To LOOP or Not to LOOP
I've already established my
creds as a
Tom Kyte follower.
Tom's
mantra:
- You should do it in a single SQL statement if at all possible.
- If you cannot do it in a single SQL Statement, then do it in PL/SQL.
- If you cannot do it in PL/SQL, try a Java Stored Procedure.
- If you cannot do it in Java, do it in a C external procedure.
- If you cannot do it in a C external routine, you might want to seriously think about why it is you need to do it…
I'm faced with a new datawarehouse load, eventually it will be about 100 million records. If I go the straight SQL way (embedded in PL/SQL), I'll need to create multiple objects to support that method and each time we add a new line of business, we'll have to add more objects and more code.
If I can encapsulte it in PL/SQL, I could eliminate most of the necessary supporting objects, but at a big cost, performance. It would make coding time much quicker and ultimately more maintainable (in my opinion), adding a new line of business would simple by updating the packaged functions with an additional control check.
It's a difficult pill to swallow though. I'm originally an OLTP guy and I can write pretty good SQL. Being so new to datawarehousing concepts I feel like I am cheating somehow. Making that decision of when to move to slow-by-slow seems exceedingly difficult. Hopefully with more experience in the datawarehouse environment it will become easier...but it's still tough.
Labels: datawarehouse, work
