Tag: Database

Why database should be taught before programming in universities?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin .Net, Android, AngularJS, ASP.Net, C/C++, C#, Database, HTML/CSS, Javascript, jQuery, MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PHP, Ruby, Web Development, XMLLeave a Comment on Why database should be taught before programming in universities?
Database Programming
Learn Database before Coding

Often students from the initial semester ask me how do we store our data in our programming projects? When students join university to learn about computer science and technology they are usually taught programming first in courses like introduction to programming. As part of the coursework, students are required to work on a project. The majority of the projects, in fact almost all projects involve data handling and that data needs to be stored somewhere, usually in databases.

Problems Students Face

As a novice students don’t know how to store data. One option is to store data in plain text files if filing is taught to them but in that case, their project becomes too complex for them. In my opinion, file format is an advanced topic for students that have just started learning how to program. So, students get stuck on where and how to store data. They create variables and arrays to store data in memory but that is not very useful until they have the option to store their data somewhere permanently that they can retrieve later. Otherwise, every time they run their project they have to feed data from the beginning.

Teach Database Before Programming

If universities modify their courses and add database in the first semester and replace programming courses with it then it would be easier for students to get started in computer science degree. Introduction to databases is a relatively easier course than programming and students will know what a database is, how to store data in the database, and how to retrieve it later using SQL. Then in the next semester if they do a programming course then it will require only one lecture to teach them how to access a database from your code and how to store and retrieve data. That will make their projects more valuable and make more sense to them and they can take it to an advanced level in forthcoming courses.

Your Take?

What is your opinion? Please, let me know in the comments.

Click here to read more about Databases.

Laravel: Specified key was too long error on migration

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin MySQL, PHP, Web, Web DevelopmentLeave a Comment on Laravel: Specified key was too long error on migration

When you install a new Laravel project with ‘laravel new’ and run the migration that comes with it you might get the following error:

#php artisan migrate
Migration table created successfully.


 [Illuminate\Database\QueryException]
 SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes (SQL: alter table `users` add unique `users_email_unique`(`email`))

[PDOException]
 SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 767 bytes

To solve this error edit your app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php file.

Add the namespace:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

and then add the following line in boot() method of your AppServiceProvider class.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
 /**
 * Bootstrap any application services.
 *
 * @return void
 */
 public function boot()
 {
   Schema::defaultStringLength(191);
 } 
}

This should solve your problem. Just delete all the tables and rerun the migration.

Click here to read more about Laravel.

How to Find a Stored Procedure in all the Databases?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Database, Microsoft, MS SQL Server, TechnologyLeave a Comment on How to Find a Stored Procedure in all the Databases?

When working with MS SQL Server sometimes you need to find a stored procedure in the databases and all that you know is the name of the stored procedure that your teammate told you that he had used but couldn’t remember in which database it was. All the information about the stored procedures created is saved in the master database. So, if you have access to the master database, you can run the following query to get information about the stored procedure.

select * 
from 
   sys.procedures 
where 
   name like '%name_of_proc%'

This will tell you in which schema you will find the stored procedure. Even, if you want to look into the code you can do so by running the following query.

select text 
from 
    syscomments c
    inner join sys.procedures p on p.object_id = c.id
where 
    p.name like '%name_of_proc%'

The text field contains the code of the stored procedure.

Let me know in the comments if you find this helpful or if you have any other ways to find the stored procedures.

Searching Lowercase data in MS SQL Server

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Database, Microsoft, MS SQL Server, TechnologyLeave a Comment on Searching Lowercase data in MS SQL Server

A few days back I came across a requirement to fetch the records from the table having all lowercase letters. This was an interesting scenario. The SQL Server database by default is set for case-insensitive. But, I need to do a case-sensitive search. Case-sensitive search in SQL Server can be achieved in two ways. Either by using COLLATE or by using BINARY_CHECKSUM().

  • COLLATE is the T-SQL clause used to define collation.
  • BINARY_CHECKSUM() is a built-in system function used to compare the binary checksum value.

In this article, I will show you how to use both options. In addition to the lowercase search, I’ll show you the uppercase search and mixed case search as well. 

To start with the experiment, let’s create a table.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[MyTecBits_Table_1](

[Sl_no] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,

[Name] [varchar](50) NULL,

[Description] [varchar](500) NULL

) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

Insert records some with all lowercase, some with all uppercase and some with mixed case.

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘MYTECBITS’,’THISWEBSITEHASBITSANDPIECESOFTECHNICALINFORMATION’)

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘mytecbits’,’thiswebsitehasbitsandpiecesoftechnicalinformation’)

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘MyTecBits’,’ThisWebSiteHasBitsAndPiecesOfTechnicalInformation’)

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘MY TEC BITS’,’THIS WEB SITE HAS BITS AND PIECES OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION’)

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘my tec bits’,’this web site has bits and pieces of technical information’)

insert into MyTecBits_Table_1 values (‘My Tec Bits’,’This Web Site Has Bits And Pieces Of Technical Information’)

SQL Server Case-Sensitive Search

 

Now our test table with test strings with different case types is ready for our experiment.

Fetching all lowercase records:

Fetching only the rows having all lowercase in one of the columns using COLLATE method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where Name COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AI = Lower(Name)

Fetching only the rows having all lowercase in one of the columns using the BINARY_CHECKSUM() method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where BINARY_CHECKSUM(Name) = BINARY_CHECKSUM(Lower(Name))

See the results for lower case search:

SQL Server Case-Sensitive Search

 

Fetching all uppercase records:

Similar to fetching the lowercase string, we can search for an uppercase string just by changing the LOWER string function to the UPPER string function. See the example below.

Fetching only the rows having all uppercase in one of the columns using COLLATE method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where Name COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AI = Upper(Name)

Fetching only the rows having all uppercase in one of the columns using the BINARY_CHECKSUM() method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where BINARY_CHECKSUM(Name) = BINARY_CHECKSUM(Upper(Name))

See the results for upper case search:

SQL Server Case-Sensitive Search

Fetching only the mixed case records:

Just like uppercase and lowercase sensitive search, we can search for mixed case records by combining upper and lowercase search conditions.

Fetching only the rows having mixed cases in one of the columns using COLLATE method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where Name COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AI != Upper(Name) and Name COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AI != Lower(Name)

Fetching only the rows having all mixed cases in one of the columns using the BINARY_CHECKSUM() method.

select * from MyTecBits_Table_1 where BINARY_CHECKSUM(Name) != BINARY_CHECKSUM(Upper(Name)) and BINARY_CHECKSUM(Name) != BINARY_CHECKSUM(Lower(Name))

See the results for mixed case search:

SQL Server Case-Sensitive Search

Click here to read more on the Databases.

[This article was originally published here]

How to change expired password in Oracle?

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Oracle, TechnologyLeave a Comment on How to change expired password in Oracle?
In Oracle when the password is expired you will get the following error:
ORA-28001: the password has expired
This is because the password has reached 180 Default limit for a Password lifetime.
Solutions:
1.  Connect to the database using sys users.
2. Execute the following query
Sql > select * from dba_profiles;
the output of this query will be like.
 
Here PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME field is responsible for expiring of the password after 180 days.
3.  Execute the following command to disable this feature:
Sql> ALTER PROFILE DEFAULT LIMIT PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME UNLIMITED;
4. Now crosscheck for disabling this feature.
Sql > select * from dba_profiles;
 
The value in PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME has changed to unlimited. Now password will never expire.
5. Now change the password of the locked user and unlock using the following.
sql> alter user [user_name] identified by [password];sql> alter user [User_name] account unlock;

6. Crosscheck by the value of accout_status field in dba_users view.

sql> select username,account_status from dba_users;

The value of the account_status filed should be “OPEN” for the corresponding user.

INSERT new rows from a result of SELECT query

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin MySQL, Technology, Web, Web DevelopmentLeave a Comment on INSERT new rows from a result of SELECT query

There were numerous times when I needed to insert records in the table from a result of another SELECT query, or copy data from one table to another. And every time I forgot the syntax of insert…select query. So I thought I should write it somewhere and blog is the best place for this 🙂

A very basic example of insert…select query is:

INSERT INTO tbl_temp2 (fld_id)
  SELECT tbl_temp1.fld_order_id
  FROM tbl_temp1 WHERE tbl_temp1.fld_order_id > 100;

Use this as a reference and build your own query. You can use joins as well. If you use MySQL and want further details see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/insert-select.html.

MySQL Installation and Configuration

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Microsoft, MySQL, Technology, WindowsLeave a Comment on MySQL Installation and Configuration

Since I have been involved with MySQL development for last several years, so I constantly look for good resources related to MySQL. I found a very good article on this at IIS site (http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/610/walkthrough—set-up-mysql-51-for-php-applications/). I thought I should refer that to my blog. I am providing whole article as it is here.

Overview

This article provides a basic step by step guide on how to install and configure MySQL on the Windows Operating System. For more detailed instructions about installing and configuring MySQL on Windows refer to the official MySQL documentation.

Downloading and Installing MySQL

The MySQL binaries and installer can be downloaded from the official MySQL site. The instructions in this article are based on MySQL version 5.1 Community Edition installed with the Windows MSI installer.

Run the installer and choose the installation option. For a majority of the cases, the typical installation is sufficient:

However, if you want to control which components get installed or if you want to use a non-default installation path then choose the “Custom” option.

When the installation is complete, make sure to check the box to “Configure the MySQL Server now”. This will launch the “MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard” that will guide you through the configuration process for the MySQL instance.

Configuring MySQL instance

Follow these steps in the “MySQL Server Instance Configuration Wizard” to optimize the MySQL configuration for the kind of tasks you expect it to perform.

On the first page of the wizard choose “Detailed Configuration”:

On the next page choose the server type option:

Choose the “Database Usage” option:

The Database usage options control what kind of database storage engine is used on the server:

  • MyISAM – Optimized for high performance SELECT operations. It has low overhead in terms of memory usage and disk utilization, but at the cost of not supporting transactions
  • InnoDB – Provides fully ACID transactional capabilities, but at the cost of more aggressive usage of disk space and memory

For an in-depth comparison of these database engines, refer to MySQL Storage Engine Architecture. As a general recommendation – if the web applications on your server require multi-statement transactions, advanced isolation levels and row-level locking, foreign key constraints, or otherwise have a requirement for ACID features — use InnoDB. Otherwise, use MyISAM.

Next choose the number of concurrent connections to the server:

On the next page choose networking options :

If you have mysql and web server on the same machine you may consider not enabling TCP/IP networking and instead use named pipes. Note though that some PHP applications may require TCP connection to MySQL. Refer to the application’s documentation to confirm if it supports named pipes connection to MySQL.

Choose the default charset to use when creating new databases:

Next ensure that MySQL will be configured as a Windows Service:

Optionally, you can add the MySQL Bin directory to the Windows PATH environment variable. That will make it easier to launch MySQL tools from the command line.

Finally provide the password for the database administrative account, which in called “root” in MySQL. Make sure that you leave the “Create an Anonymous Account” checkbox cleared:

On the next page click “Execute” to apply all the configuration settings and to start the MySQL service:

Now you can logon to MySQL by opening a command line window and typing:

mysql -u root -p
Enter password: ******If MySQL was configured correctly then the MySQL prompt will be shown:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 3
Server Version 5.1.32-community MySQL Community Server (GPL)
Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.
mysql>

MySQL Query Cache

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin MySQL, Technology, Web Development1 Comment on MySQL Query Cache

MySQL query cache is good to cache select queries and their results and improve some performance of your database applications. So I thought I should write a quick tutorial to quickly set it up without going into the details. So here is what you have to do to enable it.

If you want to enable query cache without restarting the MySQL server then just run the following command on MySQL prompt/client:

set global query_cache_size=67108864;

This will set the cache size to around 64MB and also enable it. You can set it to any value you desire. You can then check the status later by running the following commands on MySQL prompt/client:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%query_cache%';
SHOW STATUS LIKE '%qcache%';

These commands will show some useful information about the query cache like if it is enabled, how much memory is being used, how many queries are currently in the cache, and cache hit rate and a lot of other stuff.

This is really a quick way to enable query cache. For details see MySQL documentation http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql-query-cache.html

Multiple MySQL on single host

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin Linux, MySQL, Technology, Web, Web DevelopmentLeave a Comment on Multiple MySQL on single host

Sometimes we need to run multiple MySQL servers on single machine. That is mostly required in testing environments to test different aspects with different configurations. In this way one can test server without affecting others. So, if you want to run multiple MySQL you can use MySQL Sandbox which eases the whole process of installing and configuring the server. Here how will you do it.

First of all you need to install MySQL Sandbox. You can download it from https://launchpad.net/mysql-sandbox.

Then you need tar balls of MySQL server. You can download it from MySQL site.

After installing MySQL Sandbox you can run following script to install MySQL.

make_sandbox /path/to/mysql-X.X.XX-osinfo.tar.gz

This script will tell you some information like port, user name, and password which you can use to login to MySQL after installation. After confirmation it will install and run MySQL. That’s it! You are up and running.

If you want to install another MySQL you can just run the following command.

make_sandbox /path/to/mysql-X.X.XX-osinfo.tar.gz –check_port

The –check_port option checks the first available port so it can install and run on that port. By default it will use the MySQL version as port. For example if you have MySQL version 4.1.20 it will run MySQL on port 4120. And if it is not available then it will try 4121.

MySQL Sandbox provides other useful scripts to manage the server. So installing and running multiple MySQL, even different versions, is that easy 🙂

You can find the complete documentation at http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/MySQL_Sandbox#Single_server_sandbox.

Breaking problem into code

by Muhammad Jawaid Shamshadin C/C++, Project Management, TechnologyLeave a Comment on Breaking problem into code

Let us consider an example. If you have two boxes say BoxA and BoxB, and there are few balls of different colors, let’s say 5 balls (red, blue, green, yellow, and white) in BoxA, and you want to move one ball, say red ball from BoxA to BoxB. What will be the steps? If you can make a flow chart of it then its good, but if you find it difficult to make a flow chart of it then you need to do some hard work to become a programmer.

I asked this to someone and guess how he solved it. Here is his solution. Take out all balls from BoxA, then pick the red ball, put it in BoxB, and then put all remaining balls back in BoxA.

Fine! it worked. But why would you take out all balls if you can only take out red ball and move it to next box?

Let’s move this to programming side. In the above mentioned scenario we will have two database tables, boxes, and balls. boxes will have boxid as PK, name, and other details. Keep it simple so we don’t get lost in other details. balls table has ballid as PK, name, boxid as FK, and other details. boxes table has two records with 1 and BoxA as its boxid and name. balls table will have 5 records with id between 1 to 5 and red, blue, green, yellow, and white as their names, and all balls will have 1 in boxid field which is FK to boxes table.

Now if we adopt the first solution then it will run following queries (these are pseudo queries not actual SQL queries):

– select all balls where boxid=1 (so we can have a list of all balls before deleting them from database)
– delete from balls where boxid=1
– insert into balls values ballid=1, name=red ball, boxid=2
– insert into balls values
(ballid=2, name=blue ball, boxid=1)
(ballid=3, name=green ball, boxid=1)
(ballid=4, name=yellow ball, boxid=1)
(ballid=5, name=white ball, boxid=1)

Or even worse if we use multiple insert queries. It will run from 4 to 7 queries.

Now let’s see what happens if we just perform operation on the red ball and don’t touch other balls.

– update balls set boxid=2 where ballid=1; /* ball with id 1 is the red ball */

Wow, just one query and we’re done! We saved 3 to 6 queries. Imagine this scenario for a high traffic website or any other application, we can improve the performance with a big difference by just implementing correct logic to solve a problem.