Re: SQL challenge - an undocumented feature.

Hmmm , very interesting

If there were a function called "*" it would return it's value, rather than the entire contents of the table, but I'm not sure you can call a function "*" ?? (I'm at home, no access to Sql :>) I'm pretty certain that if you selected "nl" from your table it would return the column rather than the value of any function named "nl"

Tell all !!

cheers

Glenn Baron

Jonathan Lewis <jonathan_at_jlcomp.demon.co.uk> wrote in article <927219769.12734.0.nnrp-13.9e984b29_at_news.demon.co.uk>...
> An interesting, undocumented feature of Oracle
>
> create table test_table (n1 number);
>
> insert into test_table values (.......);
> 1 row inserted
>
> select * from test_table;
> N1
> ----------
> 492345
>
> commit;
>
> select * from test_table;
>
> N1
> ----------
> 492349
>
> TEST_TABLE is owned by me,
> no-one has any privileges to access it,
> and I guarantee that no other process
> accessed for the entire transaction.
>
> Apart from Thomas Kyte who knows
> what I inserted into the table.
>
> All will be revealed on my web-site
> some time next week.
>
> --
>
> Jonathan Lewis
> Yet another Oracle-related web site: www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
>
>
>
>
Received on Fri May 21 1999 - 13:04:14 CDT