Product Description

However excellent they are, most computer books are inherently passive--readers simply take in text without having any opportunity to react to it. The Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook is a different kind of animal! It's designed to engage you actively, to get you solving programming problems immediately, and to help you apply what you've learned about PL/SQL--and in the process deepen your knowledge of the language. By tackling the exercises in this workbook, you'll find yourself moving more rapidly along the learning curve to join the growing ranks of PL/SQL experts. The Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook is a companion to Steven Feuerstein's bestselling Oracle PL/SQL Programming and his other PL/SQL books from O'Reilly. It contains a carefully constructed set of problems and solutions that will test your language skills and help you become a better developer--both with PL/SQL and with other languages. Exercises are provided at three levels: beginner, intermediate, and expert. The workbook exercises cover all the major features of PL/SQL, including those new to Oracle8i (e.g., Java and web features, autonomous transactions, and bulk binds). You'll find chapters on:

• Basic language elements--variables, naming, loops, conditional and sequential control, exception handling, and records.
• Data structures--index-by tables, nested tables, variables arrays (VARRAYs), and object technology.
• Database interaction--cursors, DML and transaction management, cursor variables, and native dynamic SQL
• Program construction--procedures, functions, blocks, packages, database triggers, and calling PL/SQL functions in SQL.
• Built-in functionality--the character, date, conversion, numeric, and miscellaneous functions, and the DBMS_SQL, DBMS_PIPE, DBMS_OUTPUT, UTL_FILE, and DBMS_JOB built-in packages.
• Miscellaneous topics--using Java with PL/SQL, external programs, PL/SQL web development, tuning PL/SQL, and PL/SQL for DBAs.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567658 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook is not a text book in the conventional sense; rather it is a collection of questions and answers aimed at anyone using Oracle's database querying language, PL/SQL. It is designed to provide an "active learning experience" that will galvanise users into a frenzy of constructive problem-solving, a somewhat different sensation from that of passive reading to increase knowledge.

The questions are divided into six categories: language fundamentals, data structures, database interaction, program construction, built-in functionality and lastly a miscellany of topics including tuning and using Java. Within each category, questions are given in beginner, intermediate and expert sections. The answers form the later, and larger, part of the book. Broadly speaking, the first questions in a section are more general ("What are the different kinds of loops available in PL/SQL?") with specific problems involving code presented later on. All code examples are available from O'Reilly's Web site, plus further examples too lengthy to include in the book.

The style is as informal, readable and idiosyncratic as in Feuerstein's other Oracle books, like Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle 8i Features, for instance. His examples range from those that raise an issue (a cursor loop to display "CEOs who in 1998 received millions of dollars in stock and cash in exchange for selling off their company and laying off at least 1,000 employees") to those that raise a smile at the welcome break from the usual mundane examples (a special quest appearance of the seven dwarves in a variable array problem). Or, best of all, a question/answer that encapsulates the Feuerstein approach:

True or false? The SOUNDEX function is used by the FBI to identify potential terrorists during airport passport checks.

Answer: Hmm. I guess we'll never really know, now will we?

As anyone who has ever set an exam question will recognise, there is a huge amount of work in preparing a book like this. The extra effort that Feuerstein has put in to make it readable and engaging is a significant bonus for users and readers. Progress up the PL/SQL learning curve is a certainty if time--and, it has to be said, effort--is spent absorbing this book. --Mark Whitehorn

From the Publisher
A companion to Feuerstein's other bestselling Oracle PL/SQL books, this workbook presents a carefully constructed set of problems and solutions that will test your language skills and help you become a better developer. Three levels of exercises--beginner, intermediate, and expert--cover the full set of language features. These include variables, loops, exception handling, data structures, object technology, cursors, built-in functions and packages, PL/SQL tuning, and the new Oracle8i features (including Java and the Web).

About the Author
Steven Feuerstein is considered one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language. He is the author or coauthor of Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices, Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features, Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook, Oracle Built-in Packages, Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages, and several pocket reference books (all from O'Reilly & Associates). Steven is a Senior Technology Advisor with Quest Software, has been developing software since 1980, and worked for Oracle Corporation from 1987 to 1992.

Andrew Odewahn is a writer and software entrepreneur. With an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business, he has an exceptional ability to find creative yet practical solutions to real-life business problems. The author of Oracle Web Applications (O'Reilly, 1999) and co-author of Oracle PL/SQL Workbook (O'Reilly, 2000), Andrew specializes in database technology. While not writing or designing software, he and his wife travel whenever they can. Their adventures include riding Lipizzaner stallions at a Slovenian casino, speeding down an alpine slide deep in the jungles of Vietnam, hiking (and riding the occasional ski lift!) across the Swiss Alps, hosteling in a Soviet-era sanitarium, and circumnavigating New Zealand's "Mount Doom." They currently live in Maine.