Re: Differences between Oracle RDBMS and MS SQL Server

In article <MPG.1496338f85d2a3eb9896a9_at_news.bitstream.net>,   tdkannel_at_bitstream.net (Tim Kannel) wrote:
> > As an Oracle developer writing SQL Server, I have come across
 numerous
> > points where SQL Server's SQL cannot perform the task...
>
> Just the opposite for me...
>
> - Oracle's handling of date/time strings is much less flexible than
> SQL server
> - Oracle has too many stupid restrictions, like 30-character
 identifiers
> - AFAIK, Oracle has no equivalent to SQL server's "top n" in select
 clause
> (rownum comparisons don't count)
> - Oracle doesn't have bitwise operations like SQL server
> - Oracle doesn't support "x=y" column aliasing ("y as x" is harder
> to read, IMO)
>
> P.S. any corrections or suggestions about what I said above would
> be appreciated.
>
> --
> Tim Kannel
> TCAP 3.1 - Captures console I/O to a file
> ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/sysutl/tcap31.zip
>

On handling time and date; I think SQL Servers' several different classes for time, date and time/date are very useful. I would suggest that the date handling functions in Oracle are as good as anyone else. I really like the idea of adding days to a date, last_day() to return last day of month associated with date, and add_month(). I think SQL Server has the 'rr' notion available in Oracle -- +/- 50 years of the current year eg 02 is 2002 and 98 is 1998 versus 2002 and 2098 for 'yy'.

On 'top n', SQL Server using top n% is interesting. However, in 10 years of writing database code, I can only recall needing it once or twice. In addition, if one is writing reports with Oracle's Report Writer, it is a built feature.

Currently it does not have bitwise comparison (?) However with functions and now with Oracle's object classes on could develop you own. I am not sure if there is a great need for this feature. Where does one use/need a bitwise operator? I really cannot think of a specific case.

On the column aliasing, I do not believe you need to use ' as ', Oracle's default is to presume that the second term in a field definition is an alias. It can lead to some problems if you forget a comma. It happens to me more often than I want to admit.

On the Oracle restriction on variable length restriction of 30 character, I agree it is a bit silly. Than again, I generally do not run out of characters for fields; occassionally for table names. Afterall, you have to type them occasionally.

--
Michael Krolewski
Rosetta Inpharmatics
mkrolewski_at_rosetta.org
              Ususual disclaimers


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