I just wanted to put up a post about DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO. This is a fantastic little built-in PL/SQL package that Oracle has provided since Oracle 8 to allow you to instrument your code. i.e record what it is doing. I’m a big fan of DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO and have used it several times to help identify where in an application time is being spent and how that pattern of time has altered.
Some PL/SQL developers use it and some don’t. It seems to me that it’s use comes down to where you work, as most PL/SQL developers are aware of it – but not everyone uses it (a friend of mine made the comment recently that “all good PL/SQL developers use it“. I can understand his point but don’t 100% agree).
