NewsForge: Why I prefer Open Source databases.
I've been working with databases for many years. I started out with Oracle and Informix then used a little Sybase. Then I discovered open source and used mSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL pretty extensively. Most recently I've been working with Oracle again, and just started playing with MSSQL. Why is any of this important? It's important because I've seen the good and the bad of all these systems. And perhaps even more important are my conclusions after 10 years of working with RDBMS'.
Anyone else ever heard of WebGUI? And it does seem very strange that Oracle doesn't support LEFT OUTER JOINs. I don't believe it. I'm also pretty sure that MSSQL does.
Whoa, ok - I needed some corroboration before I believed what he said about Oracle, and here it is. Check out the syntax of Oracle's SELECT statement. Just do a find on "outer" and you'll get the syntax diagram thingy and later you'll get examples using the crappy (+) thing. Granted, this is for Oracle 8, but has Oracle 9 changed it?
Ok, here's some documentation on Transact-SQL (MSSQL's SQL flavor) with examples using LEFT OUTER JOINs. This is for SQL Server 2000, I haven't checked SQL Server 7 - and in fact it appears they don't have the documentation specific to SQL Server 7 available.
Cool, check out http://docs.oracle.com/ and http://tahiti.oracle.com/, the Oracle documentation search engine. Oracle 9i does seem to support LEFT OUTER JOIN.
Monday, September 16, 2002
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I'm almost sure it does, but it does use that wierd-ass syntax that Oracle uses for these things. You've got me wondering now - I'm going to have to ask my buddy Pete, who happens to have a lot more experience working with Oracle that I do. Hmm...