Just a reminder that if you're still using the old SQL Developer desktop version, you should 1) upgrade to 26.2 to pick up security fixies 2) look at migrating to the VS Code extension version of the product

There's lots of security fixes in Oracle AI Database 23.26.3 I strongly recommend you patch soon to keep your data safe! There's also a new #SQL function for you to play with when you do DATEADD ( <unit>, <value>, <datetime> ) Use this to add/subtract units from years down to microseconds

We've released an updated version of the SQL keyword search on Oracle Dev Gym As a clue, there's a statement at the top that has placeholders (????) for the keywords you need to find Try it at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p... and share your thoughts!

A bit of Friday fun: can you find the 10 #SQL keywords hidden in the grid? It's a new quiz type we're trying out on Oracle Dev Gym The keywords can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal; forwards or backwards Try it at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p... How did you get on? Can you find all 10?

Congrats to the June Weekly DB Dev Gym winners: 1 Rakesh Dadhich 2 Stelios Vlasopoulos 3 Ivan Celerin And the winners for Q2: 1 _tiki_4_ 2 Stelios Vlasopoulos 3 mentzel.iudith Well done to all who played Think you know Oracle #SQL better? Join the fun at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p...

Minion Congrats

Alt: Minion Congrats

static.klipy.com

We've got a new look homepage on Oracle Dev Gym The aim is to simplify and make it easier to get started quizzing Check it out at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p... We'd love to hear what you think!

Want to ensure at least one child row for every parent in 1:M relationships? You can do this with A foreign key from parent -> child Assertions Assertions express the rule with simple #SQL FKs are still good if there's a primary child row for each parent blogs.oracle.com/sql/guarante...

Slapping a surrogate primary key on every table can be tempting But as Markus shows, there are performance and functional benefits to thinking about and structuring your PKs more carefully

Markus Winand@winand.at · last mo.

New post: Structured Primary Keys For consistency and performance. modern-sql.com/blog/2026-06...

Congrats to the top 3 in Oracle Dev Gym's weekly database quiz for May 1st _tiki_4_ 🥇 2nd mentzel.iudith 🥈 3rd Andrey Zaytsev 🥉 Thanks to all who took part and also quiz authors @kibeha.dk and Anthony Harper Full rankings at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p...

Read what's new for #developers in #Oracle #AI #Database 23.26.1

What’s new for Developers in Oracle AI Database 23.26.1

For more information on what’s new in Oracle AI Database 23.26.0, see: What's new for Developers in Oracle AI Database 23.26.0 This release introduces new SQL constructs, new functions, and extensions to existing functionality, making analytic SQL cleaner, data integrity even better, and SQL syntax easier. What follows are my favorite features of this release.

geraldonit.com

Just updated my #Oracle #AI #Database container images to 23.26.2 With it comes a brand new #SQL join type "JOIN TO ONE"!

Oracle AI Database 23.26.2 Free multi-platform images now available on gvenzl/oracle-free

Oracle AI Database 23.26.2 Free multi-platform images are now available on container registries docker.io/gvenzl/oracle-free and ghcr.io/gvenzl/oracle-free. With this release, 23.26.0 images have now gone into Unsupported. See the support matrix for more information. If you want to see what's in 23.26.2, check out the New Features Guide. My personal favorite, probably because I was directly involved in this new invention, is a brand new join type JOIN TO ONE.

geraldonit.com

Hardcoding passwords into scripts always feels like a temporary solution… …right until it ends up in Git 😅 I wrote a short post on handling secrets more safely in SQLcl projects and completing admin tasks without creating a security nightmare: martincarstenbach.com/2026/05/25/c...

Handling Secrets Safely in SQLcl Projects Deployments

TL;DR: for security reasons you cannot possibly store sensitive information in Git. There have been too many occasions where API keys, passwords, or other configuration data has been exposed. Abuse…

martincarstenbach.com

If two transactions try to change the same rows concurrently, one must wait Maybe a loooong time! A timeout would be handy to avoid this Do this from Oracle AI Database 23.26.2 with the wait clause for all DML: NOWAIT WAIT n [ [MILLI|MICRO]SECONDS ] WAIT FOREVER blogs.oracle.com/sql/how-to-s...

It's not *just* all about AI. APEX 26.1 also brings improved integration with all of the new features in Oracle AI Database 26ai. Using the Boolean datatype? APEX has you covered.

RU 19.31 has been put on hold and will be available soon again Since several people mailed me yesterday and this morning about Release Update 19.31 been not available for download from My Oracle Support, here is a the explanation about why RU 19.31 has been put on hold and will be available soon…

RU 19.31 has been put on hold and will be available soon again

Since several people mailed me yesterday and this morning about Release Update 19.31 been not available for download from My Oracle Support, here is a the explanation about why RU 19.31 has been put on hold and will be available soon again. What has happened? We released a MOS Note with detailed information: (KB888427) Oracle Database 19.31 Patch Hold Due to ORA-00600 Errors on Exadata 25.2&hellip;

mikedietrichde.com

Patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats I guess you all read the announcements and predictions over the past weeks. New AI models and improvements to existing models may allow to find security issues in existing software much quicker. While this sounds alarming on one side…

Patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats

I guess you all read the announcements and predictions over the past weeks. New AI models and improvements to existing models may allow to find security issues in existing software much quicker. While this sounds alarming on one side (yes, it does), it also enables software vendors to secure their software. But in order to benefit from it, you must patch your databases against AI-enabled cybersecurity threats&hellip;

mikedietrichde.com

Complex queries can duplicate rows by accident To help you avoid this Oracle AI Database 23.26.2 adds: FROM <subject> JOIN TO ONE ( t2, t3, ... ) If the output duplicates rows from <subject> the query errors By default it uses FKs to define the join Read more at blogs.oracle.com/sql/avoid-jo...

I've got me some fresh new 23.26.2 goodness! Quite a different patching process than 19c - much easier!

Another quarter Another batch of new Oracle #SQL features in the 23.26.2 RU 😀 See the complete list at docs.oracle.com/en/database/... Here are some of the highlights - which are your favourites?

April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed Yesterday, I delivered a full-day workshop for ora2know in Düsseldorf. And we discussed the most recent RUs as well, especially since "Database Patching" consumed a significant part of the day content-wise. I learned that the RUs have…

April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed

Yesterday, I delivered a full-day workshop for ora2know in Düsseldorf. And we discussed the most recent RUs as well, especially since "Database Patching" consumed a significant part of the day content-wise. I learned that the RUs have now a target date of April 28 for Linux, and May 12 for other ports. Which means that the April 2026 Release Updates (RUs) 19.31 and 23.26.2 are delayed&hellip;

mikedietrichde.com

📚 New Reading List is out! This week we got lots and lots of #Oracle #AI #Database 26ai posts and new compute shapes on #OCI 📖 Happy reading!

Reading List – April 2026 #3

Lots and lots of Oracle 26ai posts

geraldonit.com

Oracle AI Database 23.26.1 added the DATEDIFF function DATEDIFF ( <unit>, <start date>, <end date> ) Despite the name this is not computing elapsed time It counts the time boundaries crossed Read my latest post for full details blogs.oracle.com/sql/how-to-f...

Get the Nth row in Oracle #SQL with OFFSET n-1 FETCH NEXT ROW To include ties, use N plus all ties: NTH_VALUE ( ..., n ) OVER ( ORDER BY ... ) = n N distinct value: DENSE_RANK () OVER ( ORDER BY ... ) = n QUALIFY in 23.26.0 simplifies the last two; details at blogs.oracle.com/sql/how-to-g...

Congrats to the March Weekly DB Dev Gym winners 1 James Su 2 JeroenR 3 mentzel.iudith And the winners for Q1: 1 James Su 2 mentzel.iudith 3 Stelios Vlasopoulos Well done to all who took part Think you know Oracle #SQL better? Play at devgym.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p...

a congratulations message with a cartoon character wearing headphones

ALT: a congratulations message with a cartoon character wearing headphones

media.tenor.com

📚 New Reading List is out! This week we got: 🤖 🎉 A lot of great announcements in and around the #AI space 😎 🛠️ some #SQL fun with #JSON and more, and 🎪 behind-the-scenes GPU training and cloud network performance 📖 Happy reading!

Reading List – March 2026 #4

Announcements, SQL fun and more!

geraldonit.com

@toonkoppelaars.bsky.social comparing the impact of using assertions to triggers for data validation in Oracle AI Database Spoiler alert: Assertions can increase transaction throughput 30% If it doesn’t, you should investigate #apexworld2026

Generative AI helps you write more code faster But real productivity comes from writing less code Marc Sewtz showing us how you do this with #orclapex by declaring your intent #apexworld2026

There’s attendees from all over the world at #apexworld2026

Congrats to the winners of the #OracleACE assertions bounty! 1st Enforcing Acyclic Hierarchies With Assertions @salvis.com 2nd Temporal Assertions @anthony-harper.bsky.social 3rd Assertions for data integrity on a less-than-ideal data model @kibeha.dk Details at blogs.oracle.com/sql/assertio...

📚 New Reading List is out! ⁉️ Assertions, 🎛️ GPU clusters, 🤖 skills and 📈 financial results are part of this week's reading list. 📖 Happy reading!

Reading List – March 2026 #3

AI, SQL and financial results

geraldonit.com