Pete's Log: Oracle Database 11g: Analytic SQL for Data Warehousing

Entry #1749, (Coding, Hacking, & CS stuff)
(posted when I was 33 years old.)

Yesterday I got to take the one day course "Oracle Database 11g: Analytic SQL for Data Warehousing." It's an official Oracle course, but I received the training through an Oracle training partner in Munich.

It was entertaining. I'd say I already knew about 40% of the course content. Among the material I didn't know were the options for GROUP BY such as CUBE and GROUPING SETS, the PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators, and the MODEL clause.

Even though we went over the material pretty quickly, it was good to be exposed to some new functionality. I can definitely see using the new group by features I learned and the pivot/unpivot feature. On the other hand, while nifty, I don't really ever see myself using the model clause in my current job.

Topics covered that I already knew: analytic functions (I was hoping to learn more in this area), hierarchical queries, and regular expression functions.

But my favorite part of the course was probably learning the keyword UPSERT, because every time the German instructor said it, it sounded like "absurd." Which it quite possibly is.