Product Description

Create dynamic client/server applications using PL/SQL and the comprehensive information contained in this authoritative volume. Expert Oracle insiders cover the features of PL/SQL, explain scripting semantics and syntax, and fully detail the PL/SQL functionality of Oracle Database 10g. You’ll learn how to write powerful PL/SQL programs, interact with Oracle databases, perform complex calculations, and handle error conditions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110725 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 896 pages

From the Inside Flap
Write Robust PL/SQL Applications

Create dynamic client/server applications using PL/SQL and the comprehensive information contained in this authoritative volume. Expert Oracle insiders cover the features of PL/SQL, explain scripting semantics and syntax, and fully detail the PL/SQL functionality of Oracle Database 10g. You’ll learn how to write powerful PL/SQL programs, interact with Oracle databases, perform complex calculations, and handle error conditions. Plus, you’ll get insider programming tips and techniques and real-world examples from the Oracle community.

Develop, tune, and debug PL/SQL programs that access Oracle databases from a wide variety of environments Use PL/SQL block structures, variables, datatypes, expressions, operators, and statements Regulate and recover from errors using exceptions and exception handlers Deploy subprograms, procedures, functions, packages, and triggers Accomplish intersession communication with DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_ALERT Write object-oriented PL/SQL applications Manage large sets of data using PL/SQL records and objects Work with Oracle Net Services, external procedures, Java libraries, and C shared libraries Perform object-oriented programming using transient objects, inheritance, type evolution, and attribute chaining Automate database tasks with DBMS_JOB and DBMS_SCHEDULER and add e-mail functionality with UTL_SMTP and UTL_MAIL

From the Back Cover

Write Robust PL/SQL Applications

Create dynamic client/server applications using PL/SQL and the comprehensive information contained in this authoritative volume. Expert Oracle insiders cover the features of PL/SQL, explain scripting semantics and syntax, and fully detail the PL/SQL functionality of Oracle Database 10g. You’ll learn how to write powerful PL/SQL programs, interact with Oracle databases, perform complex calculations, and handle error conditions. Plus, you’ll get insider programming tips and techniques and real-world examples from the Oracle community.

• Develop, tune, and debug PL/SQL programs that access Oracle databases from a wide variety of environments
• Use PL/SQL block structures, variables, datatypes, expressions, operators, and statements
• Regulate and recover from errors using exceptions and exception handlers
• Deploy subprograms, procedures, functions, packages, and triggers
• Accomplish intersession communication with DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_ALERT
• Write object-oriented PL/SQL applications
• Manage large sets of data using PL/SQL records and objects
• Work with Oracle Net Services, external procedures, Java libraries, and C shared libraries
• Perform object-oriented programming using transient objects, inheritance, type evolution, and attribute chaining
• Automate database tasks with DBMS_JOB and DBMS_SCHEDULER and add e-mail functionality with UTL_SMTP and UTL_MAIL

About the Author
Scott Urman (Foster City, CA) is a senior member of the diagnostic and defect technical staff in the Language Group of Oracle Support Services, where he aids users of Oracle's various language products (PL/SQL, OCI, and the Oracle precompilers). In addition, he reviews Oracle technical documentation, writes white papers on Oracle languages, and makes technical presentations both inside Oracle and at meetings of Oracle User's Groups. Scott is the best-selling author of Oracle Press' Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle8 PL/SQL Programming.

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Customer Reviews

Excellent PL/SQL Resource
SQL developers experienced with non-Oracle databases or Oracle developers who are looking for a good reference manual should definitely pick up a copy of this book. Inexperienced SQL developers will probably get more out of Oracle Press' other excellent book PL/SQL 101.

This book begins exactly the way experienced developers would expect-it starts out at a running pace. The book takes the next hundred-or-so pages just discussing PL/SQL basics. Where this book excels is in its examples. Each and every PL/SQL principle is clearly illustrated with many clear and relevant examples. The author then begins into a discussion of advanced PL/SQL techniques, which includes a discussion of cursors, built-in functions, and records.

The middle section of the book covers management and syntax of Oracle packages and functions. This excellent discussion covers such issues as package scope and permissions. This discussion naturally leads into advanced PL/SQL techniques including transactions, pipes, and various built-in DBMS packages. Finally, the book rounds out its PL/SQL discussions by reviewing use of Large Objects (LOB). In this section, the author discusses use and retrieval of data in this format.

I would highly recommend this book to experienced Oracle or even non-Oracle developers who want to sharpen their PL/SQL skills or who are looking for a really good PL/SQL reference. This is a must-have book for anyone serious about their PL/SQL development work.

Poorly Written for a Book on Programming
The book is a large survey of the PL/SQL language and introduces many new things that have changed with 10g. But there is a major problem with the book, which runs throughout almost all Oracle Documentation.

The book is written more as a corporate training manual than that of a programming text book. As probably everyone who ever took a training class from their company knows, training is often done by people who not only are not educators, but may not actually understand or have even used the subject of the training. It is intentional that such people do not state the concepts abstractly - they only know concrete examples and maybe only the example in their pre-written material.

This book fits this description to a T. It does not specify the correct syntax except in examples. It does not specify the qualifications and conditions governing the language elements or the examples. As such, unless you are essentially copying an example almost verbatim, you have no real knowledge of whether your code will compile, let alone work as intended. As an example consider their discussion of SELECT statements. They speak about the Select clause, the INTO clause, etc. Nowhere do they state that the list of items in the INTO clause should separated by commas. Although most people could correctly guess that the comma is the separator, you need to find an example to show you that. The book is rampant with omissions like this. Two pages later, they use an OPEN - FOR construct in an example without introducing it. That it can be used dynamically, i.e. with the query in a character string constructed at run time, is not only not mentioned in this section, but is not even mentioned in the chapter on Dynamic SQL.

This should be looked upon as a book of (simple) examples. It should be no one's text or reference.

A couple of bad chapters, but good for 1Z0-147
I bought this book hoping it would help me pass the 1Z0-147 Oracle PL/SQL certification test, and it did. First the bad news: chapters five and six are horrible. The person that wrote these two chapters writes in the most pedantic way possible. Pages upon pages are filled with highly repetitive code, with each example followed by a detailed analysis of every statement! Compare this to the coding examples in other chapters, where statements of interest are highlighted and then followed by descriptions of their significance. If you want a laugh, check out page 225, where the author of chapter six says, "A problem with programming books is that concepts need to be illustrated with an economy of space." Wow.

I read the first ten chapters of this book sequentially in order to prepare for the exam, and (with the obvious exception of chapters five and six) really enjoyed the material. I think the book is well written: the organization is excellent and the examples are very clear and concise. I especially liked the summaries comparing and contrasting one construct or approach to another. The book is addressed to individuals that have programming and SQL experience, but I think it could be used by a database beginner as well.

If you're studying for 1Z0-147, my advice is: read this book (chapters 1 - 10, 16) then read the Oracle Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals, Part II: PL/SQL (Procedure & Packages, Dynamic SQL, and Triggers). Getting an online study guide helps as well as you can train for the exam is an environment virtually identical to the one in which the exam is given.