This is a great book for the very beginner person who has no experience at all in SQL. It is very in details and very easy to understand. Unfortunately, I have to return this book since it is not what I am looking for.

I was looking for more PL/SQL than this book offers (misleading title, I feel), but it contains good material. My biggest frustration, though (and unfortunately, this is shared by many technical books) is that the index is very incomplete. I would say that 80% of what I want to find in the book turns up empty when I use the index. Eventually I can find it by turning many pages, but I'd prefer not to waste so much time.

I bought this book to learn more PL/SQL, but 95% of it is about SQL. The title suggests PL/SQL. If you want to know more about PL/SQL, this is not the book to buy.

This book covers it all - the SQL you need to be able to write PL/SQL, and then actual PL/SQL procedures, functions, triggers, and packages.

Look at the Table of Contents - covers everything you need. And easy to read too.

This book is incorrectly titled. It should read Oracle 101 SQL not PL/SQL. Simply put there are only 2 skimpy chapters on PL/SQL. If looking for PL/SQL purchase a different text and save yourself the aggravation and lost cost issues.

Wow, this book is so easy. I didn't know I could learn SQL and PL/SQL so fast.

If you are already an experienced developer in PL/SQL, get another book - this says "101" right in the title! It's for people just learning SQL and PL/SQL! And it's a perfect choice for doing that.

A great purchase and a bargain too.

This is a good reference for Oracle SQL. Although PL/SQL portion is very less with few examples. As an experienced Oracle developer, I won't recommend it anyone looking for PL/SQL reference. Go for Scott Urman or Steve Feuerstein rather.

Hallo Oracle Users:

This is a Book to keep at your workplace, right beside your computer (because you will need this book every day).

I am over 11 Years with Client/Server. This book is a masterpiece. Every page will make you feel to read the next page, next chapter, on and on. 'Very limited', 'very accurate' and 'to the point' words are being used by the Author. Filled with contents, examples and notes. Book starts from the scratch level oracle users and step by step will take you to make you an expert in PL/SQL! Book covers from the basic level to the advanced level of Oracle PL/SQL anything you want to know while at Work as a oracle user.

This is the very best book I ever read in my 11 years. This book deserves more than 5 stars. So, a perfect 10 stars are the right rate for this book.

"You do not need to buy another book, if you have ONLY this book" - Buy this word from me!

I e-mailed this author, for oracle questions and I received my reply within 24 hours many times.

Read this book...

I just started to use oracle, and after I read the other reviews I got this book and I am not dissapointed. This book is very well written and informative. I would recommend this book for beginners to Oracle and sql and pl/sql.

I've read the rest - this is the best.

This book really lays it all out clearly. I knew nothing about SQL or PL/SQL when I started, and now I am writing scripts, triggers, procedures, and building tables. This book makes it easy to learn.

This book is indeed a great introductory book for SQL. Unfortunately, it is advertised as an introductory guide to PL/SQL. If you are new to SQL this is a great beginner's guide. However, you already know SQL and would like to dwelve into the world of PL/SQL find another book!

This books covers all the necessary basics of SQL, and then shows how to create Oracle triggers, functions, and stored procedures. It's easy to read. It has great examples. Couldn't ask for a better combination.

All the example work and you will no have any problem to understand the example.

The Introduction to PL/SQL is not until page 283! Less than 100 pages are actually on PL/SQL the rest is an introduction to Oracle and writing queries. They do not even list the work "schema" anywhere - not in the index, not in the glossary. NOT what I needed. Useless book for me. Frustrating to say the least.

After wading through lots of poorly-written clunkers that expect you to be a programming expert already, I was overjoyed when I started reading this book. It starts at the beginning. Explains stuff in an understandable way. Uses real-life examples. Walks you through exercises to practice what you learned. Keeps doing this until you know about procedures, functions, triggers, and the pile of command-line SQL that's underneath it all.

Perfect.

I'm amazed how well done this book is. Takes the reader from the very beginning and, step by step, brings them to the point of writing some pretty sophisticated PL/SQL functions and procedures.

I saw an earlier review here complaining that the book is for the uninitiated. Well, duh...that's why "101" is in the title. And the book's scripts are available - the author gives his email address in the introduction and says to write if the reader wants the scripts.

All in all, a really well done book. I hope to see more like it.

Very rudimentary this book provides information only for the completely uninitiated oracle user. Additionally there is no CD or downloadable code you better be a very good typist.

Who ever thought a book could be so user-friendly. This is the first instructional book that I actually enjoyed reading. Christopher Allen has a knack for explaining things very well, and it really shines in this book.

I don't want to waste your time with some long pointless review. All I need to say about this book is it's 'Simply The Best' (for a beginner), I'm a total newbie to the world of DBA, if you are also a database newbie, this book is the perfect choice to 'ease' you into this new world. It does and outstanding job of introducing the newbie to PL/SQL, it assumes nothing but teaches a ton!

I consider this book to be one of, if not the best technical book I ever purchased!

Just one of the books I used for the SQL & PL/SQL exam (1Z0-001). No review test software, just good 'basic' SQL information with enough PL/SQL information for the first test in the Developer or DBA series.

The tone is just right [does not waste my time when I am studying to pass an exam by making jokes] and the author even says why I should do something before 'do this' ... just brilliant...

Having the text (scripts upon which the examples are based) I need to type at the beginning of each chapter is great too as you have no idea how many times I have reloaded my operating system and oracle software and then want to go over one or two chapters towards the end of the book.

Anyway, its a great book and even relatively bug free too which is awesome and unusual for new Oracle textbooks.

This book is written for beginners with limited programming experience, if you are a programmer by trade, you probably will find this book too elementary.

For those not-so-assertive folks (like me) who like to ease their way into a new subject, this is a great introduction to SQL.

We used this as a textbook. The first 7 chapters on SQL were great. The last 2 were rushed. You can't teach PL/SQL in 1 and a half chapters. 1 and a half to cover functions, procedures, variables, triggers, cursors, ODBC.

Based on the title the section on PL/SQL should have been longer than the one on SQL. Overall, very well written but more of a SQL book than PL/SQL.

As a beginning Oracle student, I've looked through many shelves of Oracle books, trying to find just one that was not dry, written in an encyclopedic fashion, with too little explanation to even get a hook in the topic, much less understand it. This book is written in a friendly style -- as though Christopher Allen is right there talking to you. It has the technical information, but also plenty of explanations to tie it all together. I enrolled in an Introductory Oracle class that uses books published by Oracle. The instructor recommended this book the first night of class and I'm glad I bought it. I highly recommend it!

This is an excellent book. I bought it mainly because of the nice reviews here at Amazon. They were right! This is a MOST book for anyone starting with Oracle. I had some experience with SQL on other databases but I wanted to learn Oracle's version. I just got a nice job where I'm going to be working with Oracle Forms and Reports so I needed a nice intro book. This is the book! Nice rythm and very easy to understand.

I am an experienced DB programmer, but have never used Oracle. This is a good introduction. The book actually covers more on SQL-PLUS than on PL/SQL as the PL/SQL part doesn't start until page 285. I was able to get through the entire book in one day and feel competent in programming with the Oracle DBMS.
This is a nice, simple step by step book. If you are already familiar with SQL, you can breeze through. Definitely worth the price.

I do Windows NT to Windows 2000 migrations, and needed to expand my skillset. While I'm only on chapter 2, I've got a much better idea of what Oracle is and how to manipulate databases within an Oracle environment.

Clear, concise, lots of lab work... I only wish it has come with a CD-ROM with PDF files of the book & exercises.

((NOTE: do not reply to my email as listed above -- try learn2geek at hotmail dot com.))

I cannot say enough about this book. Gives you plain english explanations, step by step practice exercises. Doesn't leave any room for doubt. Great book to learn and/or reinforce forgotten concepts. Emailed author on a Sunday, received a response within 24 hours! A definite asset to keep on hand.

This book does a great job of showing the reader how to write excellent SQL and PL/SQL code.

The prior couple of reviews here complain that the book doesn't go far enough into PL/SQL. Well duh! It's a 101 book! It's an introduction for beginners...don't expect it to cover the same material as an advanced PL/SQL book! It starts earlier and ends earlier...which makes it perfect for beginners, and for people who know other languages and want to learn more about SQL and PL/SQL.

Overall, an excellent effort that delivers just what it promises.

I am an OCP and wanted this book to improve upon my PL/SQL skills. I'd say 2/3 of this book is basic SQL for beginners. I already know most of that part so I was kind of disappointed. I guess when I saw the title of the book "Oracle PL/SQL 101" I thought it was for people who wanted to learn the basics of procedures and packages. The last third of the book is devoted to PL/SQL and is a good overview and a good first step, but it is too condensed and only touches on the basics. If you are a beginner studying for your PL/SQL OCP test (which didn't include a lot of PL/SQL at least when I took it) this book may be worth a read. If you are looking to actually do something useful with PL/SQL another book may be for you.

This is a good book for SQL reference not really for PL/SQL..only the last two chapters of the book really talk about PL/SQL and only the very very basic stuff. So if you are good in SQL and want to learn PL/SQL buy Advanced PL/SQL instead.

Great introduction to Oracle SQL, but very little if any PL/SQL here.

This book is hte best introduction to PL/SQL I have seen yet. I have tried using a number of other PL/SQL books, and have come away with a bad taste in my mouth. While I'm not a "newbie" to databases and SQL in general, I'm not proficient by any means, and the style with which this book is written I really enjoy. My favorite part is the "try it yourself" parts where you aren't given an answer. It challenged me to do it on my own and not just follow along for the sake of following along.

Another part I enjoy is that the author does not assume I knew anything. He takes nothing for granted, and I appreciate that. While there are areas that I know and I go quicker, the tone of the book is such that the author doesn't talk down if I don't know something (some books do) nor does he talk over my head. It's perfect for the person new to Oracle's PL/SQL.

I am learning Oracle now in the biggest computer school in Beijing. All of our classmates think this book is the best one we have read for beginners.

For beginners to Oracle like myself, I cannot stress how useful this book is. Don't pay thousands for a course in Oracle, or even begin a course at a community college, until you go through this book first. (This would be the ideal CC book). Allen's ability to "teach" SQL and PL/SQL in a logical and well thought out progression is to be commended! This book is written for the beginner and will give you a solid foundation in the basics of SQL and PL/SQL, so you can make the most of your time in the expensive classes later.
If you have more than a year's worth of experience in SQL or PL/SQL, you may do better to just get the Sybex book to prepare for the exam since it is more comprehensive and comes with the software and test question. However, Allen still does a better job of writing and presenting the material without dumbing it down. If you're new, like me, you'll wish you read this book and gone through his examples (you can download his code from osborne.com), before taking any courses. You will be able to keep pace with the instructor better and ask more intelligent questions. This book will not cover everything that may be on the exam, but it will help you make better use of other more comprehensive books. Believe me.

If you want to learn more about SQL, this book is the way to go. I used it to pass the first SQL & PL/SQL exam for OCP certification. It is clearly written, with lots of exercises. The exercises relate to real-life situations, so it is easy to transfer the techniques they demonstrate over to your own work.

An excellent book!

I am taking a SQL course in college in order to be able to start
a new career when I leave my present career. I knew absolutely
nothing about SQL when I started the class. My instructor referred me to this book "PLSQL 101" to use besides my classbook.
This book explains things much better than the book supplied by
Oracle! It's very easy to read and comprehend. Very nice. With this book I have learned and absorbed a lot of information to
help me along to a new career. Without this book as a sidekick to my classbook, I probably would have stopped.

This is a fantastic book, and one of the best that I have read. Christopher manages to make sure you have a full understanding of all the basics before he takes you deeper into the PL/SQL world. He explains the reasons needed to understand the first section in the book, and as you progress, you realise how much sense that makes. He touches on the DBA side of Oracle and clarifies all aspects of relational database logic. Each chapter comes with its own test and tasks for you to do, which I actually found very helpful. They also ensure you can move on to study the next chunk of information.
The book is also written with humour, which always helps when studying anything.
I initially bought the book as a refresher, but I can see this taking pride of place on my desk!
I would recommend to those with limited experience and those that are just refreshing their skills.

This book is just for beginners and never takes you above that level such that you are doing any programming. You will learn SQL. You will learn a little about how Oracle works. I am sure there are books that cover this material just as well in a few chapters instead of 9 as this book does, plus gets you started using Oracle and programming in Oracle PL/SQL. I don't recommend this book to be used as a text book. The material can easily be covered in 4 weeks. It can't be stretched to a 16 week semester course.

This book takes away any questions about PL/SQL...I had taken a class where the instuctor left me thoroughly lost. After one night with this book, I was completely at ease. There are various exercises in each chapter, which enhance your understanding of what is being explained. The author gives precise short explanations which clearly delineate the principles you are expecting to master. The best way to learn is to use the examples with data of your own as opposed to "widgets". By replacing the data, and saving your scripts, you can review and it is always fresh in your mind. Great beginner book!

It's right there on the cover: Oracle PL/SQL. And that's what this book explains, from the very beginning. You can't learn PL/SQL without knowing SQL, so a substantial portion of the book covers SQL techniques that are necessary to write good PL/SQL code.

Each chapter has dozens of exercises, so by the end of the book you have worked through hundreds of experiments, samples, and exercises. It's all hands-on.

The sections on PL/SQL programming cover functions, procedures, packages, and triggers...all the tools you need to make Oracle dance to your tune.

I realize that most of the people reading this review are Oracle people. I also realize most of the people here aren't interested in non-oracle products.

However, some of us use open source databases. I personally use PostgreSQL. Postgres has pl/sql functionality, and I was looking to implement some stored procedures to optimize the functioning of several programs I have that iterate over a few hundred thousand rows. I talked to a couple Oracle admins about the problem, and they suggested pl/sql.

Bear in mind, I am a perl programmer, and generally I am not interested in programming sql. However, when it comes to performance you really need to offload the brunt of the processing to the database.

So I looked for a book on PL/SQL and found that there really werent any that were "beginner" books. Furthermore, I found that all of them were Oracle books. So, I crossed my fingers, and bought the beginner oracle pl/sql book.

The first 80% of the book was entirely review, covering the barest basics of SQL, and moving into some other less basic but still not intermediate SQL.

By the time the book began to cover pl/sql it had become a heavily windows- and oracle- centric discussion with little attention paid to other databases and other operating systems. The author does not even entertain that people create SQL queries with tools other than SQL*Plus.

So perhaps the word on this book would be thus.

If youre an oracle admin and windows user, you'll love it. It provides the basics of SQL, and gives a modest tutorial on pl/sql.

If youre a programmer and or unix user, you may find yourself disgusted by how pedantic and shallow the book is. If you dont mind spending the $25 for the book, go ahead. Otherwise, there is probably an Oracle DBA around who has a copy of the book, who loved it, and would be happy to let you borrow it.

Since I've been working on Oracle for a couple of years, I was not really expecting too much from this book when I got it from the public library. However, when I read it last night, it refreshed a lot of concepts for me and taught me some *very* useful tricks I never knew before.

I agree that this book is very useful for beginners since it explains everything crystal clear. e.g. the way it explained To_Date and To_Char function is a lot better than all the oracle books I've read, including Oracle 8i: The complete reference, which is one of the all time Oracle best sellers.

If you like to go one step further on PL/SQL after read this book, I would suggest Advanced Oracle PL/SQL programming by Scott Urman. Although it has 'Advanced' in its title, that book is actually quite beginner friendly. And Scott has long been one of my most favorite writers. You won't waste your money on that one...

PL/SQL. If you're beginner, you may learn something out of this book, but you should consider other options (there is no practice excersies). If you're experienced SQL programmer you should not even waste time and money in this book.
PL/SQL is covered only in the last two chapters and just scratches the surface of PL/SQL. It should've been called introduction to SQL 101.

This is by far the best book that I have seen on beginning PL/SQL. The chapters are well laid out and each chapter builds on the previous on. The book is very complete and doesn't assume any prior knowledge and it also looks at topics indepth. I have also found it to be a good technical reference when I forget the syntax for a command. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to begin or learn more on PL/SQL.

This is one of the best books that I've bought recently. I've been a programmer for 4 years, but I just recently started working with relational databases, specifically Oracle. This book is clear, concise, and very accessible. The writing style is very engaging, too. The author manages to present the material in a way that keeps your interest without sacraficing quality. Consequently, the book is fast to read, but of great value.

The chapter on using SQL*Plus is of great value. It helped me to more effective look at what is in our databases to get a feel for the results from the programs that I was testing.

After reading this book I felt like the author gave a solid overview of the PL/SQL language without being overly rigorous. If you are looking for an academic treatment with lots of theory, this is not the place. Those books are very import to broaden your understanding, but this book bridges the gap to make the advance texts accessible.

This is the place for Oracle beginners to get their hands dirty. There are plenty of examples that run throughout the book to demonstrate the concepts. As you work with PL/SQL and SQL*Plus, you will find yourself referring back to this book often as you come up to speed. It is definitely worth the money and the time.

This is an excellent investment if you do not know SQL and want to learn PL/SQL. I actually took an instructor led course on this to get me ready for the first Oracle test and found this book to be much better at explaining the concepts then my instructor. Blasted! =-> Highly recommend this book.

The book is a masterpiece to every novice in the field of database administration. The author really planned the work and after reading it I bet you your confidence will soar and the advance books in the field would be a joy to read.Go for it you will get your moneys worth and with other advance books you can face the IZO-001 exams and the rest with confidence.
Well done Chris.

This book has been very helpful so far with my database class @ DeVry. The author has broken the information down into bits that are easy to understand and I really appreciate all of the exercises included throughout the chapters for practice.