Introduction

The Oracle database and the Structured Query Language (SQL) that it supports are complex and ever changing products that have grown increasingly complex and powerful over the years . This book is not an attempt to teach the new Database Administrator (DBA) everything she or he needs to know about how to administer an Oracle database. That would be an interesting book challenge, but not the one we wanted to tackle. Instead, we wrote the book we've both been wishing we had, but couldn't find anywhere . A simple reference to the Oracle version of SQL and some of the critical tables and views that the practicing Oracle DBA needs every day. This is a purely syntax reference, a quick way to get a reminder of what options a command takes and the exact syntax required.

Most Oracle DBAs spend probably 90% of their time doing less than 5% of the tasks possible with an Oracle database. They neither need nor want a book to give them the syntax for those commands they use every day. But for the commands they may only use once every six months or so, a little quick reminder can be helpful. And that's the purpose and intent of this book ”to give the working DBA a little book that they can keep on their desktop or next to the server where they can quickly look up the syntax for the command they need, or find the right name for the view they know exists, but haven't had to use since the last time there was a problem.

As Oracle has grown from our first days with Oracle 6 to the complexity and power of Oracle 9 i , the number of new commands, and options and modifiers to the old ones, has grown enormously. If you're like us, you know there are new options and ways to do things, but often need a quick reminder of the syntax or options available. We hope you'll find this book a useful tool for that.