Re: Limitting result without ROWNUM

Frank van Bortel wrote:
> Charles Hooper schreef:
> > Oracle provides a means of requesting web page content. Write a SQL
> > statement that queries Google to translate the big toe measurement to
> > an equality statement; it is not permitted to simply multiply the big
> > toe measurements by 2.54. That sounds like a decent request for the
> > instructor who asked the students to develop a completely unscalable
> > solution to a problem that could have been handled quite efficiently
> > using ROWNUM.
> >
>
> And shows how to manipulate html, using pl/sql, and the capabilities
> of the rdbms as data retrieval system, and the use of google which is
> always beneficial for students.
>
> But I'll make one statement in favor of the instructor: he was thinking
> outside the box. Or at least, trying to get his students, this ng, in
> fact the whole world to look at things differently.
> And that is what -in my book- is education is all about.
>
> There's more than one way to Rome.
> It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different (thanks, YFUNL/Bob)
> --
> Regards,
> Frank van Bortel

I think that your are right on target Frank with what the instructor was attempting to accomplish.

I am beginning to think that Daniel Morgan's comment in this thread was meant to provoke thinking outside the box in order to show how inefficient the other methods are compared with the simple method using ROWNUM, while in the process, discovering the benefits of analytical functions when solving complex problems. If that was the case, it was quite clever.

Charles Hooper
PC Support Specialist
K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc. Received on Sat Jan 20 2007 - 08:11:14 CST