Resources for Developing PL/SQL Expertise This book can do little more than introduce you to PL/SQL fundamentals before moving on to its main focus: DBA-specific features. There are, however, many other books and resources available to help you deepen your working knowledge of PL/SQL. The following sections describe very briefly many of these resources. By taking full advantage of these resources, many of which are available either free or at a relatively low cost, you will greatly improve your experience (and resulting code) with the language. The O'Reilly PL/SQL Series Over the years, the Oracle PL/SQL series from O'Reilly has grown to include quite a long list of books. We've summarized below the books currently in print. Please check out the Oracle area of the O'Reilly web site (http://oracle.oreilly.com) for much more complete information.
Learning Oracle PL/SQL, by Bill Pribyl with Steven Feuerstein A comparatively gentle introduction to the language, ideal for new programmers and those who know a language other than PL/SQL. It also emphasizes PL/SQL development for Internet-based applications.
Oracle PL/SQL Programming, by Steven Feuerstein with Bill Pribyl The desk-side companion of a great many professional PL/SQL programmers and DBAs, this 1,200-page book is designed to cover every feature in the core PL/SQL language. The fourth edition covers PL/SQL up through Oracle Database 10g Release 2.
Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs, by Arup Nanda and Steven Feuerstein The book you are reading now provides a quick overview of the entire PL/SQL language and focuses on topics of special importance to DBAs: cursors, table functions, data encryption and hashing, row-level security, fine-grained auditing, generating random numbers, and scheduling. Current through Oracle Database 10g Release 2.
Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices, by Steven Feuerstein A concise book that describes more than 100 best practices that will help you produce high-quality PL/SQL code. Having this book is kind of like having a "lessons learned" document written by an in-house PL/SQL expert. Although written originally for Oracle8i Database, virtually all of the advice in this book is applicable to newer versions, as well.
Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook, by Steven Feuerstein with Andrew Odewahn Contains a series of questions and answers intended to help PL/SQL programmers develop and test their understanding of the language. Current through Oracle8i Database.
Oracle Built-in Packages, by Steven Feuerstein, Charles Dye, and John Beresniewicz A reference guide to the prebuilt packages that Oracle supplies with the core database server. The use of these packages can sometimes simplify the difficult and tame the impossible. This book is current only through Oracle8 Database, but the discussion of the included packages should still be very helpful. For a more up-to-date summary of package specification syntax, check out Oracle in a Nutshell, by Rick Greenwald and David C. Kreines.
Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, by Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl, and Chip Dawes A small but very useful "quick reference" book that might actually fit in your coat pocket. Summarizes the syntax of the core PL/SQL language through Oracle Database 10g.
Oracle PL/SQL Built-ins Pocket Reference, by Steven Feuerstein, John Beresniewicz, and Chip Dawes Another helpful and concise guide summarizing built-in functions and packages through Oracle8 Database.
Oracle PL/SQL CD Bookshelf Contains an electronic version of most of the above books. Current through Oracle8i Database.
PL/SQL on the Internet There are also some excellent web sites that will help you to develop additional PL/SQL expertise.
Oracle Technology Network Join the Oracle Technology Network (OTN), which "provides services and resources that developers need to build, test, and deploy applications" based on Oracle technology. Boasting membership in the millions, OTN is a great place to download Oracle software, documentation, and lots of sample code. URL: http://otn.oracle.com
Quest Pipelines Quest Software offers "a free Internet portal community...designed to inform, educate, and inspire IT professionals around the world." Originally the PL/SQL Pipeline, the Quest Pipelines now offer discussion forums, monthly tips, downloads, and, in essence, free consulting for developers and DBAs around the world on multiple database systems, including Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and MySQL. URL: http://www.quest-pipelines.com
PLNet.org PLNet.org is a repository of open source software, maintained by Bill Pribyl, that is written in PL/SQL or is otherwise for the benefit of PL/SQL developers. You can read more about the project's background or check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). You will also be directed to a number of utilities, such as utPLSQL, the unit-testing framework for PL/SQL developers. URL: http://plnet.org
Open Directory Project Courtesy of the "dmoz" (Directory Mozilla) project, here you can find a choice set of links to PL/SQL sites. There is also a subcategory called "Tools" with a fairly comprehensive set of links to both commercial and noncommercial developer tools. URL: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/PL-SQL/
Steven Feuerstein's Oracle PL/SQL Programming site This web site offers trainings, downloads, and other resources for PL/SQL developers, mostly produced by Steven Feuerstein. You can download all of his seminar materials, plus supporting code. Examples from this book are also available there. URL: http://www.oracleplsqlprogramming.com
utPLSQL utPLSQL is an open source unit-testing framework for PL/SQL developers. You can use it to standardize the way you unit-test programs and automate execution of those tests. URL: http://utplsql.sourceforge.net
Qnxo Qnxo (Quality In, Excellence Out) is an active mentoring product designed by Steven Feuerstein that helps you generate, reuse, and test code more effectively. It contains a repository consisting of hundreds of PL/SQL templates and reusable programs. URL: http://www.qnxo.com
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