Product Description

Tom Kyte has a simple philosophy: you can treat Oracle as a black box and just stick data into it or you can understand how it works and exploit it as a powerful computing environment. If you choose the latter course, then you will find that there are few information management problems that you cannot solve quickly and elegantly.

Tom has selected the most important features and techniques and he teaches them in a proof-by-example manner, not only discussing the features available, but also how to implement software using them and indicating the potential pitfalls.

This book covers:

Core database structures and utilities
Performance tuning
Advanced SQL features
Extensibility using C, Java and OR features
Security
Important supplied packages

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #410394 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1297 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Expert One-on-One: Oracle Thomas Kyte expounds his philosophy of database application development based on the premise that successful development requires a sound knowledge of the database and its internal workings--that the database cannot be treated merely as a black box to and from which data is passed. Equally, that a development project lacking this knowledge will inevitably fail, particularly when attempts are made to scale the resultant application to large scale multiple concurrent use.

This is a big book packed with lots of Oracle insider knowledge including, among other topics, what the various Oracle server processes and files do, what's happening inside the database during a transaction, and the real meaning of the various options available in Oracle's DML and DDL SQL statements. The likely impact of design decisions on application behaviour and performance is also discussed, particularly where this relates to using, or not using, a database feature.

Expert One-on-One: Oracle is likely to be a valuable resource for both Oracle system designers and application developers looking to find out what's really going on inside the database, albeit one that is likely to be dipped into from time to time rather than read from cover to cover. --Michael O'Connor

From the Publisher
This book offers the knowledge required for both those who build Oracle database applications, and those who administer the database.

It is critical that the DBA knows what the developers are trying to accomplish and the best developers know how to exploit the DBA's data management strategies. Armed with the fundamental knowledge of the Oracle environment that Tom describes, you will be able to build bigger, faster, and more scalable applications.

Knowledge of SQL and PL/SQL is assumed and familiarity with any 3GL language (such as C, Java, or Visual Basic) would be useful.

About the Author
Tom Kyte is among the most knowledgeable professionals in the industry.Drawing on this unique expertise, he has produced a book that presents a powerful and practical vision of how to develop with the Oracle database.

Customer Reviews

Tom Kyte - All kneel and praise him!
Finally Tom Kyte gets around to releasing his talents in a consumable form! This book is without doubt the best book available for Oracle at present, it is suitable for both DBA's and Developers alike, with ample time given to both camps and even the reasons why.

The introdution chapter alone is almost worth the cover price, Tom attempts to explain that all databases are different, no two are alike and they should *ALL* be respected for that, no-one DB is better than another, simply different. The book continues in this very down to earth common sense format.

Tom has an amazing talent of explaining things in a simple, consise form, without coming over as patronising or smug. He is not content to explain one theory and then expect you to guess the rest, he explains everything thoroughly, even if it seems so obvious at first glance. The book oozes, common sense, everything Tom writes about is in there for a reason, if it's not there, your told it's not there, and told why it's not there! His publishers must be given credit for allowing him the the extra space for the hundreds of examples.

As a 5 year Oracle DBA, I would reccomend this book to absolutely anyone who has to use Oracle in their day-to-day work, and I would recomend especially to anyone thinking about their OCP exams, as this will cover the fundamentals in such easy to remember detail, you can't fail.

Stop what your doing, put those other books into storage and make way for "Expert One-on-One"!!!

The most complete Oracle book I have seen
If you are an Oracle programmer, or a DBA that works with programmers (and has to tell them all the things that they are supposed to know) this is the best book you can buy.

There are books by people that can program, books by writers who can write but do not quite understand what they are writing about, and there are a million other faults a book could have. However, this book has none of them.

Tom Kyte is at the very top of Oracle programming and he is a teacher who wants you to be able the do the same thing. Every topic in this book "reaches the ground". Tom starts from setting up your environment, and takes you through many high level exercises, showing you how to make it work, every single step of the way.

There is too much to describe it all, but as an example, there is a 70-page section on writing a C-Based external procedure. It starts with six pages of setting up your environment (listener, schema, server, exproc program, libraries), then the code in PL/SQL and C, how to make it, how to install it, how to test it. It ends with the answer to every error message you might get if you make a mistake.

The applications discussed are not just "interesting" and they do not just "work". There is a recurring theme in all of the applications and that is this that they scale. Tom has sections on bind variable, and then more on bind variables, and then more on bind variables, until the idea is branded on you that a "working" application is trivial unless it scales. You are not writing code for developers, but for end users who may do millions of transactions a day; that is the kind of code you want.

If you already know everything, you will learn more! Either way Tom's projects are complete, and well documented.

This is great book, and you will read all 1200 pages.

Superb detailed view of oracle database
This is the best book I've purchased so far.
I've a total of 9 oracle books on my book shelf and this is by far the best.

It is the way it is so well written; almost narratively. He gives details of the particular subject and interjects with the way it should 'really' be done. Oracle has so many different ways of doing the same thing and he points out the best ways.

There is also alot of technical information squeezed into a mere 1200 odd pages.

Even with limited Oracle knowledge this is the best introduction you could get if you've a few years general database experience already.

Read it and then read it again!!!