Finding Wrong Hints
Introduction I use the Oracle Database since many years. And I use hints. For experiments, but also in production code. There are cases when you know more than the Oracle Database. For example about the cardinality of a data source or the number of result…
Do Not Format Invalid Code in SQL Developer
Introduction What happens when you call the formatter in SQL Developer for invalid code? Until recently SQL Developer tried to format it anyway. This produced strange results in some cases. Starting with SQL Developer version 21.2.0 there is a hidden option to suppress formatting when…
Accessing Snowflake from SQL Developer
My first day of work this year was a training day. As a participant in a “Snowflake Fundamentals” training course. I opted for the four-day, multi-week option so that I would have time to better absorb what I had just learned. Tomorrow is my third…
Formatter Callback Functions
Introduction In this blog post I explained how the formatter in SQL Developer works and outlined how you can change the formatter result using Arbori and JavaScript. In this post I explain what exactly the provided formatter callback functions do. For that I use simple…
Patching SQL Developer 20.2 with SQLcl’s Formatter
Introduction SQLcl 20.3.0 was released on October 29, 2020. It’s the first time I remember that we have a SQLcl version without the corresponding SQL Developer version. This is a pity because this SQLcl version also contains formatter fixes. And formatting code is something I…
Navigation in Large PL/SQL Code
Are you editing large PL/SQL code in SQL Developer? Have you noticed that sometimes you cannot navigate to a declaration anymore? No Ctrl-Click under Windows. No Command-Click under macOS. In this blog post I explain the reason and how to fix that in SQL Developer…
Disable Formatter for Code Sections in SQL Developer
In this blog post I show how you can disable the formatter for some parts of your code. IntelliJ IDEA and the Eclipse IDE use tags in comments to identify sections of code that must not be formatted. By default these tags are @formatter:off and…
Highlight Hints in SQL Developer
Introduction In this blog post I explain how you can configure your SQL Developer to highlight hints and distinguish them from ordinary comments. The SQL Language Reference for Oracle Database 19c defines hints as follows: Hints are comments in a SQL statement that pass instructions…
Formatting SQL Code Blocks in Markdown Files
Introduction Everything Changes. Our Trivadis SQL & PL/SQL Coding Guidelines are no exceptions. We plan to change rule #1 of our coding styles. From “Keywords are written uppercase, names are written in lowercase.” to “Keywords and names are written in lowercase.“. We have 103 Markdown…
Formatting SQL Scripts in a Directory Tree with SQLcl
Introduction Oracle’s SQL Developer can format code in any worksheet and PL/SQL editor. The formatter is highly configurable and the default formatting results are becoming better with every version. Oracle’s SQLcl is a command-line tool. It’s a stripped down version of SQL Developer and known…