July 2015, SQL Simantics

Oracle srvctl Basics – Listener and Database Commands

Randy Sims Oracle

When a database is getting started, generally the listener control service (lsnrctl) is started and the database is started by logging into the database and executing the startup command. If you’re in a RAC configuration, you should be using srvctl; this command knows your configuration and works on the entire RAC environment instead of just […]

Convert Decimal to Other Number Systems

Randy Sims Oracle, SQL Fundamentals I

Just for fun, I made a block of code that will convert decimal numbers to any other number system. Maybe I’ll go the other direction next. It’s basically a loop. It takes the remainder of the original number divided by the number system (MOD) and adds that to a string. The string is made by […]

110-Year-Old Computer that Plays Music: the Marenghi 81-Key Organ

Randy Sims Miscellany

To quote Wikipedia, “A computer is a general-purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, the computer can solve more than one kind of problem.” Given the early devices seen over the centuries, I think this is […]

Generate Random Values

Randy Sims Oracle

One of the best builtin packages in Oracle for anyone who needs to create random data is DBMS_RANDOM. Not only can you use it to create random values, but you can also use it to make random selections. For instance, if you have a list of values that you want to assign randomly, you can weight […]