PL/SQL Build_SUID_Matrix Package Tips   Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

Managing Standardized PL/SQL Code

Oracle stores the source code for PL/SQL objects inside the ALL_SOURCE view of the Remote DBA_SOURCE table in the SYS schema. This allows you to query the most recent source code for a procedure or function from the database.

If the coding standards are followed fairly closely, it’s possible to write scripts that work with your source code to assist you in your documentation efforts. Included on the CD-ROM is a script that takes full advantage of the coding standards to collect information about and document source code.

The PL/SQL Build_SUID_Matrix Package

Oracle stores dependencies in the ALL_DEPENDENCIES view, but this information exists only at the object-to-object and object-to-table levels. The view cannot, for instance, state precisely which objects perform INSERT statements on a specific table.

The Build_SUID_Matrix package was designed to locate all references to tables within a specified PL/SQL object. The procedures and functions in the package locate table references and sort the references by type (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and %TYPE or %ROWTYPE). The package populates the SUID_MATRIX table with this information.

Once the SUID_MATRIX table is fully populated, a query can be run to see precisely which objects access a specified table or which tables a specified object references. This is particularly useful when:

•  Examining the impact of creating a new index.

•  Examining the impact of altering a table’s structure.

•  Determining which objects perform a particular type of operation against a table.

Improving The Build_SUID_Matrix Package

There are a number of potential improvements that can be made to the Build_SUID_Matrix package:

•  Improving the level of detail determined to the column level. Knowing which objects modify data in a table is very useful, but if 20 routines update a table and only a few routines update a particular column that has a suspect value, it’s even quicker to find the routines that modify the value in that column.

•  Recognizing objects within packages. The current implementation of the package only recognizes objects to the package level and doesn’t differentiate between procedures and functions within the package.

This is an excerpt from "High Performance Oracle Database Automation", by Jonathan Ingram and Donald K. Burleson, Series Editor.

 

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