Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming Workbook (Oracle Press)

This was a valuable resource to me as I am just learning oracle. It is important to understand where this will fit into your learning. The text is not difficult to understand, but you should some have some base experience in some kind of programming language. This book is very good at just telling you exactly and simply how to write PL/SQL. There are 12 chapters with topics like 'functions,' 'objects,' 'error management,' etc... so you shouldn't really expect to get lost anywhere. That is really why I enjoyed this book, it was very straighforward. Chapter, concept, example, summary, exercises. By the end of the book you will be able to at least read and understand any code you come accross and write a few dandy procedures. This was my experience. The thing with learning SQL is just if you try to learn just through google you will find a ton of resources on MySQL and only some on Oracle by comparison. And a lot of the oracle stuff you find will just be MySQL solutions ported over on forums which post WRONG 'guessed' code. And within that the help you will find on PL/SQL is sparse at best. Yes I know there is always the full documentation on oracle.com(ZZZzzzzzzzz). I bought oracles other DBA handbook before this and also have SQL books from MS and o reilly. This book is my favorite so far when comparing format and easyness of reading.

I'll echo some comments of other reviewers. For a novice, I would NOT highly recommend the book, only because it feels like the author feels that you should have a good grasp of basic programming and of PL/SQL. The one thing that if I were a novice (which I'm not - Senior Oracle Developer with 17+yrs experience) is that topics that are discuss reference topics in upcoming chapters which he says you should reference. To me that's not good. Every chapter should build on the previous chapter. In one chapter he does this perfectly when reference coding examples (chapter on Triggers). Other than that, I do like Oracle Press Books and I bought this workbook as I'm studying for my Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate certification and I liked the practice questions/answers at the end of each chapter. This helps reinforce concepts I already know and highlight other concepts I was unaware of or had misconceptions about.

This book is an excellent resource for anyone studying PL/SQL or desiring to improve their skills in PL/SQL. The author is very knowledgeable on the topic and explains it in a fairly straightforward fashion allowing for relatively quick understanding of the topic. As always it requires effort to develop skills but this book makes doing so much easier then any other book of this type. I recommend this book heavily for the use of students and professionals.

This is a great guide for those who have some databases knowledge. It refers basic vocabulary that a DBA should have in order to understand the basic concepts. It contains examples and tips that show you how to create a queries. It will also be a good exercise if you work along with his web site, you will be able to clarify your doubts.

There are good guidelines how to write code. Can be used with oracle scheme on their servers. Practice is the way to go in coding.

This book has the same issues for programming newbies as other books of this type (yes, even in the 'for Dummies' books). The issues are as follows. 1. New terminology/functions is introduced without being fully explained in the text nor is there a reference to where this information can be found. 2. Code samples contain code that has not been covered yet or contains exceptions to the rules being taught. 3. As new information is taught, the sample code for that particular section contains too many differneces from the code used in the sample code from the immediately preceeding section. The first one is frustrating but a quick search on-line can usually give a more thorough definition of a term or the syntax for a funtion (c.f. try to find "guard-on-entry loop"). The last two are the more trying because the sample code is not really searchable. Samples code should build on previous examples and only introduce the new coding currently being covered. Too many new and unexplained functions, clauses, or statements confuse the newbie.

Great book to help me with some refreshing on PL/SQL , I definitely pull it out every now and then for a lil refresher on the subject.

Great book! I have been an Oracle DBA for years and always find it refreshing to get new ideas and concepts from others. I found the chapters on application security very useful. It's always nice when a book applies to real world applications. This book is spot on.