How Is This Book Structured?

Chapters 1 and 2

Chapters 1 and 2 cover Oracle tables, column types, and how to use SQL*Plus to interact with the database. Some highly useful features of SQL*Plus are described including SQL*Plus commands to show a SQL execution plan and its statistics. These chapters concentrate on terminology, explaining the intuitive meaning of the terms SQL, SQL*Plus, and PL/SQL.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 thoroughly cover declarative constraints including extracting constraint definitions from the Oracle data dictionary. These chapters (a) provide you with the knowledge to build a database with high integrity ”something every client wants, (b) empower you with the skill to extract a wide variety of information from the data dictionary ”a skill everyone needs, and (c) provide insight into declarative constraints and help you understand how they work.

Chapters 6, 7, and 8

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 cover database triggers, also called procedural constraints. Chapters 6 and 7 provide an intuitive understanding with numerous figures to illustrate table row and statement level triggers. This intuitive understanding is critical in helping you choose what type of trigger you should write. Chapter 8 illustrates the use of database triggers and PL/SQL for complex rule enforcement.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 helps you get started quickly with compiling PL/SQL programs. A rapid learning approach is to code while you learn. This chapter helps you understand the PL/SQL coding environment. After completing this chapter, you will have a basic understanding of how to code, compile, and execute PL/SQL procedures. The following two chapters provide the technical content of PL/SQL while this chapter introduces the means to code and test as you learn.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 looks at PL/SQL from a software engineering perspective. It is not enough just to know the PL/SQL syntax. Before a language bears meaning, one needs to understand the PL/SQL paradigm and the model for PL/SQL program units: the procedure, function, and package. This chapter teaches you PL/SQL program units conceptually and encourages you to think about when and how to use these program units during the design phase.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 covers PL/SQL language features. Particular attention is given to PL/SQL constructs and built-in SQL functions, emphasizing writing simple and easy-to-understand algorithms. The chapter concludes with a section that illustrates an application using a database trigger to send email notification using the Oracle built-in Alerts package.

All scripts in the text were run against Oracle 9 i Release 2 and 10 g Version 10.1.0.