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Subtracting Dates in Oracle - Number or Interval Datatype?

Ok, I don't normally answer my own questions but after a bit of tinkering, I have figured out definitively how Oracle stores the result of a DATE subtraction.

When you subtract 2 dates, the value is not a NUMBER datatype (as the Oracle 11.2 SQL Reference manual would have you believe). The internal datatype number of a DATE subtraction is 14, which is a non-documented internal datatype (NUMBER is internal datatype number 2). However, it is actually stored as 2 separate two's complement signed numbers, with the first 4 bytes used to represent the number of days and the last 4 bytes used to represent the number of seconds.

An example of a DATE subtraction resulting in a positive integer difference:

select date '2009-08-07' - date '2008-08-08' from dual;

Results in:

DATE'2009-08-07'-DATE'2008-08-08'
---------------------------------
                              364

select dump(date '2009-08-07' - date '2008-08-08') from dual;

DUMP(DATE'2009-08-07'-DATE'2008
-------------------------------
Typ=14 Len=8: 108,1,0,0,0,0,0,0

Recall that the result is represented as a 2 seperate two's complement signed 4 byte numbers. Since there are no decimals in this case (364 days and 0 hours exactly), the last 4 bytes are all 0s and can be ignored. For the first 4 bytes, because my CPU has a little-endian architecture, the bytes are reversed and should be read as 1,108 or 0x16c, which is decimal 364.

An example of a DATE subtraction resulting in a negative integer difference:

select date '1000-08-07' - date '2008-08-08' from dual;

Results in:

DATE'1000-08-07'-DATE'2008-08-08'
---------------------------------
                          -368160

select dump(date '1000-08-07' - date '2008-08-08') from dual;

DUMP(DATE'1000-08-07'-DATE'2008-08-0
------------------------------------
Typ=14 Len=8: 224,97,250,255,0,0,0,0

Again, since I am using a little-endian machine, the bytes are reversed and should be read as 255,250,97,224 which corresponds to 11111111 11111010 01100001 11011111. Now since this is in two's complement signed binary numeral encoding, we know that the number is negative because the leftmost binary digit is a 1. To convert this into a decimal number we would have to reverse the 2's complement (subtract 1 then do the one's complement) resulting in: 00000000 00000101 10011110 00100000 which equals -368160 as suspected.

An example of a DATE subtraction resulting in a decimal difference:

select to_date('08/AUG/2004 14:00:00', 'DD/MON/YYYY HH24:MI:SS'
 - to_date('08/AUG/2004 8:00:00', 'DD/MON/YYYY HH24:MI:SS') from dual;

TO_DATE('08/AUG/200414:00:00','DD/MON/YYYYHH24:MI:SS')-TO_DATE('08/AUG/20048:00:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                             .25

The difference between those 2 dates is 0.25 days or 6 hours.

select dump(to_date('08/AUG/2004 14:00:00', 'DD/MON/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')
 - to_date('08/AUG/2004 8:00:00', 'DD/MON/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) from dual;

DUMP(TO_DATE('08/AUG/200414:00:
-------------------------------
Typ=14 Len=8: 0,0,0,0,96,84,0,0

Now this time, since the difference is 0 days and 6 hours, it is expected that the first 4 bytes are 0. For the last 4 bytes, we can reverse them (because CPU is little-endian) and get 84,96 = 01010100 01100000 base 2 = 21600 in decimal. Converting 21600 seconds to hours gives you 6 hours which is the difference which we expected.

Hope this helps anyone who was wondering how a DATE subtraction is actually stored.


You get the syntax error because the date math does not return a NUMBER, but it returns an INTERVAL:

SQL> SELECT DUMP(SYSDATE - start_date) from test;

DUMP(SYSDATE-START_DATE)
-------------------------------------- 
Typ=14 Len=8: 188,10,0,0,223,65,1,0

You need to convert the number in your example into an INTERVAL first using the NUMTODSINTERVAL Function

For example:

SQL> SELECT (SYSDATE - start_date) DAY(5) TO SECOND from test;

(SYSDATE-START_DATE)DAY(5)TOSECOND
----------------------------------
+02748 22:50:04.000000

SQL> SELECT (SYSDATE - start_date) from test;

(SYSDATE-START_DATE)
--------------------
           2748.9515

SQL> select NUMTODSINTERVAL(2748.9515, 'day') from dual;

NUMTODSINTERVAL(2748.9515,'DAY')
--------------------------------
+000002748 22:50:09.600000000

SQL>

Based on the reverse cast with the NUMTODSINTERVAL() function, it appears some rounding is lost in translation.

JPA CriteriaBuilder - How to use "IN" comparison operator

If I understand well, you want to Join ScheduleRequest with User and apply the in clause to the userName property of the entity User.

I'd need to work a bit on this schema. But you can try with this trick, that is much more readable than the code you posted, and avoids the Join part (because it handles the Join logic outside the Criteria Query).

List<String> myList = new ArrayList<String> ();
for (User u : usersList) {
    myList.add(u.getUsername());
}
Expression<String> exp = scheduleRequest.get("createdBy");
Predicate predicate = exp.in(myList);
criteria.where(predicate);

In order to write more type-safe code you could also use Metamodel by replacing this line:

Expression<String> exp = scheduleRequest.get("createdBy");

with this:

Expression<String> exp = scheduleRequest.get(ScheduleRequest_.createdBy);

If it works, then you may try to add the Join logic into the Criteria Query. But right now I can't test it, so I prefer to see if somebody else wants to try.


Not a perfect answer though may be code snippets might help.

public <T> List<T> findListWhereInCondition(Class<T> clazz,
            String conditionColumnName, Serializable... conditionColumnValues) {
        QueryBuilder<T> queryBuilder = new QueryBuilder<T>(clazz);
        addWhereInClause(queryBuilder, conditionColumnName,
                conditionColumnValues);
        queryBuilder.select();
        return queryBuilder.getResultList();

    }


private <T> void addWhereInClause(QueryBuilder<T> queryBuilder,
            String conditionColumnName, Serializable... conditionColumnValues) {

        Path<Object> path = queryBuilder.root.get(conditionColumnName);
        In<Object> in = queryBuilder.criteriaBuilder.in(path);
        for (Serializable conditionColumnValue : conditionColumnValues) {
            in.value(conditionColumnValue);
        }
        queryBuilder.criteriaQuery.where(in);

    }

Python Math - TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

lista = list.sort(lista)

This should be

lista.sort()

The .sort() method is in-place, and returns None. If you want something not in-place, which returns a value, you could use

sorted_list = sorted(lista)

Aside #1: please don't call your lists list. That clobbers the builtin list type.

Aside #2: I'm not sure what this line is meant to do:

print str("value 1a")+str(" + ")+str("value 2")+str(" = ")+str("value 3a ")+str("value 4")+str("\n")

is it simply

print "value 1a + value 2 = value 3a value 4"

? In other words, I don't know why you're calling str on things which are already str.

Aside #3: sometimes you use print("something") (Python 3 syntax) and sometimes you use print "something" (Python 2). The latter would give you a SyntaxError in py3, so you must be running 2.*, in which case you probably don't want to get in the habit or you'll wind up printing tuples, with extra parentheses. I admit that it'll work well enough here, because if there's only one element in the parentheses it's not interpreted as a tuple, but it looks strange to the pythonic eye..


The exception TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable happens because the value of lista is actually None. You can reproduce TypeError that you get in your code if you try this at the Python command line:

None[0]

The reason that lista gets set to None is because the return value of list.sort() is None... it does not return a sorted copy of the original list. Instead, as the documentation points out, the list gets sorted in-place instead of a copy being made (this is for efficiency reasons).

If you do not want to alter the original version you can use

other_list = sorted(lista)

Is it possible to run .php files on my local computer?

Sure you just need to setup a local web server. Check out XAMPP: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

That will get you up and running in about 10 minutes.

There is now a way to run php locally without installing a server: https://stackoverflow.com/a/21872484/672229


Yes but the files need to be processed. For example you can install test servers like mamp / lamp / wamp depending on your plateform.

Basically you need apache / php running.

The project was not built since its build path is incomplete

Here is what made the error disappear for me:

Close eclipse, open up a terminal window and run:

$ mvn clean eclipse:clean eclipse:eclipse

Are you using Maven? If so,

  1. Right-click on the project, Build Path and go to Configure Build Path
  2. Click the libraries tab. If Maven dependencies are not in the list, you need to add it.
  3. Close the dialog.

To add it: Right-click on the project, Maven → Disable Maven Nature Right-click on the project, Configure → Convert to Maven Project.

And then clean

Edit 1:

If that doesn't resolve the issue try right-clicking on your project and select properties. Select Java Build Path → Library tab. Look for a JVM. If it's not there, click to add Library and add the default JVM. If VM is there, click edit and select the default JVM. Hopefully, that works.

Edit 2:

You can also try going into the folder where you have all your projects and delete the .metadata for eclipse (be aware that you'll have to re-import all the projects afterwards! Also all the environment settings you've set would also have to be redone). After it was deleted just import the project again, and hopefully, it works.

PHP remove commas from numeric strings

Not tested, but probably something like if(preg_match("/^[0-9,]+$/", $a)) $a = str_replace(...)


Do it the other way around:

$a = "1,435";
$b = str_replace( ',', '', $a );

if( is_numeric( $b ) ) {
    $a = $b;
}

The easiest would be:

$var = intval(preg_replace('/[^\d.]/', '', $var));

or if you need float:

$var = floatval(preg_replace('/[^\d.]/', '', $var));

Convert DateTime to a specified Format

Easy peasy:

var date = DateTime.Parse("14/11/2011"); // may need some Culture help here
Console.Write(date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"));

Take a look at DateTime.ToString() method, Custom Date and Time Format Strings and Standard Date and Time Format Strings

string customFormattedDateTimeString = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");

Spring JDBC Template for calling Stored Procedures

There are a number of ways to call stored procedures in Spring.

If you use CallableStatementCreator to declare parameters, you will be using Java's standard interface of CallableStatement, i.e register out parameters and set them separately. Using SqlParameter abstraction will make your code cleaner.

I recommend you looking at SimpleJdbcCall. It may be used like this:

SimpleJdbcCall jdbcCall = new SimpleJdbcCall(jdbcTemplate)
    .withSchemaName(schema)
    .withCatalogName(package)
    .withProcedureName(procedure)();
...
jdbcCall.addDeclaredParameter(new SqlParameter(paramName, OracleTypes.NUMBER));
...
jdbcCall.execute(callParams);

For simple procedures you may use jdbcTemplate's update method:

jdbcTemplate.update("call SOME_PROC (?, ?)", param1, param2);

google map API zoom range

Available Zoom Levels

Zoom level 0 is the most zoomed out zoom level available and each integer step in zoom level halves the X and Y extents of the view and doubles the linear resolution.

Google Maps was built on a 256x256 pixel tile system where zoom level 0 was a 256x256 pixel image of the whole earth. A 256x256 tile for zoom level 1 enlarges a 128x128 pixel region from zoom level 0.

As correctly stated by bkaid, the available zoom range depends on where you are looking and the kind of map you are using:

  • Road maps - seem to go up to zoom level 22 everywhere
  • Hybrid and satellite maps - the max available zoom levels depend on location. Here are some examples:
  • Remote regions of Antarctica: 13
  • Gobi Desert: 17
  • Much of the U.S. and Europe: 21
  • "Deep zoom" locations: 22-23 (see bkaid's link)

Note that these values are for the Google Static Maps API which seems to give one more zoom level than the Javascript API. It appears that the extra zoom level available for Static Maps is just an upsampled version of the max-resolution image from the Javascript API.

Map Scale at Various Zoom Levels

Google Maps uses a Mercator projection so the scale varies substantially with latitude. A formula for calculating the correct scale based on latitude is:

meters_per_pixel = 156543.03392 * Math.cos(latLng.lat() * Math.PI / 180) / Math.pow(2, zoom)

Formula is from Chris Broadfoot's comment.


Google Maps basics

Zoom Level - zoom

0 - 19

0 lowest zoom (whole world)

19 highest zoom (individual buildings, if available) Retrieve current zoom level using mapObject.getZoom()


What you're looking for are the scales for each zoom level. Use these:

20 : 1128.497220
19 : 2256.994440
18 : 4513.988880
17 : 9027.977761
16 : 18055.955520
15 : 36111.911040
14 : 72223.822090
13 : 144447.644200
12 : 288895.288400
11 : 577790.576700
10 : 1155581.153000
9  : 2311162.307000
8  : 4622324.614000
7  : 9244649.227000
6  : 18489298.450000
5  : 36978596.910000
4  : 73957193.820000
3  : 147914387.600000
2  : 295828775.300000
1  : 591657550.500000

How to use a variable of one method in another method?

You can't. Variables defined inside a method are local to that method.

If you want to share variables between methods, then you'll need to specify them as member variables of the class. Alternatively, you can pass them from one method to another as arguments (this isn't always applicable).


Looks like you're using instance methods instead of static ones.

If you don't want to create an object, you should declare all your methods static, so something like

private static void methodName(Argument args...)

If you want a variable to be accessible by all these methods, you should initialise it outside the methods and to limit its scope, declare it private.

private static int[][] array = new int[3][5];

Global variables are usually looked down upon (especially for situations like your one) because in a large-scale program they can wreak havoc, so making it private will prevent some problems at the least.

Also, I'll say the usual: You should try to keep your code a bit tidy. Use descriptive class, method and variable names and keep your code neat (with proper indentation, linebreaks etc.) and consistent.

Here's a final (shortened) example of what your code should be like:

public class Test3 {
    //Use this array in your methods
    private static int[][] scores = new int[3][5];

    /* Rather than just "Scores" name it so people know what
     * to expect
     */
    private static void createScores() {
        //Code...
    }
    //Other methods...

    /* Since you're now using static methods, you don't 
     * have to initialise an object and call its methods.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args){
        createScores();
        MD();   //Don't know what these do
        sumD(); //so I'll leave them.
    }
}

Ideally, since you're using an array, you would create the array in the main method and pass it as an argument across each method, but explaining how that works is probably a whole new question on its own so I'll leave it at that.

WCF vs ASP.NET Web API

The new ASP.NET Web API is a continuation of the previous WCF Web API project (although some of the concepts have changed).

WCF was originally created to enable SOAP-based services. For simpler RESTful or RPCish services (think clients like jQuery) ASP.NET Web API should be good choice.


For us, WCF is used for SOAP and Web API for REST. I wish Web API supported SOAP too. We are not using advanced features of WCF. Here is comparison from MSDN:

enter image description here


ASP.net Web API is all about HTTP and REST based GET,POST,PUT,DELETE with well know ASP.net MVC style of programming and JSON returnable; web API is for all the light weight process and pure HTTP based components. For one to go ahead with WCF even for simple or simplest single web service it will bring all the extra baggage. For light weight simple service for ajax or dynamic calls always WebApi just solves the need. This neatly complements or helps in parallel to the ASP.net MVC.

Check out the podcast : Hanselminutes Podcast 264 - This is not your father's WCF - All about the WebAPI with Glenn Block by Scott Hanselman for more information.


In the scenarios listed below you should go for WCF:

  1. If you need to send data on protocols like TCP, MSMQ or MIME
  2. If the consuming client just knows how to consume SOAP messages

WEB API is a framework for developing RESTful/HTTP services.

There are so many clients that do not understand SOAP like Browsers, HTML5, in those cases WEB APIs are a good choice.

HTTP services header specifies how to secure service, how to cache the information, type of the message body and HTTP body can specify any type of content like HTML not just XML as SOAP services.