Another Oracle 9iDSR2 FORMS question, creating a datablock from a view ?

Hi!

Well I'm not very concerned what you think about how I name anything. That is up to me.

But most important in my opinion is, if Oracle allows space, &, % or whatever in table, column name and so on,
then their own freaking building and admin tools should be able to handle that now shouldn't they.

Well when the FORMS builder and all it's wizards are called 9i, they should be compatible with the 9i database, shouldn't they.
I would agree for forms 4.5 or 6i, but come on, this is 9i and year 2003, the database have handled spaces for a long time.
It's about time the bulding and admin tools start handling it too.

Regards
/Hasse

Oracle only allows "space, &, % or whatever in table, column names" if you use double quotes around them every time you reference them.  That's not my idea of fun, or of good use of time.  Use table and column names that Oracle accepts by default (using letters, numbers and the underscore character only) and you should have no trouble.

In the wizard, columns marked with an "A" are varchar2 (or possibly char) columns.  Those with "789" are number columns.

Hi!

Well it dosen't matter how much pain it might be at times using quotes, if the DB supports it so should the tools for it do.

Else it's like saying to a car owner you can user leaded but you shouldn't, so when he uses leaded and the car won't work then
manufacturer just sais well I told you, you shouldn't use leaded. That's just plain stupid in my opinion.

Regards
/Hasse

Heskyttberg,

You are right in saying it is inconsistent for Oracle to allow such column names, but then not support them fully in all its tools.  Probably no one thought to test for that, because in reality no one ever uses names like that - well ALMOST no one!  I don't really know why they are supported at all - perhaps to enable "easy" conversion from other databases (not so "easy" when you realise all your SQL doesn't work until you edit in the double quotes).

You are also right in saying it is "up to you" how to name your columns, you don't have to satisfy my tastes.  However, even if there were not issues like Forms failing to support such names properly, I think it would be perverse of you (and unkind to users) to use them out of choice.  If your column is called "Val 1" then NONE of the following selects will work:

select Val 1 from ANTAGNA_KURS_VAL;

select "VAL 1" from ANTAGNA_KURS_VAL;

select "val 1" from ANTAGNA_KURS_VAL;

You are forced to quote, and you are forced to be case-sensitive.

Feel free to reject my opinion and Mark's, but it is given with good intentions: querying a database should be made as easy as possible, not confounded by column names that force users to type quotes and use the shift key unnecessarily.  

Thanks for the points anyway!

Good point, Andrew!

Just because Oracle "supports" something (like spaces in column names, mixed case table or column names, char datatype, 100's of columns per tables, etc.) that doesn't mean it's a good idea to use those features.

Hi!

Well it dosen't matter if it's a good idea or not, if supported it should be fully supported.
I'm also aware of the case sensitivity.

That is the same thing as for selects:

Even if I name my column val1.

Select Val1 from table;
select val1 from table;
select vAl1 from table;

Will all generate their own execution plans, this is also a bit stupid in my opinion since it isn't case sensitive unless
you use quotes and as you say almost nothing besides the DB supports that.

I still argue if supported so should it be in the tools, better to remove it instead.
Can cause very strange results if trying to convert some simple things from Access which doublequotes everything.

I usually do use the naming convention you suggest, this was only for a small project for a university course.
And I thought it would be nive to get columns names the way I wanted without doing an 'as'.
But I never thought FORMS buldier wouldn't support it.

Regards
/Hans - Erik Skyttberg