The line is going in the right direction!

Yes, another ‘Top 10’ list is here! Yes, it’s lazy. But, I’m all about lazy, and just because it’s lazy and overdone, doesn’t mean it has no value. If you’re new here or if you have a hard time catching up with all of your favorite bloggers and news outlets, here are my most popular SQL Developer posts, based on traffic, of 2012:

1. How to Import from Excel to Oracle

I’m not surprised this is #1 – and it wasn’t even close. Excel is THE tool for sharing and reviewing data. At some point, you’re going to want to shove that data back into Oracle. Thankfully, SQL Developer makes that pretty easy.

2. How to View Refcursor Output

I have to thank @OracleAskTom for the assist here. He referenced this post in one of his FAQs. This post shows how to review your PL/SQL execution output, REFCURSOR or otherwise, in SQL Developer.

3. How to Get SQL results in CSV format

My favorite SQL Developer ‘trick’ – this undocumented feature allows you to add a custom hint to your SQL statement and have the script output pre-formatted to CSV.

4. How to Install SQL Developer on OS X

Apple no longer ships OS X with Java pre-installed. It’s still pretty easy to get SQL Developer running on a Mac, but if you need help, this post is for you.

5. How to Setup SQL*Loader using SQL Developer

Did you know you can use SQL Developer to take your 1,000,000 line CSV file and setup a SQL*Loader run in just a few moments? Well now you do!

6. Top 10 Preferences to Tweak

SQL Developer has a lot of options and preferences. Here’s a list of 10 you should probably take a look at.

7. Getting Started in Less Than 5 Minutes

Download, install, and run SQL Developer in less than 5 minutes (this post is on Windows, but applies to all environments.)

8. DBMS_OUTPUT

How DBMS_OUTPUT works in SQL Developer.

9. Top 10 Tips & Tricks

A collection of my favorite tips and tricks 🙂

10. SQL Developer Does Teradata, MySQL, SQL Server, DB2, & Access Too

You can use SQL Developer to query databases other than Oracle, but more importantly, you can also migrate them TO Oracle!

Thanks everyone for a great 2012. The SQL Developer team is busy putting together the next version of SQL Developer, and we’re expecting 2013 to be even better!

Author

I'm a Distinguished Product Manager at Oracle. My mission is to help you and your company be more efficient with our database tools.

3 Comments

  1. Wow I found some useful information here, I’m very glad you made such a ‘lazy’ post!

  2. Elie Grunhaus Reply

    Hi. I do like this article and its many SQL Developer tips.

    I need to access Oracle RDB with SQL Developer. To be clear, I’m referring to the product called “RDB”, not the Oracle 10g/11g server. How can I do this. I see very few articles explaining how to go about this.

    Thank you.

    • We don’t support RDB connections in Oracle SQL Developer – although I notice we do make a JDBC driver available, so it’s theoretically possible.

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