Archive for June 2008
FLASHBACK TABLE vs. DBA_OBJECTS . LAST_DDL_TIME
NOTE: This post originally appeared on The Pythian Group blog on 6 June 2008, and is reposted here with permission.
A little over a week ago, a teammate and I were trying to use Oracle’s FLASHBACK TABLE to undo an “oops” UPDATE statement that a client’s developers had run on one of their test databases, clearing data from two columns in all rows of the table. The statement was actually part of a script that also contained ALTER TABLE statements to add columns. This is important to note because FLASHBACK TABLE will only let you go back as far as the most recent DDL against that table. To quote the SQL reference, “Oracle Database cannot restore a table to an earlier state across any DDL operations that change the structure of the table.”
A Traveller’s Woe
Having spent 3 weeks in Ottawa, I was very much looking forward to returning home to my family last Friday evening. The itinerary was simple: fly out of Ottawa at 7:30 PM EDT, land in Chicago at 8:30 CDT, fly out of Chicago at 9:30 and land in Green Bay at 10:30 PM CDT where my lovely wife would pick me up and bring me home.
Upon arriving at the airport in Ottawa, I discovered that my flight was delayed due to bad weather in Chicago. I literally threw my head back in despair. My flight from Green Bay to Chicago 3 weeks prior had also been delayed 3 hours due to bad weather in Chicago. Fortunately the flight from Chicago to Ottawa was also delayed in departing so I just made it before they closed the doors. This fortune would not repeat itself.
die Updates
Just dropping a line to let everyone know that the large part of my tech blogging will now be at the Pythian Group blog. I’ll keep this blog space open and post links to my new posts over there. I’m still searching for the balance of what will be strictly over there vs. what content will be just here, so please bear with me.
