SQL Server vs Oracle Database - A quick comparison

SQL Server and Oracle Database are two of the most popular and widely used database management systems. In this post, we are going to compare the two database systems and see if there are any differences.

Owner

SQL Server is a commercial relational database management system built and managed by Microsoft.
Oracle Database is the commercial relational database management system built and managed by Oracle.

Both are the giants in providing database services.

Language

SQL Server uses T-SQL, or Transact SQL, an extended form of SQL.
Oracle uses PL/SQL, or Procedural Language/SQL

PL/SQL and T-SQL are two different dialects of SQL and both languages have some different syntaxes and capabilities, mostly in the way to handle variables, stored procedures, and built-in functions.

Supported operating system

While the MS SQL Server is only compatible with Windows and Linux, Oracle can be used on any operating systems.

Transaction control

Oracle treats each new database connection as a new transaction. Changes and rollbacks are allowed as values do not change before commit, while you can’t do that in SQL Server.
SQL Server executes each command separately, so it will be quite difficult to make changes if any errors are encountered during the process.

Database organization

MS SQL Server organizes all database objects, such as tables, views, and procedures, by database names.
In Oracle, all the database objects are grouped by schemas, which are a subset collection of database objects.

Other functionalities

MS SQL Server does not offer partitioning, bitmap indexes, reverse key indexes, function-based indexes, or star query optimization, all of which Oracle offers.

Other advantages

MS SQL Server:

Ease of general use in general.
Tools like SQL Server Profiler, SQL Server Management Studio, BI tools, and Database Tuning Advisor.
Plenty of online support and documentation, plus live product support.

Oracle Database:

Ability to upgrade without complete system overhaul
Can handle data at a very large scale.

To Summarize

Which RDBMS to be used is a matter of preference and context. Both are widely used but MS SQL Server might be ideal for small and medium size while Oracle is optimal for those managing larger scale databases.

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