Question

How can i determine which Oracle object a select will resolve to - using a simple command or query?

Asked by: NOVA_Chemicals

The UNIX command "which" returns the path to the actual executable for the command line. IN ORACLE, how can I determine "which" TABLE will be accessed considering tables, views and synonyms?

Example:
chinfdev 22: which sqlldr
/oracle/product/10.2.0E/bin/sqlldr

Oracle Example:
PUBLIC synonym Big_Table = SomeSchema.Some_Table

In SomeSchema there is a VIEW Some_Table = select * from Real_Table where shipped = 'YES';

So I want to ask

sql> which Big_Table
and get back
OWNER = SomeSchema
TABLE = Real_Table
CONDITION = VIEW Some_Table
...or something like that!

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Asked On
2009-10-05 at 08:24:53ID24785742
Tags

Oracle object

,

resolved path

Topics

Oracle Product Info

,

Oracle 9.x

,

Oracle 10.x

Participating Experts
3
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-05 at 09:17:06ID: 25496669

what if your view is on more than one table?

what do you want displayed?

 

by: mrjoltcolaPosted on 2009-10-05 at 09:33:04ID: 25496819

Normally I recommend you look, first, at the view USER_OBJECTS for arbitrary objects.

 select * from USER_OBJECTS where object_name = 'SOME_TABLE'

In this case if you know it is a view, look right to USER_VIEWS

 select text from USER_VIEWS where view_name = 'SOME_TABLE'

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-06 at 11:10:24ID: 25507965

To answer your question, there is no equivalent function in Oracle that works similar to the UNIX which or whence functions.  There is an order in which local objects are retrived versus synonymed objects -- but you would still have to reverse engineer the statement to get its db objects.

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-06 at 21:13:33ID: 25512165

this was an interesting question.  Why doesn't oracle provide such a function?

So I wrote one...

This will return a "path" of each synonym to the final object including type

  OWNER.OBJECT_NAME(SYNONYM)/NEXTOWNER.NEXTOBJECT(SYNONYM)/FINALOWNER.FINALOBJECT(OBJECTTYPE)/

It does NOT traverse links,  if your synonym chain wanders outside your database the search will end.

Also note, it does NOT display dependencies of the final object.  So, if your chain ends in a view that queries 4 tables and 2 other views, you'll have to query dba_dependencies to find those.

You might ask why I didn't use a hierarchical query instead of a recursive function.
The reason is the hierarchy could fork with a false positive if a name could resolve to both a private object and a public synonym.


CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION resolve_name(p_object      IN VARCHAR2,
                                        p_delimiter   IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT ' / ' ,
                                        p_owner       IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT USER )
    RETURN VARCHAR2
IS
    v_owner         dba_objects.owner%TYPE;
    v_object        dba_objects.object_name%TYPE;
    v_object_type   dba_objects.object_type%TYPE;
    v_temp          VARCHAR2(32767);
BEGIN
    BEGIN
        SELECT   object_type
          INTO   v_object_type
          FROM   dba_objects
         WHERE   object_name = p_object AND owner = p_owner;
 
        v_temp   := p_owner || '.' || p_object || '(' || v_object_type || ')' || p_delimiter;
 
        IF v_object_type = 'SYNONYM' THEN
            SELECT   table_owner, table_name
              INTO   v_owner, v_object
              FROM   dba_synonyms
             WHERE   synonym_name = p_object AND owner = p_owner;
 
            v_temp   := v_temp || resolve_name(v_object, p_delimiter, v_owner);
        END IF;
    EXCEPTION
        WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
            BEGIN
                SELECT   table_owner, table_name
                  INTO   v_owner, v_object
                  FROM   dba_synonyms
                 WHERE   synonym_name = p_object AND owner = 'PUBLIC';
 
                v_temp   :=
                       v_temp
                    || 'PUBLIC.'
                    || p_object
                    || '(SYNONYM)'
                    || p_delimiter
                    || resolve_name(v_object, p_delimiter, v_owner);
            EXCEPTION
                WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
                    v_temp   := NULL;
            END;
    END;
 
    RETURN v_temp;
END resolve_name;
                                              
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by: mrjoltcolaPosted on 2009-10-07 at 08:54:25ID: 25516837

Neato!

An Oracle version of "which".

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-07 at 09:05:36ID: 25516940

Glad you like it! Hopefully the asker will too.  :)

I'm open to suggestions for enhancements

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-07 at 09:59:49ID: 25517508

Looks like Sean has a head start of getting to speak at IOUG next year... NICE.

 

by: sdstuberPosted on 2009-10-07 at 10:00:58ID: 25517518

I've already submitted my proposal and abstract.  
They accepted last year, hopefully this year too.

 

by: dvzPosted on 2009-10-07 at 10:06:00ID: 25517568

WOOT!  If I can ever hands my hands around EBS / FND services I may have a go at it.  There's no documentation for what I need to do -- at least, none I've found.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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