April 5 Webinar (sponsored by Embarcadero)

I'll be conducting a webinar entitled Best Practices for Developing Optimally Performing SQL on April 5. Embarcadero is sponsoring the event as part of their commitment to support the Oracle community with growth and learning opportunities.

The webinar will be offered twice on April 5.
- 6:00 am PDT / 9:00 am EDT / 13:00 GMT / 2 pm in UK
or
- 11:00am PDT / 2:00pm EDT / 18:00 GMT / 7 pm in UK

I'm normally hesitant to use the label "Best Practices" as I think things often get labeled as such and people forget to test and verify them in context of their own situations and end up creating as many problems as they attempt to solve. So my list of best practices doesn't include specific do's and don'ts. My list is more about how to approach SQL development with a strong emphasis on several key areas:

• Plan first - There's almost always more than one way to write a SQL statement. Cover your bases.
• Ask questions - You have to "tune the question, not the query". The more questions you ask, the deeper your understanding.
• Focus on the journey, not the destination - If you are only focused on what the query answer/result is, you'll likely overlook how you write SQL. Typically, how and why are more important questions to ask.
• Gather data - You have to know/understand the resource consumption of your SQL in order to know if it will perform well (both short and long term).
• Play "what if" - Try to determine what would happen if certain conditions occurred. Things like data volume increase and number of users can have an effect on how your query will perform. "What if" games will help you think about scalability.
• Instrument your code - Add a way to monitor and trace your code easily on demand.
• TTT (Test To Destruction) - Test, test, test....then test some more!

I'm looking forward to the event and hope you'll join me for the fun! Register soon and save your spot.