Let's get it done: SQLDeveloper Database Diff ignore whitespace option

Always check out the original article at http://www.oraclequirks.com for latest comments, fixes and updates.

Recently I've spent more time than necessary in comparing identical objects in two oracle schemas, because SQLDeveloper's "Database Diff" tool doesn't offer the option to ignore whitespace.
For some reason there were objects with an extra trailing newline character beyond the end of the code and they showed up in the list of differences, even if they were perfectly identical.

If you have a handful of objects to compare, then I agree this is not a big deal, but if you have hundreds, then you do have a problem.

In view of this fact, I am asking for your cooperation to get some extra votes for this feature on the SQL Developer Exchange site, all you need to do is to sign in using your OTN account and vote for the feature (https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=43135:7:0::NO:RP,7:P7_ID:19501), as well as adding any relevant comment if you deem necessary, may be we can get to the bottom of it quickly if enough people support the request, considering that this request lies there since nearly 3 years.

As of SQL Developer 3.1 the database diff tool does no longer require separate licensing, so it's worth getting it to work properly.

Personally I'd like to have a ternary option:

1. do not ignore whitespace and comments
2. ignore whitespace
3. ignore whitespace and comments

 And everybody will be satisfied.

How to remove the thousands group separator in numbers representing years from apex flash charts

Always check out the original article at http://www.oraclequirks.com for latest comments, fixes and updates.

A quick tip for formatting years when they show up as labels in flash charts inside Oracle Application Express (Apex).
The problem is in that Anychart is too smart, so when it encounters a label that looks like a number, it will format it with the separator for the thousands, i.e. "2012" will be displayed either as "2,012" or "2.012" depending on the application locale settings.

As I don't really liked to see years formatted that way, I thought I had to find a way to suppress the thousands separator without having to resort to using a custom XML chart source file. After a few attempts, it turned out that by prepending a non-breaking space to the string, I could fool anychart's super-smart engine eventually. The technique applies to UTF-8 encoded pages.

UNISTR('\00A0') || TO_CHAR(gl_date, 'YYYY')

Not a big deal but something that may come in handy if you are in a hurry and short of more brilliant ideas. May be there are other ways to achieve the same result, this was just the first one that occurred to me.

The chart clearly displays my annual income as apex freelance, just in case you are wondering :-P

One more iteration for SQLDeveloper: 3.1EA3 available for download

In case you missed it, the latest SQL Developer Early Adopter 3 release is available for download since yesterday.