Please help a new Oracle user with the following:
- We have this enormously complex sytem based on -you guessed it-
The developers gave us a wonderful query builder tool so we
can get info on our own. Like I said, it's wonderful --BUT-- they
refuse to give us a map of the database so we rarely know where to
look for the info we want. And since I'm in charge of writting
queries, guess who gets stumped the most. My question: how can I
create a comprehensive data-map that will help me build my queries and
get the info I'm after the 1st (or even 2nd) time?
- Some of these queries would be simpler to run from (gasp!) Access.
But for the life of me I can't get an ODBC connection working. A
little help here?
- I'm willing to let the moths out of the boss' wallter and buy some
reference books. Can I get some suggestions for the best 2 or 3?
Bonus:
What is the prevailing thought on field type? Specifically, our
programmer used a numeric field for SSN. I've always worked on the
theory that numeric fields should only be used if any sort of math is
to be performed on the data. This is only really a problem for us
when we export data and leading zeros get dropped. That wouldn't
happen if SSN were held in a text field. Your thoughts?
Thanks!!!
