New to Toad: Don't have Toad yet..... 2 questions, please

Toad Data Point
1

Hi Everyone,

I have not seen TDA, I heard that i can post a question on TOAD.

We use Oracle Discoverer to write queries. It’s very diffiult and challenging, so am
looking for a diff tool.

Some questions, please:

a) can i use an Oracle function as a column
b) can i test an Oracle function’s value to filter output

c) suppose i created 10 toad queries
where do the toad queries live,

in other words, in discoverer, i was able to query the discoverer system table
and create a query of all the queries? (in discoverer, i use this query that i run
in a .bat file to feed an Access mdb form)

can i create in tda a query of all queries?

d) is toad password protected, does it use the oracle password?

e) is it easy to install TOAD, i would get the full toad suite,
does the dba have to install to map to the databases?

we have prod tables, test tables, prod data mart,  test data mart

altogether 4 locations

f) will downloading TDA freeware give me an idea of the product

tx for your advise, sandra

2

Hi Sanda,

Let’s see if I can answer your questions. Toad for Data Anaylysts is oriented to users who are used to writing SQL. You can use functions and filter by it’s output. If you want some help building SQL we have the Query Builder. This is a visual tool that allows you to drag on tables and select columns, etc. Once you build your query you can save it in a Query Builder file. TDA does not store it’s SQL in the database.

The connections to Oracle use the normal Oracle ids and are protected by passwords. You need to define your connection to Oracle in the conneciton window and you can choose to save or not save the password to file.

There is no mapping to tables as you have direct access to the Oracle tables. It does not use a metadata layer.

I would suggest downloading the Trial version of TDA. The Freeware version of TDA only uses ODBC and you would not be able to use Oracle functions. Try this link.
http://www.quest.com/toad-for-data-analysts/

I would suggest looking at these tutorials before diving in. http://tda.inside.quest.com/pageloader.jspa?sbinPageName=screencast_gettingstarted.htm It will give you a good overveiw of what the product can do.

Debbie

3

Thx Debbie…

Hopefully, i will be able to save a query with the test version to get a feel for what
a tda query file is…

tx for your time,

sandra