Re: recent drivel posted by Tony Rogerson on his blog

Tony Rogerson wrote:
> Hi Richard,
>
> Click on the 2 day dev link (html) and it takes you here
> http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28843/toc.htm
> which is high level index, click on master index - I want a list of all
> topics so I can scroll down.
>
> Search is only useful if you know the correct terminolgy to search on.
>
> Take an example, in SQL Server we have what's called 'Common Table
> Expression'; searching for that on the oracle help does not yeild
> anything similar in oracle yet I know there is something, so, what I
> need is a full scrollable index of topics so I can find what I'm looking
> for.

I disagree - no surprise maybe - The problem you described seems to have been caused by taking what you say is your experience with Books Online  and doing what you would do to find something new in that structure namely going to the alphabetical index of all topics and scrolling through till you find the right thing. I can't find this alphabetical list of all topics though - there is a glossary at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165911.aspx but common table expression isn't there, I assume there is some other index you had in mind. Books Online does have a pretty good tree structure arranging documentation by functional area, but then the homepage link you were referred to has a tabbed structure, errm arranging documentation by functional area (and online search and so on as well), but I'd imagine there is a reason you neglected to point out that Oracle makes the same class of navigation available in a different way.

Finally try subquery factoring clause - having looked up Common Table Expression on a Famous web search engine I discovered what on earth you were looking for - why you didn't start with the sql reference manual is beyond me.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.orawin.info/services