What Is an Oracle Data File?

An Oracle data file is a big unit of physical storage in the OS file system. One
or many Oracle data files are organized together to provide physical storage to
a single Oracle tablespace.
What Is a Static Data Dictionary?
Data dictionary tables are not directly accessible, but you can access informati
on in them through data dictionary views. To list the data dictionary views avai
lable to you, query the view DICTIONARY. Many data dictionary tables have three
corresponding views:
An ALL_ view displays all the information accessible to the current user, includ
ing information from the current user's schema as well as information from objec
ts in other schemas, if the current user has access to those objects by way of g
rants of privileges or roles.
A DBA_ view displays all relevant information in the entire database. DBA_ views
are intended only for administrators. They can be accessed only by users with t
he SELECT ANY TABLE privilege. This privilege is assigned to the DBA role when t
he system is initially installed.
A USER_ view displays all the information from the schema of the current user. N
o special privileges are required to query these views.
What Is a Dynamic Performance View?
Oracle contains a set of underlying views that are maintained by the database se
rver and accessible to the database administrator user SYS. These views are call
ed dynamic performance views because they are continuously updated while a datab
ase is open and in use, and their contents relate primarily to performance. Alth
ough these views appear to be regular database tables, they are not. These views
provide data on internal disk structures and memory structures. You can select
from these views, but you can never update or alter them.
What Is a Recycle Bin?
Recycle bin is a logical storage to hold the tables that have been dropped from
the database, in case it was dropped in error. Tables in recycle bin can be reco
vered back into database by the Flashback Drop action. Oracle database recycle s
ave the same purpose as the recycle bin on your Windows desktop.
Recycle bin can be turned on or off in the recyclebin=on/off in your parametere
file.
What Is SQL*Plus?
SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool that is installed with every Ora
cle Database Server or Client installation. It has a command-line user interface
, a Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the iSQL*Plus web-based user inte
rface.
What Is Transport Network Substrate (TNS)?
TNS, Transport Network Substrate, is a foundation technology, built into the Ora
cle Net foundation layer that works with any standard network transport protocol
.
What Is Open Database Communication (ODBC)?
ODBC, Open Database Communication, a standard API (application program interface
) developed by Microsoft for Windows applications to communicate with database m
anagement systems.
Oracle offers ODBC drivers to allow Windows applications to connect Oracle serve
r through ODBC.
What Is SQL*Plus?
SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool that is installed with every Ora
cle Database Server or Client installation. It has a command-line user interface
, a Windows Graphical User Interface (GUI) and the iSQL*Plus web-based user inte
rface.
SQL*Plus has its own commands and environment, and it provides access to the Ora
cle Database. It enables you to enter and execute SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus and oper
ating system commands to perform the following:
Format, perform calculations on, store, and print from query results
Examine table and object definitions
Develop and run batch scripts
Perform database administration
You can use SQL*Plus to generate reports interactively, to generate reports as b
atch processes, and to output the results to text file, to screen, or to HTML fi
le for browsing on the Internet. You can generate reports dynamically using the
HTML output facility of SQL*Plus, or using the dynamic reporting capability of i
SQL*Plus to run a script from a web page.
How To Start the Command-Line SQL*Plus?
If you Oracle server or client installed on your windows system, you can start t
he command-line SQL*Plus in two ways:
1. Click Start > All Programs > Oracle ... > Start SQL Command Line. The SQL*Plu
s command window will show up with a message like this:
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Tue ...
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
SQL>
2. Click Start > Run..., enter "cmd" and click OK. A Windows command window will
show up. You can then use Windows commands to start the command-line SQL*Plus a
s shown in the tutorial exercise below:
>cd c:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\
>.\bin\sqlplus /nolog
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Tue ...
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
SQL>
How To Get Help at the SQL Prompt?
Once SQL*Plus is started, you will get a SQL prompt like this: SQL>. This where
you can enter commands for SQL*Plus to run.
To get help information at the SQL prompt, you can use the HELP command as shown
in the following tutorial example:
SQL> HELP INDEX
Enter Help [topic] for help.
@ COPY PAUSE SHUTDOWN
@@ DEFINE PRINT SPOOL
/ DEL PROMPT SQLPLUS
ACCEPT DESCRIBE QUIT START
APPEND DISCONNECT RECOVER STARTUP
ARCHIVE LOG EDIT REMARK STORE
ATTRIBUTE EXECUTE REPFOOTER TIMING
BREAK EXIT REPHEADER TTITLE
...
COMPUTE LIST SET XQUERY
CONNECT PASSWORD SHOW

SQL> HELP CONNECT
CONNECT
-------
Connects a given username to the Oracle Database. When you
run a CONNECT command, the site profile, glogin.sql, and
the user profile, login.sql, are processed in that order.
CONNECT does not reprompt for username or password if the
initial connection does not succeed.
CONN[ECT] [{logon|/|proxy} [AS {SYSOPER|SYSDBA}]]
where logon has the following syntax:
username[/password][@connect_identifier]