Tools Support

Oracle provides a number of utilities to facilitate your SQL development process:

• Oracle SQL Developer is a graphical tool that lets you browse, create, edit, and delete (drop) database objects, edit and debug PL/SQL code, run SQL statements and scripts, manipulate and export data, and create and view reports. With SQL Developer, you can connect to any target Oracle Database schema using standard Oracle Database authentication. Once connected, you can perform operations on objects in the database. You can also connect to schemas for selected third-party (non-Oracle) databases, such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Access, view metadata and data in these databases, and migrate these databases to Oracle.

• SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool that is installed with every Oracle Database server or client installation. It has a command-line user interface and a Web-based user interface called iSQL*Plus.

• Oracle JDeveloper is a multiple-platform integrated development environment supporting the complete lifecycle of development for Java, Web services, and SQL. It provides a graphical interface for executing and tuning SQL statements and a visual schema diagrammer (database modeler). It also supports editing, compiling, and debugging PL/SQL applications.

• Oracle Application Express is a hosted environment for developing and deploying database-related Web applications. SQL Workshop is a component of Oracle Application Express that lets you view and manage database objects from a Web browser. SQL Workshop offers quick access to a SQL command processor and a SQL script repository.

The Oracle Call Interface and Oracle precompilers let you embed standard SQL statements within a procedure programming language.

• The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) lets you embed SQL statements in C programs.

• The Oracle precompilers, Pro*C/C++ and Pro*COBOL, interpret embedded SQL statements and translate them into statements that can be understood by C/C++ and COBOL compilers, respectively.

Most (but not all) Oracle tools also support all features of Oracle SQL. This reference describes the complete functionality of SQL. If the Oracle tool that you are using does not support this complete functionality, then you can find a discussion of the restrictions in the manual describing the tool, such as SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.