Best scripting language for Oracle?

Question:  I need a scripting language for Oracle and I understand that there are many choices, PHP, Perl, JavaScript, Python and UNIX shell scripts like Korn shell and BASH shell.  What are the relative merits of each scripting language in Oracle?

Answer by Steve Karam:  Each Oracle scripting language has it's own benefits and drawbacks:

• PHP - PHP is easy to configure, easy to learn, can interface with Oracle, the OS, and files. You can use regex for pattern matching and can do any kind of output including SMTP, screen out, file out, FTP, XML Webserver updating, etc. It can run from the command line or via the browser.
   

• JavaScript - JavaScript is a web client language that is embedded in HTML and interpreted by the browser (IE, firefox, safari, etc). It is not usable as a standalone language. Javascript isn't too great for monitoring, as it is mostly a client side engine interpreted by your web browser. There are neat things you could do, however, if you combine Javascript with a server-side web programming language like PHP to make a web monitoring package. For instance, use PHP to pull data out as XML and read the data with a Javascript script in your web code, a la AJAX.
   

• Perl - I wish I knew more perl, as it is really good for parsing. You can use regex in nearly any command, and it is made for grabbing data and chunking through it. A lot of perl jockeys I've met brag that they can take 100 lines of PHP code and do it in 5 lines or less in perl.
   

• Shell scripts - Shell scripts are always good, you can use the basic shell commands like grep, sed, awk, head, tail, less, more, etc to do nearly anything you want. It's not as advanced as a full blown programming language like perl or php though because it relies on programs to do much.
   

• Python - Another option is Python...I don't know much about it except that it's fast and can parse very quickly and easily.
  

 

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