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Oracle PL/SQL by Example
This integrated learning solution teaches all the Oracle PL/SQL skills you need, hands-on, through real-world labs, extensive examples, exercises, and projects! Completely updated for Oracle 11g, Oracle PL/SQL by Example , Fourth Edition covers all the fundamentals, from PL/SQL syntax and program control through packages and Oracle 11g's significantly improved triggers. One step at a time, you'll walk through every key task, discovering the most important PL/SQL programming techniques on your own. Building on your hands-on learning, the authors share solutions that offer deeper insights and proven best practices. End-of-chapter projects bring together all the techniques you've learned, strengthening your understanding through real-world practice. This book's approach fully reflects the authors' award-winning experience teaching PL/SQL programming to professionals at Columbia University. New database developers and DBAs can use its step-by-step instructions to get productive fast; experienced PL/SQL programmers can use this book as a practical solutions reference. Coverage includes - Mastering basic PL/SQL concepts and general programming language fundamentals, and understanding SQL's role in PL/SQL - Using conditional and iterative program control techniques, including the new CONTINUE and CONTINUE WHEN statements - Efficiently handling errors and exceptions - Working with cursors and triggers, including Oracle 11g's powerful new compound triggers - Using stored procedures, functions, and packages to write modular code that other programs can execute - Working with collections, object-relational features, native dynamic SQL, bulk SQL, and other advanced PL/SQL capabilities - Handy reference PL/SQL formatting guide, sample database schema, ANSI SQL standards reference, and more
- GenresTechnologyReference
Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2003
8 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 12, 2025
this book contains many worked examples on PL/SQL such as triggers, cursors, procedures, functions etc.
November 27, 2013
This book was a required textbook for a recent college course. My interest in the subject was high, and I enjoyed learning PL/SQL. The book was easy enough to understand, and I learned PL/SQL as a result of reading it, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the format.
Each chapter starts off with a brief introduction about the topic and then there are usually two or three sections within that chapter, each of which is referred to as a “Lab”, which cover the topic. Each lab starts off with a very brief discussion of the basic concepts and syntaxes related to the topic. The real detail of the material is found in the lab exercises that follow. The lab exercises might be sample PL/SQL code, which you need to read and then see if you can figure out what the code does, or they might be a requirement to add something new to previously-provided code.
The answers to the lab exercises were provided immediately after each exercise. So you could either walk through the exercises yourself, or you could just read through the exercises, come up with the answers in your head, and then keep on reading to see if you were correct. Given that I already had homework assignments as part of my coursework, and I did not find any of these concepts to be challenging, I chose the latter method.
In theory, this isn’t such a bad format. The question/answer format might force lazy readers to think about what they’re reading a little more. I think it was the organization that I really had trouble with. The information often seemed too repetitive to me because some information was provided in the lab discussion before the exercises, and then discussed again in multiple lab exercises. Repetition can be useful, but I hate repetition in a textbook. It’s a BOOK, after all. The words are in a tangible form that I can go back and reread if I need to. I don’t want to read the same information twice unless it was my choice to go back and reread it.
The exercises were laid out in a relatively logical progression, but sometimes they presented new syntaxes or concepts that hadn’t really been discussed earlier. I prefer to have things explained, and then see examples demonstrating what was just explained. The lab-based format of this textbook meant that things were often presented the other way around – an exercise might present you with code containing a syntax that hadn’t been discussed yet, and then the answer would (usually) explain it in detail. Then sometimes I had to go back and re-read the exercise in light of the new information I had just read. I felt like this format was less efficient than a traditional textbook format because I spent more time re-reading than I normally do. I’m willing to put in the time to read and understand material about a difficult subject, and I like to be challenged, but I get frustrated if something is more complicated and time-consuming than it needs to be. Especially if, like PL/SQL, it really ISN'T a difficult subject.
If you have any aptitude for programming at all, this book will be more than sufficient to teach you what you need to know. I just personally would have preferred a more linear, traditional textbook format.
Each chapter starts off with a brief introduction about the topic and then there are usually two or three sections within that chapter, each of which is referred to as a “Lab”, which cover the topic. Each lab starts off with a very brief discussion of the basic concepts and syntaxes related to the topic. The real detail of the material is found in the lab exercises that follow. The lab exercises might be sample PL/SQL code, which you need to read and then see if you can figure out what the code does, or they might be a requirement to add something new to previously-provided code.
The answers to the lab exercises were provided immediately after each exercise. So you could either walk through the exercises yourself, or you could just read through the exercises, come up with the answers in your head, and then keep on reading to see if you were correct. Given that I already had homework assignments as part of my coursework, and I did not find any of these concepts to be challenging, I chose the latter method.
In theory, this isn’t such a bad format. The question/answer format might force lazy readers to think about what they’re reading a little more. I think it was the organization that I really had trouble with. The information often seemed too repetitive to me because some information was provided in the lab discussion before the exercises, and then discussed again in multiple lab exercises. Repetition can be useful, but I hate repetition in a textbook. It’s a BOOK, after all. The words are in a tangible form that I can go back and reread if I need to. I don’t want to read the same information twice unless it was my choice to go back and reread it.
The exercises were laid out in a relatively logical progression, but sometimes they presented new syntaxes or concepts that hadn’t really been discussed earlier. I prefer to have things explained, and then see examples demonstrating what was just explained. The lab-based format of this textbook meant that things were often presented the other way around – an exercise might present you with code containing a syntax that hadn’t been discussed yet, and then the answer would (usually) explain it in detail. Then sometimes I had to go back and re-read the exercise in light of the new information I had just read. I felt like this format was less efficient than a traditional textbook format because I spent more time re-reading than I normally do. I’m willing to put in the time to read and understand material about a difficult subject, and I like to be challenged, but I get frustrated if something is more complicated and time-consuming than it needs to be. Especially if, like PL/SQL, it really ISN'T a difficult subject.
If you have any aptitude for programming at all, this book will be more than sufficient to teach you what you need to know. I just personally would have preferred a more linear, traditional textbook format.
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July 12, 2011i want to read this book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2023
"Oracle PL/SQL by Example" is a comprehensive guide that adeptly navigates readers through the intricacies of PL/SQL. The book's clear explanations and practical examples make complex concepts accessible, and the inclusion of a powerful SQL formatter enhances code readability. A must-read for both beginners and experienced developers looking to master Oracle's powerful database programming language.
June 23, 2011
This book is quite helpful when I'm stuck writing PL/SQL code.
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December 12, 2011This book is about Oracle basics. There are lots of samples. Good one for beginning level.
June 8, 2014
Ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο για τα βασικά της PL/SQL αλλά όχι κάτι το ιδιαίτερο. Θα το πρότεινα σ' αυτούς που ξεκινούν τώρα να μαθαίνουν pl/sql
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September 9, 2015i cant read
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