DBA Question

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1. Give one method for transferring a table from one schema to another: Level:Intermediate Expected Answer: There are several possible methods, export-import, CREATE TABLE... AS SELECT, or COPY. 2. What is the purpose of the IMPORT option IGNORE? What is it's default setting? Level: Low Expected Answer: The IMPORT IGNORE option tells import to ignore "already exists" errors. If it is not specified the tables that already exist will be skipped. If it is specified, the error is ignored and the tables data will be inserted. The default value is N. 3. You have a rollback segment in a version 7.2 database that has expanded beyond optimal, how can it be restored to optimal? Level: Low Expected answer: Use the ALTER TABLESPACE ..... SHRIN K command. 4. If the DEFAULT and TEMPORARY tablespace clauses are left out of a CREATE USER command what happens? Is this bad or good? Why? Level: Low Expected answer: The user is assigned the SYSTEM tablespace as a default and temporary tablespace. This is bad because it causes user objects and temporary segments to be placed into the SYSTEM tablespace resulting in fragmentation and improper table placement (only data dictionary objects and the system rollback segment should be in SYSTEM). 5. What are some of the Oracle provided packages that DBAs should be aware of? Level: Intermediate to High Expected answer: Oracle provides a number of packages in the form of the DBMS_ packages owned by the SYS user. The packages used by DBAs may include: DBMS_SHARED_POOL, DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_SQL, DBMS_DDL, DBMS_SESSION, DBMS_OUTPUT and DBMS_SNAPSHOT. They may also try to answer with the UTL*.SQL or CAT*.SQL series of SQL procedures. These can be viewed as extra credit but aren?t part of the answer. 6. What happens if the constraint name is left out of a constraint clause? Level: Low

Expected answer: The Oracle system will use the default name of SYS_Cxxxx where xxxx is a system generated number. This is bad since it makes tracking which table the constraint belongs to or what the constraint does harder. 7. What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary key constraint clause? Level: Low Expected answer: This results in the index that is automatically generated being placed in then users default tablespace. Since this will usually be the same tablespace as the table is being created in, this can cause serious performance problems. 8. What is the proper method for disabling and re-enabling a primary key constraint? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: You use the ALTER TABLE command for both. However, for the enable clause you must specify the USING INDEX and TABLESPACE clause for primary keys. 9. What happens if a primary key constraint is disabled and then enabled without fully specifying the index clause? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: The index is created in the user?s default tablespace and all sizing information is lost. Oracle doesn?t store this information as a part of the constraint definition, but only as part of the index definition, when the constraint was disabled the index was dropped and the information is gone. 10. (On UNIX) When should more than one DB writer process be used? How many should be used? Level: High Expected answer: If the UNIX system being used is capable of asynchronous IO then only one is required, if the system is not capable of asynchronous IO then up to twice the number of disks used by Oracle number of DB writers should be specified by use of the db_writers initialization parameter. 11. You are using hot backup without being in archivelog mode, can you recover in the event of a failure? Why or why not? Level: High Expected answer: You can't use hot backup without being in archivelog mode. So no, you couldn't recover. 12. What causes the "snapshot too old" error? How can this be prevented or mitigated? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: This is caused by large or long running transactions that have either wrapped onto their own rollback space or have had another transaction write on part of their rollback space. This can be prevented or mitigated by breaking the transaction into a set of smaller transactions or increasing the size of the rollback segments and their extents. 13. How can you tell if a database object is invalid? Level: Low Expected answer: By checking the STATUS column of the DBA_, ALL_ or USER_OBJECTS views, depending upon whether you own or only have permission on the view or are using a DBA account.

14. A user is getting an ORA-00942 error yet you know you have granted them permission on the table, what else should you check? Level: Low Expected answer: You need to check that the user has specified the full name of the object (SELECT empid FROM scott.emp; instead of SELECT empid FROM emp;) or has a synonym that points to the object (CREATE SYNONYM emp FOR scott.emp;) 15. A developer is trying to create a view and the database won?t let him. He has the "DEVELOPER" role which has the "CREATE VIEW" system privilege and SELECT grants on the tables he is using, what is the problem? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: You need to verify the developer has direct grants on all tables used in the view. You can't create a stored object with grants given through a role. 16. If you have an example table, what is the best way to get sizing data for the production table implementation? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: The best way is to analyze the table and then use the data provided in the DBA_TABLES view to get the average row length and other pertinent data for the calculation. The quick and dirty way is to look at the number of blocks the table is actually using and ratio the number of rows in the table to its number of blocks against the number of expected rows. 17. How can you find out how many users are currently logged into the database? How can you find their operating system id? Level: high Expected answer: There are several ways. One is to look at the v$session or v$process views. Another way is to check the current_logins parameter in the v$sysstat view. Another if you are on UNIX is to do a "ps -ef|grep oracle|wc -l? command, but this only works against a single instance installation. 18. A user selects from a sequence and gets back two values, his select is: SELECT pk_seq.nextval FROM dual; What is the problem? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Somehow two values have been inserted into the dual table. This table is a single row, single column table that should only have one value in it. 19. How can you determine if an index needs to be dropped and rebuilt? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Run the ANALYZE INDEX command on the index to validate its structure and then calculate the ratio of LF_BLK_LEN/LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN and if it isn?t near 1.0 (i.e. greater than 0.7 or so) then the index should be rebuilt. Or if the ratio BR_BLK_LEN/

From - ht tp://www.techinterviews.com/oracle-dba-interview-questions

1. Explainthedifferencebetweenahotbackupandacoldbackupandthebenefitsassociatedwitheach.
Ahotbackupisbasicallytakingabackupofthedatabasewhileitisstillupandrunninganditmustbein archivelogmode.Acoldbackupistakingabackupofthedatabasewhileitisshutdownanddoesnotrequire beinginarchivelogmode.Thebenefitoftakingahotbackupisthatthedatabaseisstillavailableforusewhile thebackupisoccurringandyoucanrecoverthedatabasetoanypointintime.Thebenefitoftakingacold backupisthatitistypicallyeasiertoadministerthebackupandrecoveryprocess.Inaddition,sinceyouare takingcoldbackupsthedatabasedoesnotrequirebeinginarchivelogmodeandthustherewillbeaslight performancegainasthedatabaseisnotcuttingarchivelogstodisk.

2. Youhavejusthadtorestorefrombackupanddonothaveanycontrolfiles.Howwouldyougoabout
bringingupthisdatabase?Iwouldcreateatextbasedbackupcontrolfile,stipulatingwhereondiskallthe datafileswhereandthenissuetherecovercommandwiththeusingbackupcontrolfileclause.

Oracleinterviewquestions
1. Whatisanoracleinstance? 2. Whatisaview? 3. Whatisreferentialintegrity? 4. Namethedatadictionarythatstoresuserdefinedconstraints? 5. Whatisacollectionofprivileges? 6. Whatisasnapshot? 7. Whatisasynonym? 8. Whatisacursor? 9. Whatisasequence? 10. Whatisatrigger? 11. Whatisanexception? 12. Whatisapartitionoftable? 13. WhatarepseudocolumnsinSQL?Provideexamples. 14. WhataretheDataControlstatements? 15. Whatisaschema? 16. Whatisatype? 17. Whatisadatamodel? 18. Whatisarelation? 19. Advantagesofredologfiles? 20. WhatisanArchiver? 21. Whatisadatabasebuffercache? 22. WhatarethebackgroundprocessesinOracle? 23. %typeand%rowtypeareattributesfor? 24. Whatarethestepsinatwophasecommit? 25. Whatisaunion,intersect,minus?

26. Whatisajoin,explainthetypesofjoins? 27. Whatisacorelatedsubquery? 28. ODBCstandsfor? 29. Datatypeusedtoworkwithintegersis? 30. Describedatamodels? 31. DescribetheNormalizationprinciples? 32. WhatarethetypesofNormalization? 33. Whatisdenormalization?

From - ht tp://dba.fyicenter.com/Interview-Questions/OracleDBA/What_is_different_between_TRUNCATE_and_DELETE_.html

What is different between TRUNCATE and DELETE?

The Delete command will log the data changes in the log file where as the truncate will simply remove the data without it. Hence Data removed by Delete command can be rolled back but not the data removed by TRUNCATE. Truncate is a DDL statement whereas DELETE is a DML statement.

What is the maximum buffer size that can be specified using the DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE function?
Can you use a commit statement within a database trigger? Yes, if you are using autonomous transactions in the Database triggers. What is an UTL_FILE? What are different procedures and functions associated with it? The UTL_FILE package lets your PL/SQL programs read and write operating system (OS) text files. It provides a restricted version of standard OS stream file input/output (I/O). Subprogram -Description FOPEN function-Opens a file for input or output with the default line size. IS_OPEN function -Determines if a file handle refers to an open file. FCLOSE procedure -Closes a file. FCLOSE_ALL procedure -Closes all open file handles. GET_LINE procedure -Reads a line of text from an open file.

PUT procedure-Writes a line to a file. This does not append a line terminator. NEW_LINE procedure-Writes one or more OS-specific line terminators to a file. PUT_LINE procedure -Writes a line to a file. This appends an OS-specific line terminator. PUTF procedure -A PUT procedure with formatting. FFLUSH procedure-Physically writes all pending output to a file. FOPEN function -Opens a file with the maximum line size specified.

What are between database triggers and form triggers? Database triggers are fired whenever any database action like INSERT, UPATE, DELETE, LOGON LOGOFF etc occurs. Form triggers on the other hand are fired in response to any event that takes place while working with the forms, say like navigating from one field to another or one block to another and so on. What is OCI. What are its uses? OCI is Oracle Call Interface. When applications developers demand the most powerful interface to the Oracle Database Server, they call upon the Oracle Call Interface (OCI). OCI provides the most comprehensive access to all of the Oracle Database functionality. The newest performance, scalability, and security features appear first in the OCI API. If you write applications for the Oracle Database, you likely already depend on OCI. Some types of applications that depend upon OCI are: PL/SQL applications executing SQL C++ applications using OCCI Java applications using the OCI-based JDBC driver C applications using the ODBC driver VB applications using the OLEDB driver Pro*C applications Distributed SQL

What are ORACLE PRECOMPILERS?

A precompiler is a tool that allows programmers to embed SQL statements in high-level source programs like C, C++, COBOL, etc. The precompiler accepts the source program as input, translates the embedded SQL statements into standard Oracle runtime library calls, and generates a modified source program that one can compile, link, and execute in the usual way. Examples are the Pro*C Precompiler for C, Pro*Cobol for Cobol, SQLJ for Java etc.

What is syntax for dropping a procedure and a function? Are these operations possible?

Drop Procedure/Function ; yes, if they are standalone procedures or functions. If they are a part of a package then one have to remove it from the package definition and body and recompile the package.

How to check if application 11i System is Autoconfig enabled ? Under $AD_TOP/bin check for file adcfginfo.sh and if this exists use adcfginfo.sh contextfile=<CONTEXT> show=enabled If this file is not there , look for any configuration file under APPL_TOP if system is Autoconfig enabled then you will see entry like

How to check if Oracle application 11i System is Rapid Clone enabled ? For syetem to be Rapid Clone enabled , it should be Autoconfig enabled (Check above How to confirm if application 11i is Autoconfig enabled). You should have Rapid Clone Patches applied , Rapid Clone is part of Rapid Install Product whose Family Pack Name is ADX. By default all application 11i Instances 11.5.9 and above are Autoconfig and Rapid Clone enabled.

Whats is difference between two env files in <CONTEXT>.env and APPS<CONTEXT>.env under $APPL_TOP ? APPS<CONTEXT>.env is main environment file which inturn calls other environment files like <CONTEXT>.env under $APPL_TOP, <CONTEXT>.env under 806 ORACLE_HOME and custom.env for any Customized environment files.

What is main concurrent Manager types. # ICM - Internal Concurrent Manager which manages concurrent Managers # Standard Managers - Which Manage processesing of requests. # CRM - Conflict Resolution Managers , resolve conflicts in case of incompatibility.

What is US directory in $AD_TOP or under various product TOP's . US directory is defauly language directory in Oracle Applications. If you have multiple languages Installed in your Applications then you will see other languages directories besides US, that directory will contain reports, fmx and other code in that respective directory like FR for France, AR for arabic, simplifies chinese or spanish.

Where is Concurrent Manager log file location. By default standard location is $APPLCSF/$APPLLOG , in some cases it can go to $FND_TOP/log as well.

Where would I find .rf9 file, and what it dose ? These files are used during restart of patch in case of patch failure because of some reason.

Where is appsweb.cfg or appsweb_$CONTEXT.cfg stored and why its used ? This file is defined by environment variable FORMS60_WEB_CONFIG_FILE This is usually in directory $OA_HTML/bin on forms tier. This file is used by any forms client session. When a user try to access forms , f60webmx picks up this file and based on this configuration file creates a forms session to user/client.

What is Multi Node System ? Multi Node System in Oracle Applications 11i means you have Applications 11i Component on more than one system. Typical example is Database, Concurrent Manager on one machine and forms, Web Server on second machine is example of Two Node System.

Can a function take OUT parameters. If not why? yes, IN, OUT or IN OUT.

Can the default values be assigned to actual parameters? Yes. In such case you dont need to specify any value and the actual parameter will take the default value provided in the function definition.

What is difference between a formal and an actual parameter? The formal parameters are the names that are declared in the parameter list of the header of a module. The actual parameters are the values or expressions placed in the parameter list of the actual call to the module.

What are different modes of parameters used in functions and procedures? There are three different modes of parameters: IN, OUT, and IN OUT. IN - The IN parameter allows you to pass values in to the module, but will not pass anything out of the module and back to the calling PL/SQL block. In other words, for the purposes of the program, its IN parameters function like constants. Just like constants, the value of the formal IN parameter cannot be changed within the program. You cannot assign values to the IN parameter or in any other way modify its value. IN is the default mode for parameters. IN parameters can be given default values in the program header. OUT - An OUT parameter is the opposite of the IN parameter. Use the OUT parameter to pass a value back from the program to the calling PL/SQL block. An OUT parameter is like the return value for a function, but it appears in the parameter list and you can, of course, have as many OUT parameters as you like. Inside the program, an OUT parameter acts like a variable that has not been initialised. In fact, the OUT parameter has no value at all until the program terminates successfully (without raising an exception, that is). During the execution of the program, any assignments to an OUT parameter are actually made to an internal copy of the OUT parameter. When the program terminates successfully and returns control to the calling block, the value in that local copy is then transferred to the actual OUT parameter. That value is then available in the calling PL/SQL block. IN OUT - With an IN OUT parameter, you can pass values into the program and return a value back to the calling program (either the original, unchanged value or a new value set within the program). The IN OUT parameter shares two restrictions with the OUT parameter:

An IN OUT parameter cannot have a default value. An IN OUT actual parameter or argument must be a variable. It cannot be a constant, literal, or expression, since these formats do not provide a receptacle in which PL/SQL can place the outgoing value.

What is difference between procedure and function. A function always returns a value, while a procedure does not. When you call a function you must always assign its value to a variable.

Can cursor variables be stored in PL/SQL tables. If answer is yes, explain how? If not why? Yes. Create a cursor type - REF CURSOR and declare a cursor variable of that type. DECLARE /* Create the cursor type. */ TYPE company_curtype IS REF CURSOR RETURN company%ROWTYPE; /* Declare a cursor variable of that type. */ company_curvar company_curtype; /* Declare a record with same structure as cursor variable. */ company_rec company%ROWTYPE; BEGIN /* Open the cursor variable, associating with it a SQL statement. */ OPEN company_curvar FOR SELECT * FROM company; /* Fetch from the cursor variable. */ FETCH company_curvar INTO company_rec; /* Close the cursor object associated with variable. */ CLOSE company_curvar; END;

Can you clone from multi node system to single node system and vice versa ?

Yes , this is now supported via Rapid Clone, Check if your system has all prereq. patches for Rapid Clone and you are on latest rapid clone patch.

Does rapid clone takes care of Updating Global oraInventory or you have to register manually in Global OraInventory after clone ? Rapid Clone will automatically Update Global oraInventory during configuration phase. You don't have to do any thing manually for Global oraInventory.

What is .dbc file , where its stored , whats use of .dbc file ? dbc as name says is database connect descriptor file which stores database connection information used by application tier to connect to database. This file is in directory $FND_TOP/secure also called as FND_SECURE

What are things you do to reduce patch timing ? You can take advantage of following # Merging patches via admrgpch # Use various adpatch options like nocompiledb or nocompilejsp # Use defaults file # Staged APPL_TOP during upgrades # Increase batch size (Might result into negative )

How you put Applications 11i in Maintenance mode ? Use adadmin to change Maintenance mode is Oracle application. With AD.I you need to enable maintenance mode in order to apply application patch via adpatch utility. If you don't want to put application in maintenance mode you can use adpatch options=hotpatch feature.

Can you apply patch without putting Applications 11i in Maintenance mode ? Yes, use options=hotpatch as mentioned above with adpatch.

Various options available with adpatch depending on your AD version are autoconfig, check_exclusive, checkfile, compiledb, compilejsp, copyportion, databaseprtion, generateportion, hotpatch, integrity, maintainmrc, parallel, prereq, validate

ADIDENT UTILITY is used for what ? ADIDENT UTILITY in ORACLE application is used to find version of any file . AD Identification. for ex. "adident Header <filename>

How do you pass cursor variables in PL/SQL? Pass a cursor variable as an argument to a procedure or function. You can, in essence, share the results of a cursor by passing the reference to that result set

How do you open and close a cursor variable. Why it is required? Using OPEN cursor_name and CLOSE cursor_name commands. The cursor must be opened before using it in order to fetch the result set of the query it is associated with. The cursor needs to be closed so as to release resources earlier than end of transaction, or to free up the cursor variable to be opened again.

What should be the return type for a cursor variable. Can we use a scalar data type as return type? The return type of a cursor variable can be %ROWTYPE or record_name%TYPE or a record type or a ref cursor type. A scalar data type like number or varchar cant be used but a record type may evaluate to a scalar value.

What is use of a cursor variable? How it is defined?

Cursor variable is used to mark a work area where Oracle stores a multi-row query output for processing. It is like a pointer in C or Pascal. Because it is a TYPE, it is defined as TYPE REF CURSOR RETURN ;

What WHERE CURRENT OF clause does in a cursor? The Where Current Of statement allows you to update or delete the record that was last fetched by the cursor.

What is different between NO DATA FOUND and %NOTFOUND NO DATA FOUND is an exception which is raised when either an implicit query returns no data, or you attempt to reference a row in the PL/SQL table which is not yet defined. SQL%NOTFOUND, is a BOOLEAN attribute indicating whether the recent SQL statement does not match to any row.

What is a cursor for loop? A cursor FOR loop is a loop that is associated with (actually defined by) an explicit cursor or a SELECT statement incorporated directly within the loop boundary. Use the cursor FOR loop whenever (and only if) you need to fetch and process each and every record from a cursor, which is a high percentage of the time with cursors.

What is iAS Patch ? iAS Patch are patches released to fix bugs associated with IAS_ORACLE_HOME (Web Server Component) Usually these are shiiped as Shell scripts and you apply iAS patches by executing Shell script. Note that by default ORACLE_HOME is pointing to 8.0.6 ORACLE_HOME and if you are applying iAS patch export ORACLE_HOME to iAS . You can do same by executing environment file under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME

If we run autoconfig which files will get effected ? In order to check list of files changes during Autoconfig , you can run adchkcfg utility which will generate HTML report. This report will list all files and profile options going to change when you run AutoConfig.

What is difference between .xml file and AutoConfig ? Autoconfig is Utility to configure your Oracle Application environment. .xml file is repository of all configuration from which AutoConfig picks configuration and polulates related files.

What is .lgi files ? lgi files are created with patching along with .log files . .lgi files are informative log files containing information related to patch. You can check .lgi files to see what activities patch has done. Usually informative logs.

How will you skip worker during patch ? If in your adctrl there are six option shown then seventh is hidden option.(If there are seven options visible then 8th option is to Skip worker depending on ad version)

Which two tables created at start of application Patch and drops at end of Patch ? FND_INSTALLED_PROCESS and AD_DEFFERED_JOBS are the tables that get updated while applying a patch mainly d or unified driver.

How to compile an Oracle Reports file ? Utility adrepgen is used to compile Reports. Synatx is given below adrepgen userid=apps\<psswd> source = $PRODUCT_TOP\srw\filename.rdf dest=$PRODUCT_TOP\srw\filename.rdf stype=rdffile dtype=rdffile logfile=x.log overwrite=yes batch=yes dunit=character

What is difference between AD_BUGS and AD_APPLID_PATCHES ? AD_BUGS holds information about the various Oracle Applications bugs whose fixes have been applied (ie. patched) in the Oracle Applications installation. AD_APPLIED_PATCHES holds information about the "distinct" Oracle Applications patches that have been applied. If 2 patches happen to have the same name but are different in content (eg. "merged" patches), then they are considered distinct and this table will therefore hold 2 records.

What is ADSPLICE UTILITY ? ADSPLICE UTILITY in ORACLE application is utility to add a new product.

How can you licence a product after installation ? You can use ad utility adlicmgr to licence product in Oracle application.

What is MRC ? What you do as application DBA for MRC ? MRC also called as Multiple Reporting Currency in oracle application. Default you have currency in US Dollars but if your organization operating books are in other currency then you as application DBA need to enable MRC in applications. How to enable MRC coming soon...

What is access_log in apache , what entries are recored in access_log ? Where is default location of this file ? access_log in Oracle Application Server records all users accessing oracle applications 11i. This file location is defined in httpd.conf with default location at $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs. Entries in this file is defined by directive LogFormat in httpd.conf Typical entry in access_log is 198.0.0.1 - - [10/Sep/2006:18:37:17 +0100] "POST /OA_HTML/OA.jsp?.... HTTP/1.1" 200 28035 where 200 is HTTP status code and last digits 28035 is bytes dowloaded as this page(Size of page)

Where is Jserv configuration files stored ? Jserv configuration files are stored in $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/etc

Where is applications start/stop scripts stored ? applications start/stop scripts are in directory $COMMON_TOP/admin/scripts/$CONTEXT_NAME

What are main configuration files in Web Server (Apache) ? Main configuration files in Oracle application Web Server are # httpd.conf, apps.conf, oracle_apache.conf, httpd_pls.conf # jserv.conf, ssp_init.txt, jserv.properties, zone.properties # plsql.conf, wdbsvr.app, plsql.conf

Can C driver in application patch create Invalid Object in database ? No , C driver only copies files in File System. Database Object might be invalidated during D driver when these objects are created/dropped/modified.

What is dev60cgi and f60cgi ? CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and these are Script Alias in Oracle application used to access forms server . Usually Form Server access directly via http://hostname:port/dev60cgi/f60cgi

Why does a worker fails in Oracle Apps Patch and few scenarios in which it failed for you ? Apps Patch worker can fail in case it doesn't find expected data, object, files or any thing which driver is trying to update/edit/modify. Possible symptoms may be underlying tables/objects are invalid, a prereq patch is missing , login information is incorrect, inconsistency in seeded data...

What is difference between mod_osso and mod_ose in Oracle HTTP Server ? mod_osso is Oracle Single Sign-On Module where as mod_ose is module for Oracle Servlet Engine. mod_osso is module in Oracle's HTTP Server serves as Conduit between Oracle Apache Server and Singl Sign-On Server where as mod_ose is also another module in Oracle's HTTP Server serves as conduit between Oracle Apache and Oracle Servlet Engine.

What is difference between COMPILE_ALL=SPECIAL and COMPILE=ALL while compiling Forms ? Both the options will compile all the PL/SQL in the resultant .FMX, .PLX, or .MMX file but COMPILE_ALL=YES also changes the cached version in the source .FMB, .PLL, or .MMB file. This confuses version control and build tools (CVS, Subversion, make, scons); they believe you've made significant changes to the source. COMPILE_ALL=SPECIAL does not do this.

What is difference between COMPILE_ALL=SPECIAL and COMPILE=ALL while compiling Forms ?

Both the options will compile all the PL/SQL in the resultant .FMX, .PLX, or .MMX file but COMPILE_ALL=YES also changes the cached version in the source .FMB, .PLL, or .MMB file. This confuses version control and build tools (CVS, Subversion, make, scons); they believe you've made significant changes to the source. COMPILE_ALL=SPECIAL does not do this.

FNDSM is executable and core component in GSM ( Generic Service Management Framework discussed above). You start FNDSM services via application listener on all Nodes in Application Tier in E-Business Suite.

What are cursor attributes? Cursor attributes are used to get the information about the current status of your cursor. Both explicit and implicit cursors have four attributes, as shown: Name Description %FOUND Returns TRUE if record was fetched successfully, FALSE otherwise. %NOTFOUND Returns TRUE if record was not fetched successfully, FALSE otherwise. %ROWCOUNT Returns number of records fetched from cursor at that point in time. %ISOPEN Returns TRUE if cursor is open, FALSE otherwise.

What is difference between an implicit and an explicit cursor. The implicit cursor is used by Oracle server to test and parse the SQL statements and the explicit cursors are declared by the programmers.

What is a cursor? A cursor is a mechanism by which you can assign a name to a select statement and manipulate the information within that SQL statement

What is the purpose of a cluster?

A cluster provides an optional method of storing table data. A cluster is comprised of a group of tables that share the same data blocks, which are grouped together because they share common columns and are often used together. For example, the EMP and DEPT table share the DEPTNO column. When you cluster the EMP and DEPT, Oracle physically stores all rows for each department from both the EMP and DEPT tables in the same data blocks. You should not use clusters for tables that are frequently accessed individually.

How do you find the number of rows in a Table ? select count(*) from table, or from NUM_ROWS column of user_tables if the table statistics has been collected.

What is a pseudo column. Give some examples? Information such as row numbers and row descriptions are automatically stored by Oracle and is directly accessible, ie. not through tables. This information is contained within pseudo columns. These pseudo columns can be retrieved in queries. These pseudo columns can be included in queries which select data from tables. Available Pseudo Columns ROWNUM - row number. Order number in which a row value is retrieved. ROWID - physical row (memory or disk address) location, ie. unique row identification. SYSDATE - system or todays date. UID - user identification number indicating the current user. USER - name of currently logged in user.

Whats is location of access_log file ? access_log file by default is located in $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/ Apache/Apache/logs. Location of this file is defined in httpd.conf by patameter CustomLog or TransferLog

What is your Oracle application 11i Webserver Version and how to find it ?

From 11.5.8 to 11.5.10 Webserver version is iAS 1.0.2.2.2, In order to find version under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin execute ./httpd -version ./httpd -version Server version: Oracle HTTP Server Powered by Apache/1.3.19 Server built: Dec 6 2005 14:59:13 (iAS 1.0.2.2.2 rollup 5)

What is Location of Jserv configuration files ? Jserv configuration files are located in $IAS_ORACLE_HOME /Apache/Jserv/etc

What is plssql/database cache ? In order to improve performance mod_pls (Apache component) caches some database content to file. This database/plssql cache is usually of type session and plsql cache # session cache is used to store session information. # plsql cache is used to store plsql cache i.e. used by mod_pls

Where is DATABASE/PLSSQL cache stored ? PLSSQL and session cache are stored under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/ Apache/modplsql/cache directory.

What is *.DBC file and whats is location of DBC file ? DBC as name stands for is database connect descriptor file used to connect to database. This file by default located in $FND_TOP/secure directory also called as $FND_SECURE directory.

What is content of DBC file and why its important ? DBC file is quite important as whenever Java or any other program like forms want to connect to database it uses DBC file. Typical entry in DBC file is GUEST_USER_PWD APPS_JDBC_URL DB_HOST

What are few profile options which you update after cloning ? Rapid clone updates profile options specific to site level . If you have any profile option set at other levels like server, responsibility, user....level then reset them

How to retrieve SYSADMIN password ? If forgot password link is enabled and SYSADMIN account is configured with mail id user forget password link else you can reset sSYSADMIN password via FNDCPASS

What is TWO_TASK in Oracle Database ? TWO_TASK mocks your tns alias which you are going to use to connect to database. Lets assume you have database client with tns alias defined as PROD to connect to Database PROD on machine teachmeoracle.com listening on port 1521. Then usual way to connect is sqlplus username/passwd@PROD ; now if you don't want to use @PROD then you set TWO_TASK=PROD and then can simply use sqlplus username/passwd then sql will check that it has to connect to tnsalias define by value PROD i.e. TWO_TASK

What is GWYUID ? GWYUID , stands for Gateway User ID and password. Usually like APPLSYSPUB/PUB

Where GWYUID defined and what is its used in Oracle Applications ? GWYUID is defined in dbc i.e. Database Connect Descriptor file . It is used to connect to database by think clients

If APPS_MRC schema is not used in 11.5.10 and higher then How MRC is working ?

For products like Payable, Recievables which uses MRC and if MRC is enabled then each transaction table in base schema related to currency now has an assoicated MRC Subtables.

When you apply C driver patch does it require database to be Up and Why ? Yes , database and db listener should be Up when you apply any driver patch in application. even if driver is not updating any database object connection is required to validate application and other schema and to upload patch history information in database tables.

How you will avoid your query from using indexes? By changing the order of the columns that are used in the index, in the Where condition, or by concatenating the columns with some constant values.

What is a OUTER JOIN? An OUTER JOIN returns all rows that satisfy the join condition and also returns some or all of those rows from one table for which no rows from the other satisfy the join condition.

Which is more faster - IN or EXISTS? Well, the two are processed very differently. Select * from T1 where x in ( select y from T2 ) is typically processed as: select * from t1, ( select distinct y from t2 ) t2 where t1.x = t2.y; The sub query is evaluated, distincted, indexed (or hashed or sorted) and then joined to the original table typically. As opposed to select * from t1 where exists ( select null from t2 where y =x) That is processed more like: for x in ( select * from t1 ) loop if ( exists ( select null from t2 where y = x.x ) then OUTPUT THE RECORD

end if end loop It always results in a full scan of T1 whereas the first query can make use of an index on T1(x). So, when is where exists appropriate and in appropriate? Lets say the result of the sub query ( select y from T2 ) is huge and takes a long time. But the table T1 is relatively small and executing ( select null from t2 where y = x.x ) is very fast (nice index on t2(y)). Then the exists will be faster as the time to full scan T1 and do the index probe into T2 could be less then the time to simply full scan T2 to build the sub query we need to distinct on. Lets say the result of the sub query is small then IN is typically more appropriate. If both the sub query and the outer table are huge either might work as well as the other depends on the indexes and other factors.

When do you use WHERE clause and when do you use HAVING clause? The WHERE condition lets you restrict the rows selected to those that satisfy one or more conditions. Use the HAVING clause to restrict the groups of returned rows to those groups for which the specified condition is TRUE.

There is a % sign in one field of a column. What will be the query to find it? SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE %\%% ESCAPE \;

Where will you find forms configuration details apart from xml file ? Forms configuration at time of startup is in script adfrmctl.sh and appsweb_$CONTEXT_NAME.cfg (defined by environment variable FORMS60_WEB_CONFIG_FILE) for forms client connection used each time a user initiates forms connection.

What is forms server executable Name ?

f60srvm

What are different modes of forms in which you can start Forms Server and which one is default ? You can start forms server in SOCKET or SERVLET by defualt Forms are configured to start in socket mode.

How you will start Discoverer in Oracle Applications 11i ? In order to start dicoverer you can use script addisctl.sh under $OAD_TOP/admin/scripts/ $CONTEXT_NAME or startall.sh under $ORACLE_HOME/discwb4/util (under Middle/Application Tier)

How many ORACLE HOME are Oracle Applications and whats significance of each ? There are three $ORACLE_HOME in Oracle Applications, Two for Applications Tier (Middle Tier) and One in Database Tier. # ORACLE_HOME 1 : On Applications Tier used to store 8.0.6 techstack software. This is used by forms, reports and discoverer. ORACLE_HOME should point to this ORACLE_HOME which applying application Patch. # ORACLE_HOME 2: On Application Tier used by iAS (Web Server) techstack software. This is used by Web Listener and contains Apache. # ORACLE_HOME 3: On Database Tier used by Database Software usually 8i,9i or 10g database.

Where is HTML Cache stored in Oracle Applications Server ? Oracle HTML Cache is available at $COMMON_TOP/_pages for some previous versions you might find it in $OA_HTML/_pages

Where is plssql cache stored in Oracle Applications ? Usually two type of cache session and plssql stored under $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/modplsql/cache

What happens if you don't give cache size while defining Concurrent Manager ? Lets first understand what is cache size in Concurrent Manager. When Manager picks request from FND CONCURRENT REQUESTS Queues, it will pick up number of requests defined by cache size in one shot and will work on them before going to sleep. If you don't define cache size while defining CM then it will take default value 1, i.e. picking up one request per cycle.

There are lot of DBC file under $FND_SECURE, How its determined that which dbc file to use from $FND_SECURE ? This value is determined from profile option "Applicationss Database ID"

What is RRA/FNDFS ? Report Review Agent(RRA) also referred by executable FNDFS is default text viewer in Oracle Applications 11i for viewing output files and log files. As most of Applications DBA's are not clear about Report Server and RRA, I'll discuss one on my blog and update link here

What is PCP is Oracle Applications 11i ? PCP is acronym for Parallel Concurrurent processing. Usually you have one Concurrent Manager executing your requests but if you can configure Concurrent Manager running on two machines (Yes you need to do some additional steps in order to configure Parallel Concurrent Processing) . So for some of your requests primary CM Node is on machine1 and secondary CM node on machine2 and for some requests primary CM is on machine2 and secondary CM on machine1

Why I need two Concurrent Processing Nodes or in what scenarios PCP is Used ? Well If you are running GL Month end reports or taxation reports annually these reposrts might take couple of days. Some of these requests are very resource intensive so you can have one node running long running , resource intensive requests while other processing your day to day short running requets. Another scenario is when your requests are very critical and you want high resilience for your Concurrent Processing Node , you can configure PCP. So if node1 goes down you still have CM node available processing your requests.

Output and Logfiles for requests executed on source Instance not working on cloned Instance Here is exact problem description - You cloned an Oracle Apps Instance from PRODBOX to another box with Instance name say CLONEBOX on 1st of August. You can any CM logs/output files after 1st of August only becuase these all are generated on CLONEBOX itself, But unable to view the logs/output files which are prior to 1st August. What will you do and where to check ? Log , Output file path and location is stored in table FND_CONCURRENT_REQUESTS. Check select logfile_name, logfile_node_name, outfile_name, outfile_node_name from fnd_concurrent_requests where request_id=&requestid ; where requestid is id of request for which you are not able to see log or out files. You should see output like /u01/PRODBOX/log/l123456.req, host1,/u01/PRODBOX/out/o123456.out, host1 Update it according to your cloned Instance Variables.

How to confirm if Report Server is Up and Running ? Report Server is started by executable rwmts60 on concurrent manager Node and this file is under $ORACLE_HOME/bin .execute command on your server like ps -ef | grep rwmts60 You should get output like applmgr ....... rwmts60 name=REP60_VISION

What is difference between ICM, Standard Managers and CRM in Concurrent Manager ? # ICM stand for Internal Concurrent Manager, which controls other managers. If it finds other managers down , it checks and try to restart them. You can say it as administrator to other concurrent managers. It has other tasks as well. # Standard Manager These are normal managers which control/action on the requests nd does batch or single request processing. # CRM acronym for Conflict Resolution Manager is used to resolve conflicts between managers nd request. If a request is submitted whose execution is clashing or it is defined not to run while a particular type of request is running then such requests are actioned/assigned to CRM for Incompatibilities and Conflict resolution

What is difference between SUBSTR and INSTR? INSTR function search string for sub-string and returns an integer indicating the position of the character in string that is the first character of this occurrence. SUBSTR function return a portion of string, beginning at character position, substring_length characters long. SUBSTR calculates lengths using characters as defined by the input character set.

Which data type is used for storing graphics and images? Raw, Long Raw, and BLOB.

What is difference between SQL and SQL*PLUS? SQL is the query language to manipulate the data from the database. SQL*PLUS is the tool that lets to use SQL to fetch and display the data.

What is difference between UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints? An UNIQUE key can have NULL whereas PRIMARY key is always not NOT NULL. Both bears unique values.

What is difference between UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints? An UNIQUE key can have NULL whereas PRIMARY key is always not NOT NULL. Both bears unique values.

What are various joins used while writing SUBQUERIES? =, , IN, NOT IN, IN ANY, IN ALL, EXISTS, NOT EXISTS.

What is use of Applications listener ? Apps Listener usually running on All Oracle Applications 11i Nodes with listener alias as APPS_$SID is mainly used for listening requests for services like FNDFS and FNDSM.

How to start Applications listener ? In Oracle 11i, you have script adalnctl.sh which will start your apps listener. You can also start it by command lsnrctl start APPS_$SID (Replace sid by your Instance SID Name)

How to confirm if Apps Listener is Up and Running ? execute below command lsnrctl status APPS_$SID (replcae SID with your Instance Name) so If your SID is VISION then use lsnrctl status APPS_VISION out put should be like Services Summary... FNDFS has 1 service handler(s) FNDSM has 1 service handler(s)

What is Web Listener ? Web Listener is Web Server listener which is listening for web Services(HTTP) request. This listener is started by adapcctl.sh and defined by directive (Listen, Port) in httpd.conf for Web Server. When you initially type request like http://becomeappsdba.blogspot.com:80 to access application here port number 80 is Web Listener port.

How will you find Invalid Objects in database ? using query SQLPLUS> select count(*) from dba_objects where status like 'INVALID';

How to compile Invalid Objects in database ? You can use adadmin utility to compile or you can use utlrp.sql script shipped with Oracle Database to compile Invalid Database Objects.

How to compile JSP in Oracle Applications ? You can use ojspCompile.pl perl script shipped with Oracle Applications to compile JSP files. This script is under $JTF_TOP/admin/scripts. Sample compilation method is perl ojspCompile.pl --compile --quiet

What is difference between ADPATCH and OPATCH ? # ADPATCH is utility to apply ORACLE application Patches whereas # OPATCH is utility to apply database patches

Can you use both ADPATCH and OPATCH in application ? Yes you have to use both in application , for application patches you will use ADPATCH UTILITY and for applying database patch in application you will use opatch UTILITY.

BA Interview Questions

Tell us about yourself/ your background. What are the three major characteristics that you bring to the job market? What motivates you to do a good job? What two or three things are most important to you at work? What qualities do you think are essential to be successful in this kind of work? What courses did you attend? What job certifications do you hold? What subjects/courses did you excel in? Why? What subjects/courses gave you trouble? Why? How does your previous work experience prepare you for this position?

How do you define 'success'? What has been your most significant accomplishment to date? Describe a challenge you encountered and how you dealt with it. Describe a failure and how you dealt with it. Describe the 'ideal' job... the 'ideal' supervisor. What leadership roles have you held? What prejudices do you hold? What do you like to do in your spare time? What are your career goals (a) 3 years from now; (b) 10 years from now? How does this position match your career goals? What have you done in the past year to improve yourself? In what areas do you feel you need further education and training to be successful? What do you know about our company? Why do you want to work for this company. Why should we hire you? Where do you see yourself fitting in to this organization . . .initially? . . .in 5 years? Why are you looking for a new job? Are you willing to travel? What are your salary requirements? When would you be available to start if you were selected? Did you use online or off-line backups? What version of Oracle were you running? Haw many databases and what sizes? If you have to advise a backup strategy for a new application, how would you approach it and what questions will you ask? If a customer calls you about a hanging database session, what will you do to resolve it? Compare Oracle to any other database that you know. Why would you prefer to work on one and not on the other?

What is a DBA? A DBA is a Database Administrator, and this is the most common job that you find a database specialist doing. There are Development DBAs and Production DBAs. A Development DBA usually works closely with a team of developers and gets more involved in design decisions, giving advice on performance and writing good SQL. That can be satisfying at a human level because you are part of a team and you share the satisfaction of the team's accomplishments. A Production DBA (on the other hand) is responsible for maintaining Databases within an organisation, so it is a very difficult and demanding job. He or she, often gets involved when all the design decisions have been made, and has simply to keep things up and running. Therefore, of course, it is also a rewarding job, both financially and in terms of job satisfaction. But it's a more 'lonely' job than being a Development DBA

1. What DBA activities did you to do today? This is a loaded question and almost begs for you to answer it with "What DBA activities do you LIKE to do on a daily basis?." And that is how I would answer this question. Again, do not get caught up in the "typical" day-to-day operational issues of database administration. Sure, you can talk about the index you rebuilt, the monitoring of system and session waits that were occurring, or the space you added to a data file, these are all good and great and you should convey that you understand the day-to-day operational issues. What you should also throw into this answer are the meetings that you attend to provide direction in the database arena, the people that you meet and talk with daily to answer adhoc questions about database use, the modeling of business needs within the database, and the extra time you spend early in the morning or late at night to get the job done. Just because the question stipulates "today" do not take "today" to mean "today." Make sure you wrap up a few good days into "today" and talk about them. This question also begs you to ask the question of "What typical DBA activities are performed day to day within X Corporation?"

2. What are the different modes of mounting a Database with the Parallel Server? Exclusive Mode If the first instance that mounts a database does so in exclusive mode, only that Instance can mount the database. Parallel Mode If the first instance that mounts a database is started in parallel mode, other instances that are started in parallel mode can also mount the database.

3. What are the advantages of operating a database in ARCHIVELOG mode over operating it in NO ARCHIVELOG mode? Complete database recovery from disk failure is possible only in ARCHIVELOG mode. Online database backup is possible only in ARCHIVELOG mode.

4. Do you consider yourself a development DBA or a production DBA and why? You take this as a trick question and explain it that way. Never in my database carrier have I distinguished between "development" and "production." Just ask your development staff or VP of engineering how much time and money is lost if development systems are down. Explain to the interviewer that both systems are equally important to the operation of the company and both should be considered as production systems because there are people relying on them and money is lost if either one of them is down. Ok you may be saying, and I know you are, that we lose more money if the production system is down. Ok, convey that to the interviewer and you won't get anyone to disagree with you unless your company sells software or there are million dollar deals on the table that are expecting the next release of your product or service.

5. What are the Large object types suported by Oracle? Answer1 1)bfile - Up to 4 gigabytes > File locators that point to a read-only binary object outside of the database 2)blob - Up to 4 gigabytes. > LOB locators that point to a large binary object within the database 3)clob - Up to 4 gigabytes. > LOB locators that point to a large character object within the database 4)nclob - Up to 4 gigabytes. >LOB locators that point to a large NLS character object within the database

Answer2 These are the large object type supported bye oracle CLOB and LONG for large fixed-width character data NCLOB for large fixed-width national character set data BLOB and LONG RAW for storing unstructured data BFILE for storing unstructured data in operating system files

6. Diffrence between a where clause and a having claus Answer1 The order of the clauses in a query syntax using a GROUP BY clause is as follows: select where..group byhavingorder by Where filters, group by arranges into groups, having applies based on group by clause. Having is applied with group by clause. Answer2 In SQL Server, procedures and functions can return values. (In Oracle, procedures cannot directly return a value). The major difference with a function is that it can be used in a value assignment. Such as: system function Declare @mydate datetime Set @mydate = getdate() user function (where the user has already coded the function) Declare @My_area Set @My_area = dbo.fn_getMy_area(15,20) Answer3 1.where is used to filter records returned by Select 2.where appears before group by clause 3.In where we cannot use aggrigate functions like where count(*) >2 etc 4.having appears after group by clause 5.having is used to filter records returned by Group by< 6.InHaving we can use aggrigate functions like where count(*) >2 etc there are two more

7. Shall we create procedures to fetch more than one record? Yes. We can create procedures to fetch more than a row. By using CURSOR commands we could able to do that. Ex: CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE myprocedure IS CURSOR mycur IS select id from mytable; new_id mytable.id%type;

BEGIN OPEN mycur; LOOP FETCH mycur INTO new_id; exit when mycur%NOTFOUND; do some manipulations END LOOP; CLOSE mycur; END myprocedure; In this example iam trying to fetch id from the table mytable. So it fetches the id from each record until EOF. (EXIT when mycur%NOTFOUND-is used to check EOF. For further informations, refer CURSORS.

8. Do View contain Data? Views do not contain or store data.

9. What are the Referential actions supported by FOREIGN KEY integrity constraint? UPDATE and DELETE Restrict - A referential integrity rule that disallows the update or deletion of referenced data. DELETE Cascade - When a referenced row is deleted all associated dependent rows are deleted.

10. What are the type of Synonyms? There are two types of Synonyms Private and Public

11. Where would you look for errors from the database engine? In the alert log.

12. Compare and contrast TRUNCATE and DELETE for a table. Both the truncate and delete command have the desired outcome of getting rid of all the rows in a table. The difference between the two is that the truncate command is a DDL operation and just moves the high water mark and produces a now rollback. The delete command, on the other hand, is a DML operation, which will produce a rollback and thus take longer to complete.

13. Give the reasoning behind using an index. Faster access to data blocks in a table.

14. Give the two types of tables involved in producing a star schema and the type of data they hold. Fact tables and dimension tables. A fact table contains measurements while dimension tables will contain data that will help describe the fact tables.

15. What type of index should you use on a fact table? A Bitmap index.

16. What is a Segment?

A segment is a set of extents allocated for a certain logical structure.

17. A table is classified as a parent table and you want to drop and re-create it. How would you do this without affecting the children tables?

Disable the foreign key constraint to the parent, drop the table, re-create the table, enable the foreign key constraint.

18. Explain the difference between ARCHIVELOG mode and NOARCHIVELOG mode and the benefits and disadvantages to each. ARCHIVELOG mode is a mode that you can put the database in for creating a backup of all transactions that have occurred in the database so that you can recover to any point in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode is basically the absence of ARCHIVELOG mode and has the disadvantage of not being able to recover to any point in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode does have the advantage of not having to write transactions to an archive log and thus increases the performance of the database slightly.

19. What is a Sequence? A sequence generates a serial list of unique numbers for numerical columns of a databases tables.

20. Give the stages of instance startup to a usable state where normal users may access it. STARTUP NOMOUNT - Instance startup STARTUP MOUNT - The database is mounted STARTUP OPEN - The database is opened

21. What is a Synonym? A synonym is an alias for a table, view, sequence or program unit.

22. How would you go about generating an EXPLAIN plan?

Create a plan table with utlxplan.sql. Use the explain plan set statement_id = 'tst1' into plan_table for a SQL statement Look at the explain plan with utlxplp.sql or utlxpls.sql

23. How would you go about increasing the buffer cache hit ratio? Use the buffer cache advisory over a given workload and then query the v$db_cache_advice table. If a change was necessary then I would use the alter system set db_cache_size command

24. Explain an ORA-01555 You get this error when you get a snapshot too old within rollback. It can usually be solved by increasing the undo retention or increasing the size of rollbacks. You should also look at the logic involved in the application getting the error message

25. Explain the difference between $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_BASE. ORACLE_BASE is the root directory for oracle. ORACLE_HOME located beneath ORACLE_BASE is where the oracle products reside.

26. How would you determine the time zone under which a database was operating? select DBTIMEZONE from dual; 27. Explain the use of setting GLOBAL_NAMES equal to TRUE. Setting GLOBAL_NAMES dictates how you might connect to a database. This variable is either TRUE or FALSE and if it is set to TRUE it enforces database links to have the same name as the remote database to which they are linking.

28. What command would you use to encrypt a PL/SQL application?

WRAP

29. Explain the difference between a FUNCTION, PROCEDURE and PACKAGE. A function and procedure are the same in that they are intended to be a collection of PL/SQL code that carries a single task. While a procedure does not have to return any values to the calling application, a function will return a single value. A package on the other hand is a collection of functions and procedures that are grouped together based on their commonality to a business function or application.

30. Explain the use of table functions. Table functions are designed to return a set of rows through PL/SQL logic but are intended to be used as a normal table or view in a SQL statement. They are also used to pipeline information in an ETL process.

31. Name three advisory statistics you can collect. Buffer Cache Advice, Segment Level Statistics, & Timed Statistics

32. Where in the Oracle directory tree structure are audit traces placed? In unix $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit, in Windows the event viewer

33. Explain materialized views and how they are used. Materialized views are objects that are reduced sets of information that have been summarized, grouped, or aggregated from base tables. They are typically used in data warehouse or decision support systems.

34. What does a Control file Contain? A Control file records the physical structure of the database. It contains the following information. Database Name Names and locations of a databases files and redolog files. Time stamp of database creation.

35. What is difference between UNIQUE constraint and PRIMARY KEY constraint? A column defined as UNIQUE can contain Nulls while a column defined as PRIMARY KEY cant contain Nulls. 47.What is Index Cluster? - A Cluster with an index on the Cluster Key 48.When does a Transaction end? - When it is committed or Rollbacked.

36. What is the effect of setting the value ALL_ROWS for OPTIMIZER_GOAL parameter of the ALTER SESSION command? What are the factors that affect OPTIMIZER in choosing an Optimization approach? - Answer The OPTIMIZER_MODE initialization parameter Statistics in the Data Dictionary the OPTIMIZER_GOAL parameter of the ALTER SESSION command hints in the statement.

37. Describe what redo logs are. Redo logs are logical and physical structures that are designed to hold all the changes made to a database and are intended to aid in the recovery of a database

38. How would you force a log switch? ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE;

39. What are the different Parameter types? Text ParametersData Parameters

40. What does coalescing a tablespace do? Coalescing is only valid for dictionary-managed tablespaces and de-fragments space by combining neighboring free extents into large single extents.

41. What is the difference between a TEMPORARY tablespace and a PERMANENT tablespace? A temporary tablespace is used for temporary objects such as sort structures while permanent tablespaces are used to store those objects meant to be used as the true objects of the database.

42. Name a tablespace automatically created when you create a database. The SYSTEM tablespace.

43. When creating a user, what permissions must you grant to allow them to connect to the database? Grant the CONNECT to the user.

44. How do you add a data file to a tablespace? ALTER TABLESPACE ADD DATAFILE <datafile_name> SIZE <size>

45. How do you resize a data file? ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE <datafile_name> RESIZE <new_size>;

46. What view would you use to look at the size of a data file? DBA_DATA_FILES

47. What view would you use to determine free space in a tablespace? DBA_FREE_SPACE

48. How would you determine who has added a row to a table? Turn on fine grain auditing for the table

49. How can you rebuild an index? ALTER INDEX <index_name> REBUILD;.

50. Explain what partitioning is and what its benefit is. Partitioning is a method of taking large tables and indexes and splitting them into smaller, more manageable pieces.

51. You have just compiled a PL/SQL package but got errors, how would you view the errors? SHOW ERRORS

52. How can you gather statistics on a table? The ANALYZE command.

53. How can you enable a trace for a session? Use the DBMS_SESSION.SET_SQL_TRACE or Use ALTER SESSION SET SQL_TRACE = TRUE;

54. What is the difference between the SQL*Loader and IMPORT utilities? These two Oracle utilities are used for loading data into the database. The difference is that the import utility relies on the data being produced by another Oracle utility EXPORT while the SQL*Loader utility allows data to be loaded that has been produced by other utilities from different data sources just so long as it conforms to ASCII formatted or delimited files.

77. What is a schema? Answer1 The set of objects owned by user account is called the schema. Answer2 Schema is the complete design of the database or data objects. 78. What are the options available to refresh snapshots?

COMPLETE - Tables are completely regenerated using the snapshots query and the master tables every time the snapshot referenced. FAST - If simple snapshot used then a snapshot log can be used to send the changes to the snapshot tables. FORCE - Default value. If possible it performs a FAST refresh; Otherwise it will perform a complete refresh.

79. What is a SNAPSHOT LOG? A snapshot log is a table in the master database that is associated with the master table. ORACLE uses a snapshot log to track the rows that have been updated in the master table. Snapshot logs are used in updating the snapshots based on the master table.

80. What is Distributed database? A distributed database is a network of databases managed by multiple database servers that appears to a user as single logical database. The data of all databases in the distributed database can be simultaneously accessed and modified

197. What are the basic element of Base configuration of an oracle Database? It consists of one or more data files. one or more control files. two or more redo log files. The Database contains multiple users/schemas one or more rollback segments one or more tablespaces Data dictionary tables User objects (table, indexes, views etc.,) The server that access the database consists of SGA (Database buffer, Dictionary Cache Buffers, Redo log buffers, Shared SQL pool) SMON (System MONito) PMON (Process MONitor) LGWR (LoG Write) DBWR (Data Base Write) ARCH (ARCHiver) CKPT (Check Point) RECO Dispatcher User Process with associated PGS

198. What is clusters? Group of tables physically stored together because they share common columns and are often used together is called Cluster.

199. What is an Index? - How it is implemented in Oracle Database? An index is a database structure used by the server to have direct access of a row in a table. An index is automatically created when a unique of primary key constraint clause is specified in create table command (Ver 7.0)

200. What is a Database instance? Explain A database instance (Server) is a set of memory structure and background processes that access a set of database files. The process can be shared by all users. The memory structure that are used to store most queried data from database. This helps up to improve database performance by decreasing the amount of I/O performed against data file

201. What is the use of ANALYZE command? To perform one of these function on an index, table, or cluster: - To collect statistics about object used by the optimizer and store them in the data dictionary. - To delete statistics about the object used by object from the data dictionary. - To validate the structure of the object.. - To identify migrated and chained rows off the table or cluster.

202. What is default tablespace? The Tablespace to contain schema objects created without specifying a tablespace name

203. What are the system resources that can be controlled through Profile? The number of concurrent sessions the user can establish the CPU processing time available to the users session the CPU processing time available to a single call to ORACLE made by a SQL statement the amount of logical I/O available to the users session the amount of logical I/O available to a single call to ORACLE made by a SQL statement the allowed amount of idle time for the users session the allowed amount of connect time for the users session.

204. What is Tablespace Quota? The collective amount of disk space available to the objects in a schema on a particular tablespace.

205. What are the different Levels of Auditing? Statement Auditing, Privilege Auditing and Object Auditing

206. What is Statement Auditing? Statement auditing is the auditing of the powerful system privileges without regard to specifically named objects

207. What are the database administrators utilities available? SQL * DBA - This allows DBA to monitor and control an ORACLE database. SQL * Loader - It loads data from standard operating system files (Flat files) into ORACLE database tables. Export (EXP) and Import (imp) utilities allow you to move existing data in ORACLE format to and from ORACLE database.

208. How can you enable automatic archiving? Shut the database Backup the database Modify/Include LOG_ARCHIVE_START_TRUE in init.ora file. Start up the database.

273. Is it possible to insert comments into sql statements return in the data model editor? Yes

274. Is it possible to disable the parameter from while running the report? Yes

275. When a form is invoked with call_form, Does oracle forms issues a save point? Yes

276. Can a property clause itself be based on a property clause? Yes

277. What is a timer?

Timer is an internal time clock that you can programmatically create to perform an action each time the times.

278. What are the two phases of block coordination? There are two phases of block coordination: the clear phase and the population phase. During, the clear phase, Oracle Forms navigates internally to the detail block and flushes the obsolete detail records. During the population phase, Oracle Forms issues a SELECT statement to repopulate the detail block with detail records associated with the new master record. These operations are accomplished through the execution of triggers

279. What are Most Common types of Complex master-detail relationships? There are three most common types of complex master-detail relationships: master with dependent details master with independent details detail with two masters

280. What is a text list? The text list style list item appears as a rectangular box which displays the fixed number of values. When the text list contains values that can not be displayed, a vertical scroll bar appears, allowing the operator to view and select values that are not displayed.

281. What is term? The term is terminal definition file that describes the terminal form which you are using r20run.

282. What is use of term? The term file which key is correspond to which oracle report functions

283. What is pop list? The pop list style list item appears initially as a single field (similar to a text item field). When the operator selects the list icon, a list of available choices appears.

284. What is the maximum no of chars the parameter can store? The maximum no of chars the parameter can store is only valid for char parameters, which can be up to 64K. No parameters default to 23 Bytes and Date parameter default to 7 Bytes.

285. What are the default extensions of the files created by library module? The default file extensions indicate the library module type and storage format .pll - pl/sql library module binary

286. What are the Coordination Properties in a Master-Detail relationship? The coordination properties are Deferred Auto-Query These Properties determine when the population phase of block coordination should occur

287. What is an index and How it is implemented in Oracle database? INDEX is a one which provides quick access to a row

288. Lot of users are accessing select sysdate from dual and they getting some millisecond differences. If we execute SELECT SYSDATE FROM EMP; what error will we get. Why? No error message indication will be there. It displays the current system date.

289. Give two methods you could use to determine what DDL changes have been made. You could use Logminer or Streams

290. What are the types of calculated columns available? Summary, Formula, Placeholder column.

291. Explain about stacked canvas views?

Stacked canvas view is displayed in a window on top of, or stacked on the content canvas view assigned to that same window. Stacked canvas views obscure some part of the underlying content canvas view, and or often shown and hidden programmatically 292. What are the built_ins used the display the LOV? Show_lov List_values

293. What is the difference between SHOW_EDITOR and EDIT_TEXTITEM? Show editor is the generic built-in which accepts any editor name and takes some input string and returns modified output string. Whereas the edit_textitem built-in needs the input focus to be in the text item before the built-in is executed.

294. What are the built-ins that are used to Attach an LOV programmatically to an item? set_item_property get_item_property (by setting the LOV_NAME property)

295. How do you call other Oracle Products from Oracle Forms? Run_product is a built-in, Used to invoke one of the supported oracle tools products and specifies the name of the document or module to be run. If the called product is unavailable at the time of the call, Oracle Forms returns a message to the operator

296. What is the main diff. bet. Reports 2.0 & Reports 2.5? Report 2.5 is object oriented.

297. What are the different file extensions that are created by oracle reports? Rep file and Rdf file

298. What is strip sources generate options? Removes the source code from the library file and generates a library files that contains only pcode. The resulting file can be used for final deployment, but can not be subsequently edited in the designer.ex. f45gen module=old_lib.pll userid=scott/tiger strip_source YES output_file

299. What is the basic data structure that is required for creating an LOV? Record Group.

300. What is the Maximum allowed length of Record group Column? Record group column names cannot exceed 30 characters

301. Which parameter can be used to set read level consistency across multiple queries? Read only

302. What are the different types of Record Groups? Query Record Groups NonQuery Record Groups State Record Groups

303. From which designation is it preferred to send the output to the printed? Previewer

304. what are difference between post database commit and post-form commit? Post-form commit fires once during the post and commit transactions process, after the database commit occurs. The post-form-commit trigger fires after inserts, updates and deletes have been posted to the database but before the transactions have been finalized in the issuing the command. The post-database-commit trigger fires after oracle forms issues the commit to finalized transactions.

305. What are the different display styles of list items? Pop_list Text_list Combo box

306. Which of the above methods is the faster method?

performing the calculation in the query is faster.

307. With which function of summary item is the compute at options required? percentage of total functions.

308. What are parameters? Parameters provide a simple mechanism for defining and setting the values of inputs that are required by a form at startup. Form parameters are variables of type char, number, date that you define at design time.

309. What are the three types of user exits available? Oracle Precompiler exits, Oracle call interface, NonOracle user exits

310. How many windows in a form can have console? Only one window in a form can display the console, and you cannot change the console assignment at runtime

311. If the maximum record retrieved property of the query is set to 10 then a summary value will be calculated? Only for 10 records.

312. What are the two repeating frame always associated with matrix object? One down repeating frame below one across repeating frame.

313. What are the master-detail triggers? On-Check_delete_master, On_clear_details, On_populate_details

314. What are the different objects that you cannot copy or reference in object groups? Objects of different modules Another object groups Individual block dependent items Program units.

315. What is an OLE? Object Linking & Embedding provides you with the capability to integrate objects from many Windows applications into a single compound document creating integrated applications enables you to use the features form

316. Is it possible to modify an external query in a report which contains it? No.

317. Does a grouping done for objects in the layout editor affect the grouping done in the data model editor? No.

318. Can a repeating frame be created without a data group as a base? No

319. If a break order is set on a column would it affect columns which are under the column? No

320. Is it possible to set a filter condition in a cross product group in matrix reports? No

321. Do user parameters appear in the data modal editor in 2.5? No

322. Can you pass data parameters to forms? No

323. Is it possible to link two groups inside a cross products after the cross products group has been created? no

324. What are the different modals of windows? Modeless windows Modal windows

325. What are modal windows? Modal windows are usually used as dialogs, and have restricted functionality compared to modeless windows. On some platforms for example operators cannot resize, scroll or iconify a modal window.

326. What are the different default triggers created when Master Deletes Property is set to Non-isolated? Master Deletes Property Resulting Triggers: Non-Isolated (the default) On-Check-Delete-Master On-Clear-Details On-Populate-Details

327. What are the different default triggers created when Master Deletes Property is set to isolated? Master Deletes Property Resulting Triggers: Isolated On-Clear-Details On-Populate-Details

328. What are the different default triggers created when Master Deletes Property is set to Cascade? Master Deletes Property Resulting Triggers: Cascading On-Clear-Details On-Populate-Details Pre-delete

329. What is the diff. bet. setting up of parameters in reports 2.0 reports2.5? LOVs can be attached to parameters in the reports 2.5 parameter form

330. What are the difference between lov & list item? Lov is a property where as list item is an item. A list item can have only one column, lov can have one or more columns.

331. What is the advantage of the library? Libraries provide a convenient means of storing client-side program units and sharing them among multiple applications. Once you create a library, you can attach it to any other form, menu, or library modules. When you can call library program units from triggers menu items commands and user named routine, you write in the modules to which you have attach the library. When a library attaches another library, program units in the first library can reference program units in the attached library. Library support dynamic loading-that is library program units are loaded into an application only when needed. This can significantly reduce the run-time memory requirements of applications.

332. What is lexical reference? How can it be created? - Lexical reference is place_holder for text that can be embedded in a SQL statements. A lexical reference can be created using & before the column or parameter name.

333. What is system.coordination_operation? It represents the coordination causing event that occur on the master block in master-detail relation.

334. What is synchronize? It is a terminal screen with the internal state of the form. It updates the screen display to reflect the information that oracle forms has in its internal representation of the screen.

335. What use of command line parameter cmd file? It is a command line argument that allows you to specify a file that contain a set of arguments for r20run.

336. What is a Text_io Package? It allows you to read and write information to a file in the file system.

337. What is forms_DDL? Issues dynamic Sql statements at run time, including server side pl/SQl and DDL

338. How is link tool operation different bet. reports 2 & 2.5? In Reports 2.0 the link tool has to be selected and then two fields to be linked are selected and the link is automatically created. In 2.5 the first field is selected and the link tool is then used to link the first field to the second field

339. What are the different styles of activation of ole Objects? In place activation, External activation

340. How do you reference a Parameter? In Pl/SQL, You can reference and set the values of form parameters using bind variables syntax. Ex. PARAMETER name = or :block.item = PARAMETER Parameter name

341. What is the difference between object embedding and linking in Oracle forms? In Oracle forms, Embedded objects become part of the form module, and linked objects are references from a form module to a linked source file.

342. Name of the functions used to get/set canvas properties?

Get_view_property, Set_view_property

343. What are the built-ins that are used for setting the LOV properties at runtime? get_lov_property set_lov_property

344. What are the built-ins used for processing rows? Get_group_row_count(function) Get_group_selection_count(function) Get_group_selection(function) Reset_group_selection(procedure) Set_group_selection(procedure) Unset_group_selection(procedure)

345. What are built-ins used for Processing rows? GET_GROUP_ROW_COUNT(function) GET_GROUP_SELECTION_COUNT(function) GET_GROUP_SELECTION(function) RESET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure) SET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure) UNSET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure)

346. What are the built-in used for getting cell values? Get_group_char_cell(function) Get_groupcell(function) Get_group_number_cell(function)

347. What are the built-ins used for Getting cell values? GET_GROUP_CHAR_CELL (function) GET_GROUPCELL(function) GET_GROUP_NUMBET_CELL(function)

348. A tleast how many set of data must a data model have before a data model can be base on it? Four

349. To execute row from being displayed that still use column in the row which property can be used?

Format trigger.

350. What are different types of modules available in oracle form? Form module - a collection of objects and code routines Menu modules - a collection of menus and menu item commands that together make up an application menu library module - a collection of user named procedures, functions and packages that can be called from other modules in the application

351. What is the remove on exit property? For a modeless window, it determines whether oracle forms hides the window automatically when the operators navigates to an item in the another window.

352. What is WHEN-Database-record trigger? Fires when oracle forms first marks a record as an insert or an update. The trigger fires as soon as oracle forms determines through validation that the record should be processed by the next post or commit as an insert or update. Generally occurs only when the operators modifies the first item in the record, and after the operator attempts to navigate out of the item.

353. What is a difference between pre-select and pre-query? Fires during the execute query and count query processing after oracle forms constructs the select statement to be issued, but before the statement is actually issued. The pre-query trigger fires just before oracle forms issues the select statement to the database after the operator as define the example records by entering the query criteria in enter query mode. Pre-query trigger fires before pre-select trigger.

354. What are built-ins associated with timers? find_timer create_timer delete_timer

356. What are the built-ins used for finding Object ID function? FIND_GROUP(function) FIND_COLUMN(function)

357. Any attempt to navigate programmatically to disabled form in a call_form stack is allowed? False

358. Use the Add_group_row procedure to add a row to a static record group 1. true or false? False

359. Use the add_group_column function to add a column to record group that was created at a design time? False

360. What are the various sub events a mouse double click event involves? Double clicking the mouse consists of the mouse down, mouse up, mouse click, mouse down and mouse up events.

361. How can a break order be created on a column in an existing group? By dragging the column outside the group

362. What is the use of place holder column? A placeholder column is used to hold calculated values at a specified place rather than allowing is to appear in the actual row where it has to appear.

363. What is the use of hidden column? A hidden column is used to when a column has to embed into boilerplate text

364. What is the use of break group? A break group is used to display one record for one group ones. While multiple related records in other group can be displayed.

365. What is an anchoring object and what is its use? An anchoring object is a print condition object which used to explicitly or implicitly anchor other objects to itself.

366. What are the various sub events a mouse double click event involves? Double clicking the mouse consists of the mouse down, mouse up, mouse click, mouse down and mouse up events.

367. What are the default parameter that appear at run time in the parameter screen? Destype and Desname.

368. What are the built-ins used for Creating and deleting groups? CREATE-GROUP (function) CREATE_GROUP_FROM_QUERY(function) DELETE_GROUP(procedure)

369. What are different types of canvas views? Content canvas views Stacked canvas views Horizontal toolbar vertical toolbar

370. What are the different types of Delete details we can establish in Master-Details? Cascade Isolate Non-isolate

371. What is relation between the window and canvas views?

Canvas views are the back ground objects on which you place the interface items (Text items), check boxes, radio groups etc.,) and boilerplate objects (boxes, lines, images etc.,) that operators interact with us they run your form . Each canvas views displayed in a window.

372. What is a User_exit? Calls the user exit named in the user_exit_string. Invokes a 3Gl program by name which has been properly linked into your current oracle forms executable.

373. How is it possible to select generate a select set for the query in the query property sheet? By using the tables/columns button and then specifying the table and the column names

374. How can values be passed between precompiler exits & Oracle call interface? By using the statement EXECIAFGET & EXECIAFPUT.

375. How can a square be drawn in the layout editor of the report writer? By using the rectangle tool while pressing the (Constraint) key.

376. How can a text file be attached to a report while creating in the report writer? By using the link file property in the layout boiler plate property sheet.

377. How can I message to passed to the user from reports? By using SRW.MESSAGE function.

378. How is possible to restrict the user to a list of values while entering values for parameters? By setting the Restrict To List property to true in the parameter property sheet

379. How can a button be used in a report to give a drill down facility? By setting the action associated with button to Execute pl/SQL option and using the SRW.Run_report function.

380. How can a cross product be created? By selecting the cross products tool and drawing a new group surrounding the base group of the cross products.

381. What are different types of images? Boiler plate images, Image Items

382. What is the difference between boiler plat images and image items? Boiler plate Images are static images (Either vector or bit map) that you import from the file system or database to use a graphical elements in your form, such as company logos and maps. Image items are special types of interface controls that store and display either vector or bitmap images. Like other items that store values, image items can be either base table items (items that relate directly to database columns) or control items. The definition of an image item is stored as part of the form module FMB and FMX files, but no image file is actually associated with an image item until the item is populate at run time.

383. What is bind reference and how can it be created? Bind reference are used to replace the single value in sql, pl/sql statements a bind reference can be created using a (:) before a column or a parameter name.

384. What are the triggers available in the reports? Before report, Before form, After form , Between page, After report.

384. Give the sequence of execution of the various report triggers? Before form , After form , Before report, Between page, After report.

385. Why is a Where clause faster than a group filter or a format trigger? Because in a where clause the condition is applied during data retrieval, then after retrieving the data.

386. Why is it preferable to create a fewer no. of queries in the data model? Because for each query, report has to open a separate cursor and has to rebind, execute and fetch data.

387. Where is the external query executed at the client or the server? At the server.

388. Where is a procedure return in an external pl/SQL library executed at the client or at the server? At the client.

389. What is coordination Event? Any event that makes a different record in the master block the current record is a coordination causing event.

390. What is the difference between OLE Server & OLE Container? An Ole server application creates ole Objects that are embedded or linked in ole Containers ex. Ole servers are ms_word & ms_excel. OLE containers provide a place to store, display and manipulate objects that are created by ole server applications. Ex. oracle forms is an example of an ole Container.

391. What is an object group? An object group is a container for a group of objects; you define an object group when you want to package related objects, so that you copy or reference them in other modules.

392. What is an LOV? An LOV is a scrollable popup window that provides the operator with either a single or multi column selection list.

393. At what point of report execution is the before Report trigger fired? After the query is executed but before the report is executed and the records are displayed.

394. What are the built -ins used for Modifying a groups structure? ADD-GROUP_COLUMN (function) ADD_GROUP_ROW (procedure) DELETE_GROUP_ROW(procedure)

395. What is an user exit used for? A way in which to pass control (and possibly arguments ) form Oracle report to another Oracle products of 3 GL and then return control ( and ) back to Oracle reports.

396. What is the User-Named Editor? A user named editor has the same text editing functionality as the default editor, but, because it is a named object, you can specify editor attributes such as windows display size, position, and title.

397. What are the Built-ins to display the user-named editor? A user named editor can be displayed programmatically with the built in procedure SHOWEDITOR, EDIT_TETITEM independent of any particular text item. 398. What is a Static Record Group? A static record group is not associated with a query, rather, you define its structure and row values at design time, and they remain fixed at runtime.

399. What is a record group? A record group is an internal Oracle Forms that structure that has a column/row framework similar to a database table. However, unlike database tables, record groups are separate objects that belong to the form module which they are defined. 400. How many number of columns a record group can have? A record group can have an unlimited number of columns of type CHAR, LONG, NUMBER, or DATE provided that the total number of column does not exceed 64K 401. What is a Query Record Group? A query record group is a record group that has an associated SELECT statement. The columns in a query record group derive their default names, data types, had lengths from the database columns referenced in the SELECT statement. The records in query record group are the rows retrieved by the query associated with that record group.

402. What is a property clause? A property clause is a named object that contains a list of properties and their settings. Once you create a property clause you can base other object on it. An object based on a property can inherit the setting of any property in the clause that makes sense for that object.

403. What is a physical page? What is a logical page? A physical page is a size of a page. That is output by the printer. The logical page is the size of one page of the actual report as seen in the Previewer.

404. What does the term panel refer to with regarda to pages? A panel is the number of physical pages needed to print one logical page.

405. What is a master detail relationship? A master detail relationship is an association between two base table blocks- a master block and a detail block. The relationship between the blocks reflects a primary key to foreign key relationship between the tables on which the blocks are based.

406. What is a library? A library is a collection of subprograms including user named procedures, functions and packages.

406. What is a library? A library is a collection of subprograms including user named procedures, functions and packages.

407. How can a group in a cross products be visually distinguished from a group that does not form a cross product? A group that forms part of a cross product will have a thicker border.

408. What is the frame & repeating frame? A frame is a holder for a group of fields. A repeating frame is used to display a set of records when the number of records that are to displayed is not known before.

409. What is a combo box? A combo box style list item combines the features found in list and text item. Unlike the pop list or the text list style list items, the combo box style list item will both display fixed values and accept one operator entered value.

410. What are three panes that appear in the run time pl/SQL interpreter? Source pane, interpreter pane, navigator pane

411. What are the two panes that Appear in the design time pl/SQL interpreter? Source pane, interpreter pane

412. What are the two ways by which data can be generated for a parameters list of values? Using static values, writing select statement.

413. What are the various methods of performing a calculation in a report? Perform the calculation in the SQL statements itself, use a calculated / summary column in the data model.

414. What are the default extensions of the files created by menu module? .mmb, .mmx .fmb - form module binary .fmx - form module executable

416. It is possible to use raw devices as data files and what is the advantages over file system files? Yes. The advantages over file system files. I/O will be improved because Oracle is bypassing the kernel when writing to disk. Disk Corruption will decrease.

417. What are disadvantages of having raw devices? We should depend on export/import utility for backup/recovery (fully reliable) The tar command cannot be used for physical file backup, instead we can use dd command which is less flexible and has limited recoveries.

418. What is the significance of having storage clause? We can plan the storage for a table as how much initial extents are required, how much can be extended next, how much % should leave free for managing row updations etc.,

419. What is the use of INCTYPE option in EXP command? Type export should be performed COMPLETE, CUMULATIVE, INCREMENTAL. List the sequence of events when a large transaction that exceeds beyond its optimal value when an entry wraps and causes the rollback segment to expand into a notion Completes. e. will be written.

420. What is the use of FILE option in IMP command? The name of the file from which import should be performed

421. What is a Shared SQL pool? The data dictionary cache is stored in an area in SGA called the Shared SQL Pool. This will allow sharing of parsed SQL statements among concurrent users.

422. What is hot backup and how it can be taken? Taking backup of archive log files when database is open. For this the ARCHIVELOG mode should be enabled. The following files need to be backed up. All data files. All Archive log, redo log files. All control files.

423. List the Optional Flexible Architecture (OFA) of Oracle database? How can we organize the tablespaces in Oracle database to have maximum performance? 1. SYSTEM - Data dictionary tables. 2. DATA - Standard operational tables. 3. DATA2- Static tables used for standard operations 4. INDEXES - Indexes for Standard operational tables. 5. INDEXES1 - Indexes of static tables used for standard operations. 6. TOOLS - Tools table. 7. TOOLS1 - Indexes for tools table. 8. RBS - Standard Operations Rollback Segments, 9. RBS1,RBS2 - Additional/Special Rollback segments. 10. TEMP - Temporary purpose tablespace 11. TEMP_USER - Temporary tablespace for users. 12. USERS - User tablespace.

424. How to implement the multiple control files for an existing database? 1. Shutdown the database 2. Copy one of the existing control file to new location

3. Edit Config ora file by adding new control filename 4. Restart the database.

425. What is advantage of having disk shadowing/ Mirroring? Shadow set of disks save as a backup in the event of disk failure. In most Operating System if any disk failure occurs it automatically switches over to a working disk. Improved performance because most OS support volume shadowing can direct file I/O request to use the shadow set of files instead of the main set of files. This reduces I/O load on the main set of disks.

426. How will you force database to use particular rollback segment? SET TRANSACTION USE ROLLBACK S

Give one method for transferring a table from one schema to another Level:Intermediate Expected Answer: There are several possible methods, export-import, CREATE TABLE... AS SELECT, or COPY.

What is the purpose of the IMPORT option IGNORE? What is it?s default setting? Level: Low Expected Answer: The IMPORT IGNORE option tells import to ignore "already exists" errors. If it is not specified the tables that already exist will be skipped. If it is specified, the error is ignored and the tables data will be inserted. The default value is N.

You have a rollback segment in a version 7.2 database that has expanded beyond optimal, how can it be restored to optimal? Level: Low Expected answer: Use the ALTER TABLESPACE ..... SHRINK command.

If the DEFAULT and TEMPORARY tablespace clauses are left out of a CREATE USER command what happens? Is this bad or good? Why?

Level: Low Expected answer: The user is assigned the SYSTEM tablespace as a default and temporary tablespace. This is bad because it causes user objects and temporary segments to be placed into the SYSTEM tablespace resulting in fragmentation and improper table placement (only data dictionary objects and the system rollback segment should be in SYSTEM).

What are some of the Oracle provided packages that DBAs should be aware of? Level: Intermediate to High Expected answer: Oracle provides a number of packages in the form of the DBMS_ packages owned by the SYS user. The packages used by DBAs may include: DBMS_SHARED_POOL, DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_SQL, DBMS_DDL, DBMS_SESSION, DBMS_OUTPUT and DBMS_SNAPSHOT. They may also try to answer with the UTL*.SQL or CAT*.SQL series of SQL procedures. These can be viewed as extra credit but aren?t part of the answer.

What happens if the constraint name is left out of a constraint clause? Level: Low Expected answer: The Oracle system will use the default name of SYS_Cxxxx where xxxx is a system generated number. This is bad since it makes tracking which table the constraint belongs to or what the constraint does harder.

What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary key constraint clause? Level: Low Expected answer: This results in the index that is automatically generated being placed in then users default tablespace. Since this will usually be the same tablespace as the table is being created in, this can cause serious performance problems.

What is the proper method for disabling and re-enabling a primary key constraint? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: You use the ALTER TABLE command for both. However, for the enable clause you must specify the USING INDEX and TABLESPACE clause for primary keys.

What happens if a primary key constraint is disabled and then enabled without fully specifying the index clause? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: The index is created in the user?s default tablespace and all sizing information is lost. Oracle doesn?t store this information as a part of the constraint definition, but only as part of the index definition, when the constraint was disabled the index was dropped and the information is gone.

(On UNIX) When should more than one DB writer process be used? How many should be used? Level: High Expected answer: If the UNIX system being used is capable of asynchronous IO then only one is required, if the system is not capable of asynchronous IO then up to twice the number of disks used by Oracle number of DB writers should be specified by use of the db_writers initialization parameter.

You are using hot backup without being in archivelog mode, can you recover in the event of a failure? Why or why not? Level: High Expected answer: You can?t use hot backup without being in archivelog mode. So no, you couldn?t recover.

What causes the "snapshot too old" error? How can this be prevented or mitigated? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: This is caused by large or long running transactions that have either wrapped onto their own rollback space or have had another transaction write on part of their rollback space. This can be prevented or mitigated by breaking the transaction into a set of smaller transactions or increasing the size of the rollback segments and their extents.

How can you tell if a database object is invalid? Level: Low Expected answer: By checking the status column of the DBA_, ALL_ or USER_OBJECTS views,

depending upon whether you own or only have permission on the view or are using a DBA account.

A user is getting an ORA-00942 error yet you know you have granted them permission on the table, what else should you check? Level: Low Expected answer: You need to check that the user has specified the full name of the object (select empid from scott.emp; instead of select empid from emp;) or has a synonym that points to the object (create synonym emp for scott.emp;)

A developer is trying to create a view and the database won?t let him. He has the "DEVELOPER" role which has the "CREATE VIEW" system privilege and SELECT grants on the tables he is using, what is the problem? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: You need to verify the developer has direct grants on all tables used in the view. You can?t create a stored object with grants given through views

If you have an example table, what is the best way to get sizing data for the production table implementation? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: The best way is to analyze the table and then use the data provided in the DBA_TABLES view to get the average row length and other pertinent data for the calculation. The quick and dirty way is to look at the number of blocks the table is actually using and ratio the number of rows in the table to its number of blocks against the number of expected rows.

How can you find out how many users are currently logged into the database? How can you find their operating system id? Level: high Expected answer: There are several ways. One is to look at the v$session or v$process views. Another way is to check the current_logins parameter in the v$sysstat view. Another if you are on UNIX is to do a "ps -ef|grep oracle|wc -l? command, but this only works against a single instance installation.

A user selects from a sequence and gets back two values, his select is: SELECT pk_seq.nextval FROM dual; What is the problem? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Somehow two values have been inserted into the dual table. This table is a single row, single column table that should only have one value in it

How can you determine if an index needs to be dropped and rebuilt? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Run the ANALYZE INDEX command on the index to validate its structure and then calculate the ratio of LF_BLK_LEN/LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN and if it isn?t near 1.0 (i.e. greater than 0.7 or so) then the index should be rebuilt. Or if the ratio BR_BLK_LEN/ LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN is nearing 0.3.

A tablespace has a table with 30 extents in it. Is this bad? Why or why not. Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Multiple extents in and of themselves aren?t bad. However if you also have chained rows this can hurt performance.

How do you set up tablespaces during an Oracle installation? Level: Low Expected answer: You should always attempt to use the Oracle Flexible Architecture standard or another partitioning scheme to ensure proper separation of SYSTEM, ROLLBACK, REDO LOG, DATA, TEMPORARY and INDEX segments.

You see multiple fragments in the SYSTEM tablespace, what should you check first? Level: Low Expected answer: Ensure that users don?t have the SYSTEM tablespace as their TEMPORARY or DEFAULT tablespace assignment by checking the DBA_USERS view.

What are some indications that you need to increase the SHARED_POOL_SIZE parameter?

Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Poor data dictionary or library cache hit ratios, getting error ORA-04031. Another indication is steadily decreasing performance with all other tuning parameters the same.

What is the general guideline for sizing db_block_size and db_multi_block_read for an application that does many full table scans? Level: High Expected answer: Oracle almost always reads in 64k chunks. The two should have a product equal to 64 or a multiple of 64.

What is the fastest query method for a table? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Fetch by rowid

Explain the use of TKPROF? What initialization parameter should be turned on to get full TKPROF output? Level: High Expected answer: The tkprof tool is a tuning tool used to determine cpu and execution times for SQL statements. You use it by first setting timed_statistics to true in the initialization file and then turning on tracing for either the entire database via the sql_trace parameter or for the session using the ALTER SESSION command. Once the trace file is generated you run the tkprof tool against the trace file and then look at the output from the tkprof tool. This can also be used to generate explain plan output

When looking at v$sysstat you see that sorts (disk) is high. Is this bad or good? If bad -How do you correct it? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: If you get excessive disk sorts this is bad. This indicates you need to tune the sort area parameters in the initialization files. The major sort are parameter is the SORT_AREA_SIZe parameter.

When should you increase copy latches? What parameters control copy latches?

Level: high Expected answer: When you get excessive contention for the copy latches as shown by the "redo copy" latch hit ratio. You can increase copy latches via the initialization parameter LOG_SIMULTANEOUS_COPIES to twice the number of CPUs on your system.

Where can you get a list of all initialization parameters for your instance? How about an indication if they are default settings or have been changed? Level: Low Expected answer: You can look in the init.ora file for an indication of manually set parameters. For all parameters, their value and whether or not the current value is the default value, look in the v$parameter view.

Describe hit ratio as it pertains to the database buffers. What is the difference between instantaneous and cumulative hit ratio and which should be used for tuning? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: The hit ratio is a measure of how many times the database was able to read a value from the buffers verses how many times it had to re-read a data value from the disks. A value greater than 80-90% is good, less could indicate problems. If you simply take the ratio of existing parameters this will be a cumulative value since the database started. If you do a comparison between pairs of readings based on some arbitrary time span, this is the instantaneous ratio for that time span. Generally speaking an instantaneous reading gives more valuable data since it will tell you what your instance is doing for the time it was generated over.

Discuss row chaining, how does it happen? How can you reduce it? How do you correct it? Level: high Expected answer: Row chaining occurs when a VARCHAR2 value is updated and the length of the new value is longer than the old value and won?t fit in the remaining block space. This results in the row chaining to another block. It can be reduced by setting the storage parameters on the table to appropriate values. It can be corrected by export and import of the effected table.

When looking at the estat events report you see that you are getting busy buffer waits. Is this bad? How can you find what is causing it? Level: high Expected answer: Buffer busy waits could indicate contention in redo, rollback or data blocks. You

need to check the v$waitstat view to see what areas are causing the problem. The value of the "count" column tells where the problem is, the "class" column tells you with what. UNDO is rollback segments, DATA is data base buffers

If you see contention for library caches how can you fix it? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Increase the size of the shared pool.

If you see statistics that deal with "undo" what are they really talking about? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Rollback segments and associated structures.

If a tablespace has a default pctincrease of zero what will this cause (in relationship to the smon process)? Level: High Expected answer: The SMON process won?t automatically coalesce its free space fragments.

If a tablespace shows excessive fragmentation what are some methods to defragment the tablespace? (7.1,7.2 and 7.3 only) Level: High Expected answer: In Oracle 7.0 to 7.2 The use of the 'alter session set events 'immediate trace name coalesce level ts#';? command is the easiest way to defragment contiguous free space fragmentation. The ts# parameter corresponds to the ts# value found in the ts$ SYS table. In version 7.3 the ?alter tablespace coalesce;? is best. If the free space isn?t contiguous then export, drop and import of the tablespace contents may be the only way to reclaim non-contiguous free space

How can you tell if a tablespace has excessive fragmentation? Level: Intermediate If a select against the dba_free_space table shows that the count of a tablespaces extents is greater than the count of its data files, then it is fragmented.

You see the following on a status report: redo log space requests 23; redo log space wait time 0; Is this something to worry about? What if redo log space wait time is high? How can you fix this? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Since the wait time is zero, no. If the wait time was high it might indicate a need for more or larger redo logs.

What can cause a high value for recursive calls? How can this be fixed? Level: High Expected answer: A high value for recursive calls is cause by improper cursor usage, excessive dynamic space management actions, and or excessive statement re-parses. You need to determine the cause and correct it By either relinking applications to hold cursors, use proper space management techniques (proper storage and sizing) or ensure repeat queries are placed in packages for proper reuse.

If you see a pin hit ratio of less than 0.8 in the estat library cache report is this a problem? If so, how do you fix it? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: This indicate that the shared pool may be too small. Increase the shared pool size.

If you see the value for reloads is high in the estat library cache report is this a matter for concern? Level: Intermediate Expected answer: Yes, you should strive for zero reloads if possible. If you see excessive reloads then increase the size of the shared pool.

You look at the dba_rollback_segs view and see that there is a large number of shrinks and they are of relatively small size, is this a problem? How can it be fixed if it is a problem? Level: High Expected answer: A large number of small shrinks indicates a need to increase the size of the rollback segment extents. Ideally you should have no shrinks or a small number of large shrinks....

From - http://www.scribd.com Oracle interview Questions Oracle Concepts and Architecture Database Structures 1. What are the components of physical database structure of Oracle database? Oracle database is comprised of three types of files. One or more datafiles, two are more redo log files, and one or more control files. 2. What are the components of logical database structure of Oracle database? There are tablespaces and database's schema objects. 3. What is a tablespace? A database is divided into Logical Storage Unit called tablespaces. A tablespace is used to grouped related logical structures together. 4. What is SYSTEM tablespace and when is it created? Every Oracle database contains a tablespace named SYSTEM, which is automatically created when the database is created. The SYSTEM tablespace always contains the data dictionary tables for the entire database. 5. Explain the relationship among database, tablespace and data file. Each databases logically divided into one or more tablespaces one or more data files are explicitly created for each tablespace. 6. What is schema? A schema is collection of database objects of a user. 7. What are Schema Objects? Schema objects are the logical structures that directly refer to the database's data. Schema objects include tables, views, sequences, synonyms, indexes, clusters, database triggers, procedures, functions packages and database links. 8. Can objects of the same schema reside in different table spaces? Yes. 9. Can a tablespace hold objects from different schemes? Yes. 10. What is Oracle table? A table is the basic unit of data storage in an Oracle database. The tables of a database hold all of the user accessible data. Table data is stored in rows and columns. 11. What is an Oracle view? A view is a virtual table. Every view has a query attached to it. (The query is a SELECT statement that identifies the columns and rows of the table(s) the view uses.) 12. Do a view contain data? Views do not contain or store data. 13. Can a view based on another view? Yes 14. What are the advantages of views? - Provide an additional level of table security, by restricting access to a predetermined set

of rows and columns of a table. - Hide data complexity. - Simplify commands for the user. - Present the data in a different perspective from that of the base table. - Store complex queries. 15. What is an Oracle sequence? A sequence generates a serial list of unique numbers for numerical columns of a database's tables. 16.What is a synonym? A synonym is an alias for a table, view, sequence or program unit. 17. What are the types of synonyms? There are two types of synonyms private and public. 18. What is a private synonym? Only its owner can access a private synonym. 19. What is a public synonym? Any database user can access a public synonym. 20. What are synonyms used for? -Mask the real name and owner of an object. - Provide public access to an object - Provide location transparency for tables, views or program units of a remote database. - Simplify the SQL statements for database users. 21. What is an Oracle index? An index is an optional structure associated with a table to have direct access to rows, which can be created to increase the performance of data retrieval. Index can be created on one or more columns of a table. 22.How are the index updates? Indexes are automatically maintained and used by Oracle. Changes to table data are automatically incorporated into all relevant indexes. 23. What are clusters? Clusters are groups of one or more tables physically stores together to share common columns and are often used together. 24. What is cluster key? The related columns of the tables in a cluster are called the cluster key. 25. What is index cluster? A cluster with an index on the cluster key. 26. What is hash cluster? A row is stored in a hash cluster based on the result of applying a hash function to the row's cluster key value. All rows with the same hash key value are stores together on disk. 27. When can hash cluster used? Hash clusters are better choice when a table is often queried with equality queries. Forsuch queries the specified cluster key value is hashed. The resulting hash key value points directly to the area on disk that stores the specified rows. 28. What is database link? A database link is a named object that describes a "path" from one database to another. 29. What are the types of database links? Private database link, public database link & network database link.

30. What is private database link? Private database link is created on behalf of a specific user. A private database link can be used only when the owner of the link specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or in the definition of the owner's views or procedures. 31. What is public database link? Public database link is created for the special user group PUBLIC. A public database link can be used when any user in the associated database specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or object definition. 32.What is network database link? Network database link is created and managed by a network domain service. A network database link can be used when any user of any database in the network specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or object definition. 33. What is data block? Oracle database's data is stored in data blocks. One data block corresponds to a specific number of bytes of physical database space on disk. 34. How to define data block size? A data block size is specified for each Oracle database when the database is created. A database users and allocated free database space in Oracle data blocks. Block size is specified in init.ora file and cannot be changed latter. 35. What is row chaining? In circumstances, all of the data for a row in a table may not be able to fit in the same data block. When this occurs, the data for the row is stored in a chain of data block (one or more) reserved for that segment. 36. What is an extent? An extent is a specific number of contiguous data blocks, obtained in a single allocation and used to store a specific type of information. 37.What is a segment? A segment is a set of extents allocated for a certain logical structure. 38. What are the different types of segments?Data segment, index segment, rollback segment and temporary segment. 39. What is a data segment? Each non-clustered table has a data segment. All of the table's data is stored in the extents of its data segment. Each cluster has a data segment. The data of every table in the cluster is stored in the cluster's data segment. 40. What is an index segment? Each index has an index segment that stores all of its data. 41. What is rollback segment? A database contains one or more rollback segments to temporarily store "undo" information. 42. What are the uses of rollback segment? To generate read-consistent database information during database recovery and to rollback uncommitted transactions by the users. 43. What is a temporary segment? Temporary segments are created by Oracle when a SQL statement needs a temporarywork area to complete execution. When the statement finishes execution, the temporarysegment extents are released to the system for future use.

44. What is a datafile? Every Oracle database has one or more physical data files. A database's data files contain all the database data. The data of logical database structures such as tables and indexes is physically stored in the data files allocated for a database. 45. What are the characteristics of data files? A data file can be associated with only one database. Once created a data file can't change size. One or more data files form a logical unit of database storage called a tablespace. 46. What is a redo log? The set of redo log files for a database is collectively known as the database redo log. 47. What is the function of redo log? The primary function of the redo log is to record all changes made to data. 48. What is the use of redo log information? The information in a redo log file is used only to recover the database from a system or media failure prevents database data from being written to a database's data files. 49. What does a control file contains? - Database name - Names and locations of a database's files and redolog files. - Time stamp of database creation. 50. What is the use of control file? When an instance of an Oracle database is started, its control file is used to identify the database and redo log files that must be opened for database operation to proceed. It is also used in database recovery. Data Base Administration 51. What is a database instance? Explain. A database instance (Server) is a set of memory structure and background processes that access a set of database files. The processes can be shared by all of the users. The memory structure that is used to store the most queried data from database. This helps up to improve database performance by decreasing the amount of I/O performed against data file. 52. What is Parallel Server? Multiple instances accessing the same database (only in multi-CPU environments) 53. What is a schema? The set of objects owned by user account is called the schema. 54.What is an index? How it is implemented in Oracle database? An index is a database structure used by the server to have direct access of a row in a table. An index is automatically created when a unique of primary key constraint clause is specified in create table command 55. What are clusters? Group of tables physically stored together because they share common columns and are often used together is called cluster.

56. What is a cluster key? The related columns of the tables are called the cluster key.The cluster key is indexed using a cluster index and its value is stored only once for multiple tables in the cluster. 57. What is the basic element of base configuration of an Oracle database? It consists of one or more data files. one or more control files. two or more redo log files. The Database contains multiple users/schemas one or more rollback segments one or more tablespaces Data dictionary tables User objects (table,indexes,views etc.,) The server that access the database consists of SGA (Database buffer, Dictionary Cache Buffers, Redo log buffers, Shared SQL pool) SMON (System MONito) PMON (Process MONitor) LGWR (LoG Write) DBWR (Data Base Write) ARCH (ARCHiver) CKPT (Check Point) RECO Dispatcher User Process with associated PGS 58. What is a deadlock? Explain. Two processes waiting to update the rows of a table, which are locked by other processes then deadlock arises. In a database environment this will often happen because of not issuing the proper row lock commands. Poor design of front-end application may cause this situation and the performance of server will reduce drastically. These locks will be released automatically when a commit/rollback operation performed or any one of this processes being killed externally. Memory Management 59. What is SGA? The System Global Area in an Oracle database is the area in memory to facilitate the transfer of information between users. It holds the most recently requested structural information between users. It holds the most recently requested structural information about the database. The structure is database buffers, dictionary cache, redo log buffer and shared pool area. 60. What is a shared pool? The data dictionary cache is stored in an area in SGA called the shared pool. This will allow sharing of parsed SQL statements among concurrent users. 61. What is mean by Program Global Area (PGA)? It is area in memory that is used by a single Oracle user process. 62. What is a data segment? Data segment are the physical areas within a database block in which the data associated with tables and clusters are stored. 63. What are the factors causing the reparsing of SQL statements in SGA? Due to insufficient shared pool size.

Monitor the ratio of the reloads takes place while executing SQL statements. If the ratio is greater than 1 then increase the SHARED_POOL_SIZE. Database Logical & Physical Architecture 64. What is Database Buffers? Database buffers are cache in the SGA used to hold the data blocks that are read from the data segments in the database such as tables, indexes and clusters DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS parameter in INIT.ORA decides the size. 65. What is dictionary cache? Dictionary cache is information about the database objects stored in a data dictionary table. 66. What is meant by recursive hints? Number of times processes repeatedly query the dictionary table is called recursive hints. It is due to the data dictionary cache is too small. By increasing the SHARED_POOL_SIZE parameter we can optimize the size of data dictionary cache. 67. What is redo log buffer? Changes made to the records are written to the on-line redo log files. So that they can be used in roll forward operations during database recoveries. Before writing them into the redo log files, they will first brought to redo log buffers in SGA and LGWR will write into files frequently. LOG_BUFFER parameter will decide the size. 68. How will you swap objects into a different table space for an existing database? - Export the user - Perform import using the command imp system/manager file=export.dmp indexfile=newrite.sql. This will create all definitions into newfile.sql. - Drop necessary objects. - Run the script newfile.sql after altering the tablespaces. - Import from the backup for the necessary objects. 69. List the Optional Flexible Architecture (OFA) of Oracle database?How can we organize the tablespaces in Oracle database to have maximum performance? SYSTEM - Data dictionary tables. DATA- Standard operational tables. DATA2- Static tables used for standard operations INDEXES - Indexes for Standard operational tables. INDEXES1 - Indexes of static tables used for standard operations. TOOLS - Tools table. TOOLS1 - Indexes for tools table. RBS - Standard Operations Rollback Segments, RBS1,RBS2 - Additional/Special Rollback segments. TEMP - Temporary purpose tablespace

TEMP_USER - Temporary tablespace for users. USERS - User tablespace. 70. How will you force database to use particular rollback segment? SET TRANSACTION USE ROLLBACK SEGMENT rbs_name. 71. What is meant by free extent? A free extent is a collection of continuous free blocks in tablespace. When a segment is dropped its extents are reallocated and are marked as free. 72.Which parameter in Storage clause will reduce number of rows per block? PCTFREE parameter Row size also reduces no of rows per block. 73. What is the significance of having storage clause? We can plan the storage for a table as how much initial extents are required, how much can be extended next, how much % should leave free for managing row updating, etc., 74. How does Space allocation table place within a block? Each block contains entries as follows Fixed block header Variable block header Row Header, row date (multiple rows may exists) PCTEREE (% of free space for row updating in future) 75. What is the role of PCTFREE parameter is storage clause? This is used to reserve certain amount of space in a block for expansion of rows. 76. What is the OPTIMAL parameter? It is used to set the optimal length of a rollback segment. 77. What is the functionality of SYSTEM table space? To manage the database level transactions such as modifications of the data dictionary table that record information about the free space usage. 78. How will you create multiple rollback segments in a database? - Create a database, which implicitly creates a SYSTEM rollback segment in a SYSTEM tablespace. - Create a second rollback segment name R0 in the SYSTEM tablespace. - Make new rollback segment available (after shutdown, modify init.ora file and start database) - Create other tablespaces (RBS) for rollback segments. - Deactivate rollback segment R0 and activate the newly created rollback segments. 79. How the space utilization takes place within rollback segments? It will try to fit the transaction in a cyclic fashion to all existing extents. Once it found an extent is in use then it forced to acquire a new extent (number of extents is based on the optimal size) 80. Why query fails sometimes? Rollback segment dynamically extent to handle larger transactions entry loads. A single transaction may wipeout all available free space in the rollback segment

tablespace. This prevents other user using rollback segments. 81. How will you monitor the space allocation? By querying DBA_SEGMENT table/view 82. How will you monitor rollback segment status? Querying the DBA_ROLLBACK_SEGS view IN USE - Rollback Segment is on-line. AVAILABLE - Rollback Segment available but not on-line. OFF-LINE - Rollback Segment off-line INVALID - Rollback Segment Dropped. NEEDS RECOVERY - Contains data but need recovery or corrupted. PARTLY AVAILABLE- Contains data from an unresolved transaction involving a distributed database. 83. List the sequence of events when a large transaction that exceeds beyond its optimal value when an entry wraps and causes the rollback segment to expand into another extend. Transaction Begins. An entry is made in the RES header for new transactions entry Transaction acquires blocks in an extent of RBS The entry attempts to wrap into second extent. None is available, so that the RBS must extent. The RBS checks to see if it is part of its OPTIMAL size. RBS chooses its oldest inactive segment. Oldest inactive segment is eliminated. RBS extents The data dictionary tables for space management are updated. Transaction Completes. 84. How can we plan storage for very large tables? Limit the number of extents in the table Separate table from its indexes. Allocate sufficient temporary storage. 85. How will you estimate the space required by a non-clustered table? Calculate the total header size Calculate the available data space per data block Calculate the combined column lengths of the average row Calculate the total average row size. Calculate the average number rows that can fit in a block Calculate the number of blocks and bytes required for the table. After arriving the calculation, add 10 % additional space to calculate the initial extent size for a working table.

86. It is possible to use raw devices as data files and what are the advantages over file system files? Yes. The advantages over file system files are that I/O will be improved because Oracle is bye-passing the kernel which writing into disk. Disk corruption will be very less. 87. What is a Control file? Database's overall physical architecture is maintained in a file called control file. It will be used to maintain internal consistency and guide recovery operations. Multiple copies of control files are advisable. 88. How to implement the multiple control files for an existing database? Shutdown the database Copy one of the existing control file to new location Edit Config ora file by adding new control filename Restart the database. 89. What is redo log file mirroring?How can be achieved? Process of having a copy of redo log files is called mirroring. This can be achieved by creating group of log files together, so that LGWR will automatically writes them to all the members of the current on-line redo log group. If any one group fails then database automatically switch over to next group. It degrades performance. 90. What is advantage of having disk shadowing / mirroring? Shadow set of disks save as a backup in the event of disk failure. In most operating systems if any disk failure occurs it automatically switchover to place of failed disk. Improved performance because most OS support volume shadowing can direct file I/O request to use the shadow set of files instead of the main set of files. This reduces I/O load on the main set of disks. 91. What is use of rollback segments in Oracle database? They allow the database to maintain read consistency between multiple transactions. 92. What is a rollback segment entry? It is the set of before image data blocks that contain rows that are modified by a transaction. Each rollback segment entry must be completed within one rollback segment. A single rollback segment can have multiple rollback segment entries. 93. What is hit ratio? It is a measure of well the data cache buffer is handling requests for data. Hit Ratio = (Logical Reads - Physical Reads - Hits Misses)/ Logical Reads. 94. When will be a segment released? When Segment is dropped. When Shrink (RBS only) When truncated (TRUNCATE used with drop storage option) 95. What are disadvantages of having raw devices? We should depend on export/import utility for backup/recovery (fully reliable)

The tar command cannot be used for physical file backup, instead we can use dd command, which is less flexible and has limited recoveries. 96. List the factors that can affect the accuracy of the estimations? - The space used transaction entries and deleted records, does not become free immediately after completion due to delayed cleanout. - Trailing nulls and length bytes are not stored. - Inserts of, updates to and deletes of rows as well as columns larger than a single data block, can cause fragmentation a chained row pieces. Database Security & Administration 97. What is user Account in Oracle database? A user account is not a physical structure in database but it is having important relationship to the objects in the database and will be having certain privileges. 98. How will you enforce security using stored procedures? Don't grant user access directly to tables within the application. Instead grant the ability to access the procedures that access the tables. When procedure executed it will execute the privilege of procedures owner. Users cannot access tables except via the procedure. 99. What are the dictionary tables used to monitor a database space? DBA_FREE_SPACE DBA_SEGMENTS DBA_DATA_FILES. SQL*Plus Statements 100. What are the types of SQL statement? Data Definition Language: CREATE, ALTER, DROP, TRUNCATE, REVOKE, NO AUDIT & COMMIT. Data Manipulation Language: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, LOCK TABLE, EXPLAIN PLAN & SELECT. Transactional Control: COMMIT & ROLLBACK Session Control: ALTERSESSION & SET ROLE System Control: ALTER SYSTEM. 101. What is a transaction? Transaction is logical unit between two commits and commit and rollback. 102. What is difference between TRUNCATE & DELETE? TRUNCATE commits after deleting entire table i.e., cannot be rolled back. Database triggers do not fire on TRUNCATE

DELETE allows the filtered deletion. Deleted records can be rolled back or committed. Database triggers fire on DELETE. 103. What is a join? Explain the different types of joins? Join is a query, which retrieves related columns or rows from multiple tables. Self Join - Joining the table with itself. Equi Join - Joining two tables by equating two common columns. Non-Equi Join - Joining two tables by equating two common columns. Outer Join - Joining two tables in such a way that query can also retrieve rows that do not have corresponding join value in the other table. 104. What is the sub-query? Sub-query is a query whose return values are used in filtering conditions of the main query. 105. What is correlated sub-query? Correlated sub-query is a sub-query, which has reference to the main query. 106. Explain CONNECT BY PRIOR? Retrieves rows in hierarchical order eg. select empno, ename from emp where. 107. Difference between SUBSTR and INSTR? INSTR (String1, String2 (n, (m)), INSTR returns the position of the m-th occurrence of the string 2 in string1. The search begins from nth position of string1. SUBSTR (String1 n, m) SUBSTR returns a character string of size m in string1, starting from n-th position of string1. 108. Explain UNION, MINUS, UNION ALL and INTERSECT? INTERSECT- returns all distinct rows selected by both queries. MINUS - returns all distinct rows selected by the first query but not by the second. UNION - returns all distinct rows selected by either query UNION ALL- returns all rows selected by either query, including all duplicates. 109. What is ROWID? ROWID is a pseudo column attached to each row of a table. It is 18 characters long, blockno, rownumber are the components of ROWID. 110. What is the fastest way of accessing a row in a table? Using ROWID. CONSTRAINTS 111. What is an integrity constraint? Integrity constraint is a rule that restricts values to a column in a table. 112. What is referential integrity constraint? Maintaining data integrity through a set of rules that restrict the values of one or more columns of the tables based on the values of primary key or unique key of the referenced table.

113. What is the usage of SAVEPOINTS? SAVEPOINTS are used to subdivide a transaction into smaller parts. It enables rolling back part of a transaction. Maximum of five save points are allowed. 114.What is ON DELETE CASCADE? When ON DELETE CASCADE is specified Oracle maintains referential integrity by automatically removing dependent foreign key values if a referenced primary or unique key value is removed. 115. What are the data types allowed in a table? CHAR, VARCHAR2, NUMBER, DATE, RAW, LONG and LONG RAW. 116. What is difference between CHAR and VARCHAR2?What is the maximum SIZE allowed for each type? CHAR pads blank spaces to the maximum length. VARCHAR2 does not pad blank spaces. For CHAR the maximum length is 255 and 2000 for VARCHAR2. 117.How many LONG columns are allowed in a table? Is it possible to use LONG columns in WHERE clause or ORDER BY? Only one LONG column is allowed. It is not possible to use LONG column in WHERE or ORDER BY clause. 118. What are the pre-requisites to modify datatype of a column and to add a column with NOT NULL constraint? - To modify the datatype of a column the column must be empty. - To add a column with NOT NULL constrain, the table must be empty. 119. Where the integrity constraints are stored in data dictionary? The integrity constraints are stored in USER_CONSTRAINTS. 120. How will you activate/deactivate integrity constraints? The integrity constraints can be enabled or disabled by ALTER TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT / DISABLE CONSTRAINT. 121. If unique key constraint on DATE column is created, will it validate the rows that are inserted with SYSDATE? It won't, Because SYSDATE format contains time attached with it. 122. What is a database link? Database link is a named path through which a remote database can be accessed. 123. How to access the current value and next value from a sequence? Is it possible to access the current value in a session before accessing next value? Sequence name CURRVAL, sequence name NEXTVAL. It is not possible. Only if you access next value in the session, current value can be accessed. 124. What is CYCLE/NO CYCLE in a Sequence? CYCLE specifies that the sequence continue to generate values after reaching either maximum or minimum value. After pan-ascending sequence reaches its maximum value, it generates its minimum value. After a descending sequence reaches its minimum, it generates its maximum.

NO CYCLE specifies that the sequence cannot generate more values after reaching its maximum or minimum value. 125. What are the advantages of VIEW? - To protect some of the columns of a table from other users. - To hide complexity of a query. - To hide complexity of calculations. 126. Can a view be updated/inserted/deleted? If Yes - under what conditions? A View can be updated/deleted/inserted if it has only one base table if the view is based on columns from one or more tables then insert, update and delete is not possible. 127. If a view on a single base table is manipulated will the changes be reflected on the base table? If changes are made to the tables and these tables are the base tables of a view, then the changes will be reference on the view. Oracle Interview Questions and Answers: SQL 1. To see current user name SQL> show user; 2. Change SQL prompt name SQL> set sqlprompt Manimara > 3. Switch to DOS prompt SQL> host 4. How do I eliminate the duplicate rows ? SQL> delete from table_name where rowid not in (select max(rowid) from table group by duplicate_values_field_name); or SQL> delete duplicate_values_field_name dv from table_name ta where rowid <(select min(rowid)from table_name tb where ta.dv=tb.dv); Example. Table Emp Empno Ename 101 Scott 102 Jiyo 103 Millor 104 Jiyo 105 Smith delete ename from emp a where rowid < ( select min(rowid) from emp b where a.ename = b.ename); The output like, Empno Ename 101 Scott 102 Millor 103 Jiyo 104 Smith 5. How do I display row number with records? To achive this use rownum pseudocolumn with query, like SQL> select rownum, ename from emp; Output: 1

Scott 2 Millor 3 Jiyo 4 Smith 6. Display the records between two range select rownum, empno, enamefrom empwhererowid in (select rowid from emp where rownum <=&upto minus select rowid from emp where rownum<&Start); Enter value for upto: 10 Enter value for Start: 7 ROWNUM EMPNO ENAME --------- --------- ---------- 1 7782 CLARK 2 7788 SCOTT 3 7839 KING 4 7844 TURNER 7. I know the nvl function only allows the same data type(ie. number or char or date Nvl(comm, 0)), if commission is null then the text Not Applicablewant to display, instead of blank space. How do I write the query? SQL> select nvl(to_char(comm.),'NA') from emp; Output : NVL(TO_CHAR(COMM),'NA') ----------------------NA 300 500 NA 1400 NA NA 8. Oracle cursor : Implicit & Explicit cursors Oracle uses work areas called private SQL areas to create SQL statements. PL/SQL construct to identify each and every work are used, is called as Cursor. For SQL queries returning a single row, PL/SQL declares all implicit cursors. For queries that returning more than one row, the cursor needs to be explicitly declared. 9. Explicit Cursor attributes There are four cursor attributes used in Oracle cursor_name%Found, cursor_name%NOTFOUND, cursor_name%ROWCOUNT, cursor_name%ISOPEN 10.Implicit Cursor attributes Same as explicit cursor but prefixed by the word SQL SQL%Found, SQL%NOTFOUND, SQL%ROWCOUNT, SQL%ISOPEN

Tips : 1. Here SQL%ISOPEN is false, because oracle automatically closed the implicit cursor after executing SQL statements. : 2.All are Boolean attributes. 11.Find out nth highest salary from emp table SELECT DISTINCT (a.sal) FROM EMP A WHERE &N = (SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT (b.sal)) FROM EMP B WHERE a.sal<=b.sal); Enter value for n: 2 SAL --------- 3700 12.To view installed Oracle version information SQL> select banner from v$version; 13.Display the number value in Words SQL> select sal, (to_char(to_date(sal,'j'), 'jsp')) from emp; the output like, SAL (TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(SAL,'J'),'JSP')) ------------------------------------------------------------800 eight hundred 1600 one thousand six hundred 1250 one thousand two hundred fifty If you want to add some text like, Rs. Three Thousand only. SQL> select sal"Salary ", (' Rs. '|| (to_char(to_date(sal,'j'), 'Jsp'))|| ' only.')) "Sal in Words" from emp /SalarySal in Words ------- -----------------------------------------------------800Rs. Eight Hundred only. 1600Rs. One Thousand Six Hundred only. 1250Rs. One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty only. 14.Display Odd/ Even number of records Odd number of records: select * from emp where (rowid,1) in (select rowid, mod(rownum,2) from emp); 135Even number of records: select * from emp where (rowid,0) in (select rowid, mod(rownum,2) from emp) 24615.Which date function returns number value? months_between 16.Any three PL/SQL Exceptions? Too_many_rows, No_Data_Found, Value_Error, Zero_Error, Others 17.What are PL/SQL Cursor Exceptions? Cursor_Already_Open, Invalid_Cursor 18.Other way to replace query result null value with a text SQL> Set NULL N/A to reset SQL> Set NULL 19.What are the more common pseudo-columns? SYSDATE, USER , UID, CURVAL, NEXTVAL, ROWID, ROWNUM

20.What is the output of SIGN function? 1 for positive value, 0 for Zero, -1 for Negative value. 21.What is the maximum number of triggers, can apply to a single table? 12 triggers PL/SQL interview qiuestions Database 1.Which of the following statements is true about implicit cursors? 1.Implicit cursors are used for SQL statements that are not named. 2.Developers should use implicit cursors with great care. 3.Implicit cursors are used in cursor for loops to handle data processing. 4.Implicit cursors are no longer a feature in Oracle. 2.Which of the following is not a feature of a cursor FOR loop? 1.Record type declaration. 2.Opening and parsing of SQL statements. 3.Fetches records from cursor. 4.Requires exit condition to be defined. 3.A developer would like to use referential datatype declaration on a variable. The variable name is EMPLOYEE_LASTNAME, and the corresponding table and column is EMPLOYEE, and LNAME, respectively. How would the developer define this variable using referential datatypes? 1. Use employee.lname%type. 2. Use employee.lname%rowtype. 3.Look up datatype for EMPLOYEE column on LASTNAME table and use that. 4.Declare it to be type LONG. 4.Which three of the following are implicit cursor attributes? 1. %found 2. %too_many_rows 3. %notfound 4. %rowcount 5. %rowtype 5.If left out, which of the following would cause an infinite loop to occur in a simple loop? 1. LOOP 2. END LOOP 3. IF-THEN 4. EXIT 6.Which line in the following statement will produce an error? 1.cursor action_cursor is 2.select name, rate, action

3. into action_record 4. from action_table; 5.There are no errors in this statement. 7.The command used to open a CURSOR FOR loop is 1. open 2. fetch 3. parse 4.None, cursor for loops handle cursor opening implicitly. 8.What happens when rows are found using a FETCH statement 1.It causes the cursor to close 2.It causes the cursor to open 3.It loads the current row values into variables 4.It creates the variables to hold the current row values 9.Read the following code: 10.CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE find_cpt 11.(v_movie_id {Argument Mode} NUMBER, v_cost_per_ticket {argument mode} NUMBER) 12. IS 13. BEGIN 14.IF v_cost_per_ticket> 8.5 THEN 15.SELECT cost_per_ticket 16. INTO v_cost_per_ticket 17. FROM gross_receipt 18.WHEREmovie_id = v_movie_id; 19. END IF; 20. END; Which mode should be used for V_COST_PER_TICKET? 1. IN 2. OUT 3. RETURN 4. IN OUT 21. Read the following code: 22.CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER update_show_gross 23. {trigger information} 24. BEGIN 25. {additional code} 26. END; The trigger code should only execute when the column, COST_PER_TICKET, is greater than $3. Which trigger information will you add? 1.WHEN (new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75) 2.WHEN (:new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75 3.WHERE (new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75) 4.WHERE (:new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75) 27.What is the maximum number of handlers processed before the PL/SQL block is exited when an exception occurs? 1. Only one 2.All that apply 3. All referenced 4. None 28.For which trigger timing can you reference the NEW and OLD qualifiers? 1.Statement and Row 2. Statement only 3. Row only 4.Oracle Forms trigger 29. Read the following code: 30.CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_budget(v_studio_id IN NUMBER) RETURN number IS v_yearly_budget NUMBER; BEGIN SELECT yearly_budget INTO v_yearly_budget FROM studio WHEREid = v_studio_id;

RETURN v_yearly_budget; END; Which set of statements will successfully invoke this function within SQL*Plus? 1.VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 2.VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 3.VARIABLE :g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 4.VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 31.CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE update_theater 32.(v_name IN VARCHAR v_theater_id IN NUMBER) IS 33. BEGIN 34. UPDATE theater 35. SET name = v_name 36. WHEREid = v_theater_id; 37. END update_theater; 38.When invoking this procedure, you encounter the error: ORA-000: Unique constraint(SCOTT.THEATER_NAME_UK) violated. How should you modify the function to handle this error? 1.An user defined exception must be declared and associated with the error code and handled in the EXCEPTION section. 2.Handle the error in EXCEPTION section by referencing the error code directly. 3.Handle the error in the EXCEPTION section by referencing the UNIQUE_ERROR predefined exception. 4.Check for success by checking the value of SQL%FOUND immediately after the UPDATE statement. 39. Read the following code: 40.CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE calculate_budget IS 41. v_budget studio.yearly_budget%TYPE; 42. BEGIN 43. v_budget := get_budget(11); 44. IF v_budget < 30000 45. THEN 46. set_budget(11,30000000); 47. END IF; 48. END; You are about to add an argument to CALCULATE_BUDGET. What effect will this have? 1.The GET_BUDGET function will be marked invalid and must be recompiled before the next execution. 2.The SET_BUDGET function will be marked invalid and must be recompiled before the next execution. 3.Only the CALCULATE_BUDGET procedure needs to be recompiled. 4.All three procedures are marked invalid and must be recompiled. 49.Which procedure can be used to create a customized error message? 1. RAISE_ERROR 2. SQLERRM 3. RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR 4. RAISE_SERVER_ERROR 50.The CHECK_THEATER trigger of the THEATER table has been disabled. Which command can you issue to enable this trigger? 1.ALTER TRIGGER check_theater ENABLE; 2.ENABLE TRIGGER check_theater; 3.ALTER TABLE check_theater ENABLE check_theater; 4. ENABLE check_theater; 51. Examine this database trigger 52.CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER prevent_gross_modification 53. {additional trigger information} 54. BEGIN 55. IF TO_CHAR(sysdate, DY) = MON 56. THEN 57. RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20000,Gross receipts cannot be deleted on Monday); 58. END IF; 59. END; This trigger must fire before each DELETE of the GROSS_RECEIPT table. It should fire only once for the entire DELETE statement. What additional information must you add? 1.BEFORE DELETE ON gross_receipt

2.AFTER DELETE ON gross_receipt 3.BEFORE (gross_receipt DELETE) 4.FOR EACH ROW DELETED FROM gross_receipt 60. Examine this function: 61.CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION set_budget 62.(v_studio_id IN NUMBER, v_new_budget IN NUMBER) IS 63. BEGIN 64. UPDATE studio 65. SET yearly_budget = v_new_budget WHEREid = v_studio_id; IF SQL%FOUND THEN RETURN TRUEl; ELSE RETURN FALSE; END IF; COMMIT; END; Which code must be added to successfully compile this function? 1.Add RETURN right before the IS keyword. 2.Add RETURN number right before the IS keyword. 3.Add RETURN boolean right after the IS keyword. 4.Add RETURN boolean right before the IS keyword. 66.Under which circumstance must you recompile the package body after recompiling the package specification? 1.Altering the argument list of one of the package constructs 2.Any change made to one of the package constructs 3.Any SQL statement change made to one of the package constructs 4.Removing a local variable from the DECLARE section of one of the package constructs 67.Procedure and Functions are explicitly executed. This is different from a database trigger. When is a database trigger executed? 1.When the transaction is committed 2.During the data manipulation statement 3.When an Oracle supplied package references the trigger 4.During a data manipulation statement and when the transaction is committed 68.Which Oracle supplied package can you use to output values and messages from database triggers, stored procedures and functions within SQL*Plus? 1. DBMS_DISPLAY 2. DBMS_OUTPUT 3. DBMS_LIST 4. DBMS_DESCRIBE 69.What occurs if a procedure or function terminates with failure without being handled? 1.Any DML statements issued by the construct are still pending and can be committed or rolled back. 2.Any DML statements issued by the construct are committed 3.Unless a GOTO statement is used to continue processing within the

BEGIN section, the construct terminates. 4.The construct rolls back any DML statements issued and returns the unhandled exception to the calling environment. 70. Examine this code 71. BEGIN 72. theater_pck.v_total_seats_sold_overall := theater_pck.get_total_for_year; 73. END; For this code to be successful, what must be true? 1.Both the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable and the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR function must exist only in the body of the THEATER_PCK package. 2.Only the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR variable must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 3.Only the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 4.Both the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable and the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR function must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 74.A stored function must return a value based on conditions that are determined at runtime. Therefore, the SELECT statement cannot be hardcoded and must be created dynamically when the function is executed. Which Oracle supplied package will enable this feature? 1. DBMS_DDL 2. DBMS_DML 3. DBMS_SYN 4. DBMS_SQL Database management interview questions Database 1. What is a Cartesian product? What causes it? Expected answer: A Cartesian product is the result of an unrestricted join of two or more tables. The result set of a three table Cartesian product will have x * y * z number of rows where x, y, z correspond to the number of rows in each table involved in the join. It is causes by specifying a table in the FROM clause without joining it to another table. 2. What is an advantage to using a stored procedure as opposed to passing an SQL query from an application. Expected answer: A stored procedure is pre-loaded in memory for faster execution. It allows the DBMS control of permissions for security purposes. It also eliminates the need to recompile components when minor changes occur to the database. 3. What is the difference of a LEFT JOIN and an INNER JOIN statement? Expected answer:

A LEFT JOIN will take ALL values from the first declared table and matching values from the second declared table based on the column the join has been declared on. An INNER JOIN will take only matching values from both tables 4. When a query is sent to the database and an index is not being used, what type of execution is taking place? Expected answer: A table scans. 5. What are the pros and cons of using triggers? Expected answer: A trigger is one or more statements of SQL that are being executed in event of data modification in a table to which the trigger belongs. Triggers enhance the security, efficiency, and standardization of databases. Triggers can be beneficial when used: to check or modify values before they are actually updated or inserted in the database. This is useful if you need to transform data from the way the user sees it to some internal database format. to run other non-database operations coded in user-defined functions to update data in other tables. This is useful for maintaining relationships between data or in keeping audit trail information. To check against other data in the table or in other tables. This is useful to ensure data integrity when referential integrity constraints arent appropriate, or when table check constraints limit checking to the current table only.

Fromhttp://db-interviewquestion.blogspot.com/2007/11/oracle-dba-questions-and-

answers.html
1.Explaindatabaseinstance? Adatabaseinstance(server)isasetofmemorystructuresandbackgroundprocessesthataccessaset ofdatabasefiles. Thememorystructuresareusedtostoremostquerieddatafromdatabase.Thishelpsustoimprove databaseperformancebydecreasingtheamountofI/Operformedagainstdatafile. Theprocesscanbesharedbyallusers. 2.Whatisparallelserver?

Multipleinstancesaccessingthesamedatabase(OnlyinMultiCPUenvironments). 3.WhatisSchema? Thesetofobjectsownedbyuseraccountiscalledtheschema 4.WhatisanIndex?HowitisimplementedinOracleDatabase? Anindexisadatabasestructureusedbytheservertohavedirectaccessofarowinatable.Anindexis automaticallycreatedwhenauniqueorprimarykeyconstraintclauseisspecifiedincreatetable command 5.Whatisaclusters?Explain Groupoftablesphysicallystoredtogetherbecausetheysharecommoncolumnsandareoftenused togetheriscalledClusters. 6.Whatisaclusterkey? Therelatedcolumnsofthetablesarecalledtheclusterkey.Theclusterkeyisindexedusingacluster indexanditsvalueisstoresonlyonceformultipletablesinthecluster. 7.WhatarethebasicelementofanoracleDatabase? Itconsistsofoneormoredatafilesoneormorecontrolfilestwoormoreredologfiles ThedatabasecontainsMultipleusers/schemasoneormorerollbacksegmentsoneormore tablespacesDatadictionarytables Userobjects(tables,indexes,viewsetc) Theserverthataccessthedatabaseconsistsof SGA(Databasebuffer,DictionaryCacheBuffers,redologbuffers,SharedSQLpool) SMON PMON LGWR DBWR ARCH CKPT RECO Dispatcher UserprocesswithassociatedPGA 8.Whatisdeadlock?Explain. Twoprocesseswaitingtoupdatetherowsofatablewhicharelockedbytheotherprocessthendeadlock arises. Inadatabaseenvironmentthiswilloftenhappenbecauseofnotissuingproperrowlockcommands.Poor designoffrontendapplicationmaycausethissituationandtheperformanceofserverwillreduce drastically.

Theselockswillbereleasedautomaticallywhenacommit/rollbackoperationperformedoranyoneofthis processesbeingkilledexternally. 9.WhatisSGA? TheSystemGlobalAreainaOracledatabaseistheareainmemorytofacilitatesthetransferof informationbetweenusers.Itholdsthemostrecentlyrequestedstructuralinformationaboutthedatabase. 10.WhatisSharedSQLpool? ThedatadictionarycacheisstoredinanareainSGAcalledtheSharedSQLPool.Thiswillallowsharing ofparsedSQLstatementsamongconcurrentusers. 11.WhatismeantbyProgramGlobalArea(PGA)? ItisareainmemorythatisusedbyaSingleOracleUserprocess. 12.Whatisadatasegment? Datasegmentarethephysicalareaswithinadatabaseblockinwhichthedataassociatedwithtablesand clustersarestored. 13.WhatarethefactorscausingthereparsingofSQLstatementsinSGA? DuetoinsufficientSharedSQLpoolsize

DBAJOBDuties 1)checkalltheDatabasesareupandrunning 2)checkforanyUrgentTicketswithhighpriority 3)checkforallocatedstoragespace 4)checkallthebackupjobshaveexecutedproperly 5)checkfortheDBSNMPrunningornot 6)RMANBackup=RecoveryManager **Savepoint** Asavepointisaspecialmarkinsideatransactionthatallowsallcommandsthatareexecutedafteritwasestablishedtobe rolledback,restoringthetransactionstatetowhatitwasatthetimeofthesavepoint. Backup(hotandcoldbackup) HotbackupwillbedonewhentheDatabaseisRunningandArchivelogmodeisOn. ColdbackupwillbedonewhentheDatabaseisshutdownandBackupDatabasethenStartDatabase.

ArchiveLogMode So,ifyouwishtoavoidthewrathoftheCEOandangryendusers,youwillwanttorunOracleinARCHIVELOGmode.In ARCHIVELOGmode,thedatabasewillmakecopiesofallonlineredologsaftertheyarefilled.Thesecopiesarecalled archivedredologs.ThearchivedredologsarecreatedviatheARCHprocess.TheARCHprocesscopiesthearchivedredo logfilestooneormorearchivelogdestinationdirectories. TheuseofARCHIVELOGmoderequiressomeconfigurationofthedatabase.Firstyoumustputthedatabasein ARCHIVELOGmodeandyoumustalsoconfiguretheARCHprocess,andpreparethearchivedredologdestination directories. TherearesomedownsidestorunningthedatabaseinARCHIVELOGmode.Forexample,onceanonlineredologhas beenfilled,itcannotbereuseduntilithasbeenarchived.IfOraclecannotarchivetheonlineredolog(forexample,the destinationdirectoryforthearchivedredologsisfilledup),itwillswitchtothenextonlineredologandkeepworking.Atthe sametime,Oraclewillcontinuetotrytoarchivethelogfile. **redologfiles** allDatabasetransactionswillbewrittentologfileswhicharecalledredologfiles whichlogahistoryofallchangesmadetothedatabase.Eachredologfileconsistsofredorecords.Aredorecord,also calledaredoentry,holdsagroupofchangevectors,eachofwhichdescribesorrepresentsachangemadetoasingleblock inthedatabase. DATAFILES Controlfiles Thecontrolfilesofadatabasestorethestatusofthephysicalstructureofthedatabase.Thecontrolfileisabsolutelycrucial todatabaseoperation.Itcontains(butisnotlimitedto)thefollowingtypesofinformation: Databaseinformation(RESETLOGSSCNandtheirtimestamp) Archiveloghistory Tablespaceanddatafilerecords(filenames,datafilecheckpoints,read/writestatus,offlineornot) Redothreads(currentonlineredolog) Databasescreationdate databasename currentarchivelogmode Logrecords(sequencenumbers,SCNrangeineachlog) RMANcatalog

Databaseblockcorruptioninformation DatabaseID,whichisuniquetoeachDB Thelocationofthecontrolfilesisspecifiedthroughthecontrol_filesinitparam. transactionalfiles flatfiles RMANBACKUP oRACLERAC archiver backgroundprocessinoracle stepsin2phasecommit whatarepsuedocolumnsinOracle, 0)OBJECT_ID 00)OBJECT_VALUE,ORA_ROWSCN(ROWSSCAN) 1)ROWNUM 2)CURRVAL 3)NEXTVAL 4)USER 5)SYSDATE corelatedsubquery DBCADatabaseConfigurationAssistant CreateDatabase

From - ht tp://knol.google.com/k/oracle-10g-interview-questions-and-answers# 1. Why is a UNION ALL faster than a UNION? The union operation, you will recall, brings two sets of data together. It will *NOT* however produce duplicate or redundant rows. To perform this feat of magic, a SORT operation is done on both tables. This is obviously computationally intensive, and uses significant memory as well. A UNION ALL conversely just dumps collection of both sets together in random order, not worrying about duplicates. 2. What are some advantages to using Oracle's CREATE DATABASE statement to create a new database manually? You can script the process to include it in a set of install scripts you deliver with a product.

 You can put your create database script in CVS for version control, so as you make changes or adjustments to it, you can track them like you do changes to software code. You can log the output and review it for errors. You learn more about the process of database creation, such as what options are available and why. 3. What are three rules of thumb to create good passwords? How would a DBA enforce those rules in Oracle? What business challenges might you encounter? Typical password cracking software uses a dictionary in the local language, as well as a list of proper names, and combinations thereof to attempt to guess unknown passwords. Since computers can churn through 10's of thousands of attempts quickly, this can be a very affective way to break into a database. A good password therefore should not be a dictionary word, it should not be a proper name, birthday, or other obvious guessable information. It should also be of sufficient length, such as eight to ten characters, including upper and lowercase, special characters, and even alternate characters if possible. Oracle has a facility called password security profiles. When installed they can enforce complexity, and length rules as well as other password related security measures. In the security arena, passwords can be made better, and it is a fairly solvable problem. However, what about in the real-world? Often the biggest challenge is in implementing a set of rules like this in the enterprise. There will likely be a lot of resistance to this, as it creates additional hassles for users of the system who may not be used to thinking about security seriously. Educating business folks about the real risks, by coming up with real stories of vulnerabilities and break-ins you've encountered on the job, or those discussed on the internet goes a long way towards emphasizing what is at stake. 4. Describe the Oracle Wait Interface, how it works, and what it provides. What are some limitations? What do the db_file_sequential_read and db_file_scattered_read events indicate? The Oracle Wait Interface refers to Oracle's data dictionary for managing wait events. Selecting from tables such as v$system_event and v$session_event give you event totals through the life of the database (or session). The former are totals for the whole system, and latter on a per session basis. The event db_file_sequential_read refers to single block reads, and table accesses by rowid. db_file_scattered_read conversely refers to full table scans. It is so named because the blocks are read, and scattered into the buffer cache. 5. How do you return the top-N results of a query in Oracle? Why doesn't the obvious method work? Most people think of using the ROWNUM pseudocolumn with ORDER BY. Unfortunately the ROWNUM is determined *before* the ORDER BY so you don't get the results you want. The answer is to use a subquery to do the ORDER BY first. For example to return the top-5 employees by salary: SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY salary) WHERE ROWNUM < 5; 6. Can Oracle's Data Guard be used on Standard Edition, and if so how? How can you test that the standby database is in sync? Oracle's Data Guard technology is a layer of software and automation built on top of the standby database facility. In Oracle Standard Edition it is possible to be a standby database, and update it *manually*. Roughly, put your production database in archivelog mode. Create a hotbackup of the database and move it to the standby machine. Then create a standby controlfile on the production machine, and ship that file, along with all the archived redolog files to the standby server. Once you have all these files assembled, place them in their proper locations, recover the standby database, and you're ready to roll. From this point on, you must manually ship, and manually apply those archived redologs to stay in sync with production. To test your standby database, make a change to a table on the production server, and commit the change. Then manually switch a logfile so those changes are archived. Manually ship the newest archived redolog file, and manually apply it on the standby database. Then open your standby database

in read-only mode, and select from your changed table to verify those changes are available. Once you're done, shutdown your standby and startup again in standby mode. 7. What is a database link? What is the difference between a public and a private database link? What is a fixed user database link? A database link allows you to make a connection with a remote database, Oracle or not, and query tables from it, even incorporating those accesses with joins to local tables. A private database link only works for, and is accessible to the user/schema that owns it. A global one can be accessed by any user in the database. A fixed user link specifies that you will connect to the remote db as one and only one user that is defined in the link. Alternatively, a current user database link will connect as the current user you are logged in as.

50 DBA Professional focused Interview Questions-Answers:

(by James F. Koopmann ) 1. Explain the difference between a hot backup and a cold backup and the benefits associated with each. A hot backup is basically taking a backup of the database while it is still up and running and it must be in archive log mode. A cold backup is taking a backup of the database while it is shut down and does not require being in archive log mode. The benefit of taking a hot backup is that the database is still available for use while the backup is occurring and you can recover the database to any point in time. The benefit of taking a cold backup is that it is typically easier to administer the backup and recovery process. In addition, since you are taking cold backups the database does not require being in archive log mode and thus there will be a slight performance gain as the database is not cutting archive logs to disk. 2. You have just had to restore from backup and do not have any control files. How would you go about bringing up this database? I would create a text based backup control file, stipulating where on disk all the data files where and then issue the recover command with the using backup control file clause. 3. How do you switch from an init.ora file to a spfile? Issue the create spfile from pfile command. 4. Explain the difference between a data block, an extent and a segment. A data block is the smallest unit of logical storage for a database object. As objects grow they take chunks of additional storage that are composed of contiguous data blocks. These groupings of contiguous data blocks are called extents. All the extents that an object takes when grouped together are considered the segment of the database object.

5. Give two examples of how you might determine the structure of the table DEPT. Use the describe command or use the dbms_metadata.get_ddl package. 6. Where would you look for errors from the database engine? In the alert log. 7. Compare and contrast TRUNCATE and DELETE for a table. Both the truncate and delete command have the desired outcome of getting rid of all the rows in a table. The difference between the two is that the truncate command is a DDL operation and just moves the high water mark and produces a now rollback. The delete command, on the other hand, is a DML operation, which will produce a rollback and thus take longer to complete. 8. Give the reasoning behind using an index. Faster access to data blocks in a table. 9. Give the two types of tables involved in producing a star schema and the type of data they hold. Fact tables and dimension tables. A fact table contains measurements while dimension tables will contain data that will help describe the fact tables. 10. . What type of index should you use on a fact table? A Bitmap index. 11. Give two examples of referential integrity constraints. A primary key and a foreign key. 12. A table is classified as a parent table and you want to drop and re-create it. How would you do this without affecting the children tables? Disable the foreign key constraint to the parent, drop the table, re-create the table, enable the foreign key constraint. 13. Explain the difference between ARCHIVELOG mode and NOARCHIVELOG mode and the benefits and disadvantages to each. ARCHIVELOG mode is a mode that you can put the database in for creating a backup of all transactions that have occurred in the database so that you can recover to any point in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode is basically the absence of ARCHIVELOG mode and has the disadvantage of not being able to recover to any point in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode does have the advantage of not having to write transactions to

an archive log and thus increases the performance of the database slightly. 14. What command would you use to create a backup control file? Alter database backup control file to trace. 15. Give the stages of instance startup to a usable state where normal users may access it. STARTUP NOMOUNT - Instance startup STARTUP MOUNT - The database is mounted STARTUP OPEN - The database is opened 16. What column differentiates the V$ views to the GV$ views and how? The INST_ID column which indicates the instance in a RAC environment the information came from. 17. How would you go about generating an EXPLAIN plan? Create a plan table with utlxplan.sql. Use the explain plan set statement_id = 'tst1' into plan_table for a SQL statement Look at the explain plan with utlxplp.sql or utlxpls.sql 18. How would you go about increasing the buffer cache hit ratio? Use the buffer cache advisory over a given workload and then query the v$db_cache_advice table. If a change was necessary then I would use the alter system set db_cache_size command. 19. Explain an ORA-01555 You get this error when you get a snapshot too old within rollback. It can usually be solved by increasing the undo retention or increasing the size of rollbacks. You should also look at the logic involved in the application getting the error message. 20. Explain the difference between $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_BASE. ORACLE_BASE is the root directory for oracle. ORACLE_HOME located beneath ORACLE_BASE is where the oracle products reside.

21. How would you determine the time zone under which a database was operating?

select DBTIMEZONE from dual; 22. Explain the use of setting GLOBAL_NAMES equal to TRUE. Setting GLOBAL_NAMES dictates how you might connect to a database. This variable is either TRUE or FALSE and if it is set to TRUE it enforces database links to have the same name as the remote database to which they are linking. 23. What command would you use to encrypt a PL/SQL application? WRAP 24. Explain the difference between a FUNCTION, PROCEDURE and PACKAGE. A function and procedure are the same in that they are intended to be a collection of PL/SQL code that carries a single task. While a procedure does not have to return any values to the calling application, a function will return a single value. A package on the other hand is a collection of functions and procedures that are grouped together based on their commonality to a business function or application. 25. Explain the use of table functions. Table functions are designed to return a set of rows through PL/SQL logic but are intended to be used as a normal table or view in a SQL statement. They are also used to pipeline information in an ETL process. 26. Name three advisory statistics you can collect. Buffer Cache Advice, Segment Level Statistics, & Timed Statistics 27. Where in the Oracle directory tree structure are audit traces placed? In unix $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit, in Windows the event viewer 28. Explain materialized views and how they are used. Materialized views are objects that are reduced sets of information that have been summarized, grouped, or aggregated from base tables. They are typically used in data warehouse or decision support systems. 29. When a user process fails, what background process cleans up after it? PMON 30. What background process refreshes materialized views? The Job Queue Processes.

31. How would you determine what sessions are connected and what resources they are waiting for? Use of V$SESSION and V$SESSION_WAIT 32. Describe what redo logs are. Redo logs are logical and physical structures that are designed to hold all the changes made to a database and are intended to aid in the recovery of a database. 33. How would you force a log switch? ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE; 34. Give two methods you could use to determine what DDL changes have been made. You could use Logminer or Streams 35. What does coalescing a tablespace do? Coalescing is only valid for dictionary-managed tablespaces and de-fragments space by combining neighboring free extents into large single extents. 36. What is the difference between a TEMPORARY tablespace and a PERMANENT tablespace? A temporary tablespace is used for temporary objects such as sort structures while permanent tablespaces are used to store those objects meant to be used as the true objects of the database. 37. Name a tablespace automatically created when you create a database. The SYSTEM tablespace. 38. When creating a user, what permissions must you grant to allow them to connect to the database? Grant the CONNECT to the user. 39. How do you add a data file to a tablespace? ALTER TABLESPACE ADD DATAFILE SIZE 40. How do you resize a data file? ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE RESIZE ;

41. What view would you use to look at the size of a data file? DBA_DATA_FILES 42. What view would you use to determine free space in a tablespace? DBA_FREE_SPACE 43. How would you determine who has added a row to a table? Turn on fine grain auditing for the table. 44. How can you rebuild an index? ALTER INDEX REBUILD; 45. Explain what partitioning is and what its benefit is. Partitioning is a method of taking large tables and indexes and splitting them into smaller, more manageable pieces. 46. You have just compiled a PL/SQL package but got errors, how would you view the errors? SHOW ERRORS 47. How can you gather statistics on a table? The ANALYZE command. 48. How can you enable a trace for a session? Use the DBMS_SESSION.SET_SQL_TRACE or Use ALTER SESSION SET SQL_TRACE = TRUE; 49. What is the difference between the SQL*Loader and IMPORT utilities? These two Oracle utilities are used for loading data into the database. The difference is that the import utility relies on the data being produced by another Oracle utility EXPORT while the SQL*Loader utility allows data to be loaded that has been produced by other utilities from different data sources just so long as it conforms to ASCII formatted or delimited files. 50. Name two files used for network connection to a database.

TNSNAMES.ORA and SQLNET.ORA Technical - UNIX -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS relates interview questions for DBA Professional:

1. How do you list the files in an UNIX directory while also showing hidden files? ls -ltra 2. How do you execute a UNIX command in the background? Use the "&" 3. What UNIX command will control the default file permissions when files are created? Umask 4. Explain the read, write, and execute permissions on a UNIX directory. Read allows you to see and list the directory contents. Write allows you to create, edit and delete files and subdirectories in the directory. Execute gives you the previous read/write permissions plus allows you to change into the directory and execute programs or shells from the directory. 5. the difference between a soft link and a hard link? A symbolic (soft) linked file and the targeted file can be located on the same or different file system while for a hard link they must be located on the same file system. 6. Give the command to display space usage on the UNIX file system. df -lk 7. Explain iostat, vmstat and netstat. Iostat reports on terminal, disk and tape I/O activity. Vmstat reports on virtual memory statistics for processes, disk, tape and CPU activity. Netstat reports on the contents of network data structures.

8. How would you change all occurrences of a value using VI? Use :%s///g 9. Give two UNIX kernel parameters that effect an Oracle install SHMMAX & SHMMNI 10. Briefly, how do you install Oracle software on UNIX. Basically, set up disks, kernel parameters, and run orainst.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OracleConceptsandArchitectureDatabaseStructures
1. What are the components of physical database structure of Oracle database?

Oracle database is comprised of three types of files. One or more datafiles, two are more redo log files, and one or more control files. 2. What are the components of logical database structure of Oracle database? There are tablespaces and database's schema objects. 3. What is a tablespace? A database is divided into Logical Storage Unit called tablespaces. A tablespace is used to grouped related logical structures together. 4. What is SYSTEM tablespace and when is it created? Every Oracle database contains a tablespace named SYSTEM, which is automatically created when the database is created. The SYSTEM tablespace always contains the data dictionary tables for the entire database. 5. Explain the relationship among database, tablespace and data file. Each databases logically divided into one or more tablespaces one or more data files are explicitly created for each tablespace. 6. What is schema? A schema is collection of database objects of a user.

7. What are Schema Objects? Schema objects are the logical structures that directly refer to the database's data. Schema objects include tables, views, sequences, synonyms, indexes, clusters, database triggers, procedures, functions packages and database links.

8. Can objects of the same schema reside in different tablespaces? Yes. 9. Can a tablespace hold objects from different schemes? Yes. 10. What is Oracle table? A table is the basic unit of data storage in an Oracle database. The tables of a database hold all of the user accessible data. Table data is stored in rows and columns. 11. What is an Oracle view? A view is a virtual table. Every view has a query attached to it. (The query is a SELECT statement that identifies the columns and rows of the table(s) the view uses.) 12. Do a view contain data? Views do not contain or store data. 13. Can a view based on another view? Yes. 14. What are the advantages of views? - Provide an additional level of table security, by restricting access to a predetermined set of rows and columns of a table. - Hide data complexity. - Simplify commands for the user. - Present the data in a different perspective from that of the base table. - Store complex queries. 15. What is an Oracle sequence? A sequence generates a serial list of unique numbers for numerical columns of a database's tables.

16. What is a synonym? A synonym is an alias for a table, view, sequence or program unit. 17. What are the types of synonyms? There are two types of synonyms private and public. 18. What is a private synonym? Only its owner can access a private synonym. 19. What is a public synonym? Any database user can access a public synonym. 20. What are synonyms used for? - Mask the real name and owner of an object.

- Provide public access to an object

- Provide location t ransparency for tables, views or program units of a remote database. - Simplify the SQL statements for database users. 21. What is an Oracle index? An index is an optional structure associated with a table to have direct access to rows, which can be created to increase the performance of data retrieval. Index can be created on one or more columns of a table. 22. How are the index updates? Indexes are automatically maintained and used by Oracle. Changes to table data are automatically incorporated into all relevant indexes. 23. What are clusters? Clusters are groups of one or more tables physically stores together to share common columns and are often used together. 24. What is cluster key? The related columns of the tables in a cluster are called the cluster key.

25. What is index cluster? A cluster with an index on the cluster key. 26. What is hash cluster? A row is stored in a hash cluster based on the result of applying a hash function to the row's cluster key value. All rows with the same hash key value are stores together on disk. 27. When can hash cluster used? Hash clusters are better choice when a table is often queried with equality queries. For such queries the specified cluster key value is hashed. The resulting hash key value points directly to the area on disk that stores the specified rows. 28. What is database link? A database link is a named object that describes a "path" from one database to another. 29. What are the types of database links? Private database link, public database link & network database link. 30. What is private database link? Private database link is created on behalf of a specific user. A private database link can be used only when the owner of the link specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or in the definition of the owner's views or procedures. 31. What is public database link? Public database link is created for the special user group PUBLIC. A public database link can be used when any user in the associated database specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or object definition. 32. What is network database link? Network database link is created and managed by a network domain service. A network database link can be used when any user of any database in the network specifies a global object name in a SQL statement or object definition. 33. What is data block? Oracle database's data is stored in data blocks. One data block corresponds to a specific number of bytes of physical database space on disk.

34. How to define data block size? A data block size is specified for each Oracle database when the database is created. A database users and allocated free database space in Oracle data blocks. Block size is specified in init.ora file and cannot be changed latter. 35. What is row chaining? In circumstances, all of the data for a row in a table may not be able to fit in the same data block. When this occurs, the data for the row is stored in a chain of data block (one or more) reserved for that segment. 36. What is an extent? An extent is a specific number of contiguous data blocks, obtained in a single allocation and used to store a specific type of information. 37. What is a segment? A segment is a set of extents allocated for a certain logical structure. 38. What are the different types of segments? Data segment, index segment, rollback segment and temporary segment. 39. What is a data segment? Each non-clustered table has a data segment. All of the table's data is stored in the extents of its data segment. Each cluster has a data segment. The data of every table in the cluster is stored in the cluster's data segment. 40. What is an index segment? Each index has an index segment that stores all of its data. 41. What is rollback segment? A database contains one or more rollback segments to temporarily store "undo" information. 42. What are the uses of rollback segment? To generate read-consistent database information during database recovery and to rollback uncommitted transactions by the users. 43. What is a temporary segment?

Temporary segments are created by Oracle when a SQL statement needs a temporary work area to complete execution. When the statement finishes execution, the temporary segment extents are released to the system for future use. 44. What is a datafile? Every Oracle database has one or more physical data files. A database's data files contain all the database data. The data of logical database structures such as tables and indexes is physically stored in the data files allocated for a database. 45. What are the characteristics of data files? A data file can be associated with only one database. Once created a data file can't change size. One or more data files form a logical unit of database storage called a tablespace. 46. What is a redo log? The set of redo log files for a database is collectively known as the database redo log. 47. What is the function of redo log? The primary function of the redo log is to record all changes made to data. 48. What is the use of redo log information? The information in a redo log file is used only to recover the database from a system or media failure prevents database data from being written to a database's data files. 49. What does a control file contains? - Database name - Names and locations of a database's files and redolog files. - Time stamp of database creation. 50. What is the use of control file? When an instance of an Oracle database is started, its control file is used to identify the database and redo log files that must be opened for database operation to proceed. It is also used in database recovery.

Data Base Administration

51. What is a database instance? Explain. A database instance (Server) is a set of memory structure and background processes that access a set of database files. The processes can be shared by all of the users. The memory structure that is used to store the most queried data from database. This helps up to improve database performance by decreasing the amount of I/O performed against data file. 52. What is Parallel Server? Multiple instances accessing the same database (only in multi-CPU environments)

53. What is a schema? The set of objects owned by user account is called the schema. 54. What is an index? How it is implemented in Oracle database? An index is a database structure used by the server to have direct access of a row in a table. An index is automatically created when a unique of primary key constraint clause is specified in create table command 55. What are clusters? Group of tables physically stored together because they share common columns and are often used together is called cluster. 56. What is a cluster key? The related columns of the tables are called the cluster key. The cluster key is indexed using a cluster index and its value is stored only once for multiple tables in the cluster. 57. What are the basic element of base configuration of an Oracle database? It consists of one or more data files. one or more control files. two or more redo log files. The Database contains multiple users/schemas one or more rollback segments

one or more tablespaces Data dictionary tables User objects (table,indexes,views etc.,) The server that access the database consists of SGA (Database buffer, Dictionary Cache Buffers, Redo log buffers, Shared SQL pool) SMON (System MONito) PMON (Process MONitor) LGWR (LoG Write) DBWR (Data Base Write) ARCH (ARCHiver) CKPT (Check Point) RECO Dispatcher User Process with associated PGS 58. What is a deadlock? Explain. Two processes waiting to update the rows of a table, which are locked by other processes then deadlock arises. In a database environment this will often happen because of not issuing the proper row lock commands. Poor design of front-end application may cause this situation and the performance of server will reduce drastically. These locks will be released automatically when a commit/rollback operation performed or any one of this processes being killed externally.

MemoryManagement
59. What is SGA? The System Global Area in an Oracle database is the area in memory to facilitate the transfer of information between users. It holds the most recently requested structural information between users. It holds the most recently requested structural information about the database. The structure is database buffers, dictionary cache, redo log buffer and shared pool area. 60. What is a shared pool? The data dictionary cache is stored in an area in SGA called the shared pool. This will allow sharing of parsed SQL statements among concurrent users.

61. What is mean by Program Global Area (PGA)? It is area in memory that is used by a single Oracle user process. 62. What is a data segment? Data segment are the physical areas within a database block in which the data associated with tables and clusters are stored. 63. What are the factors causing the reparsing of SQL statements in SGA? Due to insufficient shared pool size. Monitor the ratio of the reloads takes place while executing SQL statements. If the ratio is greater than 1 then increase the SHARED_POOL_SIZE.

DatabaseLogical&PhysicalArchitecture
64. What is Database Buffers? Database buffers are cache in the SGA used to hold the data blocks that are read from the data segments in the database such as tables, indexes and clusters DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS parameter in INIT.ORA decides the size. 65. What is dictionary cache? Dictionary cache is information about the database objects stored in a data dictionary table. 66. What is meant by recursive hints? Number of times processes repeatedly query the dictionary table is called recursive hints. It is due to the data dictionary cache is too small. By increasing the SHARED_POOL_SIZE parameter we can optimize the size of data dictionary cache. 67. What is redo log buffer? Changes made to the records are written to the on-line redo log files. So that they can be used in roll forward operations during database recoveries. Before writing them into the redo log files, they will first brought to redo log buffers in SGA and LGWR will write into files frequently. LOG_BUFFER parameter will decide the size.

68. How will you swap objects into a different table space for an existing database? - Export the user - Perform import using the command imp system/manager file=export.dmp indexfile=newrite.sql. This will create all definitions into newfile.sql. - Drop necessary objects. - Run the script newfile.sql after altering the tablespaces. - Import from the backup for the necessary objects. 69. List the Optional Flexible Architecture (OFA) of Oracle database? How can we organize the tablespaces in Oracle database to have maximum performance? SYSTEM - Data dictionary tables. DATA - Standard operational tables. DATA2- Static tables used for standard operations INDEXES - Indexes for Standard operational tables. INDEXES1 - Indexes of static tables used for standard operations. TOOLS - Tools table. TOOLS1 - Indexes for tools table. RBS - Standard Operations Rollback Segments, RBS1,RBS2 - Additional/Special Rollback segments. TEMP - Temporary purpose tablespace TEMP_USER - Temporary tablespace for users. USERS - User tablespace. 70. How will you force database to use particular rollback segment? SET TRANSACTION USE ROLLBACK SEGMENT rbs_name. 71. What is meant by free extent? A free extent is a collection of continuous free blocks in tablespace. When a segment is dropped its extents are reallocated and are marked as free. 72.Which parameter in Storage clause will reduce number of rows per block? PCTFREE parameter Row size also reduces no of rows per block. 73. What is the significance of having storage clause? We can plan the storage for a table as how much initial extents are required, how much can be extended next, how much % should leave free for managing row updating, etc.,

74. How does Space allocation table place within a block? Each block contains entries as follows Fixed block header Variable block header Row Header, row date (multiple rows may exists) PCTEREE (% of free space for row updating in future) 75. What is the role of PCTFREE parameter is storage clause? This is used to reserve certain amount of space in a block for expansion of rows. 76. What is the OPTIMAL parameter? It is used to set the optimal length of a rollback segment. 77. What is the functionality of SYSTEM table space? To manage the database level transactions such as modifications of the data dictionary table that record information about the free space usage. 78. How will you create multiple rollback segments in a database? - Create a database, which implicitly creates a SYSTEM rollback segment in a SYSTEM tablespace. - Create a second rollback segment name R0 in the SYSTEM tablespace. - Make new rollback segment available (after shutdown, modify init.ora file and start database) - Create other tablespaces (RBS) for rollback segments. - Deactivate rollback segment R0 and activate the newly created rollback segments. 79. How the space utilization takes place within rollback segments? It will try to fit the transaction in a cyclic fashion to all existing extents. Once it found an extent is in use then it forced to acquire a new extent (number of extents is based on the optimal size) 80. Why query fails sometimes? Rollback segment dynamically extent to handle larger transactions entry loads. A single transaction may wipeout all available free space in the rollback segment tablespace. This prevents other user using rollback segments.

81. How will you monitor the space allocation? By querying DBA_SEGMENT table/view 82. How will you monitor rollback segment status? Querying the DBA_ROLLBACK_SEGS view IN USE - Rollback Segment is on-line. AVAILABLE - Rollback Segment available but not on-line. OFF-LINE - Rollback Segment off-line INVALID - Rollback Segment Dropped. NEEDS RECOVERY - Contains data but need recovery or corrupted. PARTLY AVAILABLE - Contains data from an unresolved transaction involving a distributed database. 83. List the sequence of events when a large transaction that exceeds beyond its optimal value when an entry wraps and causes the rollback segment to expand into another extend. Transaction Begins. An entry is made in the RES header for new transactions entry Transaction acquires blocks in an extent of RBS The entry attempts to wrap into second extent. None is available, so that the RBS must extent. The RBS checks to see if it is part of its OPTIMAL size. RBS chooses its oldest inactive segment. Oldest inactive segment is eliminated. RBS extents The data dictionary tables for space management are updated. Transaction Completes. 84. How can we plan storage for very large tables? Limit the number of extents in the table Separate table from its indexes. Allocate sufficient temporary storage. 85. How will you estimate the space required by a non-clustered tables? Calculate the total header size Calculate the available data space per data block Calculate the combined column lengths of the average row

Calculate the total average row size. Calculate the average number rows that can fit in a block Calculate the number of blocks and bytes required for the table. After arriving the calculation, add 10 % additional space to calculate the initial extent size for a working table. 86. It is possible to use raw devices as data files and what are the advantages over file system files? Yes. The advantages over file system files are that I/O will be improved because Oracle is bye-passing the kernel which writing into disk. Disk corruption will be very less. 87. What is a Control file? Database's overall physical architecture is maintained in a file called control file. It will be used to maintain internal consistency and guide recovery operations. Multiple copies of control files are advisable. 88. How to implement the multiple control files for an existing database? Shutdown the database Copy one of the existing controlfile to new location Edit Config ora file by adding new control filename Restart the database. 89. What is redo log file mirroring? How can be achieved? Process of having a copy of redo log files is called mirroring. This can be achieved by creating group of log files together, so that LGWR will automatically writes them to all the members of the current on-line redo log group. If any one group fails then database automatically switch over to next group. It degrades performance. 90. What is advantage of having disk shadowing / mirroring? Shadow set of disks save as a backup in the event of disk failure. In most operating systems if any disk failure occurs it automatically switchover to place of failed disk. Improved performance because most OS support volume shadowing can direct file I/O request to use the shadow set of files instead of the main set of files. This reduces I/O load on the main set of disks. 91. What is use of rollback segments in Oracle database?

They allow the database to maintain read consistency between multiple transactions. 92. What is a rollback segment entry? It is the set of before image data blocks that contain rows that are modified by a transaction. Each rollback segment entry must be completed within one rollback segment. A single rollback segment can have multiple rollback segment entries. 93. What is hit ratio? It is a measure of well the data cache buffer is handling requests for data. Hit Ratio = (Logical Reads - Physical Reads - Hits Misses)/ Logical Reads. 94. When will be a segment released? When Segment is dropped. When Shrink (RBS only) When truncated (TRUNCATE used with drop storage option) 95. What are disadvantages of having raw devices? We should depend on export/import utility for backup/recovery (fully reliable) The tar command cannot be used for physical file backup, instead we can use dd command, which is less flexible and has limited recoveries. 96. List the factors that can affect the accuracy of the estimations? - The space used transaction entries and deleted records, does not become free immediately after completion due to delayed cleanout. - Trailing nulls and length bytes are not stored. - Inserts of, updates to and deletes of rows as well as columns larger than a single data block, can cause fragmentation a chained row pieces. DatabaseSecurity&Administration 97. What is user Account in Oracle database? A user account is not a physical structure in database but it is having important relationship to the objects in the database and will be having certain privileges. 98. How will you enforce security using stored procedures?

Don't grant user access directly to tables within the application. Instead grant the ability to access the procedures that access the tables. When procedure executed it will execute the privilege of procedures owner. Users cannot access tables except via the procedure. 99. What are the dictionary tables used to monitor a database space? DBA_FREE_SPACE DBA_SEGMENTS DBA_DATA_FILES. SQL*PlusStatements 100. What are the types of SQL statement? Data Definition Language: CREATE, ALTER, DROP, TRUNCATE, REVOKE, NO AUDIT & COMMIT. Data Manipulation Language: INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, LOCK TABLE, EXPLAIN PLAN & SELECT. Transactional Control: COMMIT & ROLLBACK Session Control: ALTERSESSION & SET ROLE System Control: ALTER SYSTEM. 101. What is a transaction? Transaction is logical unit between two commits and commit and rollback. 102. What is difference between TRUNCATE & DELETE? TRUNCATE commits after deleting entire table i.e., cannot be rolled back. Database triggers do not fire on TRUNCATE DELETE allows the filtered deletion. Deleted records can be rolled back or committed. Database triggers fire on DELETE. 103. What is a join? Explain the different types of joins? Join is a query, which retrieves related columns or rows from multiple tables. Self Join - Joining the table with itself. Equi Join - Joining two tables by equating two common columns. Non-Equi Join - Joining two tables by equating two common columns. Outer Join - Joining two tables in such a way that query can also retrieve rows that do not have corresponding join value in the other table.

104. What is the sub-query? Sub-query is a query whose return values are used in filtering conditions of the main query. 105. What is correlated sub-query? Correlated sub-query is a sub-query, which has reference to the main query. 106. Explain CONNECT BY PRIOR? Retrieves rows in hierarchical order eg. select empno, ename from emp where. 107. Difference between SUBSTR and INSTR? INSTR (String1, String2 (n, (m)), INSTR returns the position of the m-th occurrence of the string 2 in string1. The search begins from nth position of string1. SUBSTR (String1 n, m) SUBSTR returns a character string of size m in string1, starting from n-th position of string1. 108. Explain UNION, MINUS, UNION ALL and INTERSECT? INTERSECT MINUS UNION UNION ALL - returns all distinct rows selected by both queries. - returns all distinct rows selected by the first query but not by the second. - returns all distinct rows selected by either query - returns all rows selected by either query, including all duplicates.

109. What is ROWID? ROWID is a pseudo column attached to each row of a table. It is 18 characters long, blockno, rownumber are the components of ROWID. 110. What is the fastest way of accessing a row in a table? Using ROWID. CONSTRAINTS 111. What is an integrity constraint? Integrity constraint is a rule that restricts values to a column in a table.

112. What is referential integrity constraint? Maintaining data integrity through a set of rules that restrict the values of one or more columns of the tables based on the values of primary key or unique key of the referenced table. 113. What is the usage of SAVEPOINTS? SAVEPOINTS are used to subdivide a transaction into smaller parts. It enables rolling back part of a transaction. Maximum of five save points are allowed. 114. What is ON DELETE CASCADE? When ON DELETE CASCADE is specified Oracle maintains referential integrity by automatically removing dependent foreign key values if a referenced primary or unique key value is removed. 115. What are the data types allowed in a table? CHAR, VARCHAR2, NUMBER, DATE, RAW, LONG and LONG RAW. 116. What is difference between CHAR and VARCHAR2? What is the maximum SIZE allowed for each type? CHAR pads blank spaces to the maximum length. VARCHAR2 does not pad blank spaces. For CHAR the maximum length is 255 and 2000 for VARCHAR2. 117. How many LONG columns are allowed in a table? Is it possible to use LONG columns in WHERE clause or ORDER BY? Only one LONG column is allowed. It is not possible to use LONG column in WHERE or ORDER BY clause. 118. What are the pre-requisites to modify datatype of a column and to add a column with NOT NULL constraint? - To modify the datatype of a column the column must be empty. - To add a column with NOT NULL constrain, the table must be empty. 119. Where the integrity constraints are stored in data dictionary? The integrity constraints are stored in USER_CONSTRAINTS. 120. How will you activate/deactivate integrity constraints?

The integrity constraints can be enabled or disabled by ALTER TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT / DISABLE CONSTRAINT. 121. If unique key constraint on DATE column is created, will it validate the rows that are inserted with SYSDATE? It won't, Because SYSDATE format contains time attached with it. 122. What is a database link? Database link is a named path through which a remote database can be accessed. 123. How to access the current value and next value from a sequence? Is it possible to access the current value in a session before accessing next value? Sequence name CURRVAL, sequence name NEXTVAL. It is not possible. Only if you access next value in the session, current value can be accessed. 124. What is CYCLE/NO CYCLE in a Sequence? CYCLE specifies that the sequence continue to generate values after reaching either maximum or minimum value. After pan-ascending sequence reaches its maximum value, it generates its minimum value. After a descending sequence reaches its minimum, it generates its maximum. NO CYCLE specifies that the sequence cannot generate more values after reaching its maximum or minimum value. 125. What are the advantages of VIEW? - To protect some of the columns of a table from other users. - To hide complexity of a query. - To hide complexity of calculations. 126. Can a view be updated/inserted/deleted? If Yes - under what conditions? A View can be updated/deleted/inserted if it has only one base table if the view is based on columns from one or more tables then insert, update and delete is not possible. 127. If a view on a single base table is manipulated will the changes be reflected on the base table? If changes are made to the tables and these tables are the base tables of a view, then the changes will be reference on the view.

Oracle Interview Questions and Answers : SQL 1. To see current user name Sql> show user; 2. Change SQL prompt name SQL> set sqlprompt Manimara > Manimara > Manimara > 3. Switch to DOS prompt SQL> host 4. How do I eliminate the duplicate rows ? SQL> delete from table_name where rowid not in (select max(rowid) from table group by duplicate_values_field_name); or SQL> delete duplicate_values_field_name dv from table_name ta where rowid <(select min(rowid) from table_name tb where ta.dv=tb.dv); Example. Table Emp Empno Ename 101 Scott 102 Jiyo 103 Millor 104 Jiyo 105 Smith delete ename from emp a where rowid < ( select min(rowid) from emp b where a.ename = b.ename); The output like, Empno Ename 101 Scott 102 Millor 103 Jiyo 104 Smith 5. How do I display row number with records? To achive this use rownum pseudocolumn with query, like SQL> SQL> select rownum, ename from emp; Output: 1 Scott 2 Millor

3 Jiyo 4 Smith 6. Display the records between two range select rownum, empno, ename from emp where rowid in (select rowid from emp where rownum <=&upto minus select rowid from emp where rownum<&Start); Enter value for upto: 10 Enter value for Start: 7 ROWNUM EMPNO ENAME --------- --------- ---------1 7782 CLARK 2 7788 SCOTT 3 7839 KING 4 7844 TURNER 7. I know the nvl function only allows the same data type(ie. number or char or date Nvl(comm, 0)), if commission is null then the text Not Applicable want to display, instead of blank space. How do I write the query? SQL> select nvl(to_char(comm.),'NA') from emp; Output : NVL(TO_CHAR(COMM),'NA') ----------------------NA 300 500 NA 1400 NA NA 8. Oracle cursor : Implicit & Explicit cursors Oracle uses work areas called private SQL areas to create SQL statements. PL/SQL construct to identify each and every work are used, is called as Cursor. For SQL queries returning a single row, PL/SQL declares all implicit cursors. For queries that returning more than one row, the cursor needs to be explicitly declared. 9. Explicit Cursor attributes There are four cursor attributes used in Oracle cursor_name%Found, cursor_name%NOTFOUND, cursor_name%ROWCOUNT, cursor_name%ISOPEN 10. Implicit Cursor attributes Same as explicit cursor but prefixed by the word SQL SQL%Found, SQL%NOTFOUND, SQL%ROWCOUNT, SQL%ISOPEN Tips : 1. Here SQL%ISOPEN is false, because oracle automatically closed the implicit cursor after executing SQL statements. : 2. All are Boolean attributes.

11. Find out nth highest salary from emp table SELECT DISTINCT (a.sal) FROM EMP A WHERE &N = (SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT (b.sal)) FROM EMP B WHERE a.sal<=b.sal); Enter value for n: 2 SAL --------3700 12. To view installed Oracle version information SQL> select banner from v$version; 13. Display the number value in Words SQL> select sal, (to_char(to_date(sal,'j'), 'jsp')) from emp; the output like, SAL (TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(SAL,'J'),'JSP')) --------- ----------------------------------------------------800 eight hundred 1600 one thousand six hundred 1250 one thousand two hundred fifty If you want to add some text like, Rs. Three Thousand only. SQL> select sal "Salary ", (' Rs. '|| (to_char(to_date(sal,'j'), 'Jsp'))|| ' only.')) "Sal in Words" from emp / Salary Sal in Words ------- -----------------------------------------------------800 Rs. Eight Hundred only. 1600 Rs. One Thousand Six Hundred only. 1250 Rs. One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty only. 14. Display Odd/ Even number of records Odd number of records: select * from emp where (rowid,1) in (select rowid, mod(rownum,2) from emp); 1 3 5 Even number of records: select * from emp where (rowid,0) in (select rowid, mod(rownum,2) from emp) 2 4 6 15. Which date function returns number value? months_between 16. Any three PL/SQL Exceptions? Too_many_rows, No_Data_Found, Value_Error, Zero_Error, Others

17. What are PL/SQL Cursor Exceptions? Cursor_Already_Open, Invalid_Cursor 18. Other way to replace query result null value with a text SQL> Set NULL N/A to reset SQL> Set NULL 19. What are the more common pseudo-columns? SYSDATE, USER , UID, CURVAL, NEXTVAL, ROWID, ROWNUM 20. What is the output of SIGN function? 1 for positive value, 0 for Zero, -1 for Negative value. 21. What is the maximum number of triggers, can apply to a single table? 12 triggers.

PL/SQLinterviewqiuestionsDatabase
1. 1. 2. 3. 4. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 3.
Which of the following statements is true about implicit cursors? Implicit cursors are used for SQL statements that are not named. Developers should use implicit cursors with great care. Implicit cursors are used in cursor for loops to handle data processing. Implicit cursors are no longer a feature in Oracle. Which of the following is not a feature of a cursor FOR loop? Record type declaration. Opening and parsing of SQL statements. Fetches records from cursor. Requires exit condition to be defined.

A developer would like to use referential datatype declaration on a variable. The variable name is EMPLOYEE_LASTNAME, and the corresponding table and column is EMPLOYEE, and LNAME, respectively. How would the developer define this variable using referential datatypes? 1. Use employee.lname%type.

2. 3. 4. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Use employee.lname%rowtype. Look up datatype for EMPLOYEE column on LASTNAME table and use that. Declare it to be type LONG. Which three of the following are implicit cursor attributes? %found %too_many_rows %notfound %rowcount

5. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 9.

%rowtype If left out, which of the following would cause an infinite loop to occur in a simple loop? LOOP END LOOP IF-THEN EXIT Which line in the following statement will produce an error? cursor action_cursor is select name, rate, action into action_record from action_table; There are no errors in this statement. The command used to open a CURSOR FOR loop is open fetch parse None, cursor for loops handle cursor opening implicitly. What happens when rows are found using a FETCH statement It causes the cursor to close It causes the cursor to open It loads the current row values into variables It creates the variables to hold the current row values

Read the following code: 10. CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE find_cpt 11. (v_movie_id {Argument Mode} NUMBER, v_cost_per_ticket {argument mode} NUMBER) 12. IS 13. BEGIN 14. IF v_cost_per_ticket > 8.5 THEN 15. SELECT cost_per_ticket 16. INTO v_cost_per_ticket 17. FROM gross_receipt 18. WHERE movie_id = v_movie_id; 19. END IF; 20. END; Which mode should be used for V_COST_PER_TICKET? 1. IN

2. 3. 4. 2.

OUT RETURN IN OUT

Read the following code: 22. CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER update_show_gross 23. {trigger information}

24. 25. 26.

BEGIN {additional code} END;

The trigger code should only execute when the column, COST_PER_TICKET, is greater than $3. Which trigger information will you add? 1. WHEN (new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75)

2. 3. 4. 2.

WHEN (:new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75 WHERE (new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75) WHERE (:new.cost_per_ticket > 3.75)

What is the maximum number of handlers processed before the PL/SQL block is exited when an exception occurs? 1. Only one

2. 3. 4. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 4.

All that apply All referenced None For which trigger timing can you reference the NEW and OLD qualifiers? Statement and Row Statement only Row only Oracle Forms trigger

Read the following code: 30. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_budget(v_studio_id IN NUMBER) RETURN number IS

v_yearly_budget NUMBER;

BEGIN SELECT yearly_budget INTO v_yearly_budget FROM studio WHERE id = v_studio_id;

RETURN v_yearly_budget; END; Which set of statements will successfully invoke this function within SQL*Plus? 1. VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 2. VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 3. VARIABLE :g_yearly_budget NUMBER EXECUTE :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11);

VARIABLE g_yearly_budget NUMBER :g_yearly_budget := GET_BUDGET(11); 31. CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE update_theater 32. (v_name IN VARCHAR v_theater_id IN NUMBER) IS 33. BEGIN 34. UPDATE theater 35. SET name = v_name 36. WHERE id = v_theater_id; 37. END update_theater;

4.

When invoking this procedure, you encounter the error: ORA-000: Unique constraint(SCOTT.THEATER_NAME_UK) violated.

1.

How should you modify the function to handle this error? 1. An user defined exception must be declared and associated with the error code and handled in the EXCEPTION section. 2. Handle the error in EXCEPTION section by referencing the error code directly.

3.
exception.

Handle the error in the EXCEPTION section by referencing the UNIQUE_ERROR predefined

Check for success by checking the value of SQL%FOUND immediately after the UPDATE statement. 2. Read the following code: 40. CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE calculate_budget IS 41. v_budget studio.yearly_budget%TYPE; 42. BEGIN 43. v_budget := get_budget(11); 44. IF v_budget < 30000 45. THEN 46. set_budget(11,30000000); 47. END IF; 48. END;

4.

You are about to add an argument to CALCULATE_BUDGET. What effect will this have? 1. The GET_BUDGET function will be marked invalid and must be recompiled before the next execution. 2. The SET_BUDGET function will be marked invalid and must be recompiled before the next execution. 3. Only the CALCULATE_BUDGET procedure needs to be recompiled.

4. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 3.

All three procedures are marked invalid and must be recompiled. Which procedure can be used to create a customized error message? RAISE_ERROR SQLERRM RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR RAISE_SERVER_ERROR

The CHECK_THEATER trigger of the THEATER table has been disabled. Which command can you issue to enable this trigger? 1. ALTER TRIGGER check_theater ENABLE;

2. 3.

ENABLE TRIGGER check_theater; ALTER TABLE check_theater ENABLE check_theater;

4. 4.

ENABLE check_theater;

Examine this database trigger 52. CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER prevent_gross_modification 53. {additional trigger information} 54. BEGIN 55. IF TO_CHAR(sysdate, DY) = MON 56. THEN 57. RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20000,Gross receipts cannot be deleted on Monday); 58. END IF; 59. END; This trigger must fire before each DELETE of the GROSS_RECEIPT table. It should fire only once for the entire DELETE statement. What additional information must you add? 1. BEFORE DELETE ON gross_receipt

2. 3. 4. 2.

AFTER DELETE ON gross_receipt BEFORE (gross_receipt DELETE) FOR EACH ROW DELETED FROM gross_receipt

Examine this function: 61. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION set_budget 62. (v_studio_id IN NUMBER, v_new_budget IN NUMBER) IS 63. BEGIN 64. UPDATE studio 65. SET yearly_budget = v_new_budget WHERE id = v_studio_id;

IF SQL%FOUND THEN RETURN TRUEl; ELSE RETURN FALSE; END IF;

COMMIT; END; Which code must be added to successfully compile this function? 1. Add RETURN right before the IS keyword.

2. 3. 4. 2.

Add RETURN number right before the IS keyword. Add RETURN boolean right after the IS keyword. Add RETURN boolean right before the IS keyword.

Under which circumstance must you recompile the package body after recompiling the package specification? 1. Altering the argument list of one of the package constructs

2. 3. 4.

Any change made to one of the package constructs Any SQL statement change made to one of the package constructs Removing a local variable from the DECLARE section of one of the package constructs

Procedure and Functions are explicitly executed. This is different from a database trigger. When is a database trigger executed? 1. When the transaction is committed

3.

2. 3. 4. 4.

During the data manipulation statement When an Oracle supplied package references the trigger During a data manipulation statement and when the transaction is committed

Which Oracle supplied package can you use to output values and messages from database triggers, stored procedures and functions within SQL*Plus? 1. DBMS_DISPLAY

2. 3. 4. 5. 1.
back.

DBMS_OUTPUT DBMS_LIST DBMS_DESCRIBE What occurs if a procedure or function terminates with failure without being handled? Any DML statements issued by the construct are still pending and can be committed or rolled Any DML statements issued by the construct are committed

2. 3.

Unless a GOTO statement is used to continue processing within the BEGIN section, the construct terminates. 4. The construct rolls back any DML statements issued and returns the unhandled exception to the calling environment. 6. Examine this code 71. BEGIN 72. theater_pck.v_total_seats_sold_overall := theater_pck.get_total_for_year; 73. END; For this code to be successful, what must be true? 1. Both the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable and the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR function must exist only in the body of the THEATER_PCK package. 2. Only the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR variable must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 3. Only the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 4. Both the V_TOTAL_SEATS_SOLD_OVERALL variable and the GET_TOTAL_FOR_YEAR function must exist in the specification of the THEATER_PCK package. 2. A stored function must return a value based on conditions that are determined at runtime. Therefore, the SELECT statement cannot be hard-coded and must be created dynamically when the function is executed. Which Oracle supplied package will enable this feature? 1. DBMS_DDL

2. 3. 4.

DBMS_DML DBMS_SYN DBMS_SQL

DatabasemanagementinterviewquestionsDatabase
1. What is a Cartesian product? What causes it? Expected answer: A Cartesian product is the result of an unrestricted join of two or more tables. The result set of a three table Cartesian product will have x * y * z number of rows where x, y, z correspond to the number of rows in each table involved in the join. It is causes by specifying a table in the FROM clause without joining it to another table. 2. What is an advantage to using a stored procedure as opposed to passing an SQL query from an application. Expected answer: A stored procedure is pre-loaded in memory for faster execution. It allows the DBMS control of permissions for security purposes. It also eliminates the need to recompile components when minor changes occur to the database. 3. What is the difference of a LEFT JOIN and an INNER JOIN statement? Expected answer: A LEFT JOIN will take ALL values from the first declared table and matching values from the second declared table based on the column the join has been declared on. An INNER JOIN will take only matching values from both tables 4. When a query is sent to the database and an index is not being used, what type of execution is taking place? Expected answer: A table scan. 5. What are the pros and cons of using triggers? Expected answer: A trigger is one or more statements of SQL that are being executed in event of data modification in a table to which the trigger belongs. Triggers enhance the security, efficiency, and standardization of databases. Triggers can be beneficial when used: to check or modify values before they are actually updated or inserted in the database. This is useful if you need to transform data from the way the user sees it to some internal database format. to run other non-database operations coded in user-defined functions to update data in other tables. This is useful for maintaining relationships between data or in keeping audit trail information. to check against other data in the table or in other tables. This is useful to ensure data integrity when referential integrity constraints arent appropriate, or when table check constraints limit checking to the current table only.

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OracleDBAinterviewquestions&Answers

Explainthedifferencebetweenahotbackupandacoldbackupandthebenefitsassociatedwitheach. Ahotbackupisbasicallytakingabackupofthedatabasewhileitisstillupandrunninganditmustbeinarchivelog mode.Acoldbackupistakingabackupofthedatabasewhileitisshutdownanddoesnotrequirebeinginarchivelog mode.Thebenefitoftakingahotbackupisthatthedatabaseisstillavailableforusewhilethebackupisoccurringand youcanrecoverthedatabasetoanypointintime. Thebenefitoftakingacoldbackupisthatitistypicallyeasiertoadministerthebackupandrecoveryprocess.In addition,sinceyouaretakingcoldbackupsthedatabasedoesnotrequirebeinginarchivelogmodeandthustherewill beaslightperformancegainasthedatabaseisnotcuttingarchivelogstodisk. Youhavejusthadtorestorefrombackupanddonothaveanycontrolfiles.Howwouldyougoaboutbringingupthis database? Iwouldcreateatextbasedbackupcontrolfile,stipulatingwhereondiskallthedatafileswhereandthenissuethe recovercommandwiththeusingbackupcontrolfileclause. Howdoyouswitchfromaninit.orafiletoaspfile? Issuethecreatespfilefrompfilecommand. Explainthedifferencebetweenadatablock,anextentandasegment. Adatablockisthesmallestunitoflogicalstorageforadatabaseobject.Asobjectsgrowtheytakechunksofadditional storagethatarecomposedofcontiguousdatablocks.Thesegroupingsofcontiguousdatablocksarecalledextents.All theextentsthatanobjecttakeswhengroupedtogetherareconsideredthesegmentofthedatabaseobject. GivetwoexamplesofhowyoumightdeterminethestructureofthetableDEPT. Usethedescribecommandorusethedbms_metadata.get_ddlpackage. Wherewouldyoulookforerrorsfromthedatabaseengine? Inthealertlog. CompareandcontrastTRUNCATEandDELETEforatable. Boththetruncateanddeletecommandhavethedesiredoutcomeofgettingridofalltherowsinatable.Thedifference betweenthetwoisthatthetruncatecommandisaDDLoperationandjustmovesthehighwatermarkandproducesa nowrollback.Thedeletecommand,ontheotherhand,isaDMLoperation,whichwillproducearollbackandthustake longertocomplete. Givethereasoningbehindusinganindex. Fasteraccesstodatablocksinatable.

Givethetwotypesoftablesinvolvedinproducingastarschemaandthetypeofdatatheyhold. Facttablesanddimensiontables.Afacttablecontainsmeasurementswhiledimensiontableswillcontaindatathatwill helpdescribethefacttables. Whattypeofindexshouldyouuseonafacttable? ABitmapindex. Givetwoexamplesofreferentialintegrityconstraints. Aprimarykeyandaforeignkey. Atableisclassifiedasaparenttableandyouwanttodropandrecreateit.Howwouldyoudothiswithoutaffectingthe childrentables? Disabletheforeignkeyconstrainttotheparent,dropthetable,recreatethetable,enabletheforeignkeyconstraint. ExplainthedifferencebetweenARCHIVELOGmodeandNOARCHIVELOGmodeandthebenefitsanddisadvantages toeach. ARCHIVELOGmodeisamodethatyoucanputthedatabaseinforcreatingabackupofalltransactionsthathave occurredinthedatabasesothatyoucanrecovertoanypointintime. NOARCHIVELOGmodeisbasicallytheabsenceofARCHIVELOGmodeandhasthedisadvantageofnotbeingableto recovertoanypointintime.NOARCHIVELOGmodedoeshavetheadvantageofnothavingtowritetransactionstoan archivelogandthusincreasestheperformanceofthedatabaseslightly. Whatcommandwouldyouusetocreateabackupcontrolfile? Alterdatabasebackupcontrolfiletotrace. Givethestagesofinstancestartuptoausablestatewherenormalusersmayaccessit. STARTUPNOMOUNTInstancestartup.STARTUPMOUNTThedatabaseismounted.STARTUPOPENThe databaseisopened WhatcolumndifferentiatestheV$viewstotheGV$viewsandhow? TheINST_IDcolumnwhichindicatestheinstanceinaRACenvironmenttheinformationcamefrom. HowwouldyougoaboutgeneratinganEXPLAINplan? Createaplantablewithutlxplan.sql.Usetheexplainplansetstatement_id=tst1 intoplan_tableforaSQL

statement.Lookattheexplainplanwithutlxplp.sqlorutlxpls.sql Howwouldyougoaboutincreasingthebuffercachehitratio? Usethebuffercacheadvisoryoveragivenworkloadandthenquerythev$db_cache_advicetable.Ifachangewas necessarythenIwouldusethealtersystemsetdb_cache_sizecommand. ExplainanORA01555 Yougetthiserrorwhenyougetasnapshottoooldwithinrollback.Itcanusuallybesolvedbyincreasingtheundo retentionorincreasingthesizeofrollbacks.Youshouldalsolookatthelogicinvolvedintheapplicationgettingtheerror message. Explainthedifferencebetween$ORACLE_HOMEand$ORACLE_BASE.ORACLE_BASEistherootdirectoryfor oracle.ORACLE_HOMElocatedbeneathORACLE_BASEiswheretheoracleproductsreside.

Fromht tp://www.placementpapers.us/oracle/357-

oracle_dba_interview_questions_answers.html
DifferentiatebetweenTRUNCATEandDELETE. TheDeletecommandwilllogthedatachangesinthelogfilewhereasthetruncatewillsimplyremovethe datawithoutit.HenceDataremovedbyDeletecommandcanberolledbackbutnotthedataremovedby TRUNCATE.TruncateisaDDLstatementwhereasDELETEisaDMLstatement. WhatisthemaximumbuffersizethatcanbespecifiedusingtheDBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE function? 1000000 Canyouuseacommitstatementwithinadatabasetrigger? Yes,ifyouareusingautonomoustransactionsintheDatabasetriggers. WhatisanUTL_FILE?Whataredifferentproceduresandfunctionsassociatedwithit? TheUTL_FILEpackageletsyourPL/SQLprogramsreadandwriteoperatingsystem(OS)textfiles.It providesarestrictedversionofstandardOSstreamfileinput/output(I/O). SubprogramDescription FOPENfunctionOpensafileforinputoroutputwiththedefaultlinesize. IS_OPENfunctionDeterminesifafilehandlereferstoanopenfile. FCLOSEprocedureClosesafile. FCLOSE_ALLprocedureClosesallopenfilehandles. GET_LINEprocedureReadsalineoftextfromanopenfile. PUTprocedureWritesalinetoafile.Thisdoesnotappendalineterminator.

NEW_LINEprocedureWritesoneormoreOSspecificlineterminatorstoafile. PUT_LINEprocedureWritesalinetoafile.ThisappendsanOSspecificlineterminator. PUTFprocedureAPUTprocedurewithformatting. FFLUSHprocedurePhysicallywritesallpendingoutputtoafile. FOPENfunctionOpensafilewiththemaximumlinesizespecified.

Fromhttp://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Interview_Questions 1. Explain the difference between a hot backup and a cold backup and the benefits associated with each. A hot backup is basically taking a backup of the database while it is still up and running and it must be in archive log mode. A cold backup is taking a backup of the database while it is shut down and does not require being in archive log mode. The benefit of taking a hot backup is that the database is still available for use while the backup is occurring and you can recover the database to any ball in time. The benefit of taking a cold backup is that it is typically easier to administer the backup and recovery process. In addition, since you are taking cold backups the database does not require being in archive log mode and thus there will be a slight performance gain as the database is not cutting archive logs to disk. 2. You have just had to restore from backup and do not have any control files. How would you go about bringing up this database? I would create a text based backup control file, stipulating where on disk all the data files where and then issue the recover command with the using backup control file clause. 3. How do you switch from an init.ora file to a spfile? Issue the create spfile from pfile command. 4. Explain the difference between a data block, an extent and a segment. A data block is the smallest unit of logical storage for a database object. As objects grow they take chunks of additional storage that are composed of contiguous data blocks. These groupings of contiguous data blocks are called extents. All the extents that an object takes when grouped together are considered the segment of the database object. 5. Give two examples of how you might determine the structure of the table DEPT. Use the describe command or use the dbms_metadata.get_ddl package. 6. Where would you look for errors from the database engine? In the alert log. 7. Compare and contrast TRUNCATE and DELETE for a table. Both the truncate and delete command have the desired outcome of getting rid of all the rows in a table. The difference between the two is that the truncate command is a DDL operation and just moves the high water mark and produces a now rollback. The delete command, on the other hand, is a DML operation, which will produce a rollback and thus take longer to complete. 8. Give the reasoning behind using an index. Faster access to data blocks in a table. 9. Give the two types of tables involved in producing a star schema and the type of data they hold. Fact tables and dimension tables. A fact table contains measurements while dimension tables will contain data that will help describe the fact tables. 10. What type of index should you use on a fact table?

A Bitmap index. 11. Give some examples of the types of database contraints you may find in Oracle and indicate their purpose. A Primary or Unique Key can be used to enforce uniqueness on one or more columns. A Referential Integrity Contraint can be used to enforce a Foreign Key relationship between two tables. A Not Null constraint - to ensure a value is entered in a column A Value Constraint - to check a column value against a specific set of values. 12. A table is classified as a parent table and you want to drop and re-create it. How would you do this without affecting the children tables? Disable the foreign key constraint to the parent, drop the table, re-create the table, enable the foreign key constraint. 13. Explain the difference between ARCHIVELOG mode and NOARCHIVELOG mode and the benefits and disadvantages to each. ARCHIVELOG mode is a mode that you can put the database in for creating a backup of all transactions that have occurred in the database so that you can recover to any ball in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode is basically the absence of ARCHIVELOG mode and has the disadvantage of not being able to recover to any ball in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode does have the advantage of not having to write transactions to an archive log and thus increases the performance of the database slightly. 14. What command would you use to create a backup control file? Alter database backup control file to trace. 15. Give the stages of instance startup to a usable state where normal users may access it. STARTUP NOMOUNT - Instance startup STARTUP MOUNT - The database is mounted STARTUP OPEN - The database is opened 16. What column differentiates the V$ views to the GV$ views and how? The INST_ID column which indicates the instance in a RAC environment the information came from. 17. How would you go about generating an EXPLAIN plan? Create a plan table with utlxplan.sql. Use the explain plan set statement_id = 'tst1' into plan_table for a SQL statement Look at the explain plan with utlxplp.sql or utlxpls.sql 18. How would you go about increasing the buffer cache hit ratio? Use the buffer cache advisory over a given workload and then query the v$db_cache_advice table. If a change was necessary then I would use the alter system set db_cache_size command. 19. Explain an ORA-01555. You get this error when you get a snapshot too old within rollback. It can usually be solved by increasing the undo retention or increasing the size of rollbacks. You should also look at the logic involved in the application getting the error message. 20. Explain the difference between $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_BASE. ORACLE_BASE is the root directory for oracle. ORACLE_HOME located beneath ORACLE_BASE is where the oracle products reside.

1. How would you determine the time zone under which a database was operating? using SELECT dbtimezone FROM DUAL; 2. Explain the use of setting GLOBAL_NAMES equal to TRUE.

It ensure the use of consistent naming conventions for databases and links in a networked environment. 3. What command would you use to encrypt a PL/SQL application? 4. Explain the difference between a FUNCTION, PROCEDURE and PACKAGE. 5. Explain the use of table functions. 6. Name three advisory statistics you can collect. 7. Where in the Oracle directory tree structure are audit traces placed? 8. Explain materialized views and how they are used. 9. When a user process fails, what background process cleans up after it? 10. What background process refreshes materialized views? 11. How would you determine what sessions are connected and what resources they are waiting for? 12. Describe what redo logs are. 13. How would you force a log switch? 14. Give two methods you could use to determine what DDL changes have been made. 15. What does coalescing a tablespace do? 16. What is the difference between a TEMPORARY tablespace and a PERMANENT tablespace? 17. Name a tablespace automatically created when you create a database. 18. When creating a user, what permissions must you grant to allow them to connect to the database? 19. How do you add a data file to a tablespace? 20. How do you resize a data file? 21. What view would you use to look at the size of a data file? 22. What view would you use to determine free space in a tablespace? 23. How would you determine who has added a row to a table? 24. How can you rebuild an index? 25. Explain what partitioning is and what its benefit is. 26. You have just compiled a PL/SQL package but got errors, how would you view the errors? 27. How can you gather statistics on a table? 28. How can you enable a trace for a session? 29. What is the difference between the SQL*Loader and IMPORT utilities? 30. Name two files used for network connection to a database.

1. Describe the difference between a procedure, function and anonymous pl/sql block. Candidate should mention use of DECLARE statement, a function must return a value while a procedure doesn?t have to. 2. What is a mutating table error and how can you get around it? This happens with triggers. It occurs because the trigger is trying to update a row it is currently using. The usual fix involves either use of views or temporary tables so the database is selecting from one while updating the other.

3. Describe the use of %ROWTYPE and %TYPE in PL/SQL Expected answer: %ROWTYPE allows you to associate a variable with an entire table row. The %TYPE associates a variable with a single column type. 4. What packages (if any) has Oracle provided for use by developers? Expected answer: Oracle provides the DBMS_ series of packages. There are many which developers should be aware of such as DBMS_SQL, DBMS_PIPE, DBMS_TRANSACTION, DBMS_LOCK, DBMS_ALERT, DBMS_OUTPUT, DBMS_JOB, DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_DDL, UTL_FILE. If they can mention a few of these and describe how they used them, even better. If they include the SQL routines provided by Oracle, great, but not really what was asked. 5. Describe the use of PL/SQL tables Expected answer: PL/SQL tables are scalar arrays that can be referenced by a binary integer. They can be used to hold values for use in later queries or calculations. In Oracle 8 they will be able to be of the %ROWTYPE designation, or RECORD. 6. When is a declare statement needed ? The DECLARE statement is used in PL/SQL anonymous blocks such as with stand alone, non-stored PL/SQL procedures. It must come first in a PL/SQL stand alone file if it is used. 7. In what order should a open/fetch/loop set of commands in a PL/SQL block be implemented if you use the %NOTFOUND cursor variable in the exit when statement? Why? Expected answer: OPEN then FETCH then LOOP followed by the exit when. If not specified in this order will result in the final return being done twice because of the way the %NOTFOUND is handled by PL/SQL. 8. What are SQLCODE and SQLERRM and why are they important for PL/SQL developers? Expected answer: SQLCODE returns the value of the error number for the last error encountered. The SQLERRM returns the actual error message for the last error encountered. They can be used in exception handling to report, or, store in an error log table, the error that occurred in the code. These are especially useful for the WHEN OTHERS exception. 9. How can you find within a PL/SQL block, if a cursor is open? Expected answer: Use the %ISOPEN cursor status variable. 10. How can you generate debugging output from PL/SQL? Expected answer: Use the DBMS_OUTPUT package. Another possible method is to just use the SHOW ERROR command, but this only shows errors. The DBMS_OUTPUT package can be used to show intermediate

results from loops and the status of variables as the procedure is executed. The new package UTL_FILE can also be used. 10. What are the types of triggers? Expected Answer: There are 12 types of triggers in PL/SQL that consist of combinations of the BEFORE, AFTER, ROW, TABLE, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and ALL key words: BEFORE ALL ROW INSERT AFTER ALL ROW INSERT BEFORE INSERT AFTER INSERT etc.

1.

A tablespace has a table with 30 extents in it. Is this bad? Why or why not.

Multiple extents in and of themselves aren?t bad. However if you also have chained rows this can hurt performance. 2. How do you set up tablespaces during an Oracle installation?

You should always attempt to use the Oracle Flexible Architecture standard or another partitioning scheme to ensure proper separation of SYSTEM, ROLLBACK, REDO LOG, DATA, TEMPORARY and INDEX segments. 3. You see multiple fragments in the SYSTEM tablespace, what should you check first?

Ensure that users don?t have the SYSTEM tablespace as their TEMPORARY or DEFAULT tablespace assignment by checking the DBA_USERS view. 4. What are some indications that you need to increase the SHARED_POOL_SIZE parameter? Poor data dictionary or library cache hit ratios, getting error ORA-04031. Another indication is steadily decreasing performance with all other tuning parameters the same. 5. What is the general guideline for sizing db_block_size and db_multi_block_read for an application that does many full table scans? Oracle almost always reads in 64k chunks. The two should have a product equal to 64 or a multiple of 64. 6. What is the fastest query method for a table

Fetch by rowid

7. Explain the use of TKPROF? What initialization parameter should be turned on to get full TKPROF output? The tkprof tool is a tuning tool used to determine cpu and execution times for SQL statements. You use it by first setting timed_statistics to true in the initialization file and then turning on tracing for either the entire database via the sql_trace parameter or for the session using the ALTER SESSION command. Once the trace file is generated you run the tkprof tool against the trace file and then look at the output from the tkprof tool. This can also be used to generate explain plan output. 8. When looking at v$sysstat you see that sorts (disk) is high. Is this bad or good? If bad -How do you correct it? If you get excessive disk sorts this is bad. This indicates you need to tune the sort area parameters in the initialization files. The major sort are parameter is the SORT_AREA_SIZe parameter. 9. When should you increase copy latches? What parameters control copy latches

When you get excessive contention for the copy latches as shown by the "redo copy" latch hit ratio. You can increase copy latches via the initialization parameter LOG_SIMULTANEOUS_COPIES to twice the number of CPUs on your system. 10. Where can you get a list of all initialization parameters for your instance? How about an indication if they are default settings or have been changed You can look in the init.ora file for an indication of manually set parameters. For all parameters, their value and whether or not the current value is the default value, look in the v$parameter view. 11. Describe hit ratio as it pertains to the database buffers. What is the difference between instantaneous and cumulative hit ratio and which should be used for tuning The hit ratio is a measure of how many times the database was able to read a value from the buffers verses how many times it had to re-read a data value from the disks. A value greater than 80-90% is good, less could indicate problems. If you simply take the ratio of existing parameters this will be a cumulative value since the database started. If you do a comparison between pairs of readings based on some arbitrary time span, this is the instantaneous ratio for that time span. Generally speaking an instantaneous reading gives more valuable data since it will tell you what your instance is doing for the time it was generated over. 12. Discuss row chaining, how does it happen? How can you reduce it? How do you correct it

Row chaining occurs when a VARCHAR2 value is updated and the length of the new value is longer than the old value and won?t fit in the remaining block space. This results in the row chaining to another block. It can be reduced by setting the storage parameters on the table to appropriate values. It can be corrected by export and import of the effected table.

1.

Give one method for transferring a table from one schema to another:

There are several possible methods, export-import, CREATE TABLE... AS SELECT, or COPY. 2. What is the purpose of the IMPORT option IGNORE? What is it?s default setting

The IMPORT IGNORE option tells import to ignore "already exists" errors. If it is not specified the tables that already exist will be skipped. If it is specified, the error is ignored and the tables data will be inserted. The default value is N. 3. You have a rollback segment in a version 7.2 database that has expanded beyond optimal, how can it be restored to optimal Use the ALTER TABLESPACE ..... SHRINK command. 4. If the DEFAULT and TEMPORARY tablespace clauses are left out of a CREATE USER command what happens? Is this bad or good? Why The user is assigned the SYSTEM tablespace as a default and temporary tablespace. This is bad because it causes user objects and temporary segments to be placed into the SYSTEM tablespace resulting in fragmentation and improper table placement (only data dictionary objects and the system rollback segment should be in SYSTEM). 5. What are some of the Oracle provided packages that DBAs should be aware of

Oracle provides a number of packages in the form of the DBMS_ packages owned by the SYS user. The packages used by DBAs may include: DBMS_SHARED_POOL, DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_SQL, DBMS_DDL, DBMS_SESSION, DBMS_OUTPUT and DBMS_SNAPSHOT. They may also try to answer with the UTL*.SQL or CAT*.SQL series of SQL procedures. These can be viewed as extra credit but aren?t part of the answer. 6. What happens if the constraint name is left out of a constraint clause

The Oracle system will use the default name of SYS_Cxxxx where xxxx is a system generated number. This is bad since it makes tracking which table the constraint belongs to or what the constraint does harder.

7.

What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary key constraint clause

This results in the index that is automatically generated being placed in then users default tablespace. Since this will usually be the same tablespace as the table is being created in, this can cause serious performance problems. 8. What is the proper method for disabling and re-enabling a primary key constraint

You use the ALTER TABLE command for both. However, for the enable clause you must specify the USING INDEX and TABLESPACE clause for primary keys. 9. What happens if a primary key constraint is disabled and then enabled without fully specifying the index clause The index is created in the user?s default tablespace and all sizing information is lost. Oracle doesn?t store this information as a part of the constraint definition, but only as part of the index definition, when the constraint was disabled the index was dropped and the information is gone. 10. used (On UNIX) When should more than one DB writer process be used? How many should be

If the UNIX system being used is capable of asynchronous IO then only one is required, if the system is not capable of asynchronous IO then up to twice the number of disks used by Oracle number of DB writers should be specified by use of the db_writers initialization parameter. 11. You are using hot backup without being in archivelog mode, can you recover in the event of a failure? Why or why not You can?t use hot backup without being in archivelog mode. So no, you couldn?t recover. 12. What causes the "snapshot too old" error? How can this be prevented or mitigated

This is caused by large or long running transactions that have either wrapped onto their own rollback space or have had another transaction write on part of their rollback space. This can be prevented or mitigated by breaking the transaction into a set of smaller transactions or increasing the size of the rollback segments and their extents. 13. How can you tell if a database object is invalid By checking the status column of the DBA_, ALL_ or USER_OBJECTS views, depending upon whether you own or only have permission on the view or are using a DBA account. 13. A user is getting an ORA-00942 error yet you know you have granted them permission on the table, what else should you check

You need to check that the user has specified the full name of the object (select empid from scott.emp; instead of select empid from emp;) or has a synonym that balls to the object (create synonym emp for scott.emp;) 14. A developer is trying to create a view and the database won?t let him. He has the "DEVELOPER" role which has the "CREATE VIEW" system privilege and SELECT grants on the tables he is using, what is the problem You need to verify the developer has direct grants on all tables used in the view. You can?t create a stored object with grants given through views. 15. If you have an example table, what is the best way to get sizing data for the production table implementation The best way is to analyze the table and then use the data provided in the DBA_TABLES view to get the average row length and other pertinent data for the calculation. The quick and dirty way is to look at the number of blocks the table is actually using and ratio the number of rows in the table to its number of blocks against the number of expected rows. 16. How can you find out how many users are currently logged into the database? How can you find their operating system id There are several ways. One is to look at the v$session or v$process views. Another way is to check the current_logins parameter in the v$sysstat view. Another if you are on UNIX is to do a "ps -ef|grep oracle|wc -l? command, but this only works against a single instance installation. 17. A user selects from a sequence and gets back two values, his select is: SELECT pk_seq.nextval FROM dual;What is the problem Somehow two values have been inserted into the dual table. This table is a single row, single column table that should only have one value in it. 18. How can you determine if an index needs to be dropped and rebuilt

Run the ANALYZE INDEX command on the index to validate its structure and then calculate the ratio of LF_BLK_LEN/LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN and if it isn?t near 1.0 (i.e. greater than 0.7 or so) then the index should be rebuilt. Or if the ratio BR_BLK_LEN/ LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN is nearing 0.3.

1.

How can variables be passed to a SQL routine

By use of the & symbol. For passing in variables the numbers 1-8 can be used (&1, &2,...,&8) to pass the values after the command into the SQLPLUS session. To be prompted for a specific

variable, place the ampersanded variable in the code itself: "select * from dba_tables where owner=&owner_name;" . Use of double ampersands tells SQLPLUS to resubstitute the value for each subsequent use of the variable, a single ampersand will cause a reprompt for the value unless an ACCEPT statement is used to get the value from the user. 2. You want to include a carriage return/linefeed in your output from a SQL script, how can you do this The best method is to use the CHR() function (CHR(10) is a return/linefeed) and the concatenation function "||". Another method, although it is hard to document and isn?t always portable is to use the return/linefeed as a part of a quoted string. 3. How can you call a PL/SQL procedure from SQL

By use of the EXECUTE (short form EXEC) command. 4. How do you execute a host operating system command from within SQL

By use of the exclamation ball "!" (in UNIX and some other OS) or the HOST (HO) command. 5. You want to use SQL to build SQL, what is this called and give an example

This is called dynamic SQL. An example would be: set lines 90 pages 0 termout off feedback off verify off spool drop_all.sql select ?drop user ?||username||? cascade;? from dba_users where username not in ("SYS?,?SYSTEM?); spool off Essentially you are looking to see that they know to include a command (in this case DROP USER...CASCADE;) and that you need to concatenate using the ?||? the values selected from the database. 6. What SQLPlus command is used to format output from a select

This is best done with the COLUMN command. 7. You want to group the following set of select returns, what can you group on

Max(sum_of_cost), min(sum_of_cost), count(item_no), item_no The only column that can be grouped on is the "item_no" column, the rest have aggregate functions associated with them. 8. What special Oracle feature allows you to specify how the cost based system treats a SQL statement The COST based system allows the use of HINTs to control the optimizer path selection. If they can give some example hints such as FIRST ROWS, ALL ROWS, USING INDEX, STAR, even better.

9. You want to determine the location of identical rows in a table before attempting to place a unique index on the table, how can this be done Oracle tables always have one guaranteed unique column, the rowid column. If you use a min/max function against your rowid and then select against the proposed primary key you can squeeze out the rowids of the duplicate rows pretty quick. For example: select rowid from emp e where e.rowid > (select min(x.rowid) from emp x where x.emp_no = e.emp_no); In the situation where multiple columns make up the proposed key, they must all be used in the where clause. 10. What is a Cartesian product

A Cartesian product is the result of an unrestricted join of two or more tables. The result set of a three table Cartesian product will have x * y * z number of rows where x, y, z correspond to the number of rows in each table involved in the join. 11. You are joining a local and a remote table, the network manager complains about the traffic involved, how can you reduce the network traffic Push the processing of the remote data to the remote instance by using a view to pre-select the information for the join. This will result in only the data required for the join being sent across. 11. What is the default ordering of an ORDER BY clause in a SELECT statement

Ascending 12. What is tkprof and how is it used

The tkprof tool is a tuning tool used to determine cpu and execution times for SQL statements. You use it by first setting timed_statistics to true in the initialization file and then turning on tracing for either the entire database via the sql_trace parameter or for the session using the ALTER SESSION command. Once the trace file is generated you run the tkprof tool against the trace file and then look at the output from the tkprof tool. This can also be used to generate explain plan output. 13. What is explain plan and how is it used

The EXPLAIN PLAN command is a tool to tune SQL statements. To use it you must have an explain_table generated in the user you are running the explain plan for. This is created using the utlxplan.sql script. Once the explain plan table exists you run the explain plan command giving as its argument the SQL statement to be explained. The explain_plan table is then queried to see the execution plan of the statement. Explain plans can also be run using tkprof.

14.

How do you set the number of lines on a page of output? The width

The SET command in SQLPLUS is used to control the number of lines generated per page and the width of those lines, for example SET PAGESIZE 60 LINESIZE 80 will generate reports that are 60 lines long with a line width of 80 characters. The PAGESIZE and LINESIZE options can be shortened to PAGES and LINES. 15. How do you prevent output from coming to the screen

The SET option TERMOUT controls output to the screen. Setting TERMOUT OFF turns off screen output. This option can be shortened to TERM. 16. How do you prevent Oracle from giving you informational messages during and after a SQL statement execution The SET options FEEDBACK and VERIFY can be set to OFF. 17. How do you generate file output from SQL

By use of the SPOOL comm.

1.

What is a CO-RELATED SUBQUERY

A CO-RELATED SUBQUERY is one that has a correlation name as table or view designator in the FROM clause of the outer query and the same correlation name as a qualifier of a search condition in the WHERE clause of the subquery. eg SELECT field1 from table1 X WHERE field2>(select avg(field2) from table1 Y where field1=X.field1); (The subquery in a correlated subquery is revaluated for every row of the table or view named in the outer query.) 2. What are various joins used while writing SUBQUERIES Self join-Its a join foreign key of a table references the same table. Outer Join--Its a join condition used where One can query all the rows of one of the tables in the join condition even though they don't satisfy the join condition. Equi-join--Its a join condition that retrieves rows from one or more tables in which one or more columns in one table are equal to one or more columns in the second table.

3. 4. 5.

What are various constraints used in SQL What are different Oracle database objects What is difference between Rename and Alias

NULL NOT NULL CHECK DEFAULT TABLES VIEWS INDEXES SYNONYMS SEQUENCES TABLESPACES etc Rename is a permanent name given to a table or column whereas Alias is a temporary name given to a table or column which do not exist once the SQL statement is executed. 6. 7. 8. What is a view What are various privileges that a user can grant to another user What is difference between UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints A view is stored procedure based on one or more tables, its a virtual table. SELECT CONNECT RESOURCE A table can have only one PRIMARY KEY whereas there can be any number of UNIQUE keys. The columns that compose PK are automatically define NOT NULL, whereas a column that compose a UNIQUE is not automatically defined to be mandatory must also specify the column is NOT NULL. 9. Yes 10. 11. How you will avoid duplicating records in a query What is difference between SQL and SQL*PLUS By using DISTINCT SQL*PLUS is a command line tool where as SQL and PL/SQL language interface and reporting tool. Its a command line tool that allows user to type SQL commands to be executed directly against an Oracle database. SQL is a language used to query the relational database(DML,DCL,DDL). SQL*PLUS commands are used to format query result, Set options, Edit SQL commands and PL/SQL. 12. 13. Which datatype is used for storing graphics and images How will you delete duplicating rows from a base table LONG RAW data type is used for storing BLOB's (binary large objects). DELETE FROM table_name A WHERE rowid>(SELECT min(rowid) from table_name B where B.table_no=A.table_no); CREATE TABLE new_table AS SELECT DISTINCT * FROM old_table; DROP old_table RENAME new_table TO old_table DELETE FROM table_name A WHERE rowid NOT IN (SELECT MAX(ROWID) FROM table_name GROUP BY column_name) 14. What is difference between SUBSTR and INSTR Can a primary key contain more than one columns

SUBSTR returns a specified portion of a string eg SUBSTR('BCDEF',4) output BCDE INSTR provides character position in which a pattern is found in a string. eg INSTR('ABC-DC-F','-',2) output 7 (2nd occurence of '-') 15. 16. 17. There is a string '120000 12 0 .125' ,how you will find the position of the decimal place There is a '%' sign in one field of a column. What will be the query to find it. When you use WHERE clause and when you use HAVING clause INSTR('120000 12 0 .125',1,'.') output 13 '\' Should be used before '%'. HAVING clause is used when you want to specify a condition for a group function and it is written after GROUP BY clause The WHERE clause is used when you want to specify a condition for columns, single row functions except group functions and it is written before GROUP BY clause if it is used. 18. Which is more faster - IN or EXISTS EXISTS is more faster than IN because EXISTS returns a Boolean value whereas IN returns a value. 19. What is a OUTER JOIN Outer Join--Its a join condition used where you can query all the rows of one of the tables in the join condition even though they dont satisfy the join condition. 20. How you will avoid your query from using indexes SELECT * FROM emp Where emp_no+' '=12345; i.e you have to concatenate the column name with space within codes in the where condition. SELECT /*+ FULL(a) */ ename, emp_no from emp where emp_no=1234; i.e using HINTS

1.

What is a pseudo column. Give some examples

It is a column that is not an actual column in the table. eg USER, UID, SYSDATE, ROWNUM, ROWID, NULL, AND LEVEL. Suppose customer table is there having different columns like customer no, payments.What will be the query to select top three max payments. For top N queries, see http://www.orafaq.com/forum/mv/msg/160920/472554/102589/#msg_472554 post 2. What is the purpose of a cluster. Oracle does not allow a user to specifically locate tables, since that is a part of the function of the RDBMS. However, for the purpose of increasing performance, oracle allows a developer to create

a CLUSTER. A CLUSTER provides a means for storing data from different tables together for faster retrieval than if the table placement were left to the RDBMS. 3. What is a cursor. Oracle uses work area to execute SQL statements and store processing information PL/SQL construct called a cursor lets you name a work area and access its stored information A cursor is a mechanism used to fetch more than one row in a Pl/SQl block. 4. Difference between an implicit & an explicit cursor. PL/SQL declares a cursor implicitly for all SQL data manipulation statements, including quries that return only one row. However,queries that return more than one row you must declare an explicit cursor or use a cursor FOR loop. Explicit cursor is a cursor in which the cursor name is explicitly assigned to a SELECT statement via the CURSOR...IS statement. An implicit cursor is used for all SQL statements Declare, Open, Fetch, Close. An explicit cursors are used to process multirow SELECT statements An implicit cursor is used to process INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and single row SELECT. .INTO statements. 5. 6. What are cursor attributes What is a cursor for loop. %ROWCOUNT %NOTFOUND %FOUND %ISOPEN Cursor For Loop is a loop where oracle implicitly declares a loop variable, the loop index that of the same record type as the cursor's record. 7. Difference between NO DATA FOUND and %NOTFOUND NO DATA FOUND is an exception raised only for the SELECT....INTO statements when the where clause of the querydoes not match any rows. When the where clause of the explicit cursor does not match any rows the %NOTFOUND attribute is set to TRUE instead. 8. What a SELECT FOR UPDATE cursor represent. SELECT......FROM......FOR......UPDATE[OF column-reference][NOWAIT] The processing done in a fetch loop modifies the rows that have been retrieved by the cursor. A convenient way of modifying the rows is done by a method with two parts: the FOR UPDATE clause in the cursor declaration, WHERE CURRENT OF CLAUSE in an UPDATE or declaration statement. 9. LOOP SELECT num_credits INTO v_numcredits FROM classes WHERE dept=123 and course=101; UPDATE students SET current_credits=current_credits+v_numcredits WHERE CURRENT OF X; END LOOP What 'WHERE CURRENT OF ' clause does in a cursor.

COMMIT; END; 10. What is use of a cursor variable? How it is defined.

A cursor variable is associated with different statements at run time, which can hold different values at run time. Static cursors can only be associated with one run time query. A cursor variable is reference type(like a pointer in C). Declaring a cursor variable: TYPE type_name IS REF CURSOR RETURN return_type type_name is the name of the reference type,return_type is a record type indicating the types of the select list that will eventually be returned by the cursor variable. 11. What should be the return type for a cursor variable.Can we use a scalar data type as return type. The return type for a cursor must be a record type.It can be declared explicitly as a user-defined or %ROWTYPE can be used. eg TYPE t_studentsref IS REF CURSOR RETURN students %ROWTYPE 12. How you open and close a cursor variable.Why it is required. OPEN cursor variable FOR SELECT...Statement CLOSE cursor variable In order to associate a cursor variable with a particular SELECT statement OPEN syntax is used.In order to free the resources used for the query CLOSE statement is used. 13. How you were passing cursor variables in PL/SQL 2.2. In PL/SQL 2.2 cursor variables cannot be declared in a package.This is because the storage for a cursor variable has to be allocated using Pro*C or OCI with version 2.2,the only means of passing a cursor variable to a PL/SQL block is via bind variable or a procedure parameter. 14. 15. Can cursor variables be stored in PL/SQL tables.If yes how.If not why. Difference between procedure and function. No, a cursor variable points a row which cannot be stored in a two-dimensional PL/SQL table. Functions are named PL/SQL blocks that return a value and can be called with arguments procedure a named block that can be called with parameter. A procedure all is a PL/SQL statement by itself, while a Function call is called as part of an expression. 16. 17. What are different modes of parameters used in functions and procedures. What is difference between a formal and an actual parameter IN OUT INOUT The variables declared in the procedure and which are passed, as arguments are called actual, the parameters in the procedure declaration. Actual parameters contain the values that are passed to a procedure and receive results. Formal parameters are the placeholders for the values of actual parameters 18. Can the default values be assigned to actual parameters.

Yes 19. 20. Can a function take OUT parameters.If not why. What is syntax for dropping a procedure and a function .Are these operations possible. Drop Procedure procedure_name Drop Function function_name 21. What are ORACLE PRECOMPILERS. No.A function has to return a value,an OUT parameter cannot return a value.

Using ORACLE PRECOMPILERS ,SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks can be contained inside 3GL programs written in C,C++,COBOL,PASCAL, FORTRAN,PL/1 AND ADA. The Precompilers are known as Pro*C,Pro*Cobol,... This form of PL/SQL is known as embedded pl/sql,the language in which pl/sql is embedded is known as the host language. The prcompiler translates the embedded SQL and pl/sql ststements into calls to the precompiler runtime library.The output must be compiled and linked with this library to creater an executable. 22. What is OCI. What are its uses. Oracle Call Interface is a method of accesing database from a 3GL program. Uses--No precompiler is required,PL/SQL blocks are executed like other DML statements. The OCI library provides -functions to parse SQL statemets -bind input variables -bind output variables -execute statements -fetch the results 23. Difference between database triggers and form triggers.

a) Data base trigger(DBT) fires when a DML operation is performed on a data base table.Form trigger(FT) Fires when user presses a key or navigates between fields on the screen b) Can be row level or statement level No distinction between row level and statement level. c) Can manipulate data stored in Oracle tables via SQL Can manipulate data in Oracle tables as well as variables in forms. d) Can be fired from any session executing the triggering DML statements. Can be fired only from the form that define the trigger. e) Can cause other database triggers to fire.Can cause other database triggers to fire,but not other form triggers. 24. What is an UTL_FILE.What are different procedures and functions associated with it. UTL_FILE is a package that adds the ability to read and write to operating system files Procedures associated with it are FCLOSE, FCLOSE_ALL and 5 procedures to output data to a

file PUT, PUT_LINE, NEW_LINE, PUTF, FFLUSH.PUT, FFLUSH.PUT_LINE,FFLUSH.NEW_LINE. Functions associated with it are FOPEN, ISOPEN. 25. No 26. What is the maximum buffer size that can be specified using the DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE function? 1,000,000 Can you use a commit statement within a database trigger.

1. When looking at the estat events report you see that you are getting busy buffer waits. Is this bad? How can you find what is causing it Buffer busy waits could indicate contention in redo, rollback or data blocks. You need to check the v$waitstat view to see what areas are causing the problem. The value of the "count" column tells where the problem is, the "class" column tells you with what. UNDO is rollback segments, DATA is data base buffers. 2. If you see contention for library caches how can you fix it

Increase the size of the shared pool. 3. If you see statistics that deal with "undo" what are they really talking about

Rollback segments and associated structures. 4. If a tablespace has a default pctincrease of zero what will this cause (in relationship to the smon process) The SMON process won?t automatically coalesce its free space fragments. 5. If a tablespace shows excessive fragmentation what are some methods to defragment the tablespace? (7.1,7.2 and 7.3 only) In Oracle 7.0 to 7.2 The use of the 'alter session set events 'immediate trace name coalesce level ts#';? command is the easiest way to defragment contiguous free space fragmentation. The ts# parameter corresponds to the ts# value found in the ts$ SYS table. In version 7.3 the ?alter tablespace coalesce;? is best. If the free space isn?t contiguous then export, drop and import of the tablespace contents may be the only way to reclaim non-contiguous free space. 6. How can you tell if a tablespace has excessive fragmentation

If a select against the dba_free_space table shows that the count of a tablespaces extents is greater than the count of its data files, then it is fragmented. 7. You see the following on a status report: redo log space requests 23 redo log space wait time 0 Is this something to worry about? What if redo log space wait time is high? How can you fix this Since the wait time is zero, no. If the wait time was high it might indicate a need for more or larger redo logs. 8. What can cause a high value for recursive calls? How can this be fixed

A high value for recursive calls is cause by improper cursor usage, excessive dynamic space management actions, and or excessive statement re-parses. You need to determine the cause and correct it By either relinking applications to hold cursors, use proper space management techniques (proper storage and sizing) or ensure repeat queries are placed in packages for proper reuse. 9. If you see a pin hit ratio of less than 0.8 in the estat library cache report is this a problem? If so, how do you fix it This indicate that the shared pool may be too small. Increase the shared pool size. 10. If you see the value for reloads is high in the estat library cache report is this a matter for concern Yes, you should strive for zero reloads if possible. If you see excessive reloads then increase the size of the shared pool. 11. You look at the dba_rollback_segs view and see that there is a large number of shrinks and they are of relatively small size, is this a problem? How can it be fixed if it is a problem A large number of small shrinks indicates a need to increase the size of the rollback segment extents. Ideally you should have no shrinks or a small number of large shrinks. To fix this just increase the size of the extents and adjust optimal accordingly.

12. You look at the dba_rollback_segs view and see that you have a large number of wraps is this a problem A large number of wraps indicates that your extent size for your rollback segments are probably too small. Increase the size of your extents to reduce the number of wraps. You can look at the average transaction size in the same view to get the information on transaction size.

1. You have just started a new instance with a large SGA on a busy existing server. Performance is terrible, what should you check for The first thing to check with a large SGA is that it isn?t being swapped out. 2. What OS user should be used for the first part of an Oracle installation (on UNIX)

You must use root first. 3. Never 4. How many control files should you have? Where should they be located When should the default values for Oracle initialization parameters be used as is

At least 2 on separate disk spindles. Be sure they say on separate disks, not just file systems. 5. How many redo logs should you have and how should they be configured for maximum recoverability You should have at least three groups of two redo logs with the two logs each on a separate disk spindle (mirrored by Oracle). The redo logs should not be on raw devices on UNIX if it can be avoided. 6. You have a simple application with no "hot" tables (i.e. uniform IO and access requirements). How many disks should you have assuming standard layout for SYSTEM, USER, TEMP and ROLLBACK tablespaces At least 7, see disk configuration answer above. 7. Describe third normal form

Something like: In third normal form all attributes in an entity are related to the primary key and only to the primary key 8. Is the following statement true or false:

"All relational databases must be in third normal form" False. While 3NF is good for logical design most databases, if they have more than just a few tables, will not perform well using full 3NF. Usually some entities will be denormalized in the logical to physical transfer process. 9. What is an ERD

An ERD is an Entity-Relationship-Diagram. It is used to show the entities and relationships for a database logical model.

10.

Why are recursive relationships bad? How do you resolve them

A recursive relationship (one where a table relates to itself) is bad when it is a hard relationship (i.e. neither side is a "may" both are "must") as this can result in it not being possible to put in a top or perhaps a bottom of the table (for example in the EMPLOYEE table you couldn?t put in the PRESIDENT of the company because he has no boss, or the junior janitor because he has no subordinates). These type of relationships are usually resolved by adding a small intersection entity. 11. What does a hard one-to-one relationship mean (one where the relationship on both ends is "must") Expected answer: This means the two entities should probably be made into one entity. 12. How should a many-to-many relationship be handled

By adding an intersection entity table 13. What is an artificial (derived) primary key? When should an artificial (or derived) primary key be used A derived key comes from a sequence. Usually it is used when a concatenated key becomes too cumbersome to use as a foreign key. 1. When should you consider denormalization

Whenever performance analysis indicates it would be beneficial to do so without compromising data integrity. 2. How can you determine if an Oracle instance is up from the operating system level

There are several base Oracle processes that will be running on multi-user operating systems, these will be smon, pmon, dbwr and lgwr. Any answer that has them using their operating system process showing feature to check for these is acceptable. For example, on UNIX a ps -ef|grep dbwr will show what instances are up. 3. Users from the PC clients are getting messages indicating : ORA-06114: (Cnct err, can't get err txt. See Servr Msgs & Codes Manual) What could the problem be The instance name is probably incorrect in their connection string.

4. Users from the PC clients are getting the following error stack: ERROR: ORA-01034: ORACLE not available ORA-07318: smsget: open error when opening sgadef.dbf file. HP-UX Error: 2: No such file or directory What is the probable cause The Oracle instance is shutdown that they are trying to access, restart the instance. 5. How can you determine if the SQLNET process is running for SQLNET V1? How about V2

For SQLNET V1 check for the existence of the orasrv process. You can use the command "tcpctl status" to get a full status of the V1 TCPIP server, other protocols have similar command formats. For SQLNET V2 check for the presence of the LISTENER process(s) or you can issue the command "lsnrctl status". 6. What file will give you Oracle instance status information? Where is it located

The alert.ora log. It is located in the directory specified by the background_dump_dest parameter in the v$parameter table. 7. Users aren?t being allowed on the system. The following message is received: ORA00257 archiver is stuck. Connect internal only, until freed What is the problem The archive destination is probably full, backup the archive logs and remove them and the archiver will restart. 8. Where would you look to find out if a redo log was corrupted assuming you are using Oracle mirrored redo logs There is no message that comes to the SQLDBA or SRVMGR programs during startup in this situation, you must check the alert.log file for this information. 9. You attempt to add a datafile and get: ORA-01118: cannot add anymore datafiles: limit of 40 exceeded What is the problem and how can you fix it When the database was created the db_files parameter in the initialization file was set to 40. You can shutdown and reset this to a higher value, up to the value of MAX_DATAFILES as specified at database creation. If the MAX_DATAFILES is set to low, you will have to rebuild the control file to increase it before proceeding. 10. You look at your fragmentation report and see that smon hasn?t coalesced any of you tablespaces, even though you know several have large chunks of contiguous free extents. What is the problem

Check the dba_tablespaces view for the value of pct_increase for the tablespaces. If pct_increase is zero, smon will not coalesce their free space. 11. Your users get the following error: ORA-00055 maximum number of DML locks exceeded What is the problem and how do you fix it The number of DML Locks is set by the initialization parameter DML_LOCKS. If this value is set to low (which it is by default) you will get this error. Increase the value of DML_LOCKS. If you are sure that this is just a temporary problem, you can have them wait and then try again later and the error should clear. 12. You get a call from you backup DBA while you are on vacation. He has corrupted all of the control files while playing with the ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE command. What do you do As long as all datafiles are safe and he was successful with the BACKUP controlfile command you can do the following: CONNECT INTERNAL STARTUP MOUNT (Take any read-only tablespaces offline before next step ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE .... OFFLINE;) RECOVER DATABASE USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS; (bring read-only tablespaces back online) Shutdown and backup the system, then restart If they have a recent output file from the ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROL FILE TO TRACE; command, they can use that to recover as well. If no backup of the control file is available then the following will be required: CONNECT INTERNAL STARTUP NOMOUNT CREATE CONTROL FILE .....; However, they will need to know all of the datafiles, logfiles, and settings for MAXLOGFILES, MAXLOGMEMBERS, MAXLOGHISTORY, MAXDATAFILES for the database to use the command. 1. How would you determine the time zone under which a database was operating? 2. Explain the use of setting GLOBAL_NAMES equal to TRUE. 3. What command would you use to encrypt a PL/SQL application? 4. Explain the difference between a FUNCTION, PROCEDURE and PACKAGE. 5. Explain the use of table functions. 6. Name three advisory statistics you can collect. 7. Where in the Oracle directory tree structure are audit traces placed? 8. Explain materialized views and how they are used. 9. When a user process fails, what background process cleans up after it? 10. What background process refreshes materialized views? 11. How would you determine what sessions are connected and what resources they are waiting for? 12. Describe what redo logs are. 13. How would you force a log switch? 14. Give two methods you could use to determine what DDL changes have been made. 15. What does coalescing a tablespace do? 16. What is the difference between a TEMPORARY tablespace and a PERMANENT tablespace? 17. Name a tablespace automatically created when you create a database. 18. When creating a user, what permissions must you grant to allow them to connect to the database? 19. How do you add a data

file to a tablespace? 20. How do you resize a data file? 21. What view would you use to look at the size of a data file? 22. What view would you use to determine free space in a tablespace? 23. How would you determine who has added a row to a table? 24. How can you rebuild an index? 25. Explain what partitioning is and what its benefit is. 26. You have just compiled a PL/SQL package but got errors, how would you view the errors? 27. How can you gather statistics on a table? 28. How can you enable a trace for a session? 29. What is the difference between the SQL*Loader and IMPORT utilities? 30. Name two files used for network connection to a database.

1. In a system with an average of 40 concurrent users you get the following from a query on rollback extents: ROLLBACK CUR EXTENTS -------------------------R01 11 R02 8 R03 12 R04 9 SYSTEM 4 2. You have room for each to grow by 20 more extents each. Is there a problem? Should you take any action No there is not a problem. You have 40 extents showing and an average of 40 concurrent users. Since there is plenty of room to grow no action is needed. 3. You see multiple extents in the temporary tablespace. Is this a problem

As long as they are all the same size this isn?t a problem. In fact, it can even improve performance since Oracle won?t have to create a new extent when a user needs one. 4. Define OFA.

OFA stands for Optimal Flexible Architecture. It is a method of placing directories and files in an Oracle system so that you get the maximum flexibility for future tuning and file placement. 5. How do you set up your tablespace on installation

The answer here should show an understanding of separation of redo and rollback, data and indexes and isolation os SYSTEM tables from other tables. An example would be to specify that at least 7 disks should be used for an Oracle installation so that you can place SYSTEM tablespace on one, redo logs on two (mirrored redo logs) the TEMPORARY tablespace on another, ROLLBACK tablespace on another and still have two for DATA and INDEXES. They should indicate how they will handle archive logs and exports as well. As long as they have a logical plan for combining or further separation more or less disks can be specified. 6. What should be done prior to installing Oracle (for the OS and the disks)

adjust kernel parameters or OS tuning parameters in accordance with installation guide. Be sure enough contiguous disk space is available. 7. You have installed Oracle and you are now setting up the actual instance. You have been waiting an hour for the initialization script to finish, what should you check first to determine if there is a problem Check to make sure that the archiver isn?t stuck. If archive logging is turned on during install a large number of logs will be created. This can fill up your archive log destination causing Oracle to stop to wait for more space. 8. When configuring SQLNET on the server what files must be set up

INITIALIZATION file, TNSNAMES.ORA file, SQLNET.ORA file 9. When configuring SQLNET on the client what files need to be set up

SQLNET.ORA, TNSNAMES.ORA 10. What must be installed with ODBC on the client in order for it to work with Oracle

SQLNET and PROTOCOL (for example: TCPIP adapter) layers of the transport programs.

From - http://www.techinterviews.com/dba-interview-questions-part-1 1. WhatisLogSwitch?ThepointatwhichORACLEendswritingtooneonlineredologfileandbeginswriting

toanotheriscalledalogswitch.

2. WhatisOnlineRedoLog?TheOnlineRedoLogisasetoftowormoreonlineredofilesthatrecordall
committedchangesmadetothedatabase.Wheneveratransactioniscommitted,thecorrespondingredoentries temporarilystoresinredologbuffersoftheSGAarewrittentoanonlineredologfilebythebackground processLGWR.Theonlineredologfilesareusedincyclicalfashion.

3. WhichparameterspecifiedintheDEFAULTSTORAGEclauseofCREATETABLESPACEcannotbealtered
aftercreatingthetablespace?Allthedefaultstorageparametersdefinedforthetablespacecanbechanged usingtheALTERTABLESPACEcommand.WhenobjectsarecreatedtheirINITIALandMINEXTENSvalues cannotbechanged.

4. WhatarethestepsinvolvedinDatabaseStartup?Startaninstance,MounttheDatabaseandOpenthe
Database.

5. WhatarethestepsinvolvedinInstanceRecovery?Rollingforwardtorecoverdatathathasnotbeen
recordedindatafiles,yethasbeenrecordedintheonlineredolog,includingthecontentsofrollback segments.Rollingbacktransactionsthathavebeenexplicitlyrolledbackorhavenotbeencommittedas indicatedbytherollbacksegmentsregeneratedinstepa.Releasinganyresources(locks)heldbytransactionsin

processatthetimeofthefailure.Resolvinganypendingdistributedtransactionsundergoingatwophase commitatthetimeoftheinstancefailure.

6. CanFullBackupbeperformedwhenthedatabaseisopen?No. 7. WhatarethedifferentmodesofmountingaDatabasewiththeParallelServer?ExclusiveModeIfthe
firstinstancethatmountsadatabasedoessoinexclusivemode,onlythatInstancecanmountthedatabase. ParallelModeIfthefirstinstancethatmountsadatabaseisstartedinparallelmode,otherinstancesthatare startedinparallelmodecanalsomountthedatabase.

8. WhataretheadvantagesofoperatingadatabaseinARCHIVELOGmodeoveroperatingitinNO
ARCHIVELOGmode?CompletedatabaserecoveryfromdiskfailureispossibleonlyinARCHIVELOGmode. OnlinedatabasebackupispossibleonlyinARCHIVELOGmode.

9. WhatarethestepsinvolvedinDatabaseShutdown?ClosetheDatabase,DismounttheDatabaseand
ShutdowntheInstance.

10. WhatisArchivedRedoLog?ArchivedRedoLogconsistsofRedoLogfilesthathavearchivedbeforebeing
reused.

11. WhatisRestrictedModeofInstanceStartup?Aninstancecanbestartedin(orlateralteredtobein)
restrictedmodesothatwhenthedatabaseisopenconnectionsarelimitedonlytothosewhoseuseraccounts havebeengrantedtheRESTRICTEDSESSIONsystemprivilege.

12. WhatisPartialBackup?APartialBackupisanyoperatingsystembackupshortofafullbackup,takenwhile
thedatabaseisopenorshutdown.

13. WhatisMirroredonlineRedoLog?Amirroredonlineredologconsistsofcopiesofonlineredologfiles
physicallylocatedonseparatedisks,changesmadetoonememberofthegrouparemadetoallmembers.

14. WhatisFullBackup?Afullbackupisanoperatingsystembackupofalldatafiles,onlineredologfilesand
controlfilethatconstituteORACLEdatabaseandtheparameter.

15. CanaViewbasedonanotherView?Yes. 16. CanaTablespaceholdobjectsfromdifferentSchemes?Yes. 17. CanobjectsofthesameSchemaresideindifferenttablespaces?Yes. 18. WhatistheuseofControlFile?WhenaninstanceofanORACLEdatabaseisstarted,itscontrolfileisused

toidentifythedatabaseandredologfilesthatmustbeopenedfordatabaseoperationtoproceed.Itisalsoused indatabaserecovery.

19. DoViewcontainData?Viewsdonotcontainorstoredata. 20. WhataretheReferentialactionssupportedbyFOREIGNKEYintegrityconstraint?UPDATEandDELETE

RestrictAreferentialintegrityrulethatdisallowstheupdateordeletionofreferenceddata.DELETECascade Whenareferencedrowisdeletedallassociateddependentrowsaredeleted.

21. WhatarethetypeofSynonyms?TherearetwotypesofSynonymsPrivateandPublic 22. WhatisaRedoLog?ThesetofRedoLogfilesYSDATE,UID,USERorUSERENVSQLfunctions,orthepseudo

columnsLEVELorROWNUM.

23. WhatisanIndexSegment?EachIndexhasanIndexsegmentthatstoresallofitsdata. 24. ExplaintherelationshipamongDatabase,TablespaceandDatafile.?Eachdatabaseslogicallydivided

intooneormoretablespacesoneormoredatafilesareexplicitlycreatedforeachtablespace

25. WhatarethedifferenttypeofSegments?DataSegment,IndexSegment,RollbackSegmentandTemporary
Segment.

26. WhatareClusters?Clustersaregroupsofoneormoretablesphysicallystorestogethertosharecommon
columnsandareoftenusedtogether.

27. WhatisanIntegrityConstrains?Anintegrityconstraintisadeclarativewaytodefineabusinessrulefora
columnofatable.

28. WhatisanIndex?AnIndexisanoptionalstructureassociatedwithatabletohavedirectaccesstorows,
whichcanbecreatedtoincreasetheperformanceofdataretrieval.Indexcanbecreatedononeormore columnsofatable.

29. WhatisanExtent?AnExtentisaspecificnumberofcontiguousdatablocks,obtainedinasingleallocation,
andusedtostoreaspecifictypeofinformation.

30. WhatisaView?Aviewisavirtualtable.EveryviewhasaQueryattachedtoit.(TheQueryisaSELECT
statementthatidentifiesthecolumnsandrowsofthetable(s)theviewuses.)

31. WhatisTable?AtableisthebasicunitofdatastorageinanORACLEdatabase.Thetablesofadatabasehold
alloftheuseraccessibledata.Tabledataisstoredinrowsandcolumns.

32. WhatisaSynonym?Asynonymisanaliasforatable,view,sequenceorprogramunit. 33. WhatisaSequence?Asequencegeneratesaseriallistofuniquenumbersfornumericalcolumnsofa

databasestables.

34. WhatisaSegment?Asegmentisasetofextentsallocatedforacertainlogicalstructure. 35. Whatisschema?AschemaiscollectionofdatabaseobjectsofaUser. 36. DescribeReferentialIntegrity?Aruledefinedonacolumn(orsetofcolumns)inonetablethatallowsthe

insertorupdateofarowonlyifthevalueforthecolumnorsetofcolumns(thedependentvalue)matchesa valueinacolumnofarelatedtable(thereferencedvalue).Italsospecifiesthetypeofdatamanipulation allowedonreferenceddataandtheactiontobeperformedondependentdataasaresultofanyactionon referenceddata.

37. WhatisHashCluster?Arowisstoredinahashclusterbasedontheresultofapplyingahashfunctiontothe
rowsclusterkeyvalue.Allrowswiththesamehashkeyvaluearestorestogetherondisk.

38. WhatisaPrivateSynonyms?APrivateSynonymscanbeaccessedonlybytheowner. 39. WhatisDatabaseLink?Adatabaselinkisanamedobjectthatdescribesapath fromone

databasetoanother.

40. WhatisaTablespace?AdatabaseisdividedintoLogicalStorageUnitcalledtablespaces.Atablespaceisused
togroupedrelatedlogicalstructurestogether

41. WhatisRollbackSegment?ADatabasecontainsoneormoreRollbackSegmentstotemporarilystore
undo information.

42. WhataretheCharacteristicsofDataFiles?Adatafilecanbeassociatedwithonlyonedatabase.Once
createdadatafilecantchangesize.Oneormoredatafilesformalogicalunitofdatabasestorage calledatablespace.

43. HowtodefineDataBlocksize?AdatablocksizeisspecifiedforeachORACLEdatabasewhenthedatabase
iscreated.AdatabaseusersandallocatedfreedatabasespaceinORACLEdatablocks.Blocksizeisspecifiedin INIT.ORAfileandcantbechangedlatter.

44. WhatdoesaControlfileContain?AControlfilerecordsthephysicalstructureofthedatabase.Itcontains
thefollowinginformation.DatabaseNameNamesandlocationsofadatabasesfilesandredologfiles. Timestampofdatabasecreation.

45. WhatisdifferencebetweenUNIQUEconstraintandPRIMARYKEYconstraint?Acolumndefinedas
UNIQUEcancontainNullswhileacolumndefinedasPRIMARYKEYcantcontainNulls.47.Whatis IndexCluster?AClusterwithanindexontheClusterKey48.WhendoesaTransactionend?Whenitis committedorRollbacked.

46. WhatistheeffectofsettingthevalueALL_ROWS forOPTIMIZER_GOALparameterof

theALTERSESSIONcommand?WhatarethefactorsthataffectOPTIMIZERinchoosinganOptimization approach?AnswerTheOPTIMIZER_MODEinitializationparameterStatisticsintheDataDictionarythe OPTIMIZER_GOALparameteroftheALTERSESSIONcommandhintsinthestatement.

47. WhatistheeffectofsettingthevalueCHOOSE forOPTIMIZER_GOAL,parameterof

theALTERSESSIONCommand?TheOptimizerchoosesCost_basedapproachandoptimizeswiththegoalof bestthroughputifstatisticsforatleastoneofthetablesaccessedbytheSQLstatementexistinthedata dictionary.OtherwisetheOPTIMIZERchoosesRULE_basedapproach.

48. WhatisthefunctionofOptimizer?Thegoaloftheoptimizeristochoosethemostefficientwaytoexecute
aSQLstatement.

49. WhatisExecutionPlan?Thecombinationsofthestepstheoptimizerchoosestoexecuteastatementiscalled
anexecutionplan.

50. WhatarethedifferentapproachesusedbyOptimizerinchoosinganexecutionplan?Rulebasedand
Costbased.

1. WhatdoesROLLBACKdo?ROLLBACKretractsanyofthechangesresultingfromtheSQLstatementsinthe
transaction.

2. WhatisSAVEPOINT?ForlongtransactionsthatcontainmanySQLstatements,intermediatemarkersor
savepointscanbedeclaredwhichcanbeusedtodivideatransactionintosmallerparts.Thisallowstheoption oflaterrollingbackallworkperformedfromthecurrentpointinthetransactiontoadeclaredsavepointwithin thetransaction.

3. WhatarethevaluesthatcanbespecifiedforOPTIMIZERMODEParameter?COSTandRULE. 4. WhatisCOSTbasedapproachtooptimization?Consideringavailableaccesspathsanddeterminingthe
mostefficientexecutionplanbasedonstatisticsinthedatadictionaryforthetablesaccessedbythestatement andtheirassociatedclustersandindexes.

5. WhatdoesCOMMITdo?COMMITmakespermanentthechangesresultingfromallSQLstatementsinthe
transaction.ThechangesmadebytheSQLstatementsofatransactionbecomevisibletootherusersessions transactionsthatstartonlyaftertransactioniscommitted.

6. WhatisRULEbasedapproachtooptimization?Choosinganexecutingplanbasedontheaccesspaths
availableandtheranksoftheseaccesspaths.

7. WhatarethevaluesthatcanbespecifiedforOPTIMIZER_GOALparameteroftheALTERSESSION
Command?CHOOSE,ALL_ROWS,FIRST_ROWSandRULE.

8. DefineTransaction?ATransactionisalogicalunitofworkthatcomprisesoneormoreSQLstatements
executedbyasingleuser.

9. WhatisReadOnlyTransaction?AReadOnlytransactionensuresthattheresultsofeachqueryexecutedin
thetransactionareconsistentwithrespecttothesamepointintime.

10. Whatisadeadlock?Explain.Twoprocesseswaitingtoupdatetherowsofatablewhicharelockedbythe
otherprocessthendeadlockarises.Inadatabaseenvironmentthiswilloftenhappenbecauseofnotissuing properrowlockcommands.Poordesignoffrontendapplicationmaycausethissituationandtheperformance ofserverwillreducedrastically.Theselockswillbereleasedautomaticallywhenacommit/rollbackoperation performedoranyoneofthisprocessesbeingkilledexternally.

11. WhatisaSchema?Thesetofobjectsownedbyuseraccountiscalledtheschema. 12. WhatisaclusterKey?Therelatedcolumnsofthetablesarecalledtheclusterkey.Theclusterkeyisindexed

usingaclusterindexanditsvalueisstoredonlyonceformultipletablesinthecluster.

13. WhatisParallelServer?Multipleinstancesaccessingthesamedatabase(OnlyInMultiCPUenvironments) 14. WhatarethebasicelementofBaseconfigurationofanoracleDatabase?Itconsistsofoneormoredata

files.oneormorecontrolfiles.twoormoreredologfiles.TheDatabasecontainsmultipleusers/schemasoneor morerollbacksegmentsoneormoretablespacesDatadictionarytablesUserobjects(table,indexes,viewsetc.,) TheserverthataccessthedatabaseconsistsofSGA(Databasebuffer,DictionaryCacheBuffers,Redolog buffers,SharedSQLpool)SMON(SystemMONito)PMON(ProcessMONitor)LGWR(LoGWrite)DBWR(Data BaseWrite)ARCH(ARCHiver)CKPT(CheckPoint)RECODispatcherUserProcesswithassociatedPGS

15. Whatisclusters?Groupoftablesphysicallystoredtogetherbecausetheysharecommoncolumnsandare
oftenusedtogetheriscalledCluster.

16. WhatisanIndex?HowitisimplementedinOracleDatabase?Anindexisadatabasestructureusedbythe
servertohavedirectaccessofarowinatable.Anindexisautomaticallycreatedwhenauniqueofprimarykey constraintclauseisspecifiedincreatetablecommand(Ver7.0)

17. WhatisaDatabaseinstance?ExplainAdatabaseinstance(Server)isasetofmemorystructureand
backgroundprocessesthataccessasetofdatabasefiles.Theprocesscanbesharedbyallusers.Thememory structurethatareusedtostoremostquerieddatafromdatabase.Thishelpsuptoimprovedatabase performancebydecreasingtheamountofI/Operformedagainstdatafile.

18. WhatistheuseofANALYZEcommand?Toperformoneofthesefunctiononanindex,table,orcluster:To
collectstatisticsaboutobjectusedbytheoptimizerandstoretheminthedatadictionary.Todeletestatistics abouttheobjectusedbyobjectfromthedatadictionary.Tovalidatethestructureoftheobject..Toidentify migratedandchainedrowsoffthetableorcluster.

19. Whatisdefaulttablespace?TheTablespacetocontainschemaobjectscreatedwithoutspecifyinga
tablespacename.

20. WhatarethesystemresourcesthatcanbecontrolledthroughProfile?Thenumberofconcurrent
sessionstheusercanestablishtheCPUprocessingtimeavailabletotheuserssessiontheCPU processingtimeavailabletoasinglecalltoORACLEmadebyaSQLstatementtheamountoflogicalI/O availabletotheuserssessiontheamountoflogicalI/OavailabletoasinglecalltoORACLEmadebya SQLstatementtheallowedamountofidletimefortheuserssessiontheallowedamountofconnect timefortheuserssession.

21. WhatisTablespaceQuota?Thecollectiveamountofdiskspaceavailabletotheobjectsinaschemaona
particulartablespace.

22. WhatarethedifferentLevelsofAuditing?StatementAuditing,PrivilegeAuditingandObjectAuditing. 23. WhatisStatementAuditing?Statementauditingistheauditingofthepowerfulsystemprivilegeswithout

regardtospecificallynamedobjects

24. Whatarethedatabaseadministratorsutilitiesavailable?SQL*DBAThisallowsDBAtomonitorand
controlanORACLEdatabase.SQL*LoaderItloadsdatafromstandardoperatingsystemfiles(Flatfiles)into ORACLEdatabasetables.Export(EXP)andImport(imp)utilitiesallowyoutomoveexistingdatainORACLE formattoandfromORACLEdatabase.

25. Howcanyouenableautomaticarchiving?ShutthedatabaseBackupthedatabaseModify/Include
LOG_ARCHIVE_START_TRUEininit.orafile.Startupthedatabase.

26. Whatareroles?Howcanweimplementroles?Rolesaretheeasiestwaytograntandmanagecommon
privilegesneededbydifferentgroupsofdatabaseusers.Creatingrolesandassigningprovidestoroles.Assign eachroletogroupofusers.Thiswillsimplifythejobofassigningprivilegestoindividualusers.

27. WhatareRoles?Rolesarenamedgroupsofrelatedprivilegesthataregrantedtousersorotherroles.

28. WhataretheuseofRoles?REDUCEDGRANTINGOFPRIVILEGESRatherthanexplicitlygrantingthesame
setofprivilegestomanyusersadatabaseadministratorcangranttheprivilegesforagroupofrelatedusers grantedtoaroleandthengrantonlytheroletoeachmemberofthegroup.DYNAMICPRIVILEGE MANAGEMENTWhentheprivilegesofagroupmustchange,onlytheprivilegesoftheroleneedtobe modified.Thesecuritydomainsofallusersgrantedthegroupsroleautomaticallyreflectthechanges madetotherole.SELECTIVEAVAILABILITYOFPRIVILEGESTherolesgrantedtoausercanbeselectively enable(availableforuse)ordisabled(notavailableforuse).Thisallowsspecificcontrolofausers privilegesinanygivensituation.APPLICATIONAWARENESSAdatabaseapplicationcanbedesignedto automaticallyenableanddisableselectiveroleswhenauserattemptstousetheapplication.

29. WhatisPrivilegeAuditing?Privilegeauditingistheauditingoftheuseofpowerfulsystemprivileges
withoutregardtospecificallynamedobjects.

30. WhatisObjectAuditing?Objectauditingistheauditingofaccessestospecificschemaobjectswithout
regardtouser.

31. WhatisAuditing?Monitoringofuseraccesstoaidintheinvestigationofdatabaseuse. 32. WhataretheresponsibilitiesofaDatabaseAdministrator?

InstallingandupgradingtheOracleServerandapplicationtools. Allocatingsystemstorageandplanningfuturestoragerequirementsforthedatabasesystem. Managingprimarydatabasestructures(tablespaces) Managingprimaryobjects(table,views,indexes) Enrollingusersandmaintainingsystemsecurity. EnsuringcompliancewithOraclelicenseagreement Controllingandmonitoringuseraccesstothedatabase. Monitoringandoptimizingtheperformanceofthedatabase. Planningforbackupandrecoveryofdatabaseinformation. Maintainarchiveddataontape Backingupandrestoringthedatabase. ContactingOracleCorporationfortechnicalsupport.

33. Whatisatracefileandhowisitcreated?Eachserverandbackgroundprocesscanwriteanassociated
tracefile.Whenaninternalerrorisdetectedbyaprocessoruserprocess,itdumpsinformationabouttheerror toitstrace.Thiscanbeusedfortuningthedatabase.

34. Whatisaprofile?EachdatabaseuserisassignedaProfilethatspecifieslimitationsonvarioussystem
resourcesavailabletotheuser.

35. Howwillyouenforcesecurityusingstoredprocedures?Dontgrantuseraccessdirectlytotables
withintheapplication.Insteadgranttheabilitytoaccesstheproceduresthataccessthetables.Whenprocedure executeditwillexecutetheprivilegeofproceduresowner.Userscannotaccesstablesexceptviatheprocedure.

1. 2. 3. 4.

IstheAfterreporttriggerfiredifthereportexecutionfails?Yes. DoesaBeforeformtriggerfirewhentheparameterformissuppressed?Yes. Isitpossibletosplittheprintreviewerintomorethanoneregion?Yes Isitpossibletocenteranobjecthorizontallyinarepeatingframethathasavariablehorizontalsize? Yes

5. Forafieldinarepeatingframe,canthesourcecomefromthecolumnwhichdoesnotexistinthedata
groupwhichformsthebasefortheframe?Yes

6. Canafieldbeusedinareportwithoutitappearinginanydatagroup?Yes 7. Thejoindefinedbythedefaultdatalinkisanouterjoinyesorno?Yes 8. Canaformulacolumnreferredtocolumnsinhighergroup?Yes 9. Canaformulacolumnbeobtainedthroughaselectstatement?Yes 10. Isitpossibletoinsertcommentsintosqlstatementsreturninthedatamodeleditor?Yes 11. Isitpossibletodisabletheparameterfromwhilerunningthereport?Yes 12. Whenaformisinvokedwithcall_form,Doesoracleformsissuesasavepoint?Yes 13. Canapropertyclauseitselfbebasedonapropertyclause?Yes 14. Ifaparameterisusedinaquerywithoutbeingpreviouslydefined,whatdiff.existbetweenreport2.0
and2.5whenthequeryisapplied?Whilebothreports2.0and2.5createtheparameter,report2.5givesa messagethatabindparameterhasbeencreated.

15. WhataretheSQLclausessupportedinthelinkpropertysheet?Wherestartwithhaving. 16. Whatistriggerassociatedwiththetimer?Whentimerexpired. 17. Whatarethetriggerassociatedwithimageitems?Whenimageactivatedfireswhentheoperatorsdouble

clicksonanimageitemwhenimagepressedfireswhenanoperatorclicksordoubleclicksonanimageitem

18. Whatarethedifferentwindowseventsactivatedatruntimes?When_window_activated
When_window_closedWhen_window_deactivatedWhen_window_resizedWithinthistriggers,youcan examinethebuiltinsystemvariablesystem.event_windowtodeterminethenameofthewindowforwhichthe triggerfired.

19. Whendoyouusedataparametertype?Whenthevalueofadataparameterbeingpassedtoacalled
productisalwaysthenameoftherecordgroupdefinedinthecurrentform.Dataparametersareusedtopass datatoprodutsinvokedwiththerun_productbuiltinsubprogram.

20. Whatisdifferencebetweenopen_formandcall_form?whenoneforminvokesanotherformbyexecuting
open_formthefirstformremainsdisplayed,andoperatorscannavigatebetweentheformsasdesired.when oneforminvokesanotherformbyexecutingcall_form,thecalledformismodalwithrespecttothecalling form.Thatis,anywindowsthatbelongtothecallingformaredisabled,andoperatorscannotnavigatetothem untiltheyfirstexitthecalledform.

21. Whatisnew_formbuiltin?Whenoneforminvokesanotherformbyexecutingnew_formoracleformexits
thefirstformandreleasesitsmemorybeforeloadingthenewformcallingnewformcompletelyreplacethe firstwiththesecond.Iftherearechangespendinginthefirstform,theoperatorwillbepromptedtosavethem beforethenewformisloaded.

22. WhatistheLOVofValidationPropertyofanitem?Whatistheuseofit?WhenLOVforValidationis
settoTrue,OracleFormscomparesthecurrentvalueofthetextitemtothevaluesinthefirstcolumndisplayed intheLOV .Wheneverthevalidationeventoccurs.Ifthevalueinthetextitemmatchesoneofthevaluesinthe firstcolumnoftheLOV ,validationsucceeds,theLOVisnotdisplayed,andprocessingcontinuesnormally.Ifthe valueinthetextitemdoesnotmatchoneofthevaluesinthefirstcolumnoftheLOV ,OracleFormsdisplaysthe LOVandusesthetextitemvalueasthesearchcriteriatoautomaticallyreducethelist.

23. Whatisthediff.whenFlexmodeismodeonandwhenitisoff?Whenflexmodeison,reports
automaticallyresizestheparentwhenthechildisresized.

24. Whatisthediff.whenconfinemodeisonandwhenitisoff?Whenconfinemodeison,anobjectcannot
bemovedoutsideitsparentinthelayout.

25. Whatarevisualattributes?Visualattributesarethefont,color,patternproprietiesthatyousetforformand
menuobjectsthatappearinyourapplicationinterface.

26. Whichofthetwoviewsshouldobjectsaccordingtopossession?viewbystructure. 27. Whatarethetwotypesofviewsavailableintheobjectnavigator(specifictoreport2.5)?Viewby

structureandviewbytype.

28. Whatarethevbxcontrols?Vbxcontrolprovideasimplemethodofbuildingandenhancinguserinterfaces.
Thecontrolscanusetoobtainuserinputsanddisplayprogramoutputs.vbxcontrolwhereoriginallydevelopas extensionsforthemsvisualbasicenvironmentsandincludesuchitemsassliders,ridesandknobs.

29. Whatistheuseoftransactionaltriggers?Usingtransactionaltriggerswecancontrolormodifythedefault
functionalityoftheoracleforms.

30. Howdoyoucreateanewsessionwhileopenanewform?Usingopen_formbuiltinsettingthesession
optionEx.Open_form(Stocks,active,session).wheninvokethemulitipleformswithopenformandcall_form inthesameapplication,statewhetherthefollowingaretrue/False

31. Whatarethewaystomonitortheperformanceofthereport?Usereportsprofileexecutablestatement.
UseSQLtracefacility.

32. Iftwogroupsarenotlinkedinthedatamodeleditor,Whatisthehierarchybetweenthem?Twogroup
thatisabovearetheleftmostrankhigherthanthegroupthatistorightorbelowit.

33. Anopenformcannotbeexecutethecall_formprocedureifyouchainofcalledformshasbeen
initiatedbyanotheropenform?True

34. Explainabouthorizontal,Verticaltoolbarcanvasviews?Toolbarcanvasviewsareusedtocreatetool
barsforindividualwindows.Horizontaltoolbarsaredisplayatthetopofawindow,justunderitsmenubar. VerticalToolbarsaredisplayedalongtheleftsideofawindow

35. Whatisthepurposeoftheproductorderoptioninthecolumnpropertysheet?Tospecifytheorderof
individualgroupevaluationinacrossproducts.

36. Whatistheuseofimage_zoombuiltin?Tomanipulateimagesinimageitems. 37. Howdoyoureferenceaparameterindirectly?ToindirectlyreferenceaparameterusetheNAMEIN,COPY

builtinstoindirectlysetandreferencetheparametersvalueExamplename_in(capitalparametermyparam), Copy(SURESH,'Parametermy_param)

1. Whatisatimer?Timerisaninternaltimeclock thatyoucanprogrammaticallycreateto
performanactioneachtimethetimes.

2. Whatarethetwophasesofblockcoordination?Therearetwophasesofblockcoordination:theclear
phaseandthepopulationphase.During,theclearphase,OracleFormsnavigatesinternallytothedetailblock andflushestheobsoletedetailrecords.Duringthepopulationphase,OracleFormsissuesaSELECTstatement torepopulatethedetailblockwithdetailrecordsassociatedwiththenewmasterrecord.Theseoperationsare accomplishedthroughtheexecutionoftriggers.

3. WhatareMostCommontypesofComplexmasterdetailrelationships?Therearethreemostcommon
typesofcomplexmasterdetailrelationships:masterwithdependentdetailsmasterwithindependentdetails detailwithtwomasters

4. Whatisatextlist?Thetextliststylelistitemappearsasarectangularboxwhichdisplaysthefixednumber
ofvalues.Whenthetextlistcontainsvaluesthatcannotbedisplayed,averticalscrollbarappears,allowingthe operatortoviewandselectvaluesthatarenotdisplayed.

5. Whatisterm?Thetermisterminaldefinitionfilethatdescribestheterminalformwhichyouareusing
r20run.

6. Whatisuseofterm?Thetermfilewhichkeyiscorrespondtowhichoraclereportfunctions. 7. Whatispoplist?Thepopliststylelistitemappearsinitiallyasasinglefield(similartoatextitemfield).
Whentheoperatorselectsthelisticon,alistofavailablechoicesappears.

8. Whatisthemaximumnoofcharstheparametercanstore?Themaximumnoofcharstheparametercan
storeisonlyvalidforcharparameters,whichcanbeupto64K.Noparametersdefaultto23BytesandDate parameterdefaultto7Bytes.

9. Whatarethedefaultextensionsofthefilescreatedbylibrarymodule?Thedefaultfileextensions
indicatethelibrarymoduletypeandstorageformat.pllpl/sqllibrarymodulebinary

10. WhataretheCoordinationPropertiesinaMasterDetailrelationship?Thecoordinationpropertiesare
DeferredAutoQueryThesePropertiesdeterminewhenthepopulationphaseofblockcoordinationshould occur.

11. Howdoyoudisplayconsoleonawindow?Theconsoleincludesthestatuslineandmessageline,andis
displayedatthebottomofthewindowtowhichitisassigned.Tospecifythattheconsoleshouldbedisplayed, settheconsolewindowformpropertytothenameofanywindowintheform.Toincludetheconsole,set consolewindowtoNull.

12. WhatarethedifferentParametertypes?TextParametersDataParameters 13. Stateanythreemouseeventssystemvariables?System.mouse_button_pressedSystem.mouse_button_shift 14. Whatarethetypesofcalculatedcolumnsavailable?Summary,Formula,Placeholdercolumn. 15. Explainaboutstackedcanvasviews?Stackedcanvasviewisdisplayedinawindowontopof,or

stacked on thecontentcanvasviewassignedtothatsamewindow.Stackedcanvasviews obscuresomepartoftheunderlyingcontentcanvasview,andoroftenshownandhiddenprogrammatically.

16. Whatarethebuilt_insusedthedisplaytheLOV?Show_lovList_values 17. WhatisthedifferencebetweenSHOW_EDITORandEDIT_TEXTITEM?Showeditoristhegenericbuiltin

whichacceptsanyeditornameandtakessomeinputstringandreturnsmodifiedoutputstring.Whereasthe edit_textitembuiltinneedstheinputfocustobeinthetextitembeforethebuiltinisexecuted.

18. WhatarethebuiltinsthatareusedtoAttachanLOVprogrammaticallytoanitem?set_item_property
get_item_property(bysettingtheLOV_NAMEproperty)

1. HowdoyoucallotherOracleProductsfromOracleForms?Run_productisabuiltin,Usedtoinvokeone
ofthesupportedoracletoolsproductsandspecifiesthenameofthedocumentormoduletoberun.Ifthecalled productisunavailableatthetimeofthecall,OracleFormsreturnsamessagetotheoperator.

2. Whatisthemaindiff.bet.Reports2.0&Reports2.5?Report2.5isobjectoriented. 3. Whatarethedifferentfileextensionsthatarecreatedbyoraclereports?RepfileandRdffile. 4. Whatisstripsourcesgenerateoptions?Removesthesourcecodefromthelibraryfileandgeneratesa

libraryfilesthatcontainsonlypcode.Theresultingfilecanbeusedforfinaldeployment,butcannotbe subsequentlyeditedinthedesigner.ex.f45genmodule=old_lib.plluserid=scott/tigerstrip_sourceYES output_file

5. WhatisthebasicdatastructurethatisrequiredforcreatinganLOV?RecordGroup. 6. WhatistheMaximumallowedlengthofRecordgroupColumn?Recordgroupcolumnnamescannot
exceed30characters.

7. Whichparametercanbeusedtosetreadlevelconsistencyacrossmultiplequeries?Readonly 8. WhatarethedifferenttypesofRecordGroups?QueryRecordGroupsNonQueryRecordGroupsState
RecordGroups

9. Fromwhichdesignationisitpreferredtosendtheoutputtotheprinted?Previewer 10. whataredifferencebetweenpostdatabasecommitandpostformcommit?Postformcommitfiresonce

duringthepostandcommittransactionsprocess,afterthedatabasecommitoccurs.Thepostformcommit triggerfiresafterinserts,updatesanddeleteshavebeenpostedtothedatabasebutbeforethetransactionshave beenfinalizedintheissuingthecommand.Thepostdatabasecommittriggerfiresafteroracleformsissuesthe committofinalizedtransactions.

11. Whatarethedifferentdisplaystylesoflistitems?Pop_listText_listCombobox 12. Whichoftheabovemethodsisthefastermethod?performingthecalculationinthequeryisfaster. 13. Withwhichfunctionofsummaryitemisthecomputeatoptionsrequired?percentageoftotalfunctions. 14. Whatareparameters?Parametersprovideasimplemechanismfordefiningandsettingthevaluesofinputs

thatarerequiredbyaformatstartup.Formparametersarevariablesoftypechar,number,datethatyoudefine atdesigntime.

15. Whatarethethreetypesofuserexitsavailable?OraclePrecompilerexits,Oraclecallinterface,NonOracle
userexits.

16. Howmanywindowsinaformcanhaveconsole?Onlyonewindowinaformcandisplaytheconsole,and
youcannotchangetheconsoleassignmentatruntime

17. Ifthemaximumrecordretrievedpropertyofthequeryissetto10thenasummaryvaluewillbe
calculated?Onlyfor10records.

18. Whatarethetworepeatingframealwaysassociatedwithmatrixobject?Onedownrepeatingframe
belowoneacrossrepeatingframe.

19. Whatarethemasterdetailtriggers?OnCheck_delete_master,On_clear_details,On_populate_details 20. Whatarethedifferentobjectsthatyoucannotcopyorreferenceinobjectgroups?Objectsofdifferent

modulesAnotherobjectgroupsIndividualblockdependentitemsProgramunits.

21. WhatisanOLE?ObjectLinking&Embeddingprovidesyouwiththecapabilitytointegrateobjectsfrom
manyWindowsapplicationsintoasinglecompounddocumentcreatingintegratedapplicationsenablesyouto usethefeaturesform.

22. Isitpossibletomodifyanexternalqueryinareportwhichcontainsit?No. 23. Doesagroupingdoneforobjectsinthelayouteditoraffectthegroupingdoneinthedatamodel

editor?No.

24. Canarepeatingframebecreatedwithoutadatagroupasabase?No 25. Ifabreakorderissetonacolumnwoulditaffectcolumnswhichareunderthecolumn?No 26. Isitpossibletosetafilterconditioninacrossproductgroupinmatrixreports?No 27. Douserparametersappearinthedatamodaleditorin2.5?No 28. Canyoupassdataparameterstoforms?No 29. Isitpossibletolinktwogroupsinsideacrossproductsafterthecrossproductsgrouphasbeen
created?no

30. Whatarethedifferentmodalsofwindows?ModelesswindowsModalwindows 31. Whataremodalwindows?Modalwindowsareusuallyusedasdialogs,andhaverestrictedfunctionality

comparedtomodelesswindows.Onsomeplatformsforexampleoperatorscannotresize,scrolloriconifya modalwindow.

1. WhatarethedifferentdefaulttriggerscreatedwhenMasterDeletesPropertyissettoNonisolated?
MasterDeletesPropertyResultingTriggers:NonIsolated(thedefault)OnCheckDeleteMasterOnClear DetailsOnPopulateDetails

2. WhatarethedifferentdefaulttriggerscreatedwhenMasterDeletesPropertyissettoisolated?Master
DeletesPropertyResultingTriggers:IsolatedOnClearDetailsOnPopulateDetails

3. WhatarethedifferentdefaulttriggerscreatedwhenMasterDeletesPropertyissettoCascade?Master
DeletesPropertyResultingTriggers:CascadingOnClearDetailsOnPopulateDetailsPredelete

4. Whatisthediff.bet.settingupofparametersinreports2.0reports2.5?LOVscanbeattachedto
parametersinthereports2.5parameterform.

5. Whatarethedifferencebetweenlov&listitem?Lovisapropertywhereaslistitemisanitem.Alistitem
canhaveonlyonecolumn,lovcanhaveoneormorecolumns.

6. Whatistheadvantageofthelibrary?Librariesprovideaconvenientmeansofstoringclientsideprogram
unitsandsharingthemamongmultipleapplications.Onceyoucreatealibrary,youcanattachittoanyother form,menu,orlibrarymodules.Whenyoucancalllibraryprogramunitsfromtriggersmenuitemscommands andusernamedroutine,youwriteinthemodulestowhichyouhaveattachthelibrary.Whenalibraryattaches anotherlibrary,programunitsinthefirstlibrarycanreferenceprogramunitsintheattachedlibrary.Library supportdynamicloadingthatislibraryprogramunitsareloadedintoanapplicationonlywhenneeded.This cansignificantlyreducetheruntimememoryrequirementsofapplications.

7. Whatislexicalreference?Howcanitbecreated?Lexicalreferenceisplace_holderfortextthatcanbe
embeddedinaSQLstatements.Alexicalreferencecanbecreatedusing&beforethecolumnorparameter name.

8. Whatissystem.coordination_operation?Itrepresentsthecoordinationcausingeventthatoccuronthe
masterblockinmasterdetailrelation.

9. Whatissynchronize?Itisaterminalscreenwiththeinternalstateoftheform.Itupdatesthescreendisplay
toreflecttheinformationthatoracleformshasinitsinternalrepresentationofthescreen.

10. Whatuseofcommandlineparametercmdfile?Itisacommandlineargumentthatallowsyoutospecifya
filethatcontainasetofargumentsforr20run.

11. WhatisaText_ioPackage?Itallowsyoutoreadandwriteinformationtoafileinthefilesystem. 12. Whatisforms_DDL?IssuesdynamicSqlstatementsatruntime,includingserversidepl/SQlandDDL 13. Howislinktooloperationdifferentbet.reports2&2.5?InReports2.0thelinktoolhastobeselected

andthentwofieldstobelinkedareselectedandthelinkisautomaticallycreated.In2.5thefirstfieldis selectedandthelinktoolisthenusedtolinkthefirstfieldtothesecondfield.

14. WhatarethedifferentstylesofactivationofoleObjects?Inplaceactivation,Externalactivation 15. HowdoyoureferenceaParameter?InPl/SQL,Youcanreferenceandsetthevaluesofformparameters

usingbindvariablessyntax.Ex.PARAMETERname=or:block.item=PARAMETER Parametername

16. Whatisthedifferencebetweenobjectembedding&linkinginOracleforms?InOracleforms,
Embeddedobjectsbecomepartoftheformmodule,andlinkedobjectsarereferencesfromaformmoduletoa linkedsourcefile.

17. Nameofthefunctionsusedtoget/setcanvasproperties?Get_view_property,Set_view_property 18. WhatarethebuiltinsthatareusedforsettingtheLOVpropertiesatruntime?get_lov_property

set_lov_property

19. Whatarethebuiltinsusedforprocessingrows?Get_group_row_count(function)
Get_group_selection_count(function)Get_group_selection(function)Reset_group_selection(procedure) Set_group_selection(procedure)Unset_group_selection(procedure)

20. WhatarebuiltinsusedforProcessingrows?GET_GROUP_ROW_COUNT(function)
GET_GROUP_SELECTION_COUNT(function)GET_GROUP_SELECTION(function) RESET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure)SET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure) UNSET_GROUP_SELECTION(procedure)

21. Whatarethebuiltinusedforgettingcellvalues?Get_group_char_cell(function)Get_groupcell(function)
Get_group_number_cell(function)

22. WhatarethebuiltinsusedforGettingcellvalues?GET_GROUP_CHAR_CELL(function)
GET_GROUPCELL(function)GET_GROUP_NUMBET_CELL(function)

23. Atleasthowmanysetofdatamustadatamodelhavebeforeadatamodelcanbebaseonit?Four 24. Toexecuterowfrombeingdisplayedthatstillusecolumnintherowwhichpropertycanbeused?

Formattrigger.

1. Whataredifferenttypesofmodulesavailableinoracleform?Formmoduleacollectionofobjectsand
coderoutinesMenumodulesacollectionofmenusandmenuitemcommandsthattogethermakeupan applicationmenulibrarymoduleacollectionofusernamedprocedures,functionsandpackagesthatcanbe calledfromothermodulesintheapplication

2. Whatistheremoveonexitproperty?Foramodelesswindow,itdetermineswhetheroracleformshidesthe
windowautomaticallywhentheoperatorsnavigatestoanitemintheanotherwindow.

3. WhatisWHENDatabaserecordtrigger?Fireswhenoracleformsfirstmarksarecordasaninsertoran
update.Thetriggerfiresassoonasoracleformsdeterminesthroughvalidationthattherecordshouldbe processedbythenextpostorcommitasaninsertorupdate.Generallyoccursonlywhentheoperatorsmodifies thefirstitemintherecord,andaftertheoperatorattemptstonavigateoutoftheitem.

4. Whatisadifferencebetweenpreselectandprequery?Firesduringtheexecutequeryandcountquery
processingafteroracleformsconstructstheselectstatementtobeissued,butbeforethestatementisactually issued.Theprequerytriggerfiresjustbeforeoracleformsissuestheselectstatementtothedatabaseafterthe operatorasdefinetheexamplerecordsbyenteringthequerycriteriainenterquerymode.Prequerytrigger firesbeforepreselecttrigger.

5. Whatarebuiltinsassociatedwithtimers?find_timercreate_timerdelete_timer 6. WhatarethebuiltinsusedforfindingobjectIDfunctions?Find_group(function)Find_column(function) 7. WhatarethebuiltinsusedforfindingObjectIDfunction?FIND_GROUP(function)

FIND_COLUMN(function)

8. Anyattempttonavigateprogrammaticallytodisabledforminacall_formstackisallowed?False 9. UsetheAdd_group_rowproceduretoaddarowtoastaticrecordgroup1.trueorfalse?False 10. Usetheadd_group_columnfunctiontoaddacolumntorecordgroupthatwascreatedatadesign

time?False

11. Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickeventinvolves?Whatarethevarioussubeventsa
mousedoubleclickeventinvolves?Doubleclickingthemouseconsistsofthemousedown,mouseup,mouse click,mousedown&mouseupevents.

12. Howcanabreakorderbecreatedonacolumninanexistinggroup?Whatarethevarioussubeventsa
mousedoubleclickeventinvolves?Bydraggingthecolumnoutsidethegroup.

13. Whatistheuseofplaceholdercolumn?Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickevent
involves?Aplaceholdercolumnisusedtoholdcalculatedvaluesataspecifiedplaceratherthanallowingisto appearintheactualrowwhereithastoappear.

14. Whatistheuseofhiddencolumn?Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickeventinvolves?
Ahiddencolumnisusedtowhenacolumnhastoembedintoboilerplatetext.

15. Whatistheuseofbreakgroup?Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickeventinvolves?A
breakgroupisusedtodisplayonerecordforonegroupones.Whilemultiplerelatedrecordsinothergroupcan bedisplayed.

16. Whatisananchoringobject&whatisitsuse?Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickevent
involves?Ananchoringobjectisaprintconditionobjectwhichusedtoexplicitlyorimplicitlyanchorother objectstoitself.

17. Whatarethevarioussubeventsamousedoubleclickeventinvolves?Whatarethevarioussubeventsa
mousedoubleclickeventinvolves?Doubleclickingthemouseconsistsofthemousedown,mouseup,mouse click,mousedown&mouseupevents.

18. Whatarethedefaultparameterthatappearatruntimeintheparameterscreen?Whatarethevarious
subeventsamousedoubleclickeventinvolves?DestypeandDesname.

19. WhatarethebuiltinsusedforCreatinganddeletinggroups?CREATEGROUP(function)
CREATE_GROUP_FROM_QUERY(function)DELETE_GROUP(procedure)

20. Whataredifferenttypesofcanvasviews?ContentcanvasviewsStackedcanvasviewsHorizontaltoolbar
verticaltoolbar.

21. WhatarethedifferenttypesofDeletedetailswecanestablishinMasterDetails?CascadeIsolateNon
isolate

22. Whatisrelationbetweenthewindowandcanvasviews?Canvasviewsarethebackgroundobjectson
whichyouplacetheinterfaceitems(Textitems),checkboxes,radiogroupsetc.,)andboilerplateobjects (boxes,lines,imagesetc.,)thatoperatorsinteractwithustheyrunyourform.Eachcanvasviewsdisplayedina window.

23. WhatisaUser_exit?Callstheuserexitnamedintheuser_exit_string.Invokesa3Glprogrambynamewhich
hasbeenproperlylinkedintoyourcurrentoracleformsexecutable.

24. Howisitpossibletoselectgenerateaselectsetforthequeryinthequerypropertysheet?Byusingthe
tables/columnsbuttonandthenspecifyingthetableandthecolumnnames.

25. Howcanvaluesbepassedbetweenprecompilerexits&Oraclecallinterface?Byusingthestatement
EXECIAFGET&EXECIAFPUT.

26. Howcanasquarebedrawninthelayouteditorofthereportwriter?Byusingtherectangletoolwhile
pressingthe(Constraint)key.

27. Howcanatextfilebeattachedtoareportwhilecreatinginthereportwriter?Byusingthelinkfile
propertyinthelayoutboilerplatepropertysheet.

28. HowcanImessagetopassedtotheuserfromreports?ByusingSRW.MESSAGEfunction. 29. Howispossibletorestricttheusertoalistofvalueswhileenteringvaluesforparameters?Bysetting

theRestrictToListpropertytotrueintheparameterpropertysheet.

30. Howcanabuttonbeusedinareporttogiveadrilldownfacility?Bysettingtheactionassociatedwith
buttontoExecutepl/SQLoptionandusingtheSRW.Run_reportfunction.

31. Howcanacrossproductbecreated?Byselectingthecrossproductstoolanddrawinganewgroup
surroundingthebasegroupofthecrossproducts.

1. Whataredifferenttypesofimages?Boilerplateimages,ImageItems 2. Whatisthedifferencebetweenboilerplatimagesandimageitems?BoilerplateImagesarestaticimages
(Eithervectororbitmap)thatyouimportfromthefilesystemordatabasetouseagraphicalelementsinyour form,suchascompanylogosandmaps.Imageitemsarespecialtypesofinterfacecontrolsthatstoreand displayeithervectororbitmapimages.Likeotheritemsthatstorevalues,imageitemscanbeeitherbasetable items(itemsthatrelatedirectlytodatabasecolumns)orcontrolitems.Thedefinitionofanimageitemisstored aspartoftheformmoduleFMBandFMXfiles,butnoimagefileisactuallyassociatedwithanimageitemuntil theitemispopulateatruntime.

3. Whatisbindreferenceandhowcanitbecreated?Bindreferenceareusedtoreplacethesinglevaluein
sql,pl/sqlstatementsabindreferencecanbecreatedusinga(:)beforeacolumnoraparametername.

4. Whatarethetriggersavailableinthereports?Beforereport,Beforeform,Afterform,Betweenpage,After
report.

5. Givethesequenceofexecutionofthevariousreporttriggers?Beforeform,Afterform,Beforereport,
Betweenpage,Afterreport.

6. WhyisaWhereclausefasterthanagroupfilteroraformattrigger?Becauseinawhereclausethe
conditionisappliedduringdataretrieval,thenafterretrievingthedata.

7. Whyisitpreferabletocreateafewerno.ofqueriesinthedatamodel?Becauseforeachquery,report
hastoopenaseparatecursorandhastorebind,executeandfetchdata.

8. Whereistheexternalqueryexecutedattheclientortheserver?Attheserver. 9. Whereisaprocedurereturninanexternalpl/SQLlibraryexecutedattheclientorattheserver?At
theclient.

10. WhatiscoordinationEvent?Anyeventthatmakesadifferentrecordinthemasterblockthecurrentrecord
isacoordinationcausingevent.

11. WhatisthedifferencebetweenOLEServer&OLEContainer?AnOleserverapplicationcreatesole
ObjectsthatareembeddedorlinkedinoleContainersex.Oleserversarems_word&ms_excel.OLEcontainers provideaplacetostore,displayandmanipulateobjectsthatarecreatedbyoleserverapplications.Ex.oracle formsisanexampleofanoleContainer.

12. Whatisanobjectgroup?Anobjectgroupisacontainerforagroupofobjects;youdefineanobjectgroup
whenyouwanttopackagerelatedobjects,sothatyoucopyorreferencetheminothermodules.

13. WhatisanLOV?AnLOVisascrollablepopupwindowthatprovidestheoperatorwitheitherasingleor
multicolumnselectionlist.

14. AtwhatpointofreportexecutionisthebeforeReporttriggerfired?Afterthequeryisexecutedbut
beforethereportisexecutedandtherecordsaredisplayed.

15. WhatarethebuiltinsusedforModifyingagroupsstructure?ADDGROUP_COLUMN(function)
ADD_GROUP_ROW(procedure)DELETE_GROUP_ROW(procedure)

16. Whatisanuserexitusedfor?Awayinwhichtopasscontrol(andpossiblyarguments)formOraclereport
toanotherOracleproductsof3GLandthenreturncontrol(and)backtoOraclereports.

17. WhatistheUserNamedEditor?Ausernamededitorhasthesametexteditingfunctionalityasthedefault
editor,but,becauseitisanamedobject,youcanspecifyeditorattributessuchaswindowsdisplaysize, position,andtitle.

18. WhataretheBuiltinstodisplaytheusernamededitor?Ausernamededitorcanbedisplayed
programmaticallywiththebuiltinprocedureSHOWEDITOR,EDIT_TETITEMindependentofanyparticular textitem.

19. WhatisaStaticRecordGroup?Astaticrecordgroupisnotassociatedwithaquery,rather,youdefineits
structureandrowvaluesatdesigntime,andtheyremainfixedatruntime.

20. Whatisarecordgroup?ArecordgroupisaninternalOracleFormsthatstructurethathasacolumn/row
frameworksimilartoadatabasetable.However,unlikedatabasetables,recordgroupsareseparateobjectsthat belongtotheformmodulewhichtheyaredefined.

21. Howmanynumberofcolumnsarecordgroupcanhave?Arecordgroupcanhaveanunlimitednumber
ofcolumnsoftypeCHAR,LONG,NUMBER,orDATEprovidedthatthetotalnumberofcolumndoesnotexceed 64K.

22. WhatisaQueryRecordGroup?AqueryrecordgroupisarecordgroupthathasanassociatedSELECT
statement.Thecolumnsinaqueryrecordgroupderivetheirdefaultnames,datatypes,hadlengthsfromthe databasecolumnsreferencedintheSELECTstatement.Therecordsinqueryrecordgrouparetherows retrievedbythequeryassociatedwiththatrecordgroup.

23. WhatisaNonQueryRecordGroup? 24. Whatisapropertyclause?Apropertyclauseisanamedobjectthatcontainsalistofpropertiesandtheir

settings.Onceyoucreateapropertyclauseyoucanbaseotherobjectonit.Anobjectbasedonapropertycan inheritthesettingofanypropertyintheclausethatmakessenseforthatobject.

1. Whatisaphysicalpage?Whatisalogicalpage?Aphysicalpageisasizeofapage.Thatisoutputbythe
printer.ThelogicalpageisthesizeofonepageoftheactualreportasseeninthePreviewer.

2. Whatdoesthetermpanelrefertowithregardatopages?Apanelisthenumberofphysicalpagesneeded
toprintonelogicalpage.

3. Whatisamasterdetailrelationship?Amasterdetailrelationshipisanassociationbetweentwobasetable
blocksamasterblockandadetailblock.Therelationshipbetweentheblocksreflectsaprimarykeytoforeign keyrelationshipbetweenthetablesonwhichtheblocksarebased.

4. Whatisalibrary?Alibraryisacollectionofsubprogramsincludingusernamedprocedures,functionsand
packages.

5. Howcanagroupinacrossproductsbevisuallydistinguishedfromagroupthatdoesnotformacross
product?Agroupthatformspartofacrossproductwillhaveathickerborder.

6. Whatistheframe&repeatingframe?Aframeisaholderforagroupoffields.Arepeatingframeisusedto
displayasetofrecordswhenthenumberofrecordsthataretodisplayedisnotknownbefore.

7. Whatisacombobox?Acomboboxstylelistitemcombinesthefeaturesfoundinlistandtextitem.Unlike
thepoplistorthetextliststylelistitems,thecomboboxstylelistitemwillbothdisplayfixedvaluesandaccept oneoperatorenteredvalue.

8. Whatarethreepanesthatappearintheruntimepl/SQLinterpreter?Sourcepane,interpreterpane,
navigatorpane.

9. WhatarethetwopanesthatAppearinthedesigntimepl/SQLinterpreter?Sourcepane,interpreter
pane

10. Whatarethetwowaysbywhichdatacanbegeneratedforaparameterslistofvalues?Usingstatic
values,writingselectstatement.

11. Whatarethevariousmethodsofperformingacalculationinareport?Performthecalculationinthe
SQLstatementsitself,useacalculated/summarycolumninthedatamodel.

12. Whatarethedefaultextensionsofthefilescreatedbymenumodule?.mmb,.mmx 13. Whatarethedefaultextensionsofthefilescreatedbyformsmodules?.fmbformmodulebinary.fmx

formmoduleexecutable

14. Todisplaythepagenumberforeachpageonareport,whatwouldbethesource&logicalpage
numberorphysicalpagenumber?

15. Itispossibletouserawdevicesasdatafilesandwhatistheadvantagesoverfilesystemfiles?Yes.
Theadvantagesoverfilesystemfiles.I/OwillbeimprovedbecauseOracleisbypassingthekernelwhenwriting todisk.DiskCorruptionwilldecrease.

16. Whataredisadvantagesofhavingrawdevices?Weshoulddependonexport/importutilityfor
backup/recovery(fullyreliable)Thetarcommandcannotbeusedforphysicalfilebackup,insteadwecanuse ddcommandwhichislessflexibleandhaslimitedrecoveries.

17. Whatisthesignificanceofhavingstorageclause?Wecanplanthestorageforatableashowmuchinitial
extentsarerequired,howmuchcanbeextendednext,howmuch%shouldleavefreeformanagingrow updationsetc.,

18. WhatistheuseofINCTYPEoptioninEXPcommand?TypeexportshouldbeperformedCOMPLETE,
CUMULATIVE,INCREMENTAL.Listthesequenceofeventswhenalargetransactionthatexceedsbeyondits optimalvaluewhenanentrywrapsandcausestherollbacksegmenttoexpandintoanotionCompletes.e.will bewritten.

19. WhatistheuseofFILEoptioninIMPcommand?Thenameofthefilefromwhichimportshouldbe
performed.

20. WhatisaSharedSQLpool?ThedatadictionarycacheisstoredinanareainSGAcalledtheSharedSQL
Pool.ThiswillallowsharingofparsedSQLstatementsamongconcurrentusers.

21. Whatishotbackupandhowitcanbetaken?Takingbackupofarchivelogfileswhendatabaseisopen.For
thistheARCHIVELOGmodeshouldbeenabled.Thefollowingfilesneedtobebackedup.Alldatafiles.All Archivelog,redologfiles.Allcontrolfiles.

22. ListtheOptionalFlexibleArchitecture(OFA)ofOracledatabase?Howcanweorganizethetablespaces
inOracledatabasetohavemaximumperformance?

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J.

SYSTEMDatadictionarytables. DATAStandardoperationaltables. DATA2Statictablesusedforstandardoperations INDEXESIndexesforStandardoperationaltables. INDEXES1Indexesofstatictablesusedforstandardoperations. TOOLSToolstable. TOOLS1Indexesfortoolstable. RBSStandardOperationsRollbackSegments, RBS1,RBS2Additional/SpecialRollbacksegments. TEMPTemporarypurposetablespace

K. TEMP_USERTemporarytablespaceforusers. L. USERSUsertablespace. 23. Howtoimplementthemultiplecontrolfilesforanexistingdatabase? A. Shutdownthedatabase B. Copyoneoftheexistingcontrolfiletonewlocation C. EditConfigorafilebyaddingnewcontrolfilename D. Restartthedatabase. 24. Whatisadvantageofhavingdiskshadowing/Mirroring?Shadowsetofdiskssaveasabackupinthe
eventofdiskfailure.InmostOperatingSystemifanydiskfailureoccursitautomaticallyswitchesovertoa workingdisk.ImprovedperformancebecausemostOSsupportvolumeshadowingcandirectfileI/Orequestto usetheshadowsetoffilesinsteadofthemainsetoffiles.ThisreducesI/Oloadonthemainsetofdisks.

25. Howwillyouforcedatabasetouseparticularrollbacksegment?SETTRANSACTIONUSEROLLBACKS