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sqlplus on Ubuntu

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With the release of Oracle Database 23c Free came the ability to update components of the container’s base operating system. Naturally, I took full advantage of that to build my development machine on an Ubuntu 22.0.4 VMware instance with a Docker implementation of the Oracle Database 23c Free container.

Unfortunately, there were changes from that release to the release of Oracle Database 23ai Free. Specifically, Oracle disallows direct patching of their published container’s native Unbreakable Linux 8. It appears the restriction lies in licensing but I haven’t been able to get a clear answer. Oracle’s instructions also shifted from using Docker to using Podman, which reduces the development platform to a limited type of Database as a Service (DaaS) environment. Moreover, that means it requires more skill to leverage the Oracle Database 23ai Free container as a real developer environment by installing and configuring Oracle’s Client software on the host Ubuntu operating system. Then, you must create a host of shared directories to the container to use external files or test external libraries.

While Oracle’s invocation of proprietary control of their native OS is annoying, it’s not nearly as onerous as Apple’s decision to not offer an Intel chip for their MacBook Pro machines. I’ve a hunch Oracle will grant access to their Oracle 23ai Free container in the future but for now this article shows you how to get native SQL*Plus access working.

As to Apple, while I’ve fixed my older machines by upgrading my Intel-based MacBook Pro (i7) to native Ubuntu, it still annoying. Yes, Tim Cooke, I’d rather run Ubuntu than sell back a wonderful piece of hardware on the cheap to Apple. I also did the same upgrade to my iMac 5K with 32 GB of RAM but swapped the cheap hybrid drive for a 2TB SSD.

Now to the technical content that lets you natively develop using Oracle’s SQL*Plus on Ubuntu against the Oracle Database 23ai Free container. While I love SQL*Developer, it has significant limits when testing large blocks of code. Whereas, good techniques, sqlplus, and Bash shell can simplify code development and integration testing.

Here are the steps to get sqlplus working on Ubuntu for your Oracle Database 23ai Free container:

  1. You need to download the following two zip files from the Oracle Instant Client Downloads for Linux x86-64 (64-bit) website, which assumes an Intel x86 Chip Architecture:

  2. Open a terminal as your default Ubuntu user and do the following to assume the root superuser responsibility:

    sudo sh

    As the root user, create the following directory for the Oracle Client software:

    mkdir /opt/oracle/instantclient_23_4

    As the root user, copy the previously downloaded files to the /opt/oracle directory (this assumes your default user is name as the student user:

    cp ~student/Downloads/instantclient*.zip  /opt/oracle/.

    As the root user, change directory with the cd command to the /opt/oracle directory and verify with the ls -al command that you have the following two files:

    total 120968
    drwxr-xr-x 4 root root      4096 Jul  3 14:29 .
    drwxr-xr-x 6 root root      4096 Jul  3 09:09 ..
    drwxr-xr-x 4 root root      4096 Jul  3 10:11 instantclient_23_4
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 118377607 Jul  3 14:29 instantclient-basic-linux.x64-23.4.0.24.05.zip
    -rw-r--r-- 1 root root   5471693 Jul  3 14:29 instantclient-sqlplus-linux.x64-23.4.0.24.05.zip

    As the root user, unzip the two zip files in the following order with the unzip command:

    unzip instantclient-basic-linux.x64-23.4.0.24.05.zip

    and, then

    unzip instantclient-sqlplus-linux.x64-23.4.0.24.05.zip

  3. As the root user, run these two commands:

    sudo sh -c "echo /opt/oracle/instantclient_23_4 > \
    /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle-instantclient.conf"
    sudo ldconfig

    Next, you’ll test the installation. As the root user, run these three commands, which you’ll later add to your standard Ubuntu user’s .bashrc file:

    export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/instantclient_23_4
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
    export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME

    As the root user, you can now test whether you can start the Oracle SQL*Plus client with the following command:

    sqlplus /nolog

    It should connect and return this:

    SQL*Plus: RELEASE 23.0.0.0.0 - Production ON Wed Jul 3 10:12:33 2024
    Version 23.4.0.24.05
     
    Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle.  ALL rights reserved.
     
    SQL>

    If you get this type of error, either you didn’t install the Oracle instant client basic libraries or you installed an incompatible version:

    sqlplus: error while loading shared libraries: libclntsh.so.23.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

    If you got the error, you’ll need to readdress the installation of the Oracle instant client typically.

    Another type of error can occur if you get ahead of these instructions and try to connect to the Oracle Database 23ai Free container with syntax like this:

    sql> connect c##student/student@free

    because you’ll most likely get an error like this:

    ERROR:
    ORA-12162: TNS:net service name is incorrectly specified
    Help: https://docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-12162/

    The error occurs because you haven’t setup the Oracle Net Services, which is level 5 in the OSI (Open System Interconnection) Model. In Oracle-speak, that means you haven’t setup a tnsnames.ora file, failed to put the tnsnames.ora file in the right place, or failed to set the $TNS_ADMIN environment variable correctly.

  4. While there are many ways to setup a tnsnames.ora file, the best way is to follow Oracle’s recommended approaches. In the Oracle client approach you should put the tnsnames.ora file in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory and use the $TNS_ADMIN environment variable to point to it. Unfortunately, that approach doesn’t work when you’re installing the Oracle client software unless you want to play with mount points. It’s easiest to create a hidden directory in your sandbox user, which is student in this example.

    As the root user, use the mkdir command to create the .oracle directory in your student user directory:

    mkdir /home/student/.oracle

    As the student user, navigate to the /home/student/.oracle directory and create the tnsnames.ora file with the following text:

    # tnsnames.ora Network Configuration FILE:
     
    FREE =
      (DESCRIPTION =
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 127.0.0.0)(PORT = 1521))
        (CONNECT_DATA =
          (SERVER = DEDICATED)
          (SERVICE_NAME = FREE)
        )
      )
     
    LISTENER_FREE =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 127.0.0.0)(PORT = 1521))
     
    FREEPDB1 =
      (DESCRIPTION =
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 127.0.0.0)(PORT = 1521))
        (CONNECT_DATA =
          (SERVER = DEDICATED)
          (SERVICE_NAME = FREEPDB1)
        )
      )
     
    EXTPROC_CONNECTION_DATA =
      (DESCRIPTION =
         (ADDRESS_LIST =
           (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC_FOR_FREE))
         )
         (CONNECT_DATA =
           (SID = PLSExtProc)
           (PRESENTATION = RO)
         )
      )

    Exit the root user to your student user. As the student user set the $TNS_ADMIN environment variable like:

    export TNS_ADMIN=$HOME/.oracle

    Assuming you’ve already created a container user, like c##student, connect to sqlplus with the following syntax:

    sqlplus c##student/student@free

    You should see the following when connection to an Oracle 23c Container:

    SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production on Wed Jul 3 15:05:10 2024
    Version 23.4.0.24.05
     
    Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
     
    Last Successful login time: Wed Jul 03 2024 10:52:13 -06:00
     
    Connected to:
    Oracle Database 23c Free Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, and Run for Free
    Version 23.3.0.23.09
     
    SQL>

    You should see the following when connection to an Oracle 23ai Container:

    SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production on Sat Jul 20 11:05:08 2024
    Version 23.4.0.24.05
     
    Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
     
    Last Successful login time: Sat Jul 20 2024 10:41:38 -06:00
     
    Connected to:
    Oracle Database 23ai Free Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, and Run for Free
    Version 23.4.0.24.05
     
    SQL>
  5. The last step adds all of the configuration settings into the .bashrc file. Before we do that, you may want to add the rlwrap utility library so you can use the up-arrow to navigate the sqlplus history. You install it as the root or sudo user on Ubuntu, like

    apt install -y rlwrap

    If you want to manually check what you’re removing, use the following command as the root user:

    apt autoremove

  6. The last step requires that you put the environment variables into the student user’s .bashrc shell script, and add a sqlplus function to take advantage of the new libraries added to read your prior history inside the SQL*Plus command line.

    You should edit the .bashrc file and add the following environment variables and sqlplus() function:

    # Configure Oracle Client software.
    export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/instantclient_23_4
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
    export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME
    export TNS_ADMIN=$HOME/.oracle
     
    # A user-defined function to wrap the sqlplus history.
    sqlplus () 
    {
        # Discover the fully qualified program name. 
        path=`which rlwrap 2>/dev/null`
        file=''
     
        # Parse the program name from the path.
        if [ -n ${path} ]; then
            file=${path##/*/}
        fi;
     
        # Wrap when there is a file and it is rewrap.
        if [ -n ${file} ] && [[ ${file} = "rlwrap" ]]; then
            rlwrap $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus "${@}"
        else
            echo "Command-line history unavailable: Install the rlwrap package."
            $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus "${@}"
        fi
    }

    You should remember that when you access sqlplus from the Ubuntu environment the TNS net service name is required. If you should forget to include it like this:

    sqlplus c##student/student

    You’ll get the following error:

    ERROR:
    ORA-12162: TNS:net service name is incorrectly specified
    Help: https://docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-12162/

    The correct way is:

    sqlplus c##student/student@free

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

Written by maclochlainn

July 3rd, 2024 at 1:58 pm

Updating Nested ADTs

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The first part of this series showed how you can leverage Oracle’s SQL syntax with UDT columns and collection columns. It would be nice if Oracle gave you some SQL to work with the elements of ADT collections, but they don’t. After all, that’s why you have this article.

While you could change the setup of the prior example table, it’s easier to create a new customer table. The new customer table drops the address column. There’s also a new pizza table. The pizza table includes an ingredient ADT collection column, which by design holds a unique set of ingredients for each pizza.

Realistically, ADT collections of numbers, characters, and dates have little value by themselves. That’s because those data types typically don’t have much meaning. A set of unique strings can be useful for certain use cases.

You create the list ADT type with this syntax:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE list IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(20);
  3  /

You create the customer and pizza tables, and customer_s and pizza_s sequences with the following syntax:

SQL> CREATE TABLE customer
  2  ( customer_id  NUMBER
  3  , first_name   VARCHAR2(20)
  4  , last_name    VARCHAR2(20)
  5  , CONSTRAINT pk_customer PRIMARY KEY (customer_id));
 
SQL> CREATE SEQUENCE customer_s;
 
SQL> CREATE TABLE pizza
  2  ( pizza_id     NUMBER
  3  , customer_id  NUMBER
  4  , pizza_size   VARCHAR2(10)
  5  , ingredients  LIST
  6  , CONSTRAINT pk_pizza PRIMARY KEY (pizza_id)
  7  , CONSTRAINT ck_pizza_size
  8    CHECK (pizza_size IN ('Mini','Small','Medium','Large','Very Large')))
  9  NESTED TABLE ingredients STORE AS ingredient_table;
 
SQL> CREATE SEQUENCE pizza_s;

The customer table only has scalar columns. The pizza table has the ingredient ADT collection column. Line 9 creates a nested ingredient_table for the ingredient ADT collection column.

There is a primary and foreign key relationship between the customer and pizza tables. That relationship between the tables requires that you insert rows into the customer table before you insert rows into the pizza table.

The sample script populates the customer table with characters from the Green Arrow television show, as follows:

  Customer
    ID # Last Name  First Name
-------- ---------- ----------
       1 Queen      Oliver
       2 Queen      Thea
       3 Queen      Moira
       4 Lance      Dinah
       5 Lance      Quentin
       6 Diggle     John
       7 Wilson     Slade

Next, you can insert three rows into the pizza table. Each has different ingredients in the ingredient ADT column.

The following is the syntax for the INSERT statements:

SQL> INSERT INTO pizza
  2  VALUES
  3  ( pizza_s.NEXTVAL
  4  ,(SELECT c.customer_id FROM customer c
  5    WHERE  c.first_name = 'Quentin' AND c.last_name = 'Lance')
  6  ,'Large'
  7  , list('Cheese','Marinara Sauce','Sausage','Salami'));
 
SQL> INSERT INTO pizza
  2  VALUES
  3  ( pizza_s.NEXTVAL
  4  ,(SELECT c.customer_id FROM customer c
  5    WHERE  c.first_name = 'Thea' AND c.last_name = 'Queen')
  6  ,'Medium'
  7  , list('Cheese','Marinara Sauce','Canadian Bacon','Pineapple'));
 
SQL> INSERT INTO pizza
  2  VALUES
  3  ( pizza_s.NEXTVAL
  4  ,(SELECT c.customer_id FROM customer c
  5    WHERE  c.first_name = 'John' AND c.last_name = 'Diggle')
  6  ,'Small'
  7  , list('Cheese','BBQ Sauce','Chicken'));

Querying results from tables with nested ADT columns provides interesting results. An ordinary query, like this:

SQL> COL pizza_id     FORMAT 99999  HEADING "Pizza|ID #"
SQL> COL pizza_size   FORMAT A6     HEADING "Pizza|Size"
SQL> COL ingredients  FORMAT A64    HEADING "Ingredients"
SQL> SELECT pizza_id
  2  ,      pizza_size
  3  ,      ingredients
  4  FROM   pizza;

… returns the following results with a flattened object type:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ ----------------------------------------------------------------“
     1 Large  LIST('Cheese', 'Marinara Sauce', 'Sausage', 'Salami')
     2 Medium LIST('Cheese', 'Marinara Sauce', 'Canadian Bacon', 'Pineapple')
     3 Small  LIST('Cheese', 'BBQ Sauce', 'Chicken')

If you use a CROSS JOIN it multiplies each row times the number of items in the ADT collection column. The multiplication hides the results.

The best solution for displaying results from an ADT collection requires that you serialize the results. The following serialize_set PL/SQL function creates a serialized comma separated list:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    FUNCTION serialize_set (pv_list LIST) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
  3      /* Declare a return string as large as you need. */
  4      lv_comma_string  VARCHAR2(60);
  5    BEGIN
  6      /* Read list of values and serialize them in a string. */
  7      FOR i IN 1..pv_list.COUNT LOOP
  8        IF NOT i = pv_list.COUNT THEN
  9          lv_comma_string := lv_comma_string || pv_list(i) || ', ';
 10        ELSE
 11          lv_comma_string := lv_comma_string || pv_list(i);
 12        END IF;
 13      END LOOP;
 14      RETURN lv_comma_string;
 15    END serialize_set;

You can now write a query that uses your PL/SQL function to format the ADT collection column values into a single row. The syntax for the query is:

SQL> SELECT pizza_id
  2  ,      pizza_size
  3  ,      serialize_set(ingredients) AS ingredients
  4  FROM   pizza;

It returns:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ -----------------------------------------------------------
     1 Large  Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Sausage, Salami
     2 Medium Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Canadian Bacon, Pineapple
     3 Small  Cheese, BBQ Sauce, Chicken

At this point, you know how to create a table with an ADT collection column and how to insert values. The Oracle documentation says you can only replace the whole content of the ADT column in an UPDATE statement. That’s true in practice but not in principle.

The principal differs because you can write PL/SQL functions that add, change, or remove elements from the ADT collection that works in an UPDATE statement. The trick is quite simple. You achieve it by:

  • Passing the current ADT collection as a IN-only mode parameter
  • Passing any new parameters when you add or change elements
  • Passing any old parameters when you change or remove elements

Now, you will learn how to create the add_elements, change_elements, and remove_elements PL/SQL functions. They let you use an UPDATE statement to add, change, or remove elements from an ADT collection column.

Adding ADT elements with an UPDATE statement

This section shows you how to add elements to an ADT collection column with an UPDATE statement. The add_elements PL/SQL function can add one or many elements to an ADT collection column. That’s possible because the new element or elements are passed to the function inside an ADT collection parameter.

The merit of this type of solution is that you only need one function to accomplish two tasks. The test cases show you how to pass one new element or a set of new elements.

An alternative solution would have you write two functions. One would accept a collection parameter and a variable length string, and the other would accept two collection parameters. Many developers might choose to do that because they would like to leverage overloading inside PL/SQL packages. You should ask yourself one question when you make the decision about your approach to this problem: Which is easier to maintain and use?

The following creates the add_elements PL/SQL function:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    FUNCTION add_elements
  3    ( pv_list     LIST
  4    , pv_element  LIST ) RETURN LIST IS
  5      /* Declare local return collection variable. */
  6      lv_list  LIST;
  7    BEGIN
  8      /* Check for instantiated collection and initialize when necessary. */
  9      IF pv_list IS NULL THEN
 10        lv_list := list();
 11      ELSE
 12        /* Assign parameter collection to local collection variable. */
 13        lv_list := pv_list;
 14        FOR i IN 1..pv_element.COUNT LOOP
 15          /* Check to avoid duplicates, allocate memory and assign value. */
 16          IF NOT list(pv_element(i)) SUBMULTISET OF lv_list THEN
 17            lv_list.EXTEND;
 18            lv_list(lv_list.COUNT) := pv_element(i);
 19          END IF;
 20        END LOOP;
 21      END IF;
 22  
 23      /* Return new collection. */
 24      RETURN lv_list;
 25    END add_elements;
 26  /

Line 3 and 4 define the two parameters of the add_elements function as ADT collections. Line 4 also designates the return type of the function, which is the same ADT collection.

Line 6 declares a local ADT collection variable. You need a local lv_list ADT collection variable because you want to accept two collections and merge them into the local ADT collection variable. Then, you return the local ADT collection variable as the function outcome.

Line 9 checks whether the pv_list parameter is null. Line 10 initializes the lv_list variable when it is null to avoid an unitialized error when you try to assign values to it. Line 13 assigns an initialized ADT collection column’s value to the local lv_list variable. Line 14 starts a loop through the ADT collection you want to add to the ingredient column’s list of values.

Line 16 use the SUBMULTISET set operator to ensure that only new add elements when they don’t already exist in the ingredient ADT collection column. Line 17 allocates memory space in the lv_list variable, and line 18 assigns a new element to it.

You could extend memory for the total count of elements but that would make the index assignment on line 18 more complex. Combining them increments the count of items and lets you use the count as the index value. Line 24 returns the local ADT collection and replaces the original ingredient column value.

The test case for the function should ensure that only unique values are assigned to the ingredient ADT collection column value. This can be done by a three-step test case. The test queries the values in the ADT collection column, updates them, and re-queries them.

The following query shows you the contents of the row:

SQL> SELECT pizza_id, pizza_size
  2  ,      serialize_set(ingredients) AS ingredients
  3  FROM   pizza
  4  WHERE  customer_id =
  5          ( SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  6            WHERE  first_name = 'Quentin' AND last_name = 'Lance' );

It returns:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ -----------------------------------------------------------
     1 Large  Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Sausage, Salami

You can update the ADT collection column’s values with the following UPDATE statement. It attempts to add Sausage and Italian Sausage to the list of values. The function should add only Italian Sausage because Sausage already exists in the list of values. When you re-query the row you will see that the add_elements added only the element Italian Sausage.

You would use the following UPDATE statement:

SQL> UPDATE pizza
  2  SET    ingredients =
  3           add_elements(ingredients,list('Italian Sausage','Sausage'))
  4  WHERE  customer_id =
  5          (SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  6           WHERE  first_name = 'Quentin' AND last_name = 'Lance');

Line 3 calls the add_elements PL/SQL function with the ingredient ADT collection column’s value as the first parameter. The second parameter is a dynamically created list of the elements. It contains the element or elements you want to add to the ingredient column’s values.

Re-querying the row, you should see that the UPDATE statement added only the Italian Sausage element to the row. You should see the following output:

Pizza Pizza 
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ -----------------------------------------------------------
     1 Large  Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Sausage, Salami, Italian Sausage'

As you can see, the call to the add_elements function adds only Italian Sausage to the list of values in the ingredient column, while a comma delimited list of single quote delimited strings allows you to add multiple elements. You add one element by making it the only single quote delimited item in the list constructor call.

Updating ADT elements with an UPDATE statement

This section shows you how to change elements in an ADT collection column with an UPDATE statement. The change_elements PL/SQL function can change one to many elements in an ADT collection column. That’s possible because the change element or elements are passed to the function inside ADT collection parameters.

Unlike the add_elements function, the change_elements function requires an ADT collection parameter and a UDT collection element. The UDT collection needs to hold an old and new value.

The alternative approach would require you to try and synchronize two ADT collection value sets. One would hold all the old values and the other would hold all the new values, and they would both need to be synchronized in mirrored positional order.

You define a pair UDT object type such as the following:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE pair IS OBJECT
  3    ( old  VARCHAR2(20)
  4    , NEW  VARCHAR2(20));
  5  /

Next, you define a change UDT collection type:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE change IS TABLE OF pair;
  3  /

You define the change_element function as shown below:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    FUNCTION change_elements
  3    ( pv_list     LIST
  4    , pv_element  CHANGE ) RETURN LIST IS
  5     /* Declare local return collection variable. */
  6     lv_list  LIST;
  7    BEGIN
  8     /* Check for instantiated collection and initialize when necessary. */
  9     IF pv_list IS NULL THEN
 10       lv_list := list();
 11     ELSE
 12       /* Assign parameter collection to local collection variable. */
 13       lv_list := pv_list;
 14       FOR i IN 1..pv_element.COUNT LOOP
 15         /* Check to avoid duplicates, allocate memory and assign value. */
 16         IF NOT list(pv_element(i).old) SUBMULTISET OF lv_list THEN
 17           lv_list.EXTEND;
 18           lv_list(lv_list.COUNT) := pv_element(i).NEW;
 19         END IF;
 20       END LOOP;
 21     END IF;
 22  
 23     /* Return new collection. */
 24     RETURN lv_list;
 25    END change_elements;
 26  /

Line 3 and 4 define the two parameters of the change_elements function. The first pv_list parameter uses the list ADT collection type and the list type that matches the ingredient column’s data type. Line 4 defines a parameter that uses the change UDT collection type, which is a collection of the pair UDT type.

Line 6 declares a local ADT collection variable, such as the add_elements function. The lv_list variable also serves the same purpose as it does in the add_elements function.

Line 9 checks whether the pv_list parameter is null. Line 10 initializes the lv_list variable when it is null to avoid an unitialized error when you try to assign values to it. Line 13 assigns an initialized ADT collection column’s value to the local lv_list variable. Line 14 starts a loop through the ADT collection you want to add to the ingredient column’s list of values.

Line 16 uses the SUBMULTISET set operator to ensure that the old element exists in the ingredient ADT collection column. Line 17 allocates memory space in the lv_list variable, and line 18 assigns the new element to it.

The change_elements function couples the memory allocation with the assignment of new values. Line 24 returns the local ADT collection and replaces the original ingredient column value.

The test case shows you how to pass one old and one new element or a set of old and new elements. The initial query shows you the data before the update:

SQL> SELECT pizza_id, pizza_size
  2  ,          serialize_set(ingredients) AS ingredients
  3  FROM   pizza
  4  WHERE  customer_id =
  5           (SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  6            WHERE  first_name = 'Thea' AND last_name = 'Queen');

It returns:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ -----------------------------------------------------------
     2 Medium Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Canadian Bacon

You now update the row with the following query:

SQL> UPDATE pizza
  2  SET    ingredients =
  3           change_elements(ingredients
  4                          ,change(pair(old => 'Italian Sausage'
  5                                      ,NEW => 'Linguica')))
  6  WHERE  customer_id =
  7          ( SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  8            WHERE  first_name = 'Thea' AND last_name = 'Queen' );

When you re-query the row, it shows you the following:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ -----------------------------------------------------------
     2 Medium Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Canadian Bacon, Linguica

As you can see, the call to the change_elements function changes onlyItalian Sausage to Linguica in the list of values in the ingredient column, while a comma delimited list of pair UDT values allows you to change multiple elements. You change one element by making it the only pair UDT in the change constructor call.

Removing ADT elements with an UPDATE statement

This section shows you how to remove elements from an ADT collection column with an UPDATE statement. The remove_elements PL/SQL function can remove one to many elements from an ADT collection column.

The remove_elements function works much like the add_elements function. It uses the same ADT collections as the add_elements function.

The code for the remove_elements function is:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    FUNCTION remove_elements
  3    ( pv_list      LIST
  4    , pv_elements  LIST ) RETURN LIST IS
  5      /* Declare local return collection variable. */
  6      lv_list      LIST;
  7    BEGIN
  8      /* Check for instantiation and element membership. */
  9      IF NOT (pv_list IS NULL AND pv_elements IS NULL) AND
 10             (pv_list.COUNT > 0 AND pv_elements.COUNT > 0) THEN
 11        /* Assign parameters to local variables. */
 12        lv_list := pv_list;
 13        /* Remove any elements from a collection. */
 14        FOR i IN 1..lv_list.COUNT LOOP
 15          FOR j IN 1..pv_elements.COUNT LOOP
 16            IF lv_list(i) = pv_elements(j) THEN
 17              lv_list.DELETE(i);
 18              EXIT;
 19            END IF;
 20          END LOOP;
 21        END LOOP;
 22      END IF;
 23  
 24      /* Return modified collection. */
 25      RETURN lv_list;
 26    END remove_elements;
 27  /

Lines 3, 4, and 6 work like the add_elements function. Lines 9 and 10 differ because they check for initialized collections that hold at least one element each. Line 12 mimics the behavior of line 13 in the add_elements function. Lines 14 through 16 implements a nested loop and filtering IF-statement. The IF-statement checks for a valid element to remove from the ingredient ADT column’s list of values.

Line 17 removes an element from the list. Line 18 exits the inner loop to skip the evaluation of other non-matches. It’s possible to do this because the add_elements and change_elements functions ensure a unique list of string values in the ingredient ADT collection.

The test case for the remove_elements function works like the earlier tests. You query the row that you will update to check its values; for instance:

SQL> SELECT pizza_id, pizza_size
  2  ,      serialize_set(ingredients) AS ingredients
  3  FROM   pizza
  4  WHERE  customer_id =
  5          (SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  6           WHERE  first_name = 'Thea' AND last_name = 'Queen');

It should return:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ ----------------------------------------------------------------
     2 Medium Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Canadian Bacon, Linguica

You would remove an element from the ingredient ADT collection column with the following UPDATE statement:

SQL> UPDATE pizza
  2  SET    ingredients =
  3           remove_elements(ingredients,list('Canadian Bacon'))
  4  WHERE  customer_id =
  5          ( SELECT customer_id FROM customer
  6            WHERE  first_name = 'Thea' AND last_name = 'Queen' );

When you re-query the row, you should see that Canadian Bacon is no longer an element in the ingredient ADT collection column. Like this:

Pizza Pizza
  ID # Size   Ingredients
------ ------ ----------------------------------------------------------------
     2 Medium Cheese, Marinara Sauce, Linguica

This two article series has shown you the differences between working with ADT and UDT collection. It has also shown you how to create PL/SQL functions to enable you to add, change, and remove elements from ADT column inside an UPDATE statement.

The next step would be for you to put the serialize_set, add_elements, change_elements, and remove_elements functions into an adt package. That package would look like:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    PACKAGE adt IS
  3  
  4    FUNCTION add_elements
  5    ( pv_list     LIST
  6    , pv_element  LIST ) RETURN LIST;
  7  
  8    FUNCTION change_elements
  9    ( pv_list     LIST
 10    , pv_element  CHANGE ) RETURN LIST;
 11  
 12    FUNCTION remove_elements
 13    ( pv_list      LIST
 14    , pv_elements  LIST ) RETURN LIST;
 15  
 16    FUNCTION serialize_set
 17    (pv_list LIST) RETURN VARCHAR2;
 18  
 19  END adt;
 20  /

Beyond writing an ADT package to manage a list of variable length strings, you have the opportunity to extend behaviors further through overloading. Overloading lets you define functions that use the same name with different parameter lists.

For example, you could define the LIST_D, LIST_N, and LIST_S as SQL ADT where they would implement ADTs of dates, numbers, and strings respectively. Then, you would write three versions of the preceding four functions. Each set of functions would work with one of the type specific ADTs, and provide you with a powerful utility package to add, change, remove, and serialize the values of date, number, and string ADTs.

When you put all the related functions into a package you simplify access and organize for reusability. That way you have all the tools you need inside a single adt package to write advanced UPDATE statements against ADT nested tables.

Written by maclochlainn

May 11th, 2024 at 4:13 pm

Updating Nested Tables

without comments

This two-part series covers how you update User-Defined Types (UDTs) and Attribute Data Types (ADTs). There are two varieties of UDTs. One is a column of a UDT object type and the other a UDT collection of a UDT object type.

You update nested UDT columns by leveraging the TABLE function. The TABLE function lets you create a result set, and access a UDT object or collection column. You need to combine the TABLE function and a CROSS JOIN to update elements of a UDT collection column.

ADTs are collections of a scalar data types. Oracle’s scalar data types are DATE, NUMBER, CHAR and VARCHAR2 (or, variable length strings). ADTs are unique and from some developer’s perspective difficult to work with.

The first article in this series shows you how to work with a UDT object type column and a UDT collection type. The second article will show you how to work with an ADT collection type.

PL/SQL uses ADT collections all the time. PL/SQL also uses User-Defined Types (UDTs) collections all the time. UDTs can be record or object types, or collections of records and objects. Record types are limited, and only work inside a PL/SQL scope. Object types are less limited and you can use them in a SQL or PL/SQL scope.

Object types come in two flavors. One acts as a typical record structure and has no methods and the other acts like an object type in any object-oriented programming language (OOPL). This article refers only to object types like typical record structures. That means when you read ADTs you should think of a SQL collection of a scalar data type, and when you read UDTs you should think of a SQL collection of an object type without methods.

You can create tables that hold nested tables. Nested tables can use a SQL ADT or UDT data type. Inserting data into nested tables is straightforward when you understand the syntax, but updating nested tables can be complex. The complexity exists because Oracle treats nested tables of ADTs differently than UDTs. My article series will show you how to simplify updating ADT columns.

That’s why it has two parts:

  • How you insert and update rows with UDT columns and collection columns
  • How you insert and update rows with ADT collection columns

If you’re asking yourself why there isn’t a section for deleting rows, that’s simple. You delete them the same way as you would any other row, using the DELETE statement.

How you insert and update rows with UDT columns and collection columns

This section shows you how to create a table with a UDT column and a UDT collection column. It also shows you how to insert and update the embedded columns.

You insert into any ordinary UDT column by prefacing the data with a constructor name. A constructor name is the same as a UDT name. The following creates an address_type UDT that you will use inside a customer table:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE address_type IS OBJECT
  3    ( street  VARCHAR2(20)
  4    , city    VARCHAR2(30)
  5    , state   VARCHAR2(2)
  6    , zip     VARCHAR2(5));
  7  /

You should take note that the address_type UDT doesn’t have any methods. All object types without methods have a default constructor. The default constructor follows the same rules as tables in the database.

Create the sample customer table with an address column that uses the address_type UDT as its data type; for instance:

SQL> CREATE TABLE customer
  2  ( customer_id  NUMBER
  3  , first_name   VARCHAR2(20)
  4  , last_name    VARCHAR2(20)
  5  , address      ADDRESS_TYPE
  6  , CONSTRAINT pk_customer PRIMARY KEY (customer_id));

Line 5 defines the address column with the address_type UDT. You insert a row with an embedded address_type data record as follows:

SQL> INSERT
  2  INTO   customer
  3  VALUES
  4  ( customer_s.NEXTVAL
  5  ,'Oliver'
  6  ,'Queen'
  7  , address_type( street => '1 Park Place'
  8                , city   => 'Starling City'
  9                , state  => 'NY'
 10                , zip    => '10001'));

Lines 7 through 10 includes the constructor call to the address_type UDT. The address_type constructor uses named notation rather than positional notation. You should always try to use named notation for object type constructor calls.

Updating an element of a UDT object structure is straightforward, because you simply refer to the column and a member of the UDT object structure. The syntax for that type of UPDATE statement follows:

SQL> UPDATE customer c
  2  SET    c.address.state = 'NJ'
  3  WHERE  c.first_name = 'Oliver'
  4  AND    c.last_name = 'Queen';

The address_type UDT works for an object structure but not for a UDT collection. You need to add a column to differentiate between rows of the nested collection. You can redefine the address_type UDT as follows:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE address_type IS OBJECT
  3    ( status  VARCHAR2(8)
  4    , street  VARCHAR2(20)
  5    , city    VARCHAR2(30)
  6    , state   VARCHAR2(2)
  7    , zip     VARCHAR2(5));
  8  /

After creating the UDT object type, you need to create an address_table UDT collection of the address_type UDT object type. You use the following syntax to create the SQL collection:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE
  2    TYPE address_table IS TABLE OF address_type;
  3  /

Having both the UDT object and collection types, you can drop and create the customer table with the following syntax:

SQL> CREATE TABLE customer
  2  ( customer_id  NUMBER
  3  , first_name   VARCHAR2(20)
  4  , last_name    VARCHAR2(20)
  5  , address      ADDRESS_TABLE
  6  , CONSTRAINT pk_customer PRIMARY KEY (customer_id))
  7  NESTED TABLE address STORE AS address_tab;

Line 5 defines the address column as a UDT collection. Line 7 instructs how to store the UDT collection as a nested table. You designate the address column as the nested table and store it as an address_tab table. You can access the nested table only through its container, which is the customer table.

You can insert rows into the customer table with the following syntax. This example stores a single row with two elements of the address_type in the nested table:

SQL> INSERT
  2  INTO   customer
  3  VALUES
  4  ( customer_s.NEXTVAL
  5  ,'Oliver'
  6  ,'Queen'
  7  , address_table(
  8        address_type( status   => 'Obsolete'
  9                    , street => '1 Park Place'
 10                    , city => 'Starling City'
 11                    , state => 'NY'
 12                    , zip => '10001')
 13      , address_type( status   => 'Current'
 14                    , street => '1 Dockland Street'
 15                    , city => 'Starling City'
  16                    , state => 'NY'
 17                    , zip => '10001')));

Lines 7 through 17 have two constructor calls for the address_type UDT object type inside the address_table UDT collection. After you insert an address_table UDT collection, you can query an element by using the SQL built-in TABLE function and a CROSS JOIN. The TABLE function returns a SQL result set. The CROSS JOIN lets you create cross product that you can filter inside the WHERE clause.

A CROSS JOIN between two tables or a table and result set from a nested table matches every row in the customer table with every row in the nested table. A best practice would include a WHERE clause that filters the nested table to a single row in the result set.

The syntax for such a query is complex, and follows below:

SQL> COL first_name  FORMAT A8  HEADING "First|Name"
SQL> COL last_name   FORMAT A8  HEADING "Last|Name"
SQL> COL street      FORMAT A20 HEADING "Street"
SQL> COL city        FORMAT A14 HEADING "City"
SQL> COL state       FORMAT A5  HEADING "State"
SQL> SELECT c.first_name
  2  ,      c.last_name
  3  ,      a.street
  4  ,      a.city
  5  ,      a.state
  6  FROM   customer c CROSS JOIN TABLE(c.address) a
  7  WHERE  a.status = 'Current';

As mentioned, the TABLE function on line 6 translates the UDT collection into a SQL result set, which acts as a temporary table. The alias a becomes the name of the temporary table. Lines 3, 4, 5, and 7 all reference the temporary table.

The query should return the following for the customer and their current address value:

First    Last
Name     Name     Street               City           State
-------- -------- -------------------- -------------- -----
Oliver   Queen    1 Dockland Street    Starling City  NY

Oracle thought through the fact that you should be able to update UDT collections. The same TABLE function lets you update elements in the nested table. You can update the elements in nested UDT tables provided you create a unique key, such as a natural key or primary key. Oracle’s syntax doesn’t support constraints on nested tables, which means you need to implement it by design and protect by carefully controlling inserts and updates to the nested table.

You can update the state value of the current address with the following UPDATE statement:

SQL> UPDATE TABLE(SELECT c.address
  2               FROM   customer c
  3               WHERE  c.first_name = 'Oliver'
  4               AND    c.last_name = 'Queen') a
  5  SET    a.state = 'NJ'
  6  WHERE  a.status = 'Current';

Line 5 sets the current state value in the address_table UDT nested table. Line 6 filters the nested table to the current address element. You need to ensure that any UDT object type holds a member attribute or set of member attributes that holds a unique value. That’s because you need to ensure that there’s a way to find a unique element within a UDT collection. If you require the table, you should see the change inside the nested table.

Oracle does not provide equivalent syntax for such a change in an ADT collection type. The second article in this series show you how to implement PL/SQL functions to solve that problem.

Written by maclochlainn

May 9th, 2024 at 9:38 pm

Oracle23ai Ubuntu Install

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What to do with a Late 2015 iMac with an i7 Quad CPU running at 3.4 GHz, 32 GB or RAM, a 5K Display and an almost warn out hybrid 1 TB hard disk? You could sell it to Apple for pennies, but why enrich them. I opted to upgrade it with an OWC kit that had a 2 TB SSD Disk. Then, I installed Ubuntu 22.0.4 and built a DaaS (Database as a Service) machine with Oracle Database 23ai in a Docker container, and MySQL 8 and PostgreSQL 14 natively.

I’ve posted on installing MySQL 8 and PostgreSQL 14 on Ubuntu before when I repurposed my late 2014 MacBook Pro. This post covers the installation of Docker and Oracle Database 23ai.

Install Docker

Contrary to the instructions, you should do the following as a sudoer user:

sudo apt install -y docker.io

Install all dependency packages using the following command:

sudo snap install docker

You should see the following:

docker 20.10.24 from Canonical✓ installed

You can verify the Docker install with the following command:

sudo docker --version

It should show something like this:

Docker version 24.0.5, build 24.0.5-0ubuntu1~22.04.1

You can check the pulled containers with the following command but at this point there should be no pulled containers.

sudo docker images

At this point, a docker group already exists but you need to add your user to the docker group with the following command:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Using the Docker Commands:

  • To activate the logging, utilize the -f parameter.
  • To divide JSON, use Docker by default; to extract individual keys, use JQ.
  • In your Container file, there are quite a few areas where commands may be specified.
  • Posting to the volumes could be more effective while the picture is being built.
  • Docker offers a highly efficient way to create an alias for its own built-in commands. This makes it easier to set up and handle lengthy and enormous orders. These alias values are stored in the directories /.bashrc or and /.bash_aliases.
  • Docker offers further assistance to remove unused code fragments from the installation of the container.
  • Docker always favors reading statements from the container file that have not changed. Therefore, time savings may be realized by arranging what is shown in the container file in a way that ensures the elements that are susceptible to change are shown towards the end of the document and those that are most likely to undergo change are shown at the top.

Install Oracle Database 23ai Free in a Docker container

Use the following command to pull and install the Oracle Database 23ai container:

sudo docker run --name oracle23ai -p 1521:1521 -p 5500:5500 -e ORACLE_PWD=cangetin container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest

After installing the Oracle Database 23ai Free container, you can access it as the root user by default with this syntax:

docker exec -it -u root oracle23ai bash

At the root prompt, you can connect to the system schema with the following command:

sqlplus system/cangetin@FREE

You should see the following:

SQL*Plus: RELEASE 23.0.0.0.0 - Production ON Thu May 9 03:56:57 2024
Version 23.4.0.24.05
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2024, Oracle.  ALL rights reserved.
 
LAST SUCCESSFUL login TIME: Wed Apr 24 2024 21:23:00 +00:00
 
Connected TO:
Oracle DATABASE 23ai Free RELEASE 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, AND Run FOR Free
Version 23.4.0.24.05
 
SQL>

Create a c##student as a sandbox user:

After you create and provision the Oracle Database 21ai Free, you can create a c##student sand-boxed user with the following two step process.

  1. Create a c##student Oracle user account with the following command as the system user:

    CREATE USER c##student IDENTIFIED BY student
    DEFAULT TABLESPACE users QUOTA 200M ON users
    TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp;

  2. Grant necessary privileges to the newly created c##student user:

    GRANT CREATE CLUSTER, CREATE INDEXTYPE, CREATE OPERATOR
    ,     CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE SESSION
    ,     CREATE TABLE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE TYPE
    ,     CREATE VIEW TO c##student;

  3. Connect to the sandboxed user with the following syntax (by the way it’s a pluggable user account as qualified in Oracle Database 12c forward):

    SQL> CONNECT c##student/student@FREE

    or, disconnect and reconnect with this syntax:

    sqlplus system/cangetin@FREE

Set Docker Oracle 23ai to start always

Assuming that your container name was oracle23ai, as qualified above, you can run the following command to automatically restart the Docker container:

docker update --restart=always `docker ps -aqf "name=oracle23ai"`

The docker command inside the backquotes uses the Docker instance’s name to return the Docker container_id value, which can also be seen when you run the following command:

docker ps

which returns:

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                                COMMAND                  CREATED       STATUS                    PORTS                                                                                  NAMES
b211f494e692   container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest   "/bin/bash -c $ORACL…"   13 days ago   Up 18 minutes (healthy)   0.0.0.0:1521->1521/tcp, :::1521->1521/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5500->5500/tcp, :::5500->5500/tcp   oracle23ai

The Docker container_id value is required when you perform a Docker update operation.

Configuring your Docker Oracle 23ai environment

Unless you like memorizing the Docker command-line, you may automate connecting as the root user or add a sand boxed user. The root user typically has more power than you need to perform ordinary development and use-case testing tasks.

A sand boxed user has narrow access, can’t start and stop the database instance or perform Oracle Datasbase 23ai administration. In this segment, you’ll learn how to create a couple local Bash functions to simplify your use of the Oracle Database 23ai container; and how to extend the configuration of Oracle’s Docker container:

  • Adding a student user to the Docker container and configuring it to access the Oracle Database 23ai locally from within the Docker container using a direct sqlplus connection.
  • Configuring the Docker container to support external files and leverage a shared directory with your base operating system.

Automating Docker instance connections:

The following shows you how to add a local Bash function to automate access to the Docker container from the Linux command-line. You put the following Bash function in your base Linux operating system’s user .bashrc file:

  1. Create the following Bash function:

    # User defined function to launch Oracle 23 ai container
    # as the root user.
    admin () 
    {
        # Discover the fully qualified program name. 
        path=`which docker 2>/dev/null`
        file=''
     
        # Parse the program name from the path.
        if [ -n ${path} ]; then
            file=${path##/*/}
        fi
     
        # Wrap when there is a file and it is rewrap.
        if [ -n ${file} ] && [[ ${file} = "docker" ]]; then
            python -c "import subprocess; subprocess.run(['docker exec -it --user root oracle23ai bash'], shell=True)" 
        else
            echo "Docker is unavailable: Install the docker package."
        fi
    }

  2. After you source the .bashrc file or simply reconnect as to the terminal as your user, which resources the .bashrc file, you can access the oracle23ai Docker instance with this command:

    admin

    It will display a new prompt with the root user and the Docker container_id value, like:

    [root@b211f494e692 oracle]#

    You can exit the Docker container by typing exit at the Linux command line. If you curious what version of Linux you’re using inside the Docker instance, you can’t use the uname command because it returns the hosting Linux distribution (distro). You must use the following when inside the Docker instance:

    cat /etc/os-release

    or, outside the Docker instance you can use the following docker command:

    docker exec oracle23ai cat /etc/os-release

    Either way, for an Oracle Database 23ai container, it should return:

    NAME="Oracle Linux Server"
    VERSION="8.9"
    ID="ol"
    ID_LIKE="fedora"
    VARIANT="Server"
    VARIANT_ID="server"
    VERSION_ID="8.9"
    PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
    PRETTY_NAME="Oracle Linux Server 8.9"
    ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
    CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:oracle:linux:8:9:server"
    HOME_URL="https://linux.oracle.com/"
    BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/oracle/oracle-linux"
     
    ORACLE_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Oracle Linux 8"
    ORACLE_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=8.9
    ORACLE_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Oracle Linux"
    ORACLE_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=8.9

    Unfortunately, Oracle has appeared to block updates to the Oracle Unbreakable Linux 8 instance inside the container, which makes native SQL*Plus use more difficult. That’s because you’ll need to install the Oracle SQL*Plus client in the hosting Operating System.

    I’ve written a separate blog post that instructs you on how to install and use Oracle SQL*Plus client on Ubuntu.

Install SQL Developer in the base Linux operating system

The first steps are installing the Java Runtime Environment and Java Development Kit, and then downloading, installing and configuring SQL Developer. These are the required steps:

  1. Install the Java Runtime Environment:

    sudo apt install default-jre

    The log file for this is:

  2. Install the Java Runtime Environment:

    sudo apt install -y default-idk

    The log file for this is:

  3. Download SQL Developer from here; and then install SQL Developer to the /opt directory on your Ubuntu local instance:

    Use the following command to unzip the SQL Developer files to the /opt directory:

    sudo unzip ~/Downloads/sqldeveloper-23.1.0.097.1607-no-jre.zip
  4. Create the following /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper symbolic link:

    sudo ln -s /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper.sh /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper
  5. Edit the /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper.sh file by replacing the following line:

    cd "`dirname $0`"/sqldeveloper/bin && bash sqldeveloper $*

    with this version:

    /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper/bin/sqldeveloper $*
  6. Now, you can launch SQL Developer from any location on your local Ubuntu operating system, like:

    sqldeveloper
  7. You can now connect as the system user through SQL Developer to the Oracle Database 23ai Free Docker instance with the following connection information:

    (Excuse recycling the version from 21c but I didn’t see any utility in making a new screen shot.)

  8. You can also create a Desktop shortcut by creating the sqldeveloper.desktop file in the /usr/share/applications directory. The SQL Developer icon is provided in the sqldeveloper base directory.

    You should create the following sqldeveloper.desktop file to use a Desktop shortcut:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Oracle SQL Developer
    Comment=SQL Developer from Oracle
    GenericName=SQL Tool
    Exec=/usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper
    Icon=/opt/sqldeveloper/icon.png
    Type=Application
    StartupNotify=true
    Categories=Utility;Oracle;Development;SQL;

As always, I hope this helps those trying to accomplish this task.

Written by maclochlainn

May 8th, 2024 at 10:12 pm

Oracle 23c Free SQL*Plus

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It’s always frustrated me when using the sqlplus command-line interface (CLI) that you can’t just “up arrow” to through the history. At least, that’s the default case unless you wrap the sqlplus executable.

I like to do my development work as close to the database as possible. The delay from SQL Developer to the database or VSCode to the database is just too long. Therefore, I like the native sqlplus to be as efficient as possible. This post shows you how to install the rlwarp utility to wrap sqlplus and create a sandboxed student user for a local development account inside the Oracle 23c Free container. You should note that the Docker or Podman Container is using Oracle Unbreakable Linux 8 as it’s native OS.

You can connect to your Docker version of Oracle Database 23c Free with the following command:

docker exec -it -u root oracle23c bash

You can’t just use dnf to install rlwrap and get it to magically install all the dependencies. That would be too easy, eh?

Attempting to do so will lock your base OS and eventually force you to kill with prejudice the hung dnf process (at least it forced me to do so). You need to determine the rlwrap dependencies and then install them first. In that process, I noticed that the which utility program wasn’t installed in the container.

Naturally, I installed the which utility first with this command:

dnf install -y which

The rlwrap dependencies are: glibc, ncurses, perl, readline, python, and git. Only the perl, python, and git are missing from the list of formal dependencies but there’s another dependency the epel-release package.

If you want to verify whether a package is installed, you can use the rpm command like this:

rpm -qa | grep package_name

I installed the perl programming environment (a big install) with this command:

dnf install -y perl

I installed the python3 with this command:

dnf install -y python3

I installed the git module with this command:

dnf install -y git

I installed the epel-release container with this command:

dnf install -y epel-release

After installing all of these, you’re now ready to install the core rlwrap utility program. Like the other installations, you use:

dnf install -y rlwrap

At this point, you need to create a sandboxed user account for the Docker instance because as a developer using the root user for simple tasks is a bad idea. While you could do this with a Docker command, the Oracle 23c Free edition raised a lock on the /etc/group file when I tried it. Naturally, that’s not a problem because you can connect as the root user with this syntax:

docker exec -it -u root oracle23c bash

As the root user, create a student account as a developer account in the Oracle 23c Free container:

useradd -u 501 -g dba -G users -d /home/student -s /bin/bash/ -c "Student" -n student

You’ll be unable to leverage the tnsnames.ora file unless you alter the prior command to replace dba with oinstall or add the following command:

usermod -a -G oinstall student

Exit the Oracle 23c Free container as the root user and reconnect as the student user with this syntax:

docker exec -it --user student oracle23c bash

While you’re connected as the root user, you should create an upload directory as a subdirectory of the $ORACLE_BASE directory. The $ORACLE_BASE directory in the Oracle Database 23c Free Docker image is the /opt/oracle directory.

You should use the following syntax to create the upload directory and change its permission to that of the Oracle Database 23c Free installation (for a future blog post on developing external table deployment on the Docker image):

mkdir /opt/oracle
chown -R oracle:install /opt/oracle/upload

You also can add the following student function to the Ubuntu student user’s .bashrc file. It means all you need to type to connect to the Oracle Database 23c Free Docker instance is “student“. I like shortcuts like this one, which let you leverage one-line Python commands.

student () 
{
    # Discover the fully qualified program name. 
    path=`which docker 2>/dev/null`
    file=''
 
    # Parse the program name from the path.
    if [ -n ${path} ]; then
        file=${path##/*/}
    fi
 
    # Wrap when there is a file and it is rewrap.
    if [ -n ${file} ] && [[ ${file} = "docker" ]]; then
        python -c "import subprocess; subprocess.run(['docker exec -it --user student oracle23c bash'], shell=True)" 
    else
        echo "Docker is unavailable: Install the docker package."
    fi
}

Open a Ubuntu Terminal shell and type a student function name to connect to the Docker Oracle Database 23c Free instance where you can now test things like external tables with the SQL*Plus command line without installing it on the Ubuntu local operating system.

student@student-virtual-machine:~$ student
[student@d28375f0c43f ~]$ sqlplus c##student/student@free
 
SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production on Wed Jan 3 02:14:22 2024
Version 23.3.0.23.09
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2023, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
 
Last Successful login time: Wed Jan 03 2024 01:56:44 +00:00
 
Connected to:
Oracle Database 23c Free Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, and Run for Free
Version 23.3.0.23.09
 
SQL>

Then, I added this sqlplus function to the /home/student/.bashrc file, which is owned by the student user. However, I also added the instruction to change to the student user’s home directory because the Oracle 23c Free container will connect you to the /home/oracle directory by default. I also added the default long list (ll) alias to the .bashrc file.

sqlplus () 
{
    # Discover the fully qualified program name. 
    path=`which rlwrap 2>/dev/null`
    file=''
 
    # Parse the program name from the path.
    if [ -n ${path} ]; then
        file=${path##/*/}
    fi;
 
    # Wrap when there is a file and it is rewrap.
    if [ -n ${file} ] && [[ ${file} = "rlwrap" ]]; then
        rlwrap sqlplus "${@}"
    else
        echo "Command-line history unavailable: Install the rlwrap package."
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "${@}"
    fi
}
 
# Change to the user's home directory.
cd ${HOME}
 
# Create a long list alias:
alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'

After you’ve configured your student user, you can configure the oracle user account to work like a regular server. Exit the Docker Oracle Database 23c Free as the student user, then connect as the root user with this command:

docker exec -it -u root oracle23c bash

As the root user you can become the oracle user with the following command:

su - oracle

Now, add the following .bashrc shell in the /home/oracle directory:

# The oracle user's .bashrc
 
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
	. /etc/bashrc
fi
 
# User specific environment
if ! [[ "$PATH" =~ "$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:" ]]
then
    PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi
export PATH
 
# Uncomment the following line if you don't like systemctl's auto-paging feature:
# export SYSTEMD_PAGER=
 
# User specific aliases and functions
export ORACLE_SID=FREE
export ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle
export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/product/23c/dbhomeFree
export PATH=$PATH:/$ORACLE_HOME/bin
 
# Change to the user's home directory.
cd ${HOME}
 
# Create a long list alias:
alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'
 
sqlplus () 
{
    # Discover the fully qualified program name. 
    path=`which rlwrap 2>/dev/null`
    file=''
 
    # Parse the program name from the path.
    if [ -n ${path} ]; then
        file=${path##/*/}
    fi;
 
    # Wrap when there is a file and it is rewrap.
    if [ -n ${file} ] && [[ ${file} = "rlwrap" ]]; then
        rlwrap sqlplus "${@}"
    else
        echo "Command-line history unavailable: Install the rlwrap package."
        $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus "${@}"
    fi
}

You need to manually source the .bashrc for the oracle user because it’s not an externally available user. Use this syntax to connect as the internal user:

sqlplus / as sysdba

It’ll display:

SQL*Plus: RELEASE 23.0.0.0.0 - Production ON Wed Jan 3 07:08:11 2024
Version 23.3.0.23.09
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2023, Oracle.  ALL rights reserved.
 
 
Connected TO:
Oracle DATABASE 23c Free RELEASE 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, AND Run FOR Free
Version 23.3.0.23.09
 
SQL>

After all this, I can now click the “up arrow” to edit any of the sqlplus command history. If you like to work inside sqlplus natively, this should help you.

Written by maclochlainn

December 20th, 2023 at 11:11 pm

OracleDB Python Tutorial 1

without comments

This shows you how to get Python working with the Oracle Database 23c in Docker or Podman on Ubuntu. You can find useful connection strings for this in Oracle Database Free Get Started.

  1. First step requires you to install the pip3/span> utility on Ubuntu.

    sudo apt install -y python3-pip

  2. Second step requires that you pip3 install the oracledb library:

    sudo pip3 install oracledb --upgrade

  3. Third step requires you write a Python program to test your connection to Oracle Database 23c Free, like:

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    #!/usr/bin/python
     
    # Import the Oracle library.
    import oracledb
     
    try:
      # Create a connection to local Docker or Podman installation.
      db = oracledb.connect(user='c##student', password='student', dsn='localhost:51521/FREE')
     
      # Print a connection message.
      print("Connected to the Oracle", db.version, "database.")
     
    except oracledb.DatabaseError as e:
      error, = e.args
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Code:", error.code)
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Message:", error.message)
     
    finally:
      # Close connection. 
      db.close()

    The 51521 port is the recommended port when setting up Docker or Podman services, however, it can be set to any port above 1024.

    It should print:

    Connected to the Oracle 23.3.0.23.9 database.
  4. Fourth step requires you write a Python program to test querying data from an Oracle Database 23c Free instance. I created the following avenger table and seeded it with six Avengers.

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    /* Conditionally drop the table. */
    DROP TABLE IF EXISTS avenger;
     
    /* Create the table. */
    CREATE TABLE avenger
    ( avenger_id      NUMBER
    , first_name      VARCHAR2(20)
    , last_name       VARCHAR2(20)
    , character_name  VARCHAR2(20));
     
    /* Seed the table with data. */
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (1,'Anthony','Stark','Iron Man');
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (2,'Thor','Odinson','God of Thunder');
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (3,'Steven','Rogers','Captain America');
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (4,'Bruce','Banner','Hulk');
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (5,'Clinton','Barton','Hawkeye');
    INSERT INTO avenger VALUES (6,'Natasha','Romanoff','Black Widow');

    Then, I extended the program logic to include a cursor and for loop to read the values from the avenger table:

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    #!/usr/bin/python
     
    # Import the Oracle library.
    import oracledb
     
    try:
      # Create a connection to local Docker or Podman installation.
      db = oracledb.connect(user='c##student', password='student', dsn='localhost:51521/FREE')
     
      # Create a cursor.
      cursor = db.cursor()
     
      # Execute a query.
      cursor.execute("SELECT   character_name " +
                     ",        first_name " +
                     ",        last_name " +
                     "FROM     avenger " +
                     "ORDER BY character_name")
     
      # Read the contents of the cursor.
      for row in cursor:
        print(row[0] + ':',row[2] + ',',row[1])
     
    except oracledb.DatabaseError as e:
      error, = e.args
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Code:", error.code)
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Message:", error.message)
     
    finally:
      # Close cursor and connection.
      cursor.close() 
      db.close()

    The 51521 port is the recommended port when setting up Docker or Podman services, however, it can be set to any port above 1024.

    It should print:

    Black Widow: Romanoff, Natasha
    Captain America: Rogers, Steven
    God of Thunder: Odinson, Thor
    Hawkeye: Barton, Clinton
    Hulk: Banner, Bruce
    Iron Man: Stark, Anthony
  5. Fifth step requires you write a Python program to test querying data filtered by a local variable from an Oracle Database 23c Free instance. This example looks only for the Hulk among the six Avengers.

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    #!/usr/bin/python
     
    # Import the Oracle library.
    import oracledb
     
    try:
      # Create a connection to local Docker or Podman installation.
      db = oracledb.connect(user='c##student', password='student', dsn='localhost:51521/FREE')
     
      # Create a cursor.
      cursor = db.cursor()
     
      # Execute a query.
      stmt = "SELECT   character_name "            \
             ",        first_name "                \
             ",        last_name "                 \
             "FROM     avenger "                   \
             "WHERE    character_name = :avenger " \
             "ORDER BY character_name"
     
      # Execute with bind variable.
      cursor.execute(stmt, avenger = "Hulk")
     
      # Read the contents of the cursor.
      for row in cursor:
        print(row[0] + ':',row[2] + ',',row[1])
     
    except oracledb.DatabaseError as e:
      error, = e.args
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Code:", error.code)
      print(sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Message:", error.message)
     
    finally:
      # Close cursor and connection. 
      cursor.close() 
      db.close()

    It should print:

    Hulk: Banner, Bruce

As always, I hope this puts everything together for setting up Python with Oracle Database 23c Free.

Written by maclochlainn

December 10th, 2023 at 12:27 am

Oracle 23c MLE JavaScript

without comments

Oracle Database 23c has some really great features. One of those features is the ability to write JavaScript functions inside the database. Unfortunately, I noticed a couple omissions in Oracle’s JavaScript Developer’s Guide. Specifically, I encountered a privilege error while testing the example in the 5.1 Call Specifications for Functions example.

After having typed it all in to a simple script file, I encountered the following error message when trying to create an MLE MODULE:

CREATE OR REPLACE MLE MODULE jsmodule
*
ERROR AT line 1:
ORA-01031: insufficient PRIVILEGES
Help: https://docs.oracle.com/error-help/db/ora-06575

That was easy enough to fix. As the system user you need to grant the following two additional privileges to the user (based on my earlier sandbox pluggable user configuration user setup), which in my case is the c##student pluggable user:

GRANT CREATE MLE TO c##student;
GRANT EXECUTE ON JAVASCRIPT TO c##student;

You need to enable the SQL*PLus SERVEROUTPUT environment parameter for Oracle’s code example to work when you run the greet procedure from SQL*Plus command-line interface (CLI).

Below is the modified example file (unfortunately, the GeSHi formatting promotes log and return in the JavaScript functions to uppercase because they’re assumed as keywords in Oracle SQL):

  1. Conditionally drop the MLE MODULE.

    DROP MLE MODULE IF EXISTS jsmodule;
  2. Create a MLE Call Specification.

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    CREATE OR REPLACE
      MLE MODULE jsmodule
      LANGUAGE JAVASCRIPT AS
     
      export function greet(str) {
        console.log(`Hello ${str}!`)
      }
     
      export function concat(str1, str2) {
        return str1 + " " + str2 + "!";
      }
    /
  3. The greet function doesn’t return a value and uses the Nodejs console.log() function to write a string, which means you must wrap the JavaScript function as a procedure because it returns a void type.

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    CREATE OR REPLACE
      PROCEDURE greet(str in VARCHAR2)
      AS MLE MODULE jsmodule
      SIGNATURE 'greet(string)';
    /
  4. Wrap the concatenate function as a function because it returns a value inside the JavaScript.

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    CREATE OR REPLACE
      FUNCTION concatenate
      ( str1  VARCHAR2
      , str2  VARCHAR2 ) RETURN VARCHAR2 AS
      MLE MODULE jsmodule
      SIGNATURE 'concat(string, string)';
    /
  5. Enable to the SERVEROUTPUT environment variable to display messages printed from inside stored procedures or other PL/SQL blocks.

    SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE UNLIMITED
  6. Call the greet(literal|variable) function’s procedure wrapper.

    CALL greet('Peter');

    It returns

    Hello Peter!
    

  7. Query the result from the concatenate() function’s function wrapper. */

    SELECT concatenate('Hello','World');

    It returns

    Hello World!
    

As always, I hope this helps somebody working through the same issue.

Written by maclochlainn

December 5th, 2023 at 12:41 am

SQL Developer on Ubuntu

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The following steps show how to install and configure SQL Developer on Ubuntu 22.0.4 to work with Oracle Database 23c Free in a Docker container. The first steps are installing the Java Runtime Environment and Java Development Kit, and then downloading, installing and configuring SQL Developer. These are the required steps:

  1. Install the Java Runtime Environment:

    sudo apt install default-jre

    The log file for this is:

  2. Install the Java Runtime Environment:

    sudo apt install -y default-idk

    The log file for this is:

  3. Download SQL Developer from here; and then install SQL Developer to the /opt directory on your Ubuntu local instance:

    Use the following command to unzip the SQL Developer files to the /opt directory:

    sudo unzip ~/Downloads/sqldeveloper-23.1.0.097.1607-no-jre.zip
  4. Create the following /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper symbolic link:

    sudo ln -s /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper.sh /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper
  5. Edit the /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper.sh file by replacing the following line:

    cd "`dirname $0`"/sqldeveloper/bin && bash sqldeveloper $*

    with this version:

    /opt/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper/bin/sqldeveloper $*
  6. Now, you can launch SQL Developer from any location on your local Ubuntu operating system, like:

    sqldeveloper
  7. You can now connect as the system user through SQL Developer to the Oracle Database 23c Free Docker instance with the following connection information:

  8. You can also create a Desktop shortcut by creating the sqldeveloper.desktop file in the /usr/share/applications directory. The SQL Developer icon is provided in the sqldeveloper base directory.

    You should create the following sqldeveloper.desktop file to use a Desktop shortcut:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Oracle SQL Developer
    Comment=SQL Developer from Oracle
    GenericName=SQL Tool
    Exec=/usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper
    Icon=/opt/sqldeveloper/icon.png
    Type=Application
    StartupNotify=true
    Categories=Utility;Oracle;Development;SQL;

You can create a sandboxed container c##student user with the instructions from this earlier post on Oracle Database 18c, which remains the correct syntax.

As always, I hope this helps those trying to accomplish this task.

Written by maclochlainn

December 3rd, 2023 at 12:11 am

Disk Space Allocation

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It’s necessary to check for adequate disk space on your Virtual Machine (VM) before installing Oracle 23c Free in a Docker container or as a podman service. Either way, it requires about 13 GB of disk space. On Ubuntu, the typical install of a VM allocates 20 GB and a 500 MB swap. You need to create a 2 GB swap when you install Ubuntu or plan to change the swap, as qualified in this excellent DigitalOcean article. Assuming you installed it with the correct swap or extended your swap area, you can confirm it with the following command:

sudo swapon --show

It should return something like this:

NAME      TYPE SIZE USED PRIO
/swapfile file 2.1G 1.2G   -2

Next, check your disk space allocation and availability with this command:

df -h

This is what was in my instance with MySQL and PostgreSQL databases already installed and configured with sandboxed schemas:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs           388M  2.1M  386M   1% /run
/dev/sda3        20G   14G  4.6G  75% /
tmpfs           1.9G   28K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
/dev/sda2       512M  6.1M  506M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           388M  108K  388M   1% /run/user/1000

Using VMware Fusion on my Mac (Intel-based i9), I changed the allocated space from 20 GB to 40 GB by navigating to Virtual Machine, Settings…, Hard Disk. I entered 40.00 as the disk size and clicked the Pre-allocate disk space checkbox before clicking the Apply button, as shown in below. This added space is necessary because Oracle Database 23c Free as a Docker instance requires almost 10 GB of local space.

After clicking the Apply button, I checked Ubuntu with the “df -h” command and found there was no change. That’s unlike doing the same thing on AlmaLinux or a RedHat distribution, which was surprising.

The next set of steps required that I manually add the space to the Ubuntu instance:

  1. Start the Ubuntu VM and check the instance’s disk information with fdisk:

    sudo fdisk -l

    The log file for this is:

    After running fdisk, I rechecked disk allocation with df -h and saw no change:

    Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    tmpfs           388M  2.1M  386M   1% /run
    /dev/sda3        20G   14G  4.6G  75% /
    tmpfs           1.9G   28K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
    tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
    /dev/sda2       512M  6.1M  506M   2% /boot/efi
    tmpfs           388M  108K  388M   1% /run/user/1000
  2. So, I installed Ubuntu’s user space utility gparted:

    sudo apt install gparted

    The log file for this is:

  3. After installing the gparted utility (manual can be found here), you can launch it with the following syntax:

    sudo gparted

    You’ll see the following in the console, which you can ignore.

    GParted 1.3.1
    configuration --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize
    libparted 3.4

    It launches a GUI interface that should look something like the following:

    Right-click on the /dev/sda3 Partition and the GParted application will present the following context popup menu. Click the Resize/Move menu option.

    The attempt to resize the disk at this point GParted will raise a read-only exception like the following:

    You might open a new shell and fix the disk at the command-line but you’ll need to relaunch gparted regardless. So, you should close gparted and run the following commands:

    sudo mount -o remount -rw /
    sudo mount -o remount -rw /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell

    When you relaunch GParted, you see that the graphic depiction has changed when you right-click on the /dev/sda3 Partition as follows:

    Click on the highlighted box with the arrow and drag it all the way to the right. It will then show you something like the following.

    Click the Resize button to make the change and add the space to the Ubuntu file system and see something like the following in Gparted:

    Choose Edit in the menu bar and then Apply All Operations to effect the change in the disk allocation. The last dialog will require you to verify you want to make the changes. Click the Apply button to make the changes.

    Click the close for the GParted application and then you can rerun the following command:

    df -h

    You will see that you now have 19.5 GB of additional space:

    Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    tmpfs           388M  2.2M  386M   1% /run
    /dev/sda3        39G 19.5G   23G  39% /
    tmpfs           1.9G   28K  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
    tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
    /dev/sda2       512M  6.1M  506M   2% /boot/efi
    tmpfs           388M  116K  388M   1% /run/user/1000
  4. Finally, you can now successfully download the latest Docker version of Oracle Database 23c Free with the following command:

    docker run --name oracle23c -p 1521:1521 -p 5500:5500 -e ORACLE_PWD=cangetin container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest

    Since you haven’t downloaded the container, you’ll get a warning that it is unable to find the image before it discovers it and downloads it. This will take several minutes. At the conclusion, it will start the Oracle Database Net Listener and begin updating files. the updates may take quite a while to complete.

    The basic download console output looks like the following and if you check your disk space you’ve downloaded about 14 GB in the completed container.

    Unable to find image 'container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest' locally
    latest: Pulling from database/free
    089fdfcd47b7: Pull complete 
    43c899d88edc: Pull complete 
    47aa6f1886a1: Pull complete 
    f8d07bb55995: Pull complete 
    c31c8c658c1e: Pull complete 
    b7d28faa08b4: Pull complete 
    1d0d5c628f6f: Pull complete 
    db82a695dad3: Pull complete 
    25a185515793: Pull complete 
    Digest: sha256:5ac0efa9896962f6e0e91c54e23c03ae8f140cf6ed43ca09ef4354268a942882
    Status: Downloaded newer image for container-registry.oracle.com/database/free:latest

    My detailed log file for the complete recovery operation is:

  5. You can connect to the Oracle Database 23c Free container with the following syntax:

    docker exec -it -u root oracle23c bash

    At the command-line, you connect to the Oracle Database 23c Free container with the following syntax:

    sqlplus system/cangetin@free

    You have arrived at the Oracle SQL prompt:

    SQL*Plus: Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Dec 1 00:13:55 2023
    Version 23.3.0.23.09
     
    Copyright (c) 1982, 2023, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
     
    Last Successful login time: Thu Nov 30 2023 23:27:54 +00:00
     
    Connected to:
    Oracle Database 23c Free Release 23.0.0.0.0 - Develop, Learn, and Run for Free
    Version 23.3.0.23.09
     
    SQL>

As always, I hope this helps those trying to work with the newest Oracle stack.

Written by maclochlainn

December 1st, 2023 at 3:08 pm

SQL Developer & PostgreSQL

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I had a request from one of the adjunct professors to connect SQL Developer to the PostgreSQL database. This is in support of our database programming class that teaches students how to write PL/SQL against the Oracle database and pgPL/SQL against the PostgreSQL database. We also demonstrate transactional management through Node.js, Python and Java.

Naturally, this is also a frequent step taken by those required to migrate PostgreSQL data models to an Oracle database. While my final solution requires mimicking Oracle’s database user to schema, it does work for migration purposes. I’ll update this post when I determine how to populate the database drop-down list.

The first step was figuring out where to put the PostgreSQL JDBC Java ARchive (.jar) file on a Linux distribution. You navigate to the end-user student account in a Terminal and change to the .sqldeveloper directory. Then, create a jdbc subdirectory as the student user with the following command:

mkdir /home/student/.sqldeveloper/jdbc

Then, download the most current PostgreSQL JDBC Java ARchive (.jar) file and copy it into the /home/student/.sqldeveloper/jdbc, which you can see afterward with the following command:

ll /home/student/.sqldeveloper/jdbc

It should display:

-rw-r--r--. 1 student student 1041081 Aug  9 13:46 postgresql-42.3.7.jar

The next series of steps are done within SQL Developer. Launch SQL Developer and navigate to Tools and Preferences, like this:

Inside the Preferences dialog, navigate to Database and Third Party JDBC Drivers like shown and click the Add Entry button to proceed:

Inside the Select Path Entry dialog, select the current PostgreSQL JDBC Java ARchive (.jar) file, which is postgresql-42-3.7.jar in this example. Then, click the Select button.

You are returned to the Preferences dialog as shown below. Click the OK button to continue.

After completing the 3rd Party Java Driver setup, you attempt to create a new connection to the PostgreSQL database. You should see that you now have two available Database Type values: Oracle and PostgreSQL, as shown below:

When you click on the PostgreSQL Database Type, the dialog updates to the following view. Unfortunately, I couldn’t discover how to set the values in the list for the Choose Database drop down. Naturally, a sandboxed user can’t connect to the PostgreSQL database without qualifying the database name.

Unless you qualify the PostgreSQL database or connect as the postgres user with a privileged password, SQL Developer translates the absence of a database selection to a database name equivalent to the user’s name. That’s the default behavior for the Oracle database but differs from the behavior for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server. It returns the following

Status: Failure - Test failed: FATAL: database "student" does not exist

As seen in the diaglog’s result when testing the connection:

Based on my hunch and not knowing how to populate the database field for the connection, I did the following:

  • Created a Linux OS videodb user.
  • Copied the .bashrc file with all the standard Oracle environment variables.
  • Created the /home/videodb/.sqldeveloper/jdbc directory.
  • Copied the postgresql-42.3.7.jar into the new jdbc directory.
  • Connected as the postgres super user and created the PostgreSQL videodb user with this syntax:

    CREATE USER videodb
      WITH ROLE dba
           ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'cangetin';
  • As the postgres super user, granted the following privileges:

    -- Grant privileges on videodb database videodb user.
    GRANT ALL ON DATABASE "videodb" TO "videodb";
     
    -- Connect to the videodb database.
    \c
     
    -- Grant privileges.
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO videodb;
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA public TO videodb;
  • Added the following line to the pg_hba.conf file in the /var/lib/pgsql/15/data directory as the postgres user:

    local   all             videodb                                 peer
  • Connected as the switched from the student to videodb Linux user, and launched SQL Developer. Then, I used the Tools menu to create the 3rd party PostgreSQL JDBC Java ARchive (.jar) file in context of the SQL Developer program. Everything completed correctly.
  • Created a new PostgreSQL connection in SQL Developer and tested it with success as shown:

  • Saving the new PostgreSQL connection, I opened the connection and could run SQL statements and display the catalog information, as shown:

    Connected as the videodb user to the videodb database I can display tables owned by student and videodb users:

    -- List tables.
    \d
     
                       List of relations
     Schema |           Name           |   Type   |  Owner
    --------+--------------------------+----------+---------
     public | new_hire                 | table    | student
     public | new_hire_new_hire_id_seq | sequence | student
     public | oracle_test              | table    | videodb
    (3 rows)

    In SQL Developer, you can also inspect the tables, as shown:

At this point, I’m working on trying to figure out how to populate the database drop-down table. However, I’ve either missed a key document or it’s unfortunate that SQL Developer isn’t as friendly as MySQL Workbench in working with 3rd Party drivers.

Written by maclochlainn

August 8th, 2023 at 11:29 pm