Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Very much a task oriented book, suitable for a classroom or self paced study. It is aimed at someone who wants or needs explicit lessons and exercises. Thoughtfully, the authors also furnished answers to the exercises. Sometimes with other computing books, I have wondered why their authors omit questions. Perhaps the nature of the topic makes it awkward to provide problem sets. But not for Oracle's PL/SQL language. So this book is chock-a-block with them.
To students, retention is greatly enhanced by doing, and the book will take you a long way into facility with PL/SQL if you can discipline yourself to go through it methodically and not peek at the answers till you have given the problems a fair go.
As far as the language itself, the book's presentation reminds me of a text on fortran or C, and unlike a text on java or C#. Firstly, the latter two are object-oriented, while PL/SQL, fortran and C are procedural. So if you have already learnt fortran or C and you read this book, step back and defocus a little from the specific syntax. Stylistically, the book has the flavour of many texts in those languages. Reinforced by PL/SQL not having a GUI. The I/O is character based. A slight retro feel. [Though PL/SQL should NOT have a GUI. It is optimised as a query language.]
One thing to note is that the book explains using examples and exercises that are at the subroutine or procedural level, as mentioned above. Bite sized. What it lacks are higher level examples that necessitate decomposing a problem into several procedures. But this may be unfair. Those are harder, more abstract issues, whereas this book is meant for someone who still needs to learn the syntax in the first place. It does suggest the utility of such a book, as a logical successor to this.
A final note relates to the problem sets. There is a difficulty with learning PL/SQL compared to, say, C or java. With C you can download an open source compiler. With java, you can get a free compiler from Sun or IBM. With SQL, there is the open source MySQL. Not so with PL/SQL. I don't think Oracle offers a free version. So if you are studying on your own, this is a severe quandary. How do you get a PL/SQL executable? Otherwise, the attraction of this book, or any other on PL/SQL, for that matter, is greatly restricted to classrooms or companies that already have that, and not to individuals. Well, the authors and the publisher offer access, at the publisher's website. This may be the strongest merit of the book.
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Oracle PL/SQL by Example (4th Edition)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 inPL/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 appendices: PL/SQL formatting guide, sample database schema, ANSI SQL standards reference, and moreBenjamin Rosenzweig is a Software Development Manager at Misys. Previously he was a Principal Consultant at Oracle. His experience ranges from creating an electronic Tibetan—English Dictionary in Kathmandu, Nepal, to supporting presentation centers at Goldman Sachs and managing trading systems at TIAA-CREF. As an instructor at Columbia University's Computer Technology and Application Program, he was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award. Rosenzweig wrote and presented Oracle Forms Developer: The Complete Video Course, and coauthored Oracle Web Application Programming for PL/SQL Developers. Elena Silvestrova Rakhimov is Senior Developer and Team Lead at Alea Software. She has more than fifteen years of experience in database development in a wide spectrum of enterprise and business environments, ranging from non-profit organizations to Wall Street. She has taught database programming at Columbia University.ContentsAcknowledgments xivAbout the Authors xvIntroduction xviiCHAPTER 1 PL/SQL Concepts 1LAB 1.1 PL/SQL in Client/Server Architecture 21.1.1 Use PL/SQL Anonymous Blocks 81.1.2 Understand How PL/SQL Gets Executed 10LAB 1.2 PL/SQL in SQL*Plus 121.2.1 Use Substitution Variables 161.2.2 Use the DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE Statement 17Chapter 1 Try It Yourself 19CHAPTER 2 General Programming LanguageFundamentals 21LAB 2.1 PL/SQL Programming Fundamentals 222.1.1 Make Use of PL/SQL Language Components 232.1.2 Make Use of PL/SQL Variables 242.1.3 Handle PL/SQL Reserved Words 262.1.4 Make Use of Identifiers in PL/SQL 272.1.5 Make Use of Anchored Datatypes 282.1.6 Declare and Initialize Variables 312.1.7 Understand the Scope of a Block, Nested Blocks, and Labels 34Chapter 2 Try It Yourself 37CHAPTER 3 SQL in PL/SQL 39LAB 3.1 Making Use of DML in PL/SQL 403.1.1 Use the Select INTO Syntax for Variable Initialization 413.1.2 Use DML in a PL/SQL Block 423.1.3 Make Use of a Sequence in a PL/SQL Block 44LAB 3.2 Making Use of SAVEPOINT 453.2.1 Make Use of COMMIT, ROLLBACK, and SAVEPOINT in a PL/SQL Block 48Chapter 3 Try It Yourself 51CHAPTER 4 Conditional Control: IF Statements 53LAB 4.1 IF Statements 544.1.1 Use the IF-THEN Statement 584.1.2 Use the IF-THEN-ELSE Statement 62LAB 4.2 ELSIF Statements 654.2.1 Use the ELSIF Statement 69LAB 4.3 Nested IF Statements 744.3.1 Use Nested IF Statements 76Chapter 4 Try It Yourself 80CHAPTER 5 Conditional Control: CASE Statements 81LAB 5.1 CASE Statements 825.1.1 Use the CASE Statement 895.1.2 Use the Searched CASE Statement 91LAB 5.2 CASE Expressions 965.2.1 Use the CASE Expression 100LAB 5.3 NULLIF and COALESCE Functions 1035.3.1 The NULLIF Function 1075.3.2 Use the COALESCE Function 109Chapter 5 Try It Yourself 112CHAPTER 6 Iterative Control: Part I 113LAB 6.1 Simple Loops 1146.1.1 Use Simple Loops with EXIT Conditions 1186.1.2 Use Simple Loops with EXIT WHEN Conditions 120LAB 6.2 WHILE Loops 1246.2.1 Use WHILE Loops 128LAB 6.3 Numeric FOR Loops 1326.3.1 Use Numeric FOR Loops with the IN Option 1376.3.2 Use Numeric FOR Loops with the REVERSE Option 139Chapter 6 Try It Yourself 142CHAPTER 7 Iterative Control: Part II 143LAB 7.1 The CONTINUE Statement 1447.1.1 Use t...
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