Knowledge of oracle and Java

[vikas karandikar]

I am working on Java for last 2.5years.
Many times for complex queries I have to take help of Oracle developer.
How much knowledge of oracle or any database is important for java developer.
As I belong to Java Community I have to take care about updation of Java Technologies etc.Secondly i feel oracle knowledge sometimes reduces Java coding efforts.
Can anybody guide me?
Can anybody have come across developer who is OCP as well as SCJP?
Vikas
SCJP

[Trever Shick]

I would say that it's important for a developer to have a good working knowledge of both complex SQL and stored procedures on ANY database that he/she is working on.
If you work on a small team without good DBA support, you may be required to do database work that a developer doesn't usually have to do.
I'll give you one example where Oracle knowledge helped me... 2 examples in fact.
1) a created a complex query using SQL running on Oracle. The performance (even after tuning of the SQL) was approximately 40 seconds. This was unacceptable. I converted the query into a stored procedure and the performance went from 40 seconds to about 2 seconds... This is one good example...
Another example- I was tech lead on an integration project. Java was the programming language. However, we needed to move data from one schema to another and our DBAs were not up to the challenge. I had never used oracle before this project but I ended up writing an 18 page stored procedure to do the work... So even though I'm a Java developer, I ended up doing ORacle PL/SQL...
It never hurts to know another language and I would say that especially knowing the db abilities and languages is useful.

[vikas karandikar]

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Fintan Conway]

Hi,
Most serious applications talk with a database. If you do not know about SQL coding you will have trouble understanding the database aspects of the code.
My original foray into programming was to do a course which involved a programming language and also SQL development. I have moved jobs a few times since then and have not had a problem moving from writing code that code to talk to SQL Server to Sybase to Oracle. My knowledge of how databases should be structured, tables, stored procedures, etc. means that I can program the database if I need to and takes a lot of hassle out of having to work with the database.
Oracle can be slightly trickier than the other two, but is more powerful.
Regards,
Fintan

[Jason Menard]

More abstractly, if you are involved in the design of a project, at some point you will have to be aware of the issues regarding database design.

[SJ Adnams]

Its more important to know how Oracle works than to know SQL syntax.
Especially when it comes to indexes, PreparedStatements .vs. Statements etc.
Following up Trever's post I would say using Stored Proceedures just makes an application harder to maintain (version control etc).
Data mapping is best handled by powercenter or somthing rather than writing your own code.
As to OCP's who are programmers, well I hope to be one soon
Generally speaking 'A little knowledge is very dangerous' applies to databases. But the reverse is true too, if you know about Oracle's library cache, row cache, execution plans, function based indexes, index hints...etc etc etc it will make you a great programmer.
As with any topic it takes time to learn and there is a lot of information to soak up. I have about a dozen Oracle books and they are VERY dry to read. However, as you have probably realised the Java+Oracle skillset commands a better salary than Java alone.
check out my site for OCP notes.