Making the leap Sql Sever from Oracle

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Making the leap Sql Sever from Oracle

David O

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September 22, 2009 at 4:09 pm

#226470

Hired a solid tech with a great Oracle development background but need him to do Sql Server development now. He is trying and making progress but I'd like to shorten the learning curve.
Does anyone know of any training like this except for development:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dd548020.aspx
Thanks,
David

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004409 More actions · Answer 1

Since I've worked on both, I can give you some very good tips...

Step 1. Relax... SQL Server doesn't require things like Reference Cursors to return a result set. A simple SELECT will do it.

Step 2A. Forget everything you know about Cursors and While Loops. 99.9% of everything that can be done, can be done without either and will run MUCH faster in the process.

Step 2B. Make a mental paradigm shift (like my signature line says below)... stop thinking about what you want to do to a row and start thinking about what you want to do to a column.

Step 3. Break out Books OnLine (the help system in SQL Server). Read about every function and read about the double FROM clauses in UPDATE... they will save your bacon. Forget about using correlated subqueries in UPDATE and learn that UPDATE and SELECT can use the same kinds of joins.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

PaulB-TheOneAndOnly SSC Guru Points: 66772 More actions · Answer 2

Good tips Jeff.

Also - if working on a data warehouse environment forget about: bitmap indexes, materialized views, star-transformation and query rewrite. SQL Server offers a much simpler yet solid platform.

By the way, also forget about the differences in between PL/SQL and SQL*Plus - the beauty of SQL Server is that relies on a single, powerfull T-SQL language.

_____________________________________
Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004409 More actions · Answer 3

PaulB-TheOneAndOnly (6/11/2010)forget about the differences in between PL/SQL and SQL*Plus - the beauty of SQL Server is that relies on a single, powerfull T-SQL language.

Excellent point, Paul. I never understood why Oracle chose to separate "SQL" from "PL/SQL".

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

PaulB-TheOneAndOnly SSC Guru Points: 66772 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden (6/11/2010)Excellent point, Paul. I never understood why Oracle chose to separate "SQL" from "PL/SQL".

That's a very good question which puzzled me for a long time.

Even when I do not have a definitive answer to it I know SQL was introduced around 1979 - most probably version 4 - when PL/SQL is a "modern" days innovation from 1992 - Oracle version 7.

Since PL/SQL follows the general structure and syntax of Ada while SQL is nothing but the Oracle implementation of the more structurally simple IBM's SQL my guess is that integration of the two languages was beyond the scope of the project. I remember Oracle documentation from those days introducing PL/SQL as a structured extension of SQL.

_____________________________________
Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.