The Netflix Sample Database is a learning database based on public data from Netflix’s Engagement Report and Global Top 10 lists. This article walks through the steps involved when installing it on Oracle Database.
For more background on this database, check out Getting Started with the Netflix Sample Database.
Oracle Database 26ai has officially landed. As of January 27, 2026, Oracle finally flipped the switch on the General Availability (GA) for the Linux x86-64 version, bringing the “Enterprise Edition” to data centers everywhere. This marks a major turning point in Oracle’s recent rebranding saga, where the anticipated “23ai” was bumped up to 26ai to signal its role as the long-term support (LTS) foundation for the AI era.
Oracle Database has been a powerhouse in enterprise environments for decades, and the new “AI” branding reflects their recent addition of AI-powered features like vector search.
If you’re learning SQL or looking for a real-world dataset to sharpen your database skills, the Netflix sample database could be an option. This free, open-source database is based on publicly available information from Netflix’s Engagement Report and Global Top 10 weekly lists, making it both relevant and engaging for practice purposes.
Common Table Expressions (CTEs) are a handy way to break down a complex query into readable, reusable pieces. When you need several intermediate results – say, a filtered set, an aggregation, and a ranking – you can stack multiple CTE definitions together. PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL 8+, and many other engines support this syntax.
Many RDBMSs implement IF EXISTS and IF NOT EXISTS syntax modifiers that can be used with DDL object creation, modification, and deletion, such as CREATE TABLE and DROP TABLE statements, to name just a couple.
These syntax modifiers allow us to run such statements without getting an error in the event that the object already exists (if we’re trying to create it or modify it) or doesn’t exist (if we’re trying to drop it).
Many RDBMSs have a LIMIT clause that allows us to limit the rows returned by a query to a specified number. SQL Server doesn’t have a LIMIT clause but it does have a TOP() function that allows us to do the same thing.
But Oracle Database has neither.
Fortunately, Oracle does have a number of options that allow us to get the same result.
In Oracle Database, we can use the OFFSET clause to make a SELECT statement skip a certain number of rows in its result set.
The OFFSET clause is defined as part of the FETCH row limiting clause, which allows us to limit the number of rows returned by a query.
We can therefore use both OFFSET and FETCH to limit the output to just the specified number or percentage of rows, at a specified offset.
Oracle Database has a FETCH clause that allows us to limit the number of rows returned by a SELECT statement.
We can use this clause to specify the exact number of rows or the percentage of rows that a query should return. We can also specify an offset for which to start.
When working with SQL, we can use the INSERT statement to insert a new row into a table. But what if we want to insert more than one row?
Fortunately, we can still use the INSERT statement. Below is a quick example that inserts multiple rows using SQL.