It is Free and Platform Independent!!

I have used Oracle SQL Developer and its worth to have a look on it. It is a free graphical tool that can be used for database development. Oracle SQL Developer can easily connect to any database version version 9.2.0.1and later. It can not only run on Windows but also on Linux and Mac OSX. Oracle SQL Developer is Java based and hence it can run anywhere.

You can view information on Oracle Database in a better way than Sql Plus. You can view various types of components in a schema like tables, views, procedures, functions, indexes, sequences, etc. You can run SQL statements and SQL scripts, and edit and debug PL/SQL statements. Oracle SQL Developer is really good for ad hoc queries or browsing database objects.Oracle SQL Developer also support for Oracle Reports , Oracle Data mining as well as a Sql formatter. You can also run any number of provided reports as well as create and save your own.

Below list shows the powerful features of Oracle SQL Developer.

1. Create Connections
2. Browse, Create and Modify Objects
3. Query and Update Data
4. Edit, Run and Debug PL/SQL
5. Export Data and DDL and Import Data
6. Process Commands
7. Create and Run Reports
8. Migrate from Third Party Databases
9. Review the Robust IDE

Although Oracle SQL Developer lacks many of the features of TOAD and is slow but still enhances productivity and simplifies your database development tasks and most of all it is free and hence a better choice to opt.

Oracle SQL Developer can be used by Java developers to test the connections. You just have to copy and paste your JDBC url from your Java application, and click on the ‘test' button. And here it works! No longer you are stuck for hours trying to find why your application does not work where the culprit changed your database username and password!

The latest release of SQL Developer includes the Oracle Migration Workbench. This is a new, redeveloped tool that has greatly extended the functionality of original Oracle Migration Workbench.