Parser for Oracle SQL

Question

For my current project I need a SQL parser that parses Oracle SQL statements. Currently I've been using jsqlparser, which worked well for simple queries. But when specific functions occur (e.g. cast() or (+)) the parser fails.

Can anyone suggest a parser that is fully compliant to Oracle SQL?

Best, Will

Answer 1

After working the same issue, I managed to get a SQL parser working:

• Download Oracle SQL Developer from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/overview/index.html.
• Oracle SQL developer contains a set jars and some of the APIs are documented as part of Oracle Fusion Middleware Java API Reference for Oracle Extension SDK (a link to the javadoc: http://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1212/jdev/ESDKJ/index.html?oracle/javatools/db/sql/class-use/SQLQueryBuilder.SQLQueryObjectSet.html).
• One of the available classes is oracle.javatools.db.sql.SQLQueryBuilder.

My code looks like this:

import oracle.jdeveloper.db.DatabaseConnections;
import oracle.javatools.db.sql.SQLQueryBuilder;
import oracle.javatools.db.Database;
...
// load the database connections
// this is specific to Oracle SQL developer
DatabaseConnections connections = DatabaseConnections.getPrivateInstance(
    (new File("src/test/resources/connection.xml")).toURI().toURL(),
    "somePassword");
// get the one we are interested in
Database database = connections.getDatabase("the-name-of-a-sqldeveloper-connection");
SQLQueryBuilder queryBuilder = SQLQueryBuilderFactory.createBuilder(
      database, new Schema("OPTIONAL_SCHEMA"), "select * from some_table");

The challenges to get this working are:

• Getting the Oracle SQL Developer is a challenge. To do this, you will need to hack the files Oracle SQL Developer creates to persist those connections; the connection.xml in the above example looks something like this:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8'?>
<References xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/jndi">
   <Reference name="the-name-of-a-sqldeveloper-connection"     className="oracle.jdeveloper.db.adapter.DatabaseProvider" xmlns="">
      <Factory      className="oracle.jdevimpl.db.adapter.DatabaseProviderFactory1212"/>
  <RefAddresses>
     <StringRefAddr addrType="password">
        <Contents>HSx10FtlsPc=</Contents>
     </StringRefAddr>
     <StringRefAddr addrType="oraDriverType">
        <Contents>thin</Contents>
     </StringRefAddr>
...

To get such a file you will need to dig into the folder where Oracle SQL Developer settings are stored and just copy-paste that content into your own file.

• Next challenge is to define the database password. That is encrypted but this post (https://community.oracle.com/message/12359081) should be very helpful - just check the answer at the end of the post.

Now, assuming you managed to get this far here are the problems and the points where I got disappointed by the end solution:

• The API in the builder is decent but parsing will perform a query execution (and this might be a big issue - in my case I needed the parsing to be fast).
• The API is not officially public. Without being able to quote here the precise wording, I got an Oracle answer that stated there is no officially supported Oracle parser (the alluded reason was that this is a very valuable technology that will not be sold or licensed).
• While this is more of a hack than a solution, I realized that it might be useful for some cases (not mine). I consider that using it in real life scenarios might be highly risky from both technical and legal perspectives.

The reason I posted this answer is to drive community attention to the fact that having an Oracle SQL parser is perfectly feasible and maybe one day Oracle will consider exposing the parser as a competitive advantage (I am sure there are users out there that would happily pay some fees to get a license).

Answer 2

Have you considered General SQL Parser? I don't have any experience with it myself but browsing their website it has potential. Personally I have rolled my own built on the parser in Eclipse Data Tools Platform (sorry I can't share, it's proprietary), but now I will have to evaluate the one I linked above because it claims to have more coverage of Oracle SQL than my parser does.

Answer 3

Given that Oracle Corporation couldn't keep the SQL parser for the SQL and PL/SQL VM's in sync when the two had different SQL parsers, it's unlikely that a third party would be able to create a "fully compliant" parser.

What data are you trying to extract from the query? The Oracle database itself may have other facilities that would allow you to extract that information without parsing the query first.

Answer 4

Our DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit can be obtained with an Oracle PLSQL parser, or a SQL 2011 parser. DMS provides a parser, builds an AST, lets you investigate/transform the tree arbitrarily, and regenerate the AST as source code if you want to do that.

You can test out the parser by downloading the PLSQL formatter available from the website; that uses the same underlying DMS machinery; just doesn't analyze/transform the tree.

You might need to wrap the SQL statements in a simple PLSQL procedure.

Answer 5

The ANTLR (v3, v4) parser generator has had a number of Oracle SQL and PL/SQL grammars written for it; see the grammar list (v3) for details. Of those:

• I've used Andrey Kharitonkin's "Oracle PL/SQL Grammar for ANTLR v3"; from memory it supported most SQL and PL/SQL syntax from the 8i era, with a few bits and pieces that appeared in 9i and 10g
• Patrick Higgins' "PL/SQL" grammar is newer and claims to support most 11g syntax, but it appears to just swallow most DML statements - not too useful if you're specifically interested in SQL

Answer 6

Try this http://www.ibrezina.net/OracleSQL.tgz. It's ANTLR3.3 grammar for Oracle's PL/SQL. The grammar is intended for C target but can be easily converted into Java or C#. Your task, list of tables included in a query is already included as an example.