Re: Oracle9i: A Beginner's Guide

Answers:

1. Structured Query Language... a deceptive name given that the language will not only perform queries, but also perform manipulations of data and create definitions for tables and other database "objects" in the database.

However, according to C.J. Date and Hugh Darwin ("A Guide to the SQL Standard, 4th Edition"):

' "SQL"... was originally an abbreviation for Structured Query Langauge. In its standard incarnation, however, the name is "just a name" and is not considered to be an abbreviation for anything at all.

Further on they say:

'... "Structured English Query Language" SEQUEL [was] first defined by Donald Chamberlin and others at IBM Research in 1974... (The name was subsequently changed to SQL for legal reasons.)

This accounts for why many people, myself included, pronounce SQL as "sequel" instead of "ess-que-ell".

2) SHUTDOWN ABORT does not close the database data files. As a consequence the files are unsynchronized when the instance stops and must be resynchronized when the instance is started again. The process of resynchronization is referred to as "instance recovery". All other shutdown methods close the data files properly and do not require instance recovery.

3) To surpress the number of rows being displayed after a query or DML operation in SQL*Plus type

SET FEEDBACK 0 Or, if you're working in a Windows environment (yes... some people actually do), select Options-> Environment to bring up the environment dialog and change the Feedback setting there.

Randall Roberts, Instructor
Learning Tree University, Costa Mesa, California

Michael S. Abbey <abbey_at_pythian.com> wrote in message news:3b084c64.2016004_at_news1.sympatico.ca...
> Mike Corey, Ian Abramson, and I are working madly away on Oracle9i: A
> Beginner's Guide. One of the chapters deals with the services--inside
> and outside Oracle Coproration. This newsgroup is one place we are
> telling people they can go to hone their Oracle skills.
>
> Here's the deal ... I'm posting a few beginner type questions and the
> first "good" answer to each will be included as a screen shot in the
> book with your name and company affiliation if you want.
>
> Question 1:
> -----------------
> What do the letters S Q L stand for when used as an aconym to describe
> Oracle's query interface?
>
> Question 2:
> -----------------
> What is the difference between SHUTDOWN ABORT and SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE?
>
> Question 3:
> -----------------
> When in SQL*Plus, wanting to suppress the numbe rof rows returned from
> a SELECT statement, which SET command is used and how is the command
> used?
>
> Michael S. Abbey
>
Received on Sun May 20 2001 - 18:54:16 CDT