The most popular way to find information is to enter a word or phrase and perform a search.Depending on which product and release you're searching, and whether you are using a documentationCD or the OTN documentation web site,you will either see a search form on the opening page, or a tab or button labeled Search thatbrings up the search form.In general, it is best to enter a general search term that produces many matches, and use the links onthe results page to fine-tune the results. Searching for long phrases or several ANDed words might return zero hits.What If There Are Too Many Results?What If There Are Too Few Results?Searching within a Single BookInterpreting the Search ResultsPerforming Boolean SearchesPerforming Wildcard SearchesDealing with Information that is Scattered, Buried, or at the Wrong Level of DetailCase-Sensitive Searches Not AvailableWhen Should I Not Use the Search?What if the System is Responding Slowly?Search TipsWhat If There Are Too Many Results?You might find on your first few searches that you get so many resultsthat you cannot tell which match to look at.Instead of entering a single word, try a 2-word or 3-word phrase.For example, GROUP BY instead of GROUP.You do not need to use quotation marks around phrases; the contents of thesearch box are treated as a single phrase.If you have a general idea of which book the information is in,use the first dropdown list to select one book or a group of books to search.Depending on the level of information you want, you might use thesecond dropdown list to search only for introductory information, tasks,examples, or troubleshooting.Check the box to search titles instead of the full text. This will reducethe results to only those topics where the search term is important enoughto appear in the title.You can separate multiple words or phrases with AND to findonly topics that contain both terms.If the problem is determining which book is the right one, you can checkthe Virtual Book option. It formats the results as a single combined table of contents, makingit easier to scan through similar topics from different books.What If There Are Too Few Results?You might occasionally find that you get no results at all.Instead of long phrase, trying entering a single word or a 2-word or 3-word phrase.For example, GROUP BY instead of GROUP BY query SQL.You do not need to use quotation marks around phrases; the contents of thesearch box are treated as a single phrase.Make sure the search term is spelled correctly. Sometimes you might need to try with and without a space. For example, datatype gives more results than data type, and bulk delete gives more results than bulkdelete.If you included words like error or example in the search term to find specific kinds of information,you can leave these words out and use the second dropdown instead to find matches in specific kinds of topics.If the word you want might be known by more than one name, you can separate multiple words or phrases with OR.For example, select or query.Is the information you want in this product's documentation at all?This search system focuses on one product family at a time (Database,Application Server, or Collaboration Suite).If you have an Internet connection, you can run across-product search by using the search link at theOTN documentation web site.Searching within a Single BookThe first dropdown on the search form lets you pick some of the widely used books and search within those.To restrict the search to a book not listed in the dropdown, go to thealphabetical list of books, which lets you pick any book and search in it.Interpreting the Search ResultsBy default, the search results begin as a list of books, showing howmany matching topics are in each one. You can use the book title to helpdecide which book is appropriate, or use the number of matching topics tofind the books with the most information.The search results are always ordered the same way:Any results from the most widely used books, such as the SQL Reference and Administrator's Guide,always come first.This group of Featured Results also includes results from any books that you have chosen as "favorites",plus any other books that are especially relevant to the search term.Results from all other books come afterward, ordered alphabetically by book title.Within a particular book, the results are listed in alphabetical order.Because the search results are very granular, relevance rankingssuch as the number of occurrences of the search term are not especiallyuseful. If your search turns up hundreds of hits within the same book,you should use the title search or the dropdowns to reduce the number ofmatches.Some titles that are too short to make sense out of context, such as Purpose and Syntax, are followed by the name of their parent topic,which is usually the name of the corresponding statement, function, and so on.Performing Boolean SearchesYou can enter the words AND, OR, and NOT in your search terms toperform boolean searches:To search for a multi-word phrase, enter it with no special notation --no quotation marks or boolean operators.Use AND when there are too many matches.Use OR when there are not enough matches.Use NOT when there you want to exclude specific matches.To search for the words "and", "or", and "not", includethe phrase that contains them within curly braces: .For example, here are some search terms you might enter:create tablespacecreate tablespace and paralleldatatype or data typestored procedure not javaAND operatorPerforming Wildcard SearchesBy default, all search terms longer than 3 characters are surrounded by wildcards on both sides.For example, searching for intermedia also finds intermediate.Searching for sql or aq does not use wildcards, because those termsare 3 characters or less.If you include typical wildcard characters such as %, _, *, and ? in yoursearch terms, they are interpreted as literal characters rather than wildcards.To turn off the wildcard expansion, you can surround the search term withcurly braces. For example, intermedia does not match intermediate.Depending on the product and release, you might also have an option Match whole wordwhich also turns off wildcards.Dealing with Information that is Scattered, Buried, or at the Wrong Level of DetailIf the information you need is scattered across books, buried deep withina book, or you can't find information to match your experience level, theVirtual Book is your answer.The Virtual Book uses special processing to categorize information.The categories roughly correspond to different levels of experience anddetail:IntroductoryHigh-level information that is useful when you are first learning abouta subject. Typically, you only need to read it once.TasksIncludes both step-by-step procedures and more general explanations ofhow to do things. You can find the topic you want based on your objective,such as creating a table or granting a role. You can also scan the list oftasks to see what the possible actions are for an object.ExamplesIf you are experienced, or just like to learn by example, you mightonly need to look at one of these topics to understand how to do something.Because there is some overlap between tasks and the associated examples,some topics are listed in both places.ReferenceThis is strictly factual information, usually concerning syntax orsimilar details.TroubleshootingThis information helps recover when something goes wrong. It usually concerns errors, exceptions, and tasks such as debugging. If you want toplan ahead, you can read this information before starting an operation, so thatyou know what problems to avoid.The Virtual Book includes other navigation mechanisms like a paper book:IndexShows all the index terms containing the search term, together withtheir second-level and third-level entries. The index terms are collectedfrom the indexes of all the books in the library.BibliographyThe links from the Virtual Book transport you to various places in thelibrary. You might want to print out some relevant sections, but it is more convenient to print PDF than HTML. The bibliography lists all the books that arerepresented in the Virtual Book output, and shows which chapters contain thematching topics. You can follow the link to the PDF file for a book, andprint out only those chapters containing relevant topics.To keep the number of matches to a reasonable level, the Virtual Book always searches the title text rather than the complete text of each topic. It also does not support the AND and OR operators as in the regular search. The dropdowns and other checkboxes on the search form have no effect on the Virtual Book output: it always examines all the books and all the topics in the library.Case-Sensitive Searches Not AvailableBecause all searches work the same for uppercase and lowercase terms,you do not need to enter a word in all capital letters.If you are searchingfor a keyword that matches a commonly used word, such as FROM, useone of these methods:Use the master index, rather than doing a search that would returnthousands of matches.Use the list of SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus keywords when appropriate.Do a title search, if the number of matching titles is small enough tofind the right topic.If you do use a full-text search, surround the term with curly braces, such as FROM. This will prevent wildcard expansion and limit the numberof false matches.When Should I Not Use the Search?If you are searching for a keyword that is the same as a commonly usedword, such as FROM, it is faster to use another method rather thansifting through thousands of matches. The Master Index hasentries for keywords like these. For SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus keywords, acombined online quick reference lets you navigate to the definition.What if the System is Responding Slowly?If the system is responding slowly, you may not want to re-run thesame search several times to check the results in different books. Acheckbox lets you see the search results in an expanded tree view.If the system is responding slowly because your search returned manythousands of matches, use some of the tips for reducing the number ofmatches.Search TipsIf you are delving into an area for the first time, you can check the boxfor the Virtual Book feature to see how much coverage that area has in thedocumentation. The Virtual Book presents all the introductory topics first,so that you can get a quick overview of that area.If you know the exact name of the item you want, you may be able to getdirectly to that topic using the links in the upper left. You can quicklyfind SQL and PL/SQL syntax, initialization parameters, and catalog views.When you are familiar with the book or group of books containing youranswer, you can use some shortcuts to get there:Use the top dropdown on the search form to select a single book or agroup of books. The category "most widely used books" includes those bookscontaining the core administrative information -- Concepts,SQL Reference, Server Reference, Tuning Guide,Backup and Recovery, and Administrator's Guide.To limit the search to a book not listed in the dropdown, you can goto the alphabetical list of books and use the search link next to each bookname. Or you could use the table of contents or index for that book.Downloading, Printing, Viewing, and Searching PDF FilesTo download one or more PDF files for printing,go to the alphabetical list of books.The books are listed alphabetically, by their short titles, usually withoutthe initial "Oracle", "Oracle8i", "Oracle9i", and so on. They are alphabetizedaccording to their usual short names, so the "SQL Reference" is under Sand the "OCI Guide" is under O.You can use the list of shortcuts at the top to jump directly to aparticular book. Besides the official titles, these shortcuts includeentries for some informal short titles. For example, the library includes"Application Developer's Guide - Large Objects (LOBs)" which is often referredto as the "LOBs book", so the shortcuts include an entry LOB.The books are listed on a single page, making it faster to find a singlebook and easy to download multiple PDF files without switching pages.If you are on a slow or unreliable connection, right click on the PDFlink and choose "Save Link/Target As". If the download succeeds, you will beable to print multiple copies from the downloaded PDF file. This method isalso sometimes more reliable than viewing the PDF through a browser plug-in.To see which books belong to a particular category, such as Administrationor Application Development, use the dropdownabove the list of book titles.Where appropriate, books are listed in multiple categories.The links next to each book name let you jump to the most appropriatespot in the book:If you want to see what is in the book, or locate a particular chapter,use the "Table of Contents" link.If you want to look up a term or keyword, use the "Index" link.To search only that book, use the "Search" link.To view the PDF documentation from the CD or local installation,open the top-level booklist.pdf with Acrobat.The file contains a list of documents available on the CD with hyperlinksto other PDF documents.Searching the PDF DocumentationWhen space permits, the documentation CD includes a PDF index (with extension .pdx)that enables cross-book search in PDF.You can search all the PDF documentation at once using the AcrobatSearch facility. Searching allows you to scan through all thePDF files on the CD at once.Finding, on the other hand, allows you to scan through onlythe currently active document.Before you can search the documentation,you need to add the PDF index for the CD to your Available Indexes.Click Tools > Search > Indexes, click Add, then add index.pdx.Click Tools > Search > Query to search the documentation.Refer to your Acrobat help for more information.If the Book You Want Is Not in the ListThis system includes only some of the books that Oracle publishes.For other subjects or products, you may need to look elsewhere.In particular, this system does not include:Information about Oracle Applications.Installation documentation.Looking Up Keywords by NameIf you know the name of a function, statement, database term, orother kind of keyword, you can look it up in an alphabetical listrather than doing a full-text search.This technique is especially effective for keywords that are alsocommon English words, such as "select" and "where".In addition to showing you the definitions of keyword, some pagesalso let you do focused searches, such as for examples that usea particular SQL statement.Looking Up SQL and PL/SQL Syntax and ExamplesThis quick reference shows keywords that are used in SQL and PL/SQLprogramming:SQL statements, functions, operators, some syntax clauses, and so on.PL/SQL statements, procedures, functions, pragmas, operators, and so on.PL/SQL package names, and associated procedure and function names.You can see the definition of the keyword, including its purpose,syntax, parameters, and sometimes usage information and examples.You can also search the entire library for code examples or tutorialswhere it is used. For example, searching for examples of theCREATE TRIGGER statement might find relevant examples inbooks about data warehousing, parallel execution, and Java.Looking Up Definitions in the Master GlossaryThe Master Glossary contains short definitions of specializeddatabase and Oracle terms. Selecting a term pops up a small window, showingthe definition from the glossary of a particular book.If more than one book defines the term in its glossary, you can pickthe book that is most relevant to you.The glossary typically does not define terms that are keywords orspecial names, such as the names of catalog or data dictionary views.These special keywords are listed in separate reports that are linkedfrom the home page.Looking Up Index Terms in the Master IndexTo find the most relevant topics for a given term, you can use theMaster Index. It is a compilation of the indexes for all the books.It is useful if you are not sure of the exact spelling, or if a full-textsearch gives too many matches.Because the Master Index contains a huge number of entries:You mightfind duplicate entries from many books. When the same entry occurs multipletimes, the Master Index lists "entry #2", "entry #3", and so on.The same applies if a second-level entry is listed multiple times, indicatedby "subentry #2" and so on.You might need to check multiple variations of spelling or punctuation.For example, there might be several entries under the singular form of a word,and several more under the plural form. Or a term might be indexed bothwith and without a hyphen, or as both one and two words(such as "datatypes" and "data types"). The large number of entries meansyou might have to scroll to see both variations.Looking Up Catalog / Data Dictionary ViewsCatalog views, also known as data dictionary views, allow you to querydatabase settings and usage information.They are widely used for administration, programming, and troubleshooting.There are specialized sets ofviews related to performance and backup/recovery.You can see an alphabetical list of these views.You can see the view definition, which includes its purpose and its columns.You can also search for all places where the view is mentioned, which oftenturns up how-to information or examples in the administration and performancedocumentation.Looking Up Initialization ParametersInitialization parameters allow you to permanently choose variousdatabase settings. They often have corresponding dynamic parameters thatcan take effect for a particular session. They are widely used forperformance tuning, ensuring compatibility, and trading off betweenavailable features and memory usage.You can see an alphabetical list of these parameters.You can see the parameter definition, which includes its purpose andits possible values.You can also search for all places where the parameter is mentioned, which oftenturns up how-to information or examples in the administration and performancedocumentation.Looking Up Error MessagesIf you receive an error message, you can look up the correspondingcause and recommended action using the special Error Search form.This is either a separate search form on the Search tab, or alink from the opening page.The search form comes with the common message prefix ORA- alreadyfilled in. You can just supply the number, or overwrite it with a differentmessage prefix. Because messages are sometimes listed inconsistently, suchas ORA-01234 and ORA-1234, a search that does not use aleading zero will also match messages that have the leading zero.The matching message or messages are shown in the top frame. When youfollow the link to the message information, that text is shown in thebottom frame.The cause and recovery information in the published manual is brief.To see whether there are bugs filed or tutorials written for particularerror messages, you can use online Oracle services such as Metalink.Tips for Faster Web BrowsingThe following tips work across many web sites. They can help youfind information faster and avoid getting lost.Finding Information within a Large PageWhen a web page is several screens long, you might find it faster touse the browser's "Find" function to find a word within the page.The "Find" function is usually available from a menu, and is different fromthe "Search" function that might go to another web site.Saving Your Position with BookmarksThe various reports, searches, virtual books, and so on from thissystem can all be bookmarked. So if you find a set of useful informationby doing a complicated search, you can bookmark the URL and return to thatpage later or send it to someone else.Tips for Using the Back ButtonWhen you have followed several links and want to go back to the originalpage, you can choose how far back to go rather than pressing "Back" severaltimes. Depending on the browser, either click and hold on the "Back" button,or click on the narrow dropdown next to the "Back" button. You will seea dropdown list of page titles, and can go directly to any one.Opening Multiple WindowsIf you want to keep a particular page available while followinglinks from that page, you can open a link in a new browser window.Right-click on the link, and pick the "open in new window" choice fromthe popup menu. You can close the window later, and the original page isstill available in the original window. This technique is useful forexploring several paths at once.By default, this system's search function opens its result page asa separate window. This allows you to navigate through a set of searchqueries, and switch to the original window at any time to try a differentway of finding the information.Answers to Frequently Asked QuestionsHere are some common questions and answers about the online documentation.Why Can't I Connect to the Server?If you are outside Oracle, you need an Internet connection to performsearches. There is a search form on the documentation home page, and links tosearch on other pages such as the list of books,list of initialization parameters, and so on.You can also perform searches using the PDF files.If you are inside Oracle, you may be experiencing a proxy problem. In theproxy settings for your browser, remove "oracle.com" and "www.oracle.com" fromthe list of proxy exceptions, so that the browser uses a proxy for all hostsin the oracle.com domain.How to Stop the Glossary from Using Pop-Up Windows?The pop-up windows are intended to show a single definition at a time.If you want to see the definitions in a full-sized window, right-click ona link in the Master Glossary, and choose "Open in New Window".You will also get a new full-sized window for each glossary definition ifJavascript is turned off in your browser.Copyright 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.
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