Oracle SQL Developer Valuable Features

it_user506928 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Director, Applications Development Services in the Student Collaboration Center at Temple University
  • The code editor
  • The tree view
  • The debugger
  • The support available for the product
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it_user521805 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Technical at Molina Healthcare

I would say the number one feature is it’s easy to use functionality. It is an extremely simple product and the UI is user-friendly.

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MK
Senior Database Consultant at Performing Databases

I like it because it's very similar in output to SQL *Plus, and it has many convenience features that make it easier to read the data and use the basic reporting features it provides. 

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it_user431094 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal and Owner at Sandwich Analytics

In my work in BI development I find that Oracle SQL Developer is the main tool in my tool box. I can use it in so many ways: When I am designing a solution the ability to reverse engineer and diagram a database is an enormous boost to my ability to understand data relationships, in fact the latest versions allow me to see the physical model directly in the 'table viewer'. The way in which the product links into my version control system and helps me manage my database object source (DDL, PL/SQL etc) is a real plus. The way in which the 'cart' feature helps me create a simple way group objects to deploy and finally the way that I can use the tool to help me tune my code for optimal performance using the SQL monitoring and query plan features - the ability to compare plans and traces by a simple right-click is simply amazing.

And if that was not enough - true data-nerds can work with Oracle OLAP and Data Mining directly in the product

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GB
Database Development Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
  • The tight integration with other Oracle products and database features/options. For example, you can open data models, and review AWR and ASH reports.
  • The ability to reuse your own queries to create report definitions in different layouts and to render the output in HTML/PDF formats.
  • Export table data and query results in at least 10 different output formats.
  • The Cart to collect DDL/DML scripts for DB artifacts that need to be deployed together. Great when you want to execute a repeatable process in several schemas and/or databases.
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it_user493380 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Principal at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

They've done so many things that have made that product just so great. The most valuable features, what I tend to now use the most, outside of the change they've made in the IDE itself, are how it's become more flexible and the maturity in the IDE itself. It has the ability to manipulate code right there on the screen. The formatting and the UI's getting a whole lot better. That's part of it.

As far as a specific valuable feature, outside of just mentioning how it seemed the tool itself matured overall, is its modularity. I'm now able to split out windows that I couldn't do before. Basically, exploiting Windows features that are now available, it lets me kind of take advantage of having a really huge 30” screen. Now I can pull up and have multiple views of code running, and I'm able to lock that code, lock the results of queries in, so that I can see the differences between the things that I'm doing and if I wanted to change something, what the outputs will be. That's been a really good feature that I've appreciated in SQL Developer.

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it_user490656 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior OBIEE Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

For the last few years: Ctl + F7. That shortcut will format my queries the way I desire. This is especially helpful since I work with a query generator (OBIEE) and sometimes have to look at hundreds of lines of SQL. Formatting it helps me read the SQL. If I didn’t have this capability, I would format it by hand which would add time to my day.

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Theodoros Loizou - PeerSpot reviewer
Software engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable features of Oracle SQL Developer that I use. However, I do not use all of them

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it_user492777 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Evangelist at Snowflake Computing

To me, the most valuable feature is the ability to quickly reverse engineer a database structure into a data model.

There's also a drag-and-drop feature that helps you build queries in SQL Developer, which has a visual query builder with it. I like that feature a lot as it has a number of options in the wizard to pick what type of query you're trying to build. It can build inserts and updates as well. I've used that quite a bit as well. That was very helpful for, I'll say, short-cutting the process of building queries. It helps me be agile.

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it_user809487 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at Contracted by Siemens

It is easy to use. 

The newer version has a lot of new features. It generates output and scripts for your Ultrix. It can generate JSON, XML, etc. 

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it_user505650 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oracle architect & senior DBA, OBIEE data analytics, warehousing & ETL specialist at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Among the most valuable features is the automated unit test capability for PL/SQL development. It allows us to implement a form of test driven development (TDD) for database-resident code.

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it_user496338 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Team Lead, Enterprise Platform Solutions at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I've actually been using a similar tool for probably 17 years, but we switched over about four years ago to SQL Developer. A lot of these features I had used previously but there are advantages to SQL Developer. I guess just cleaning the database, looking at the information about your objects and the database, doing data manipulation. That's what I use it most for. DBAs would use it a little differently, maybe, but for me, as more of a developer or business analyst, it's pretty simple, just kind of your gateway to the database.

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it_user809538 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oracle Developer at Freelancer

Oracle is tremendous. I have always said to everybody, without knowing other databases, that Oracle is the best database that can exist in this world. That's for sure. Everybody is considering cost, mainly, so I've heard many stories recently of migrating to PostgreSQL, for example, because it's open-source and many small customers don't need all the super advanced features of Oracle, which costs a lot of money.

But on the other side, a great feature of Oracle, I think, is that it allows me to download the database and use it at home. Not a demo database or something restricted but the full version. That's fantastic.

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it_user756873 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect / Data Modeler - Contract at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
  • It's a free tool
  • Ability to analyze performance, using Explain Plan statement
  • Ability to export and import data without using any Oracle utilities
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it_user538206 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder & Oracle Database Consultant / Trainer at RebellionRider.Com at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

This open-source GUI is feature-rich software. If I have to choose one most valuable feature, then I will definitely go with the Data Modeler feature. Modeling the structure of all the data and database objects along with their attributes has always been a challenging and time consuming task. Data modeling always helped me with several projects by being able to draw objects in the plane in no time.

Another interesting feature of SQL Developer is Data Pump. It makes exporting and importing data easier. The wizard form for Data Pump relieves the developer from writing a whole chunk of code, which is a huge relief.

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it_user521631 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at Cisco WebEx

It is the easiest and quickest way to see the data in the system.

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it_user496089 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

I noticed that many of the small features are the biggest time-savers like:

  • ‘Copy Selected Column Header(s)’ in the data grid
  • Persistent highlighting of rows or cells in the data grid
  • Search-and-replace with its smart options
  • History (of statements and files)
  • Splitting windows and document groups, pinning

Personally, being a nosey person, I love the Statements-Log Window, which shows every command SQL Developer sends to the database.

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it_user657591 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Partner at a manufacturing company with 1-10 employees

You can install it on every platform. It just works. The other thing is that it's free. And Oracle is committed to the development of the tool, so it has been improving.

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it_user521538 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Level 2 Software Engineer at Akamai Technologies

The most valuable features are being able to see all of the database objects – every single one of them – within each schema; being able to edit them; and being able to create objects. My whole job is done in there.

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it_user593127 - PeerSpot reviewer
IBM Message Broker Developer - Onsite Technical Lead at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Export option on query results.

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it_user492570 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Off the top of my head (I don't use it that often):

  • Included Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler. No PL/SQL IDE has such modelling capabilities, as far as I know. This is a killer feature for me.
  • Database Export
  • Database Diff
  • Debugging capabilities
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it_user809544 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at ITFS

Maintaining databases is the most valuable feature in Oracle SQL Developer. It's also easy to use, fast, and intuitive.

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it_user809562 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at Yediot
it_user530439 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sócio Diretor at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
  • Easy to use
  • Nice interface
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it_user746874 - PeerSpot reviewer
Ingeniero Especialista at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

I only use it for connecting to instances and to do queries, I don't know details of the features.

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it_user477966 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

The speed with which you can build SQL statements and PL/SQL code has been very valuable. In addition, it simplifies how we manage database objects and connections to different data sources.

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it_user729174 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Transf & Migr Innov Sr Principal at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Among the most valuable features is the tight integration with database features/options.

  • Being able to see all of the database objects.
  • Being able to create objects.
  • Being able to edit objects.
  • Being able to open data models.
  • Being able to review AWR and ASH reports.
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it_user809577 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's free and very user-friendly.

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it_user809574 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA

It's free, it's very easy to use, and has a nice GUI.

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it_user809580 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

The possibility to connect.

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