Re: Throwing this out there for discussion

Tom Swier wrote:

> This is the scenario:
>
> You walk into a company that has an 8i (8.1.7) database running on
> UNIX. There is no documentation for the database, i.e., there is
> absolutely no documentation that tells what the applications that hit
> the database are doing, when they do it, or how they do it. You don't
> have access to the application source code (written in C) to figure
> out what the applications are doing. Users access the database with
> these applications from client workstations running Win2K. The company
> won't pay to buy ERWin or any other tool so you can reverse-engineer
> the database. How do you figure out what is going on so you can
> generate adhoc reports and do updates on the database like the
> applications do, but using SQL and PL/SQL?
>
> I had a person ask me this and I stood there like an idiot because I
> couldn't answer their question due to all the foot-shuffling and
> hemming and hawing. I thought I had it bad!
>
> Tom

SELECT table_name, column_name, data_type, etc. FROM user_tab_columns;

SELECT from user_dependencies
SELECT from user_source
SELECT from user_constraints
SELECT from user_triggers
SELECT from user_synonyms
SELECT from user_sequences
SELECT from user_sys_privs
SELECT from user_tab_privs
SELECT from user_col_privs

Then

SELECT from v_$open_cursor
etc.

Intersperse with cursing the moron that bought a product without documentation, source code, or a clue about what he/she was doing. Remembering full well that their blood pressure is lower than yours.

Daniel Morgan Received on Tue Jan 28 2003 - 00:32:45 CET