What's New in Applic ation Development?

The following sections give an overview of new application development features introduced in this release and some previous releases of the database. Related documentation on each feature is cross-referenced when it is available.

New Application Development Features in Oracle Database 10g Release 1

This section discusses new features introduced in Oracle Database 10g Release& nbsp;1 (10.1).

• Regular Expression Support< /strong>

  A set of SQL functions introduced in this release let you perform queries and m anipulate string data using regular expressions. See Chapter 12, "Using Regular Expressions With Oracle Database" for more information.

• Oracle Expr ession Filter

  Oracle Expression Filter lets you store conditional expressions i n a column that you can use in the WHERE clause of a database query. See "Representing Conditional Exp ressions as Data" for more information.

  See Also: Oracle Database SQL Reference

• Native floating-point datatypes

  Column datatypes BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE are introduced in this release. These dataty pes provide an alternative to using the Oracle NUMBER datatype, with the following benefits:

  • More efficient use of storage resources
  • Faster arithmetic operations
  • Support for numerical algorithms specified in the IEEE 754 Standard

  Support for native floating-point datatypes in bind and fetch o perations is provided for the following client interfaces:

  • SQL< /li>
  • PL/SQL
  • OCI
  • OCCI
  • Pro*C/C++
  • JDBC

    See Also: "Representing Numeric Data with Number and Floating-Point Datatypes"

• Terabyte-Size Large Object (LOB) support

  This release provides support for terabyte-size LOB values (from 8 to 128 terabytes) in the following programmatic environ ments:

  • Java (JDBC)
  • OCI
  • PL/SQL (package DBMS_LOB)

  You can store and manipulate LOB (BLOB, CLOB, and NCLOB) datatypes large r than 4GB.

  See Also: For details on terabyte-size LOB support: Oracle Database Ap plication Developer's Guide - Large Objects Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide

• Flashback
  < p class="BP1">This release has new and enhanced flashback features. You can now do the following:
  • Query the transaction history of a row.
  • Obta in the SQL undo syntax for a row, to perform row-level flashback operations.
  • Pe rform remote queries of past data.

    See Also: Chapter 15, "Using Flashback Featu res"

• Oracle Data Provider for .NET

  Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET) is a new programmati c environment that implements a data provider for Oracle Database. It uses APIs native to Oracle Database to offer fast and reliable access from any .NET application to database features and data. ODP.NET also uses and inherits classes and interfaces available in th e Microsoft .NET Framework Class Library.

  See Also: Oracle Data Provider for .NET Developer's Guide

• Enhancements to Flashback Query

  You can perform an Oracle Flashba ck Query using the AS OF clause of the SELECT statement rather than going through the DBMS_FLASHBACK< /code> package. This technique is very flexible, allowing you to perform joins, set operations, subqueries, and views using different date/time or SCN settings for each table in the query. You can also restore or capture past data by using a Flashback Query inside a n INSERT or CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statement.

  See Also: "Using Flashback Features"

• Using PL/SQL Records in INSERT and UPDATE Statements

  When you represent related data items using a PL/SQL record, you can perform insert and update ope rations using the entire record, instead of specifying each record field separately.

  See Also: PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference

• Ability to rename constraints

  If a data management application experiences problems because it tries to create a constraint when the const raint already exists, you can rename the existing constraint to avoid the conflict. If you track down a constraint with a cryptic sys tem-generated name, you can give it a descriptive name to make it easier to enable and disable later.

  < /a>See Also: "Renaming Integrity Constraints"

• Enhanced support for NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB types < p>

  These globalization-support types can now be used as attributes of SQL and PL/SQL object t ypes, and in PL/SQL collection types such as varrays and nested tables.

• New XML programming capabilities

  New and enhanced built-in ty pes, such as XMLType and XDBURIType, let you delegate XML parsing, storage, and retrieval to the database.

  < /tr>

  See Also: < em class="Italic">Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide

• Enhanced UTL_FILE package

  The UTL_FILE package has a number of new functions for performing popular file operations. You can seek, auto-flush, read and write binary data, delete files, change file permissions, and more. Use the CREA TE DIRECTORY statement (using double quotation marks around any lowercase names), rather than the UTL_FILE_DIR in itialization parameter.

  See Also: PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference for details about these enhancements

User-defined constructors

You can now override the system default constructor for an object type with your own constructor function.

See Also: PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference

• Access to LOB data within triggers

  You can access or change LOB data within BEFO RE and INSTEAD OF triggers, using the :NEW variable.

  See Also: "Example: Modifying LOB Columns with a Trigger"

• Synonyms for types

  You can now define synonyms for types.

  See Also: Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for details on creating synonyms

• Scrollable cursors in Pro*C/C++ applications

  Scrollable cursors let you move forward and backward through the result set in a Pro*C/C++ appli cation.

  See Also: "Highlights of Pro*C/C++ Features"

• Support for Connection Po oling in Pro*C/C++

  The Connection Pool feature in Pro*C/C++ helps you optimize the performance of Pro*C/C++ applications.

  See Also: "Highlights of Pro*C/C++ Features"

• Better linking in online documentation

  Many of the cross-references f rom this book to other books have been made more specific, so that they link to a particular place within another book rather than to its table of contents. If you are reading a printed copy of this book, you can find the online equivalent, with full search capabili ty, at http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/.

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/
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