Filtering Schema Browser Objects


It's not unusual for a typical database schema to have lots of objects. For example, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications such as SAP, Peoplesoft, Siebel, and Oracle Apps can have thousands of tables. As such, they often follow some naming convention to ease the object name overload. So the general ledger table names may be prefixed with "GL_", the accounts receivable with "AR_", the accounts payable with "AP_", and so on. But as the DBA, you or the developer might not be interested in always seeing all possible choices, but instead merely a user -defined subset based on the naming standard. TOAD provides filters for most of the Schema Browser tabs for accomplishing exactly this task.

In Figure 2.15, the Schema Browser Tables tab shows nine tables, two of which are meaningless as indicated by their name (that is, name begins with the letters JUNK). To eliminate these tables, you simply click the Filter icon (the gray funnel) on that tab's toolbar, which launches the Browser Filters screen shown in Figure 2.15 (this screen will look different for the various database object types because different filter criteria options apply). For the example, you merely specify a table name that is "Not Like" and "%JUNK%".

Figure 2.15. Basic name filtering.

After you apply your filter settings and click the OK button, two things will happen as shown in Figure 2.16. First, those filter settings will be applied to the information displayed for the tab. In this example, the JUNK tables were eliminated. Second, that tab's Filter toolbar icon will change in color to red, which indicates that the filter is now active. It will, of course, change back to gray if you clear the filter.

Figure 2.16. Displaying only filtered names.

Yet another common filtering task that a DBA or developer may need is to see just those objects that contain some additional level of filtration criteria (that is, filtering beyond just that based on their name). For example, a DBA might need to work with only those tables that contain columns whose name includes the letters NAME. To specify only these tables, you again simply click the Filter icon on that tab's toolbar, which launches the Browser Filters screen shown in Figure 2.17 (this screen will look different for the various database object types because different filter criteria options apply). For this example, you additionally specify column names "Includes" and "%NAME%".

Figure 2.17. Advanced filtering options.

After you apply your filter settings and click the OK button, two things will happen as shown in Figure 2.18. First, those additional filter settings will be applied. In this example, only tables that contain columns with the names that contain NAME are displayed. And second, again that tab's Filter toolbar icon will change in color to red (that is, active).

Figure 2.18. Results of applying all filters.



TOAD Handbook
TOAD Handbook (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321649109
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 171

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