I know this is micro-optimization - this is more a question of curiosity.
I am curious which is faster of the two options below:
1) :new.a := upper(:new.a);
2) select upper(:new.a) into :new.a from dual;
I didn't find any performance info here or here, though those are usage docs, so I'm probably looking in the wrong place. I did run an explain plan on the second, but couldn't figure out how to get one working on the first.