Oracle PL/SQL Programming

Most of us have had to learn PL/SQL at some point in our Oracle careers, and I am sure many of you have become quite expert. On the other hand, some of you may be new to this world of PL/SQL and are looking for a basic text that will educate you in the use of this language.The "Bible" for PL/SQL programming has long been the earlier editions of this book, and Steven Feuerstein has been considered the guru of PL/SQL programming for as many years as I can remember. Steven has completely revised his best-known work into a new, third edition. I thought that it was time to take a look at this new edition and see what it has to offer both groups. Here is what I found.Steven now provides complete coverage of PL/SQL from Oracle RDBMS version 7.3.4 through Oracle9i Release 2. He has incorporated all the information from his book PL/SQL Guide to Oracle8i New Features into this book. He has added a new chapter on database triggers and included especially useful information on DDL triggers and database event triggers. He has added new content on the PL/SQL runtime architecture, creating and running PL/SQL programs, and calling Java methods from within PL/SQL. He has integrated all the new Oracle9i features throughout the text, instead of placing them in a separate chapter. In order to make the book fit into 1,000 pages, some of the example code was removed and can be found on O'Reilly's Web site at www.oreilly.com/catalog/oraclep3 as a zipped file. About 300 files are available. Approximately 200 pages that were pruned from the second edition that still have some utility are also available there.The book is organized much the same way as previous editions, with a few changes. There are 23 chapters divided into six parts:Part I: Programming in PL/SQL. These three chapters orient you to PL/SQL, its history, utility, and basic programming constructs.Part II: PL/SQL Program Structure. Conditional, sequential, iterative control structures, and exceptions are covered in these three chapters.Part III: PL/SQL Program Data. Six chapters cover how to manipulate data within PL/SQL procedures and functions. Strings, numbers, datatypes, including the new Oracle9i datatypes, and records and collections are also discussed.Part IV: SQL in PL/SQL. There are three chapters that cover transactions, data retrieval, and the use of dynamic SQL.Part V: PL/SQL Application Construction. The four chapters in this part discuss procedures and functions, packages, triggers, and managing PL/SQL applications.Part VI: Advanced PL/SQL Topics. There are four final chapters that cover the runtime architecture, object-orientation in PL/SQL, PL/SQL and Java, and external procedure calls.Steven states in his preface that the three objectives of this book are to1. take full advantage of the features of PL/SQL,2. use PL/SQL to solve your problems, and3. write efficient, maintainable code.Each chapter has been crafted to address these three objectives. His writing style is clear,

This is one of the best written and easiest to read of any technical book I've ever read. We've often provided this book to students in the Oracle classes that we teach. Furthermore, when I was on an Oracle consulting project a couple of years ago, working alongside consultants from Oracle Corporation, I noticed that the Oracle Corp consultants weren't using the Oracle Corp documentation on PL/SQL for reference - they all had this book.Steve Feuerstein presents a tremendous overview and in-depth analysis of the PL/SQL language with practical examples. He includes several design recommendations and practical real world examples and recommendations that make this a solid book for PL/SQL professionals who are serious about writing production code.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly for beginners as well as veterans of PL/SQL. Especially against the Oracle Press book by author Scott Urman. That book (though it covers the basics), it does not give you the tips and tricks or insight as does Steve's book.The O'Reilly series book is well crafted, with excellent examples. The style of writing is humorous as well as straight forward. And it is a companion amongst other Oracle books by O'Reilly. O'Reilly Publishing seems to know Oracle better than Oracle Press knows itself.Gio

May be it is not the book for a person seeing PL/SQL for the first time. But this is one book close to my heart. Combined with Feuerstein's humor and distinctive style of writing and the O'Reilly stamp , this is one book which you would like to savour -- line by line -- Feuerstein has nuggets of info hidden away. Read if you have time to enjoy it ! Not really a book for fast reference. Also this book does not talk about database triggers .For a quick lookup, may be Scott Urman's (Oracle Press) PL/SQL book is better. I have both. But , if you're a serious PL/SQL programmer and looking for the finer points -- this book is an absolute must !

This book is a carefully documented manual for learning PL/SQL that is written by the one and only Steven Feuerstein. His unique style of writing coupled with his intricate knowledge of the subject makes it a pleasure to read and learn. Programmers will actually learn the most effective way to write the best PL/SQL code by following Stevens practical advice from real life experiences with PL/SQL and the examples that are so clearly explained. Don't miss the humor too. The book covers virtually everthing one needs to learn PL/SQL including Packages, procedures, functions and Oracle's built-ins. It also tells you where and when the differences arise between the various revisions and their numbers. A great benefit along with the book is a diskette with code and a few utilities. Most of the code is generic and can be simply cut and pasted into the application with little or not trouble. If you don't have this bible of Oracle on your desk, then you don't want to learn PL/SQL. And remember Steven is the world's leading authority on PL/SQL. Drop in at his site to know more about him http://www.revealnet.com