Wyoming')
, ... );

This can be used with other values such as ZIP codes with great effect, but the maintenance of list partitioning can be considered costly. Cost occurs when the list of values changes over time. Infrequent change means low cost, while frequent change means high costs. In the latter case, you should consider other partitioning strategies. Although an Oracle database supports partitioning on a variable-length string, MySQL performs list partitioning only on integer columns.

Range Partitioning

Range partitioning is very helpful on any column that contains a continuous metric, such as dates or time. It works by stating a minimum set that is less than a certain value, and then a group of sets of higher values until you reach the top most set of values. This type of partition helps you improve performance by letting you search ranges rather than complete data sets. Range partitioning is also available in MySQL.

A range example based on dates could look like this:

PARTITION BY RANGE(rental_date)
( PARTITION rental_jan2011
  VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('31-JAN-11','DD-MON-YY')
, PARTITION rental_feb2011
  VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('28-FEB-11','DD-MON-YY')
, PARTITION rental_mar2011
  VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('31-MAR-11','DD-MON-YY')
, ... );

The problem with this type of partitioning, however, is that the new months require constant management. Many North American businesses simply add partitions for all months in the year as an annual maintenance task during the holidays in November or December. Companies that opt for bigger range increments reap search and access benefits from range partitioning, while minimizing ongoing maintenance expenses.

Hash Partitioning

Hash partitioning is much easier to implement than list or range partitioning. Many DBAs favor it because it avoids the manual maintenance of list and range partitioning. Oracle Database 21c documentation recommends that you implement a hash for the following reasons:

  • There is no concrete knowledge about how much data maps to a partitioning range.
  • The sizes of partitions are unknown at the outset and difficult to balance as data is added to the database.
  • A range partition might cluster data in an ineffective way.

This next statement creates eight partitions and stores them respectively in one of the eight tablespaces. The hash partition manages nodes and attempts to balance the distribution of rows across the nodes.

PARTITION BY HASH(store)
PARTITIONS 8
STORE IN (tablespace1, tablespace2, tablespace3, tablespace4
         ,tablespace5, tablespace6, tablespace7, tablespace8);

As you can imagine the maintenance for this type of partitioning is low. Some DBAs choose this method to get an initial sizing before adopting a list or range partitioning plan. Maximizing the physical resources of the machine ultimately rests with the DBAs who manage the system. Developers need to stand ready to assist DBAs with analysis and syntax support.

Composite Partitioning

Composite partitioning requires a partition and subpartition. The composites are combinations of two types of partitioning—typically, list and range partitioning, or range and hash composite partitioning. Which of these you should choose depends on a few considerations. List and range composite partitioning is done for historical information and is well suited for data warehouses. This method lets you partition on unordered or unrelated column values.

A composite partition like this uses the range as the partition and the list as the subpartition, like the following:

PARTITION BY RANGE (rental_date)
 SUBPARTITION BY LIST (state)
 (PARTITION FQ1_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-APR-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'))
  (SUBPARTITION offshore VALUES('Alaska', 'Hawaii')
  , SUBPARTITION west VALUES('California', 'Oregon', 'Washington')
  , SUBPARTITION desert VALUES ('Arizona','New Mexico')
  , SUBPARTITION rockies VALUES ('Colorado', 'Idaho', 'Montana', 'Wyoming')
  , ... )
,(PARTITION FQ2_1999 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('1-APR-2011','DD-MON-YYYY'))
  (SUBPARTITION offshore VALUES('Alaska', 'Hawaii')
  , SUBPARTITION west VALUES('California', 'Oregon', 'Washington')
  , SUBPARTITION desert VALUES ('Arizona','New Mexico')
  , SUBPARTITION rockies VALUES ('Colorado', 'Idaho', 'Montana', 'Wyoming')
  , ... )
, ... )

Range and hash composite partitioning is done for historical information when you also need to stripe data. Striping is the process of creating an attribute in a table that acts as a natural subtype or separator of data. Users typically view data sets of one subtype, which means organizing the data by stripes (subtypes) can speed access based on user access patterns.

Range is typically the partition and the hash is the subpartition in this composite partitioning schema. The syntax for this type of partition is shown next:

PARTITION BY RANGE (rental_date)
 SUBPARTITION BY HASH(store)
  SUBPARTITIONS 8 STORE IN (tablespace1, tablespace2, tablespace3
                           ,tablespace4, tablespace5, tablespace6
                           ,tablespace7, tablespace8)
   ( PARTITION rental_jan2011
     VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('31-JAN-11','DD-MON-YY')
   , PARTITION rental_feb2011
     VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('28-FEB-11','DD-MON-YY')
   , PARTITION rental_mar2011
     VALUES LESS THAN TO_DATE('31-MAR-11','DD-MON-YY')
   , ... )

Written by maclochlainn

May 30th, 2022 at 9:38 pm

Logging Table Function

with one comment

It is interesting when somebody remembers a presentation from 10 years ago. They asked if it was possible in PL/pgSQL to write an autonomous procedure to log data when calling a table view function. The answer is two fold. PL/pgSQL doesn’t support autonomous functions or procedures like the Oracle database but it doesn’t need to because unless you invoke a transaction it auto commits writes.

Logging table functions are important for security auditing and compliance management against laws, like SOX, HIPAA, and FERPA. All too many systems lack the basic ability to audit who queries records without raising an error and blocking the access. That means the bad actor or actress gains the ability to probe the system for weaknesses before determining an attack vector. It’s often better to capture the unauthorized access and take direct action to protect both the the data and systems.

While the example lets an unauthorized person access the information in the first version of the student_query, it blocks access by reporting no rows returned in the latter. Both versions of the query log the data and thereby collect the evidence necessary to act against the hack.

This blog post shows you how to write it and test it. Follow the following steps:

  1. Create the necessary tables and data to work with a logging PL/pgSQL table view function:

    /* Conditionally drop and create table. */
    DROP TABLE IF EXISTS student;
    CREATE TABLE student
    ( student_id      SERIAL
    , first_name      VARCHAR(20)
    , last_name       VARCHAR(20)
    , hogwarts_house  VARCHAR(10));
     
    /* Conditionally drop and create table. */
    DROP TABLE IF EXISTS logger;
    CREATE TABLE logger
    ( logger_id        SERIAL
    , app_user         VARCHAR(30)
    , queried_student  VARCHAR(30)
    , query_time       TIMESTAMP );
     
    /* Insert one record into table. */
    INSERT INTO student
    ( first_name, last_name, hogwarts_house )
    VALUES
     ( 'Harry', 'Potter', 'Gryffindor' )
    ,( 'Hermione', 'Granger', 'Gryffindor' )
    ,( 'Ronald', 'Weasily', 'Gryffindor' )
    ,( 'Draco', 'Malfoy', 'Slytherin' )
    ,( 'Vincent', 'Crabbe', 'Slytherin' )
    ,( 'Susan', 'Bones', 'Hufflepuff' )
    ,( 'Hannah', 'Abbott', 'Hufflepuff' )
    ,( 'Luna', 'Lovegood', 'Ravenclaw' )
    ,( 'Cho', 'Chang', 'Ravenclaw' )
    ,( 'Gilderoy', 'Lockhart', 'Ravenclaw' );
  2. While not necessary if you’re very familiar with PL/pgSQL, it may be helpful to review:

    • The SET command that lets you assign a value to a session-level variable, which you can later use in a PL/pgSQL block.
    • The SELECT-INTO statement in a DO-block.

    Here’s a test script that demonstrates both:

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    /* Set a session-level variable. */
    SET credential.app_user = 'Draco Malfoy';
     
    /* Secure the value from a session-level variable. */
    SELECT current_setting('credential.app_user');
     
    /* 
    DO
    $$
    DECLARE
      input   VARCHAR(30) := 'Hermione';
      output  VARCHAR(30);
    BEGIN
      /* Sample for partial name construction of full name. */
      SELECT CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) AS student_name
      INTO   output
      FROM   student s
      WHERE  CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) LIKE '%'||input||'%';
     
      /* Show result of local assignment via a query. */
      RAISE NOTICE '[%][%]', current_setting('credential.app_user'), output;
    END;
    $$;

    There’s an important parsing trick to this sample program. It uses the LIKE operator rather than the SIMILAR TO operator because the parser fails to recognize the SIMILAR TO operator.

    The DO-block returns the following output:

    NOTICE:  [Draco Malfoy][Hermione Granger]
  3. This creates the student_query logging table function, which takes a partial portion of a students first and last name to return the student information. While the example only returns the name and the Hogwarts House it lays a foundation for a more complete solution.

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    CREATE OR REPLACE
      FUNCTION student_query (partial_name  VARCHAR)
      RETURNS TABLE ( first_naem      VARCHAR(20)
                    , last_name       VARCHAR(20)
                    , hogwarts_house  VARCHAR(10) ) AS
    $$
    DECLARE
      queried   VARCHAR;
      by_whome  VARCHAR;
    BEGIN
      /* Query separately because embedding in insert statement fails. */
      SELECT CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) AS student_name
      FROM   student s INTO queried
      WHERE  CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) LIKE '%'||partial_name||'%';
     
      /* Log the query with the credentials of the user. */  
      INSERT INTO logger
      ( app_user
      , queried_student
      , query_time )
      VALUES
      ( current_setting('credential.app_user')
      , queried
      , NOW());
     
      /* Return the result set without disclosing the query was recorded. */
      RETURN QUERY
      SELECT s.first_name
      ,      s.last_name
      ,      s.hogwarts_house
      FROM   student s
      WHERE  CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) LIKE '%'||partial_name||'%';
    END;
    $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
  4. You can test the function by calling it, like this:

    SELECT * FROM student_query('Hermione');

    It displays:

     first_naem | last_name | hogwarts_house
    ------------+-----------+----------------
     Hermione   | Granger   | Gryffindor
    (1 row)

    You can check the logging table and discover who looked up another student’s records.

    SELECT * FROM logger;

    It displays:

     logger_id |   app_user   | queried_student  |         query_time
    -----------+--------------+------------------+----------------------------
             1 | Draco Malfoy | Hermione Granger | 2022-05-29 22:51:50.398987
    (1 row)
  5. Assuming you’ve built an authorized_user function that returns a Boolean, you can add a call to it in the WHERE clause. For simplicity, let’s implement the function to deny all users, like:

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    CREATE OR REPLACE
      FUNCTION authorized_user
      (user_name  VARCHAR) RETURNS BOOLEAN AS
    $$
    DECLARE
      lv_retval  BOOLEAN := FALSE;
    BEGIN
      RETURN lv_retval;
    END;
    $$  LANGUAGE plpgsql;

    You can now replace the query on lines 28 through 32 with the new one below. The added clause on line 33 denies access to unauthorized users because there aren’t any.

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      SELECT s.first_name
      ,      s.last_name
      ,      s.hogwarts_house
      FROM   student s
      WHERE  CONCAT(s.first_name, ' ', s.last_name) LIKE '%'||partial_name||'%'
      AND    authorized_user(current_setting('credential.app_user'));

    While it returns:

     first_naem | last_name | hogwarts_house
    ------------+-----------+----------------
    (0 rows)

    The logger table shows two entries. One for the query that returned a value and one for the version that didn’t.

     logger_id |   app_user   | queried_student  |         query_time
    -----------+--------------+------------------+----------------------------
             1 | Draco Malfoy | Hermione Granger | 2022-05-29 23:23:39.82063
             2 | Draco Malfoy | Hermione Granger | 2022-05-29 23:23:40.736945
    (2 rows)

    In both cases the bad actor Draco Malfoy’s unauthorized access is captured and he was denied any information without alerting him to the security precaution in a logging table function.

As always, I hope this helps those looking for this type of solution.

PostgreSQL Table Function

without comments

A quick tutorial on how to write a PL/pgSQL Table function. The functions is simple. It returns the list of conquistadors that were originally German. It does that by filtering on the lang column in the table. For example, you use ‘de‘ for German.

I’ll stage this with the same conquistador table used in the last post. Don’t forget to use the chcp command to the Active Console Code Page to 4-byte Unicode before you run the script file, like:

chcp 65001

Then, connect to the psql shell and run the following script file:

/* Conditionally drop the conquistador table. */
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS conquistador;
 
/* Create the conquistador table. */
CREATE TABLE conquistador
( conquistador_id   SERIAL
, conquistador      VARCHAR(30)
, actual_name       VARCHAR(30)
, nationality       VARCHAR(30)
, lang              VARCHAR(2));
 
/* Insert some conquistadors into the table. */
INSERT INTO conquistador
( conquistador
, actual_name
, nationality
, lang )
VALUES
 ('Juan de Fuca','Ioánnis Fokás','Greek','el')
,('Nicolás de Federmán','Nikolaus Federmann','German','de')
,('Sebastián Caboto','Sebastiano Caboto','Venetian','it')
,('Jorge de la Espira','Georg von Speyer','German','de')
,('Eusebio Francisco Kino','Eusebius Franz Kühn','Italian','it')
,('Wenceslao Linck','Wenceslaus Linck','Bohemian','cs')
,('Fernando Consag','Ferdinand Konšcak','Croatian','sr')
,('Américo Vespucio','Amerigo Vespucci','Italian','it')
,('Alejo García','Aleixo Garcia','Portuguese','pt');

Now, you can build another script file to create the getConquistador function, like:

/* Drop the funciton conditionally. */
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS getConquistador;

Create the getConquistador function:

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CREATE FUNCTION getConquistador (IN lang_in VARCHAR(2))
  RETURNS TABLE
    ( conquistador      VARCHAR(30)
    , actual_name       VARCHAR(30)
    , nationality       VARCHAR(30)) AS
$$
BEGIN
  RETURN QUERY
  SELECT c.conquistador
  ,      c.actual_name
  ,      c.nationality
  FROM   conquistador c
  WHERE  c.lang = lang_in;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Then, you can test it like:

SELECT * FROM getConquistador('de');

It will return the following:

     conquistador      |    actual_name     | nationality
-----------------------+--------------------+-------------
 Nicolás de Federmán   | Nikolaus Federmann | German
 Jorge de la Espira    | Georg von Speyer   | German
(2 rows)

As always, I hope this helps with a technique that’s useful.

PL/pgSQL Date Function

with 2 comments

This post provides an example of using PostgreSQL’s REGEXP_MATCH function, which works very much like the REGEXP_LIKE function in Oracle and a verify_date function that converts a string data type to date data type.

Here’s a basic function to show how to use a generic REGEXP_MATCH function:

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DO
$$
DECLARE
  lv_date_in  DATE := '2022-10-22';
BEGIN
 
  IF (REGEXP_MATCH('2022-10-02','^[0-9]{4,4}-[0-9]{2,2}-[0-9]{2,2}$') IS NOT NULL) THEN
    RAISE NOTICE '[%]', 'Truth';
  END IF;
END;
$$;

The following is a verify_date function, which takes a string with the ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ or ‘YY-MM-DD’ format and returns a BOOLEAN true or false value.

CREATE FUNCTION verify_date
  ( IN pv_date_in  VARCHAR(10)) RETURNS BOOLEAN AS
  $$
  DECLARE
    /* Local return variable. */
    lv_retval  BOOLEAN := FALSE;
  BEGIN
    /* Check for a YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD string. */
    IF REGEXP_MATCH(pv_date_in,'^[0-9]{2,4}-[0-9]{2,2}-[0-9]{2,2}$') IS NOT NULL THEN
 
      /* Case statement checks for 28 or 29, 30, or 31 day month. */
      CASE
        /* Valid 31 day month date value. */
        WHEN (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 10 AND
              SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,6,2) IN ('01','03','05','07','08','10','12') AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,9,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 31) OR
             (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 8 AND
              SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,4,2) IN ('01','03','05','07','08','10','12') AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,7,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 31) THEN 
          lv_retval := TRUE;
 
        /* Valid 30 day month date value. */
        WHEN (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 10 AND
              SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,6,2) IN ('04','06','09','11') AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,9,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 30) OR
             (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 8 AND
              SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,4,2) IN ('04','06','09','11') AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,7,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 30) THEN 
          lv_retval := TRUE;
 
        /* Valid 28 or 29 day month date value. */
        WHEN (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 10 AND SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,6,2) = '02') OR
             (LENGTH(pv_date_in) =  8 AND SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,4,2) = '02') THEN
          /* Verify 4-digit year. */
          IF (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 10 AND
              MOD(TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,1,4),'99'),4) = 0 AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,9,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 29) OR
             (LENGTH(pv_date_in) =  8 AND
              MOD(TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(pv_date_in,'YYYY-MM-DD'),'YYYY-MM-DD'),1,4),'99'),4) = 0 AND
              TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,7,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 29) THEN
            lv_retval := TRUE;
          ELSE /* Not a leap year. */
            IF (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 10 AND
                TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,9,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 28) OR
               (LENGTH(pv_date_in) = 8 AND
                TO_NUMBER(SUBSTRING(pv_date_in,7,2),'99') BETWEEN 1 AND 28)THEN
              lv_retval := TRUE;
            END IF;
          END IF;
       NULL;
      END CASE;
    END IF;
 
    /* Return date. */
    RETURN lv_retval;
  END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

The following four SQL test cases:

SELECT verify_date('2020-07-04') AS "verify_date('2020-07-04')";
SELECT verify_date('71-05-31')   AS "verify_date('71-05-31')";
SELECT verify_date('2024-02-29') AS "verify_date('2024-02-29')";
SELECT verify_date('2019-04-31') AS "verify_date('2019-04-31')";

Return the following:

 verify_date('2020-07-04')
---------------------------
 t
(1 row)
 
 
 verify_date('71-05-31')
-------------------------
 t
(1 row)
 
 
 verify_date('2024-02-29')
---------------------------
 t
(1 row)
 
 
 verify_date('2019-04-31')
---------------------------
 f
(1 row)

As always, I hope the example code fills somebody’s need.

Written by maclochlainn

May 25th, 2022 at 1:47 am

PL/SQL List to Struct

without comments

Every now and then, I get questions from folks about how to tune in-memory elements of their PL/SQL programs. This blog post address one of those core issues that some PL/SQL programmers avoid.

Specifically, it addresses how to convert a list of values into a structure (in C/C++ its a struct, in Java its an ArrayList, and PL/SQL it’s a table of scalar or object types). Oracle lingo hides the similarity by calling either an Attribute Definition Type (ADT) or User-Defined Type (UDT). The difference in the Oracle space is that an ADT deals with a type defined in DBMS_STANDARD package, which is more or less like a primitive type in Java.

Oracle does this for two reasons:

The cast_strings function converts a list of strings into a record data structure. It lets the list of strings have either a densely or sparsely populated list of values, and it calls the verify_date function to identify a DATE data type and regular expressions to identify numbers and strings.

You need to build a UDT object type and lists of both ADT and UDT data types.

/* Create a table of strings. */
CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE tre AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20);
/
 
/* Create a structure of a date, number, and string. */
CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE struct IS OBJECT
  ( xdate     DATE
  , xnumber  NUMBER
  , xstring  VARCHAR2(20));
/
 
/* Create a table of tre type. */
CREATE OR REPLACE
  TYPE structs IS TABLE OF struct;
/

The cast_strings function is defined below:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION cast_strings
  ( pv_list  TRE ) RETURN struct IS
 
  /* Declare a UDT and initialize an empty struct variable. */
  lv_retval  STRUCT := struct( xdate => NULL
                             , xnumber => NULL
					         , xstring => NULL); 
  BEGIN  
    /* Loop through list of values to find only the numbers. */
    FOR i IN 1..pv_list.LAST LOOP
      /* Ensure that a sparsely populated list can't fail. */
      IF pv_list.EXISTS(i) THEN
        /* Order if number evaluation before string evaluation. */
        CASE
          WHEN lv_retval.xnumber IS NULL AND REGEXP_LIKE(pv_list(i),'^[[:digit:]]*$') THEN
            lv_retval.xnumber := pv_list(i);
          WHEN verify_date(pv_list(i)) THEN
            IF lv_retval.xdate IS NULL THEN
              lv_retval.xdate := pv_list(i);
            ELSE
              lv_retval.xdate := NULL;
            END IF;
          WHEN lv_retval.xstring IS NULL AND REGEXP_LIKE(pv_list(i),'^[[:alnum:]]*$') THEN
            lv_retval.xstring := pv_list(i);
          ELSE
            NULL;
        END CASE;
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
 
    /* Print the results. */
    RETURN lv_retval;
  END;
/

There are three test cases for this function:

  • The first use-case checks whether the input parameter is a sparsely or densely populated list:

    DECLARE
      /* Declare an input variable of three or more elements. */
      lv_list    TRE := tre('Berlin','25','09-May-1945','45');
     
      /* Declare a variable to hold the compound type values. */
      lv_struct  STRUCT;
    BEGIN
      /* Make the set sparsely populated. */
      lv_list.DELETE(2);
     
      /* Test the cast_strings function. */
      lv_struct := cast_strings(lv_list);
     
      /* Print the values of the compound variable. */
      dbms_output.put_line(CHR(10));
      dbms_output.put_line('xstring ['||lv_struct.xstring||']');
      dbms_output.put_line('xdate   ['||TO_CHAR(lv_struct.xdate,'DD-MON-YYYY')||']');
      dbms_output.put_line('xnumber ['||lv_struct.xnumber||']');
    END;
    /

    It should return:

    xstring [Berlin]
    xdate   [09-MAY-1945]
    xnumber [45]

    The program defines two numbers and deletes the first number, which is why it prints the second number.

  • The second use-case checks with a list of only one element:

    SELECT TO_CHAR(xdate,'DD-MON-YYYY') AS xdate
    ,      xnumber
    ,      xstring
    FROM   TABLE(structs(cast_strings(tre('catch22','25','25-Nov-1945'))));

    It should return:

    XDATE                   XNUMBER XSTRING
    -------------------- ---------- --------------------
    25-NOV-1945                  25 catch22

    The program returns a structure with values converted into their appropriate data type.

  • The third use-case checks with a list of two elements:

    SELECT TO_CHAR(xdate,'DD-MON-YYYY') AS xdate
    ,      xnumber
    ,      xstring
    FROM   TABLE(structs(cast_strings(tre('catch22','25','25-Nov-1945'))
                        ,cast_strings(tre('31-APR-2017','1918','areodromes'))));

    It should return:

    XDATE                   XNUMBER XSTRING
    -------------------- ---------- --------------------
    25-NOV-1945                  25 catch22
                               1918 areodromes

    The program defines calls the cast_strings with a valid set of values and an invalid set of values. The invalid set of values contains a bad date in the set of values.

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to solve this type of problem.