As I mentioned earlier, is MySQL a target of the new Oracle 10g Express Edition. Maybe not specifically, but let’s assume it’s on the radar screen. What can Oracle do to woe MySQL users and developers?

I see distinct marketing will be required for Oracle 10g Express Edition, marketing for example to existing partners must be different to “Competitor Marketing”. While I’m sure Oracle will now be able to get benefits from Parters trying to sell their products, now being able to reduce costs to customers (at least initially). Other partners that never considered selling developed applications due to the license cost may now reconsider.

But back onto MySQL. Oracle needs to target specific information to MySQL. …

Just where is Oracle planning on targeting the new Oracle 10g Express Edition?
The obvious answer would be to counter the arch nemesis Microsoft, and the low end product offerings, like the MS SQL Server and the low end free engine MSDE. I didn’t realise to recently, that Microsoft have finally released the next version of MS SQL Server, being 2005, and at the same time provide a free cut down offering, strangely enough called “Express Edition”. It’s taken Microsoft 5 years. Makes you wonder if Database Technology is a high priority!

Is Oracle also now threatened in anyway by MySQL? I think not, however the continued growth of MySQL, it’s availability on any Linux server and in many distros, and now …

In lunching with an old Oracle Friend, the topic turned to Oracle 10g Express Edition, and we discussed the pros and cons for organisations. The first thing he asked me was, “Have you tried loading the database larger then the 4G limit yet”. Some People?

In general the consensus seemed that it was viable for a small organisation, good for a startup company to get into a no cost entry solution, but appealing to those venture capitalists as you have a definite growth pattern.

I’m warming to more actively pursing Oracle 10g Express Edition, especially with HTMLDB, and at present while preparing to submit a paper for an upcoming Open Source conference which I hope is accepted, I’ve allocated some time on the significant topic of Open Source Verses Free. Stay tuned.

It dawned on me later in the day to more closely investigate the Oracle RPM installation and where exactly everything went in the FileSystem. I was surprised …

I just noticed today that Oracle has released a beta edition of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition. Oracle must be feeling the pressure from open source databases such as MySQL, and PostgreSQL, just like Microsoft has. Oracle Express is pretty similar to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express:

• Free To Deploy
• Supports up to 4GB of data
• Supports only one CPU
• Supports up to 1GB of RAM
• One instance per server
• Downloads For Windows or Linux - no mac :(
• And is free to distribute with your applications

More Info.

MySQL has supported FULLTEXT indexes since version 3.23.23. VARCHAR and TEXT Columns that have been indexed with FULLTEXT can be used with special SQL statements that perform the full text search in MySQL.

To get started you need to define the FULLTEXT index on some columns. Like other indexes, FULLTEXT indexes can contain multiple columns. Here's how you might add a FULLTEXT index to some table columns:

ALTER TABLE news ADD FULLTEXT(headline, story);

Once you have a FULLTEXT index, you can search it using MATCH and AGAINST statements. For example:

SELECT headline, story FROM news
WHERE MATCH (headline,story) AGAINST ('Hurricane');

The result of this query is automatically sorted by relevancy.

MATCH

The MATCH function is used to …

I have been hearing a bit of buzz about EnterpriseDB latley. I think the main reason is that they just secured $7 million in venture capital funding.

What is EnterpriseDB?

EnterpriseDB is based on the source code for the open source PostgreSQL database server. PostgreSQL is the most fully featured open source database out there, they already support pretty much everything on the MySQL 5 feature list.

What the EnterpriseDB people have done is taken the PostgreSQL source code and added features to make it more compatable with Oracle.

EnterpriseDB 2005?s built-in compatibility features allow most existing Oracle-based applications to run unchanged. If you are building new applications, there is no need to learn new versions of SQL syntax, …

There are lots of ways to select a random record or row from a database table. Here are some example SQL statements that don't require additional application logic, but each database server requires different SQL syntax.

Select a random row with MySQL:

SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RAND()
LIMIT 1

Select a random row with PostgreSQL:

SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RANDOM()
LIMIT 1

Select a random row with Microsoft SQL Server:

SELECT TOP 1 column FROM table
ORDER BY NEWID()

Select a random row with IBM DB2

SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RAND() 
FETCH FIRST 1 ROWS ONLY

Thanks Tim

Select a random record with Oracle:

SELECT column FROM 
( SELECT column FROM table
  ORDER BY …