Michael, thank you for the hint! it's something to start. And you are right, I'm currently comparing european to african swallows: here are the differences: -- what swallows do we have: select owner, object_type from dba_objects where object_name='DICTIONARY'; OWNER OBJECT_TYPE ------------------------------ ------------------- SYS VIEW PUBLIC SYNONYM -- how does it look like: select text from dba_views where view_name='DICTIONARY'; TEXT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- select o.name, c.comment$ from sys.obj$ o, sys.com$ c where o.obj# = c.obj#(+) -- the speed of one swallow select count(*) --o.name, c.comment$ from sys.obj$ o, sys.com$ c where o.obj# = c.obj#(+); COUNT(*)--O.NAME,C.COMMENT$ --------------------------- 66902 -- the other swallow select count(*) from sys.dictionary; COUNT(*) ---------- 1881 now the question is: which one is the blue one? (I'm checking execution plans right now, and they are slightly different) welcome to the ornithology ;-) Martin On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 21:19, Michael McMullen <ganstadba@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > That Ada Lovelace quote was pretty funny. > > How about "select * from dictionary" to list the tables/views or "select * > from dict" > > But isn’t this question like asking "What is the Airspeed Velocity of an > Unladen Swallow" > > > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > On Behalf Of Martin Berger > Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 3:10 PM > To: Goulet, Richard > Cc: ORACLE-L > Subject: Re: what is the data dictionary? > > Hi Dick, > > thank you for this more useful answer. > I checked also the other emails and will summarise them: > > Some others just call the Data Dictionary "metadata", but nothing more > specific. > > I also get the info it's bad habit to put objects into sys schema. > > Your hint to sql.bsq is the most useable until now. As you call the > objects created there "basic data dictionary" - is there an "extended > data dictionary"? > > There are also some dinosaurs (most of them might have discussed > methods with Ada Lovelace) chatting in this thread. > > Unfortunately, noone can tell me how to decide for sure if an object > (let's say by object_id) is part of the data dictionary or not. (not > to mention the data dictionary cache) > > Martin > > > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- Martin Berger martin.a.berger@xxxxxxxxx Lederergasse 27/2/14 +43 660 660 83306 1080 Wien http://berx.at/ Sent from Berlin, Deutschland -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l