Re: complete novice

From: rob <rob_at_dsdelft.nl>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 10:21:59 +0200
Message-ID: <9e2m6g$1uc$1_at_news.tudelft.nl>


I don't want to be snooty ;-) but it would help if you mentioned what platform you are on.

> Hi , I just installed Oracle8i . It's supposed to have a sample database
 to
> learn with . I want to learn PL/SQL .
Buy Oracle PL/SQL Programming from O'Reilly. A very good book to start with.

> Problem is I don't know where the database is and how to view it .
To check where the datafiles are :
select file_name from dba_data_files;
select member from v$logfiles;
select name from v$controlfile;
These are the files that make up the database.

> I think I know the directory but not sure . What's the file extension for
 an oracle
> database ?

A default database on NT :

.dbf for datafiles
.log for the redo logfiles
.ctl for the controlfiles

And then there is the configuration file init<sid>.ora, and password file pwd<sid>.ora

> And how does one view the contents ?
By using the dictionary tables, like :

dba_tables
dba_indexes
dba_users
dba_tablespaces

You can get a listing of all dictionary objects by SQL> select * from tab;

> In order to run some SQL commands I have to know what fields are in the
tables etc .
dba_tab_columns
or in sqlplus : desc table_name.
etc.

You can always get a GUI tool like TOAD or Oracle Enterprise Manager to explore the database.

HTH
Rob. Received on Fri May 18 2001 - 10:21:59 CEST

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