Product Description

In this book, Steven Feuerstein, widely recognized as one of the world's experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language, distills his many years of programming, writing, and teaching about PL/SQL into a set of PL/SQL language "best practices" - rules for writing code that is readable, maintainable, and efficient. Too often, developers focus on simply writing programs that run without errors - and ignore the impact of poorly written code upon both system performance and their ability (and their colleagues' ability) to maintain that code over time. "Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices" is a concise reference to Feuerstein's recommendations for excellent PL/SQL coding. It answers the kinds of questions PL/SQL developers most frequently ask about their code: how should I format my code?; what naming conventions, if any, should I use?; how can I write my packages so they can be more easily maintained?; what is the most efficient way to query information from the database?; and how can I get all the developers on my team to handle errors the same way? The book contains nearly 200 best practices, divided by topic area. It provides advice on the program development process, coding style, writing SQL in PL/SQL, data structures, control structures, exception handling, program and package construction, and built-in packages. It also contains a handy, pull-out quick reference card. As a helpful supplement to the text, code examples demonstrating each of the best practices are available on the O'Reilly Web site.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #379682 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 202 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steven Feuerstein has condensed years of accumulated wisdom and experience into a series of some 120 Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices, these being hints and tips covering a range of topics, all aimed at producing readable and maintainable PL/SQL code, particularly in the context of working in a PL/SQL development team.

While many of the principles involved could apply equally to any structured programming language, Feuerstein addresses the challenges of applying these principles in the PL/SQL programming environment and backs this up with simple code examples.

Some of these best practices are more important that others however Feuerstein identifies the benefits and importance of each best practice and has separately listed the more important (no. 1: "establish and follow clear rules for how to write SQL in your application"--followed by guidelines on how to achieve this).

While this book will probably be of most benefit to the programmer new to PL/SQL, it still contains programming tips and tricks likely to be of use to the experienced PL/SQL programmer too. --Michael O'Connor

Review
'...(the book) is a good length for a computer book ... 182 pages. Too many computer books these days have many pages and little value. ...So don't buy a copy of this book; instead, buy 12 and make everybody on your team read it - only that way will you get the full benefit of the best practice.' - James Youngman, new@UK, December 2001

From the Publisher
Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices is a concise, easy-to-use summary of best practices in the program development process. It covers coding style, writing SQL in PL/SQL, data structures, control structures, exception handling, program and package construction, and built-in packages. Complementary code examples are available on the O'Reilly web site. Includes a pull-out quick-reference card.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant reference to write well designed code
I think this book is brilliant. Before I bought this book I was writing unstructured code that didnt have a distinct style or standard layout. By using the suggestions in this book my code is now well structured and more efficient due to Steven Feuerstein giving practical examples to back up his suggestions. I also learned a great deal and was able to include new PL/SQL features into my code as this book explained the why rather than the what of using different PL/SQL methods. Not for the absolute beginner, but brilliant for the semi-experienced, a chance to break those old habits and learn to code in a better more structured way. Also its fairly cheap for an I.T. book so well worth buying personal use.

Good book for PL/SQL developers
A good book only for people for have some experience of PL/SQL programming. Steven helps u to write efficient and understandable code. The only disadvantage is that it is not very technical like most of his previous books are. A good buy for people who work with PL/SQL

Superb guide
Quite simply superb. Great desktop guide. Has recovered its purchase price many many times over for me.