One of the requirements for a project I’ve been working on is to connect to Oracle and retrieve some data related to data in MS SQL Server. After successfully setting up the Oracle server as a linked server, I ran into trouble.
Oracle’s data types aren’t quite the same as SQL Server’s data types. In particular, the timestamp type on the Oracle side would not translate to anything on the SQL Server side. After extensive research, I was considering switching to a .Net solution instead, like maybe I could query SQL Server and Oracle separately and then combine the data within the app. Surely not very efficient, but what else could I do?
Fortunately, I had lunch with my brother during the project and his Oracle experience is much greater than mine. After discussing the problem with him, I ended up using a view to get around the issue. For my project, I only needed the year out of the timestamp. Using the TO_CHAR function, I created a view that allowed me to select the year from the Oracle data as a char(4). Perfect!
January 19, 2021
Software development is a team-based endeavor because of the complexity involved in launching a new system. Gone are the days when one developer can be point on the whole back-office software stack. It now takes multiple specialized roles to (appropriately) fulfill the software delivery lifecycle. A typical software project requires: Leadership Product management Project management […]
January 13, 2021
One definition of rot is the process of deterioration. Something that decays over time. By this standard – software rots like food in the Nebraska heat. It’s true. If your software isn’t regularly updated, it deteriorates and breaks down. Consider this – software is written to work at a moment in time…but time marches on. […]
January 4, 2021
OMAHA, NE, January 4, 2021 – In late 2020, Volano Solutions announced it has changed its name to Volano Software and launched a new website: www.volanosoftware.com. The name change was made to more accurately reflect what the company does, and the website was designed to be more informative and user-friendly to clients and prospective clients […]
June 2, 2020
According to LinkedIn technology (software) has a higher overall turnover rate than retail. With that, it isn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when. Volano has engineered a culture of “by developers, for developers” and this helps our retention. In fact, most of the folks that work at Volano have been here +5 […]
June 2, 2020
It is hard enough to build a successful business, and few want to invest time and resources into worrying about an Intellectual Property Assignment. But alas, you must do your homework. Fortunately, we make it easy for Volano customers. When asked – “Who owns the software and IP for my project?” – it is an […]
May 28, 2020
Many of us remember the grade school game Telephone. It was funny to see how a simple message would get garbled as it was passed along from person to person. But it’s not as funny when that message is a critical business requirement that will be turned into software that will power your business. Yet, […]