Oracle Database 10g PL/SQL 101 Book Review

Learn Oracle SQL and PL/SQL with this Step-by-Step, Entry-Level Guide

Oracle Press have released a book for SQL and PL/SQL beginners who need to start right at the beginning and learn about Oracle databases and how to manipulate them.

The Oracle Database 10g PL/SQL 101 book is a step-by-step guide to PL/SQL which includes questions and answers at the end of every chapter. The book contains around 380 pages with a section of commonly used terms section at the back of the book.

The book covers all areas of SQL including INSERTS, DELETES, UPDATES and SELECTS. PL/SQL 101 also has a big chapter covering all aspects of writing and running functions inside the database as well as coverage of built-in functions e.g. COUNT(), SUM() etc.

SQL*Plus is covered including how to format output in SQL Plus, spooling output to disk and running script files. Using indexes and constraints are brought together in order to explain the importance of ensuring data integrity inside the database and speeding up the running of database information retrieval.

The final section of the book provides insights into other areas of Oracle programming including Triggers, Sequence, Synonyms, Views and PL/SQL Packages. There is also a large section on the breakdown of PL/SQL programming which covers areas such as loops, conditional programming such as IF THEN ELSE statements, cursors and exception handling.

A good book overall which will be useful for beginners or students who want to learn about SQL and PL/SQL within Oracle. PL/SQL 101 contains a lot of easy to follow scripts and the generous number of screenshots will also help out beginners with coding. It is also a book you may refer to after you have read it to remind you of certain SQL and PL/SQL statements.