Product Description

This new edition covers the DB2 SQL Procedural language (PL) improvementsthat will be introduced as part DB2 8.2. In addition to updates in coverage forLinux, Unix and Windows, there is upside for those working on i-Series and z-Series, where SQL PL functionality did not reside prior to 8.1. In addition toimprovements, 8.2 introduces a method for resolving performance issues, i.e.how to monitor and identify bottlenecks and provide alternatives forresolution. This new book will cover ANY platform! This book teaches thereader how to setup the development environment and use all languageelements of SQL PL through concrete examples and thorough discussions ofXML, SQL procedures, stored procedures, and triggers. Also included areexpert tips and best-practices for achieving optimal performance and codemanageability. This book will be a valuable reference for SQL PL code syntaxand troubleshooting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #630784 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

From the Back Cover

• IBM's definitive guide to writing DB2 SQL PL stored procedures, triggers, UDFs, and dynamic compound SQL
• Fully updated to reflect the entire DB2 UDB product family, and new SQL PL improvements for Windows, UNIX, Linux, iSeries, and zSeries
• Presents expert tips and best practices drawn from extensive experience in real customer environments
• Covers everything from basic program structure through advanced techniques
• Includes up-to-the-minute coverage of optimization and troubleshooting

Using the IBM DB2 SQL Procedural Language (SQL PL), programmers can drive major improvements in database performance, manageability, and time-to-market. Now, IBM's own experts present the definitive guide to DB2 SQL PL development on any platform: Windows, UNIX, Linux, iSeries, or zSeries.

DB2 SQL PL, Second Edition shows developers how to take advantage of every facet of the SQL PL language and development environment. The authors offer up-to-the-minute coverage, best practices, and tips for building basic SQL procedures, writing flow-of-control statements, creating cursors, handling conditions, and much more. Along the way, they illuminate advanced features ranging from stored procedures and triggers to user-defined functions.

The only book to combine practical SQL PL tutorials and a detailed syntax reference, DB2 SQL PL, Second Edition draws on the authors' unparalleled expertise with SQL PL in real business environments. Coverage includes

• Using SQL PL to improve manageability and performance, while clearly separating DBA and development roles
• Writing more efficient stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions (UDFs), and dynamic compound SQL
• Identifying SQL PL performance bottlenecks--and resolving them
• Leveraging new language enhancements for Windows, UNIX, and Linux: improved table function support, session based locking, nested save points, new prepare options, and more
• Using new features for iSeries V5R3: built-in string and date/time manipulation functions, SEQUENCE objects, and more
• Utilizing zSeries Version 8's integrated stored procedures debugging and improved SQL Conditions support
• Mastering DB2 Development Center, the unified development environment for creating DB2 stored procedures

Whether you're developing new SQL PL applications, migrating or tuning existing applications, or administering DB2, you'll find this book indispensable.

About the Author

Clara Liu, Fraser McAuthur, Michael Gao, Paul Yip, and Raul Chong are consultants from the Information Management Services at the IBM Toronto Laboratory. They work closely with the IBM DB2 development team and have extensive hands-on experience with the DB2 SQL Procedural Language (SQL PL) through their work with IBM business partners and customers.

Drew Bradstock is the Product Manager for DB2 for Linux, UNIX and Windows. He works with all of DB2’s customers, users, developers and champions to ensure that each release exceeds customers’ expectations. Drew has been a speaker at numerous conferences, a Redbook author and is always looking for feedback on DB2.

Zamil Janmohamed is a Websphere Commerce development manager at the IBM Toronto Lab. He manages a team focused on developer productivity and tooling for Websphere Commerce practitioners. He also has an extensive background working with relational databases, not only as it relates to developing applications, but also designing, implementing, and supporting databases.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book for developers/DBAs new to DB2
If you are a developer or DBA who is new to DB2, I would highly recommend this book to you. Both administration and development topics are covered, helpful best practices and tips are included, and illustrative examples are used.

The fundamental DB2 concepts and the different DB2 tools such as the Control Center are introduced in a very straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. This allows DB2-newbies to get fully up to speed on DB2 terminology and functionality, while serving as a gentle refresher for those who might have prior DB2 experience. The book achieves a good balance of topic selection and level of detail. More advance topics that are covered are explained in a manner that most novices would comprehend and in enough detail to be useful.

The prime focus of the book is on leveraging the ease-of-use and autonomic capabilities of DB2. If you are a developer not wanting to memorize database and/or SQL command syntax, you will particularly appreciate this book. The book shows how most common administrative tasks can be very easily performed using the GUI tools and Wizards provided with DB2. Ease of application development is demonstrated in both Java and Microsoft .net environments. An easy and intuitive introduction to DB2 SQLPL is also provided.

Overall, I think that if you are new to DB2, or need to learn the essential concepts/features needed to develop and/or administer DB2 quickly, you will be very pleased with this book. It is a perfect starting point for introducing the most important concepts, features, and tools. As you gain more experience and familiarity with the product, a more advanced book can be obtained.

The Fastest Path to Mastering DB2 Stored Procedures
This comprehensive yet concise introduction to DB2's SQL procedural language is the first and best place to find guidance on this crucial topic. Stored procedures are fast becoming the mainstay of successful client/server and Web-based DB2 applications, and this book WILL teach you how to develop them, even if all you currently know is just a bit of SQL.

Written by DB2 experts from the IBM Toronto Labs, this is one of those rare texts that actually imparts expertise. It is eminently readable and crystal clear in its explanations of concepts and their application.

Any and every developer of DB2 stored procedures should read -- and enjoy -- this book

embed yourself in db2
The book describes IBM's Procedural Language, which runs on their db2 servers. It is not a general purpose language, like C or Java. Rather, it is tied directly to db2 and IBM's implementation of SQL. But within this context, the book explains the expressive power of PL. It shows at length how you can write stored procedures, triggers and functions in PL. The level of detail and the cited examples should reassure you of PL's capability.

But why even write business logic code at the database layer? There have been other books on n-tier application design, which call for the locating of business logic in a middle tier and not at the database. The authors' rejoinder is that while that makes for an elegant design, practical experience shows that often, crucial logic needs to be at the database. This reduces networks traffic and can heavily improve perforance. Hence the need for PL, or something like it.

Be wary of the book's claim that PL lets you write "portable application logic". It is portable only between instances of db2 running under linux, unix, Microsoft Windows or IBM's operating systems. When you write embedded logic in PL, you are also embedding yourself or your company into db2. Which may indeed be fine by you. But just so you know.