Re: Oracle newbie - few questions

Damir Dezeljin wrote:

> Hi.
>
> I have to produce a simple 'sale system' in Oracle as homework for a course
> of Information system on my faculty.
>
> While I have a lot of experience with MySQL, C, PHP and other programming
> langages, I started to 'fight' with Oracle and Oracle forms some days ago ;)
> Is there anyone who can explain me something:
> - First the more important ... is there an online 'quick guide' with
> exercises or something similar on using ORACLE, FORM BUILDER,...?
> BTW: I'm using Oracle Developer 6.0?
> - The realy basics of TABLESPACEs? This is something new for me and I don't
> understand the explanation from the manual?
> Are TABLESPACEs something similar to databases in MySQL and if so, how
> can I specify the TABLESPACE in which I will create objects (e.g. tables)?
> How are different tablespaces used?
> - How can I see what objects I created and what I can access trough my
> account. I already know that I can get some information by issuing:
> 'SELECT * FROM cat;', but I want some other things like tablespaces,...?
> - How can I get a detailed description of tables. With
> 'DESCRIBE TABLE <table>;' I only get a basic description - there aren't
> mentioned indexes, foreing keys,...?
> Is there a tool (posibly free or with a demo) that I can use to get a
> graphical description of tables, integryty relations,... (I used Access
> with ODBC drivers to get table descriptions - INDEXES,...)?
> - Is there anything similar to 'AUTOINCREMENT' type in other databases (I
> know about SQUENCES, but is this the only thing to use PRIMARY KEY)?
> - How can different users have different data in tables of SAME name in
> the TABLESPACE with SAME name?
>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Dezo

Quite frankly the questions you are asking are so elementary I find it hard to believe you will be successful. Most of what you are asking I cover in the first three hours of the class I teach at the University of Washington. But here are a few quick answers before I head out to lunch.

There are tutorials aplenty with the Forms installation and on the CD

Tablespaces are a logical construct used to identify one or more physical datafiles that hold tables and other objects.

Go to http://tahiti.oracle.com and search for answers to your questions.

Do not use ODBC unless you have no other choice.

Try the following:

SQL> desc user_tables
SQL> desc all_tables

in SQL*Plus

Select statements from these will give you information about tables. Extend your knowledge of the data dictionary by examining the appropriate data dictionary views for other object types:

USER_CONSTRAINTS
USER_VIEWS
USER_INDEXES
ALL_CONSTRAINTS
ALL_VIEWS

Daniel Morgan Received on Thu Jan 02 2003 - 20:25:55 CET