Check this nice article on A-Z Guide to Being an Architect

A-Z Guide to Being an Architect

FAQ : What is Domain of a column? How it defer from Datatype

Domain of a columm is the set of the values that are applicable for a column. For example, Gender column can have Female or Male so these value make the domain for Gender column.

Though Domain and Datatype looks similar but it is not so. Datatype is the type of data that can be stored in the column . ie. Integer datatype column can only store numeric data.

FAQ : What is the difference between Framework and Standard?

We have heard lot about ITIL and ISOS. Here ITIL is framework where as ISOS is Standard. What is the difference between standard and framework? Have you ever thought about this?

Standard : Standard is something very rigid which should be followed across. Standard will define proper method to do a process. ISOS is a standard.

Framework : Framework is something where you have the boundary defined. It is flexible and not always defined with step by step process. ITIL is a framework.

FAQ : What is SQL Server PRINT equivalent in Oracle

Print In SQL Server
Returns a user-defined message to the client. Mainly Print is used while debugging procedures or triggers.
Eg
PRINT N'This is from first Loop.';

Oracle Equivalent :
What can come close in Oracle is DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE. Dbms_output is a PL/SQL Package which has a put_line procedure which write data to flat file or to direct your PL/SQL output to a screen.

DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('This is from first Loop);

FAQ : What is Oracle Predefined Exceptions equivalent in SQL Server

What is Oracle Predefined Exceptions
An exception is a runtime error or warning condition, which can be predefined or user-defined. Predefined exceptions are raised implicitly (automatically) by the runtime system. User-defined exceptions must be raised explicitly by RAISE statements. To handle raised exceptions, you write separate routines called exception handlers. PL/SQL declares predefined exceptions globally in package STANDARD, which defines the PL/SQL environment. So, you need not declare them yourself.
Here are few examples
NO_DATA_FOUND : A SELECT INTO statement returns no rows, or your program references a deleted element in a nested table or an uninitialized element in an index-by table. SQL aggregate functions such as AVG and SUM always return a value or a null. So, a SELECT INTO statement that calls an aggregate function never raises NO_DATA_FOUND. The FETCH statement is expected to return no rows eventually, so when that happens, no exception is raised.

TOO_MANY_ROWS : A SELECT INTO statement returns more than one row.

DUP_VAL_ON_INDEX : Your program attempts to store duplicate values in a database column that is constrained by a unique index.

Read more about Predefined exceptions here

What is SQL Server Equivalent?

Till SQL Server 2008 we do not have any equivalent. Ie there is no Predefined Exceptions in SQL Server. But this can be achieved by BEGIN TRY .. END TRY BEGIN CATCH … END CATCH. ERROR Number/Message combination.

FAQ : Oracle %ROWTYPE equivalent in SQL Server

What is %ROWTYPE in Oracle?

The %ROWTYPE attribute provides a feature to create Table based or Cursor Based record. Ie. If you have a table with 5 column and you want to select all the five column value of a single record at a stretch instead of declaring 5 scalar variable you just declare a single variable of %ROWTYPE which will intern have all the five column. Consider we have a table called Department with three columns Department_ID, Description and Name. Either you can declare three scalar variable or you can declare single variable of %ROWTYPE attribute. If you want to store a collection (multiple records ) then you can use TABLE OF TableName%RowType;
See the below eg.
DECLARE
Dept_REC DEPARTMENT%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT *
INTO Dept_REC
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE DEPARTMENT_ID = 1;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (' DEPARTMENT ID: '|| Dept_REC.DEPARTMENT_ID);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('COURSE DESCRIPTION: '||
Dept_REC.DESCRIPTION);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('Name: '||
Dept_REC.Name);
END;

SQL Server Equivalent.

In SQL Server what can come close to TABLE OF TableName%RowType is Declare a table type variable (in case it is collection). Another way may be create a #temp table. But temp table method may involve IO which need to be aware of and also in there are limitation where you can create #temp table. For a single row, it is better to declare separate scalar variable for each columns

Table variable Method
Declare @Dept Table (Department_id Int,Name Varchar(100),Description Varchar(1000))
The below statement will insert all the rows from Department to @Dept variable.
Select *INTO @Dept
FROM
Department

Temp table method
Select *into #Temp_Dept
FROM Department
The above statement will create a temp table on the fly. This can be used in Procedure but not in Function.

FAQ : What is SQL Server Profiler equivalent in Oracle

What is SQL Server Profiler?

Microsoft SQL Server Profiler is a graphical user interface to SQL Trace for monitoring an instance of the Database Engine or Analysis Services. You can capture and save data about each event to a file or table to analyze later. For example, you can monitor a production environment to see which stored procedures are affecting performance by executing too slowly. Basically this tool is a wrapper which internally calls SQL Trace system stored procedures. Generally, running profiler is not recommended in production if you need to trace events, then in production it is better to go for SQL Trace system Stored procedure. Refer this link for more info.

Oracle Equivalent . (please note that this is based on my little experience in Oracle and If anyone feels that If I am going wrong please feel free to correct me)

Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)

Oracle offers many ways to trace events which again later version may have new tools and features. In 10 G, Oracle offers Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) which is used to collect statistics including
• Wait events used to identify performance problems.
• Time model statistics indicating the amount of DB time associated with a process from the V$SESS_TIME_MODEL and V$SYS_TIME_MODEL views.
• Active Session History (ASH) statistics from the V$ACTIVE_SESSION_HISTORY view.
• Some system and session statistics from the V$SYSSTAT and V$SESSTAT views.
• Object usage statistics.
• Resource intensive SQL statements.

Read more about AWR here

SQL trace files and TKPROF

If you are still in Oracle 9, you can go for SQL trace files which gives you statement by statement log of SQL and PL/SQL executed by Database Client(s). The SQL Trace facility and TKPROF are two basic performance diagnostic tools that can help you monitor and tune applications running against the Oracle Server. SQL Trace files entries can be classified in to mainly four categories.
• Database calls (parse, execute, and fetch)
• Wait events
• Bind variable values
• Miscellaneous events like timestamps, instance service name, session, module, action, and client
identifier

TKPROF

You can run the TKPROF program to format the contents of the trace file and place the output into a readable output file. Optionally, TKPROF can also:
• Determine the execution plans of SQL statements
• Create a SQL script that stores the statistics in the database
Read more about SQL Trace files and TKPROF here