The beginner database administration certification seems easy. You just pass a test. But to get to the next level, you need to jump through some hoops. One such hoop is that you need to take a class from Oracle. All formats of training cost the same amount. So if I go this route, I will probably attend a class in person. The problem is that cool classes like hard core performance tuning last five days. And that means they cost $3500. I guess I could get my company to pay. However the price seems a bit high.
Anyway, I am reading up my study guide to pass the SQL Expert certification exam. I learned some details about certain types that cannot be UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, or FOREIGN KEY. They are:
- TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE
- BLOB
- CLOB
Next up I learned that there are six types of SQL statements:
- DDL
- DML
- TCL
- Session control
- System Control
- Embedded
DML is the old INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE. It also encompasses MERGE. I don't use MERGE. It is some kind of combination of the other types of DML, all in one statement. I guess I will be studying that too. TCL is things like COMMIT. I know about ALTER SESSION and ALTER SYSTEM. And I got plenty of experience with embeded SQL by using Pro*C.
Okay. I am up to Chapter 4 in my study guide. 14 more chapters to go and I shall be ready to take the certification test by the end of the month. I will let you know how I fare.